Li shows deputies the way forward

Han Lihua, a National People's Congress deputy and mayor of Qitaihe, a former mining hub in Heilongjiang province, was on a special mission when he arrived in Beijing for this year's NPC meeting.

Han was keen to lobby a very special NPC deputy, Premier Li Keqiang, for funds to rebuild houses in an area of Qitaihe that is home to more than 140,000 households, but is plagued by severe subsidence that can cause buildings to collapse and allow poisonous gases to leak into the atmosphere.

Like many former mining centers in China, Qitaihe is struggling to cope with decades-old environmental damage caused by the overexploitation of resources as the country embarked on it's program of breakneck economic growth.