Sun Dongmei rested a gentle hand on her husband Gui’s defeated shoulders. They watched silently as the 4 table dumpling restaurant  they had proudly built up from a small cart a decade ago was demolished, brick by brick.

All of their neighbours’ shops and restaurants were gone too. The whole block was gone, in fact. Rubble for as far as the eye could see- at least until the far side of the new expressway.

They were all being relocated to a new industrial estate 30km outside of Hefei. She wondered if there would be anyone out there to buy her dumplings. She made lovely cabbage and pork dumplings.

The jackhammers were giving her a headache.