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September 22nd 2005 Benxi is a remarkable place. The skyline says it all. Home to one of China's massive steelworks, pollution is a way of life, and the scenic mountains that enclose the small city are often lost behind the permahaze of 24hr steelmaking. |
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| 6 SY locos were working at the steelworks, mainly employed to take the slag away from the furnaces. The stabling point was a modest affair, located in the middle of the five massive blast furnaces. |
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| Stretching the terms of the our visitors' permit to its limits, I climbed into the foot of one of the blast furnaces. Two engineers look on as the slag runs from the base of the furnace. Behind me, another man was diverting the molten material into different channels with dams of sand. |
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| Each furnace had space for three slag crucibles at the foot. These were filled in turn. As they reached the top, the spattering effect became very dramatic. |
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| It's a perfect day in Benxi, but you'd never know, as the pollution from 5 blast furnaces, the coke ovens, the steel smelter and the countless other process on the site produced a permanent twilight. The sky above would go through green, orange, brown, red and purple, often in the space of a few minutes. Young trees, planted for the future, lie dead all around, choked by the velvet black dust that will never stop falling. We savoured the irony of the engine driver enjoying a cigarette in this most toxic of atmospheres! |