Countless towering cranes dominate the skyline in the Xiongan New Area of northeastern Hebei province, as construction ramps up at ground zero for one of China’s most ambitious projects – building a dream city from scratch. China has vowed to spend billions on infrastructure projects this year in a bid to boost the nation’s economic recovery and stabilise the job market after the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Xiongan, located about a two-hour drive south of central Beijing, is in the early stage of becoming a new metropolis after President Xi Jinping personally picked the site in April 2017 to form a ... (full story)