Mao College Town Booms Signaling Offset to Slowdown in China

In a hard hat and muddy boots, Ren Jinbo sits below a half-finished railway bridge, happy to be back mixing cement in the central Chinese city of Changsha.

“It’s certainly better than plowing the field back home,” said Ren, 41, who was laid off and returned to rural Shaoyang in January as national efforts to cool construction spending and house prices slowed building. “My boss phoned me in early May that the work must be accelerated, so here I am again.”