China Exclusive: Blast victim's mixed feelings on chemical projects (2)

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Cui was among the first beneficiaries of the policy. He and his wife, also a power plant worker, each earned between 50,000 yuan (8,156 U.S. dollars) and 60,000 yuan annually from 1990 to 2000, a golden decade for power generation in China as well as economic development.

"Many were jealous of us at that time," he recalled. In 2000, he was allocated the three-bedroom apartment and paid only 80,000 yuan to acquire it.

Over the past decades, more and more plants have been built on marine reclamation land, turning the uncultivated wilderness into a cluster region of petroleum and chemical industries on Huangdao Island.

However, the growing number of oil tanks and chemical facilities also posed safety hazards for local residents.

In August 1989, an oil tank blaze triggered by a lightning strike killed 19 people on the island. The fire was not put out until four days later, and more than 600 tonnes of oil leaked into the sea.

"I felt like I was sleeping beside an explosives magazine then," he recalled.

In 2003, a joint venture chemical plant for aromatic products was established near his neighborhood, despite disagreement from local residents, and one year later, the Qingdao Refining and Chemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China's largest oil refinery, Sinopec, was set up on the island.

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