Out of work, out of luck

The process of upgrading Gansu's heavy industry started in the 1990s. The unproductive and heavily polluting metals industry was slimmed down, resulting in many job losses. Many workers aged 45 or older found themselves virtually unemployable.

In 2007, Zhao Heyou was made redundant by Xibei Ferroalloy Factory at age 56. "The standard retirement age for male workers is 60, but the factory was overstaffed and couldn't afford to keep everyone on the payroll, so some of the older workers had to leave," he said.

The factory, in Liancheng, Lanzhou, opened in 1971, By the 1980s it employed thousands of workers, but as China's economic structure changed, the industry with its old facilities and outmoded techniques became increasingly unproductive.