China dreams on hold: heartland city feels chill of economic slowdown

ZHENGZHOU, China: For the last decade, the city of Zhengzhou has been getting a taste of the Chinese dream.

Fuelled by investment, including large subsidies from the central government in Beijing, the provincial capital of the inland province of Henan has boomed.

Once an impoverished city of 10 million set between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, Zhengzhou now boasts a gleaming downtown skyline and a cascade of freeway overpasses. An upgraded rail network has helped turn the city into a logistics hub, linking China’s output with overland shipments to Europe as part of the Belt and Road initiative.