China urbanization series: Xinji

China is in the midst of the fastest and most large-scale urbanization the world has ever seen. Chinese officials estimate that they’re establishing 20 new cities a year, and have been for a couple of decades. That means there are scores of Chinese cities with populations of a million or more people that you’ve probably never heard of – and hundreds more growing fast.

In Part IV of our series on China’s urbanization, The World’s Mary Kay Magistad offers of one of these up-and-coming cities, the fur and leather center of Xinji a couple hundred miles south of Beijing.

All photos: Mary Kay Magistad