Located in the western part of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Baotou is the largest city in the autonomous region and an important transport hub. The city is recognized as China’s Capital of Rare Earth and the Grassland City of Steel.

Baotou is an important hub connecting North China and Northwest China. It is a key development area for China's opening up and a major railway transportation hub in China.

The city has witnessed drastic changes and development in every aspect since China’s reform and opening-up began.

1. Living conditions

Baotou's Beiliang area is considered to be where the city began. More than 90 percent of the buildings in Beiliang were built around 1949.

Once the largest residential area of traditional community-built housing in China, Beiliang has now successfully completed the clearance project started in 2004.

By the end of 2012, traditional single-level housing covering an area of 1.13 square kilometers in the core area of Beiliang has been cleared. A total of 10,200 households and 28,600 people have been resettled. A total of 2.08 billion yuan was spent on the project.

Traditional housing in Beiliang, Baotou, Inner Mongolia [Photo/internet]

New residential buildings were erected to rehouse previous residents of Beiliang residential areas. [Photo/internet]