Ｍａ’ａｎｓｈａｎ：Ａ　Ｙｏｕｎｇ　Ｃｉｔｙ’ｓ　Ｆｉｆｔｙ　Ｙｅａｒｓ.docVIP

Ｍａ’ａｎｓｈａｎ：Ａ　Ｙｏｕｎｇ　Ｃｉｔｙ’ｓ　Ｆｉｆｔｙ　Ｙｅａｒｓ 　　 　　MA’ANSHAN is a young industrial city nestled in lush terrain ?C half mountainous and half water ?C in eastern Anhui, on the border with Jiangsu Province. Fifty years ago, it was still a desolate fishing village, with some 50 families living by the side of the lower reaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River. 　　I visited Ma’anshan during the eventful month of May, when a devastating earthquake struck Sichuan and shocked the entire nation. When the Beijing Olympic Games torch traveled across the country, it did so against a backdrop of national sorrow for the earthquake’s victims, and the national willpower and solidarity that the disaster roused. All cities and nations have their historic twists and turns, and walking on the picturesque streets of Ma’anshan, I wondered what had preceded all this exuberance, and what Ma’anshan had experienced in its 50-year development. 　　 　　From Polluted City to 　　Verdant Garden 　　 　　In a way, Ma’anshan is an amplified version of a classic Chinese garden. The Caishiji and Cuiluo hills thrust up on the shore of the Changjiang River, and in between are lakes and garden-like communities. It is a “city within a garden, and a garden within a city.” That was my first impression of Ma’anshan. However, I was surprised when I was told that it was heavily polluted 20 years ago. 　　Ma’anshan was built as a harbinger of New China, when in the 1950s the Chinese government decided to construct and develop its own iron and steel industry in the vast desolate area around a lonely fishing village to break the obstruction and isolation policy of the Western world. The fishing village has since grown and expanded rapidly into a city with the development of its iron and steel works. Today, Masteel has developed into a group operation that is engaged in different business fields, and its iron and steel operation is among the top 10 iron and steel enterprises in China. In 2007, its steel output reached 15 m