Pailou, Liaoning

Pailou 牌楼
Town
牌楼镇
Pailou in 2006, viewed south to the Downtown area from the north side of town.
Pailou Location within Liaoning province
Coordinates: 40°44′01″N 122°49′22″E
Country	China
Province	Liaoning
Prefecture-level city	Anshan
County-level city	Haicheng
Area
• Total	95.68 km2 (36.94 sq mi)
Population
• Total	39,900
• Density	420/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Postal code	114200
Area code	0412

Pailou (simplified Chinese: 牌楼; traditional Chinese: 牌樓; pinyin: Páilóu) is a small mining town about 20 kilometers southeast of Haicheng, Liaoning in Northeast China. A large magnesium mine (Xiafangshen mine) is located just south of town.

Having to locate on the outskirt of a major city, this town consists of a main boulevard that extends from west to east. Much of the older apartments are built in the late 1980s and early 1990s while the newer ones are constructed from the late 90s till present. It has an area of 95.68 square kilometers (36.94 sq mi) and a population of 39,900. Despite the town's main focus on mining, agricultural activities are present. Local farmers grew crops, primarily corn, on the "quite rural looking" areas on the Northern skirt, and originally using a creek which flows from East to Southwest as a source of irrigation until pollution took over in the late 1990s.

Before the 1970s, Pailou was a quiet town. But as industrial sites begin to develop and expand in the mountains within Pailou and its neighboring towns and the drastic rise in population in the late 20th century, pollution and demand for resource soon becomes a problem.