Growth in Lüliang hit 21 percent in 2010 with coal prices high and a $5 billion business district planned; by 2015 the economy had shrunk 2 percent, towers stood empty and a deputy mayor who ran coal was in custody.
二零一零年煤价高企,吕梁经济增长百分之二十一,还规划了一个五十亿美元的商务区;到二零一五年,经济已萎缩百分之二,高楼空置,主管煤炭的副市长被羁押。
Today the Shanxi city of coal, aluminium and liquor is betting on hydrogen.
如今,这座以煤炭、铝和白酒闻名的山西城市押注氢能。
Growth, Then Glut
增长之后是过剩
The boom ran on coal. In 2010 prices were high, GDP grew 21 percent and the city had 3,727,057 residents at the census.
这场繁荣靠煤炭驱动。二零一零年煤价高企,生产总值增长百分之二十一,人口普查时全市有三百七十二万七千零五十七人。
According to NPR’s Frank Langfitt in 2015, the planned business district was due to open the following year. The government destroyed the homes of thousands of farmers to make room, and the main boulevard now goes nowhere, according to the same report. A farmer, Liu Yihu, 63, said irrigation ditches had been blown up and his crop yields had fallen to under half, according to the same source.
据美国国家公共广播电台记者弗兰克·朗菲特二零一五年的报道,规划中的商务区原定次年开放。同一报道介绍,政府为此拆毁了数千户农民的住房,如今那条主干道哪里也通不到。同一来源介绍,六十三岁的农民刘义虎说,灌溉渠被炸毁,他的收成降到了原来的一半以下。
At China Culture Garden, six blocks of about 18 storeys hold roughly 800 to 900 apartments, and the reporter saw no furniture and no residents, according to the same source. The Chuandong cement plant made 700,000 tonnes in 2010 and only 30,000 in 2015, according to the same source. Really? Its workforce fell from 1,000 to 100, according to the same source.
据同一报道,中国文化园有六栋约十八层的楼,共约八百至九百套住房,记者没有看到家具,也没有看到住户。同一来源介绍,川东水泥厂二零一零年产水泥七十万吨,二零一五年只有三万吨。真的吗?同一来源介绍,工人从一千人降到了一百人。
The Man in Charge of Coal
主管煤炭的人
Zhang Zhongsheng was a member of the Lüliang Party standing committee and a deputy mayor from July 2009 to March 2013, and he was in charge of coal, according to National Business Daily. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection took him into custody on 29 May 2014, according to the same source.
据《每日经济新闻》介绍,张中生二零零九年七月至二零一三年三月任中共吕梁市委常委、副市长,分管煤炭工作。同一来源介绍,中央纪律检查委员会二零一四年五月二十九日将他带走调查。
Between 1997 and 2013 he took bribes worth more than ¥1.04 billion, according to Beijing News. The first-instance court sentenced him to immediate execution, and on 29 October 2021 the Shanxi Higher People’s Court changed this on appeal to death with a two-year reprieve, citing his confession, his help in recovering assets and his report of another official’s bribery, according to the same source.
据《新京报》介绍,一九九七年至二零一三年间,他收受贿赂折合超过十亿四千万元。同一来源介绍,一审法院判处他死刑立即执行,二零二一年十月二十九日山西省高级人民法院二审改判死刑缓期二年执行,理由是他认罪、协助追缴赃款并检举了另一名官员的受贿行为。
Hydrogen, Rails and Stills
氢能、铁路与酒窖
The city has since lost people as well as momentum. Its population fell from 3,727,057 in 2010 to 3,398,431 in 2020, and to 3.2808 million by the end of 2025. GDP reached ¥257.502 billion in 2025, growing 3.4 percent in real terms, with the secondary sector accounting for 54.52 percent, according to the census bulletins and the municipal statistics bureau.
此后,吕梁失去的不只是经济增长势头,还有人口。全市常住人口从二零一零年的三百七十二万七千零五十七人,降至二零二零年的三百三十九万八千四百三十一人,到二零二五年末进一步降至三百二十八万零八百人。据人口普查公报和吕梁市统计局介绍,二零二五年地区生产总值二千五百七十五点零二亿元,按不变价计算增长百分之三点四,第二产业占百分之五十四点五二。
Liquor and aluminium each support more than 20 percent of Lüliang’s industrial output, coke capacity is nearly 40 million tonnes, and the city joined the national fuel cell vehicle demonstration cluster in March 2025 as the only Shanxi city in it, according to People’s Forum of 20 October 2026. It has an assembly line with a capacity of 6,000 hydrogen commercial vehicles a year, according to the same source.
据人民论坛网二零二六年十月二十日的文章,白酒和铝各支撑吕梁超过百分之二十的工业产值,焦炭产能近四千万吨,二零二五年三月吕梁加入国家燃料电池汽车示范城市群,是山西唯一入选的城市。同一来源介绍,当地有年产能六千辆的氢能商用车装配线。
On 26 June 2021 the D9232 Fuxing train left Lüliang for Taiyuan, one of 12 scheduled trips on the Taiyuan–Zhongwei–Yinchuan line, according to Xinhua. The fastest trip over the 198.6 kilometres to Taiyuan South took 1 hour 22 minutes at a design speed of 160 kilometres an hour, calling at Jiaocheng, Wenshui and Fenyang, according to the same source.
据新华网报道,二零二一年六月二十六日,D9232次复兴号从吕梁开往太原,是太中银铁路上十二趟计划列车之一。同一来源介绍,全程一百九十八点六公里,最快一小时二十二分钟到达太原南站,设计时速一百六十公里,途经交城、文水和汾阳。
According to The Paper, archaeologists digging near Fenyang in 2023 found a Ming–Qing distillery with three stoves, seven wells and two fermentation pits, the wells between 4.8 and 7 metres deep, about 240 metres north of the Fenjiu old workshop museum.
据澎湃新闻介绍,二零二三年考古人员在汾阳附近发掘出一处明清时期的酿酒作坊,有三座灶、七口井和两个发酵池,井深四点八至七米,位于汾酒老作坊博物馆以北约二百四十米。
