Too fast, too soon: how China's growth led to the Tianjin disaster
by John Woodside with additional reporting by Si Chen from on (#2QDNZ)
The 2015 warehouse explosion in Tianjin was one of the worst manmade disasters in Chinese history - and exposed the darker side of rapid urbanisation
- This article is a project of UBC's International Reporting Program
It was almost midnight on a summer Wednesday in 2015 when Hu Xiumin was jolted awake by a loud noise. Her apartment building in the affluent Harbour City development was shaking violently. She ran from the bedroom to find her husband standing in the study, looking out of the window.
From here they could see out over the port of Tianjin; one of the warehouses was on fire. They backed away from the window just moments before the warehouse exploded in one of the worst manmade disasters in China's history.