Yichun was supposed to be the ‘Asian lithium capital.’ With prices down roughly 85 percent from their peak, half its mines are idle and the city is counting what the rush left behind.
At 335 meters, the rockfill dam on the Vakhsh River will be the world’s tallest when complete. For a country with the lowest income in Central Asia, it is both a power plant and a national project that has swallowed a quarter of state investment.
Two deepwater ports and a 90-kilometer rail and road link across the Kra isthmus would shorten Asia-to-Europe shipping by days. Fishing towns on both coasts say they were the last to be asked.
The world’s largest inland body of water has dropped more than 2 meters since the 1990s and is falling faster. In Aktau, ferries scrape bottom, seals lose their rookeries and oil terminals are dredging to keep up.