Wrecking Crews Ready to Clear a Dalian Relic

(Dalian) – Liu Li is pregnant and living with her parents in a tiny, two-room apartment in Dalian, a coastal city in the northeastern province of Liaoning. The larger room, where her parents sleep, is dominated by a brick platform called a "kang" that functions as a bed, bench and dining area with a heater beneath the bricks.

The apartment is on Dongguan Street, in a neighborhood once pulsing with activity and steeped in history. Today, most of the street's one-story homes have been deserted. Soon, demolition crews will arrive to make way for a new development.