巴士开出去时，铁人呆呆凝视前方，他的太太孙静两手抱着头，两人都没有勇气往后车窗外看。被他们抛在脑后的，是两岁的女儿思婷，抱在爷爷的手上。不到一年前，就在思婷断奶后十天，他们第一次离开女儿。两周前夫妻俩返回家乡，骄傲地解开一叠厚厚的钞票，那是他们过去一年来的积蓄，大约是人民币1万5000元，足够抚养双亲和女儿一年，但思婷并不懂这一切。看到面前的两个陌生人，她直往后缩，躲到奶奶身后从胯下向外窥看。待在家里的两个星期，铁人和孙静用拥抱和饼干来赢得女儿的信任，思婷终于学会了叫妈妈、爸爸。然而当他们登上巴士，准备再离家一年时，小女孩完全无动于衷。“真令人难受，”铁人说着，一边把手放在正在拭泪的太太的手臂上，“但为了女儿的将来，我们没别的办法。”

Pursuing a better future takes Iron Man and his wife through the three northeastern provinces—Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning—that make up the region once revered as the "cradle of industrialization." Their odyssey from the depressed northern reaches of Manchuria to their final destination near the glittering port city of Dalian in the region's more vibrant south mirrors, in many ways, the government's own ambitious plans for the northeastern rust belt. In 2003, shortly after coming to office, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled a program to turn the Northeast into China's next engine of development. In the hands of American marketing gurus, the campaign slogan, "Revitalize the Northeast," might well have been the "Manchurian Mandate." The road to salvation, for the region as well as for Iron Man's family, will demand sacrifices: a break with the past, a voyage into the unknown—and no guarantee of success. But the journeys, at least, have begun.

为了追求更美好的未来，铁人和太太穿过曾被誉为“工业摇篮”的东北三省——黑龙江、吉林和辽宁，从萧条的东北最北端出发，目的地是较繁荣的南部，离光彩夺目的港口城市大连不远；这趟旅程在许多方面充分反映出中国政府为振兴东北“铁锈地带”而推出的宏图大计。2003年，国家主席胡锦涛与总理温家宝上任不久，便提出一项计划，让东北成为带动中国下一波发展的火车头；用资本主义行销手法，提出了“振兴东北”这样的口号。对整个东北以及王铁人一家来说，要摆脱困境需要有所牺牲：撇开过去，航向未知──成不成功没有保证。无论如何，旅程至少已经启行。

A touring group of retired government employees learns about the brash new sights of Dalian, a city on the rise in China's Northeast. The view from Xinghai Square takes in soaring apartment blocks and a museum castle, attractions built with investment money pouring into a region trying to shed its gritty industrial past. In 2003 China's leaders designated the Northeast, or Manchuria as the West commonly knows it, as a national priority for economic revitalization.

一个退休干部旅行团正在听导游介绍中国东北窜升中的城市——大连急速发展的新市景。从星海广场望去，可见林立的公寓大楼和一个博物馆的城堡，各景点的兴建经费来自大量涌入东北的资金；东北正试图摆脱旧时生了锈的工业区形象。2003年，中国领导人指定东北为全国经济振兴的优先地区。

Inside a Shenyang factory that once churned out tractors, workers scale down, pouring molten iron into molds to make cast-iron fences and gates. Like many of the region's outmoded state-run factories, the plant couldn't compete in China's new open-market economy. When it went bankrupt in 1998, a former employee bought space in the cavernous plant and converted it into a privately run foundry. The workers, however, won't be receiving housing and other steady benefits, like in the old socialist days. The iron rice bowl, as the government-sponsored benefits system was known, is disappearing, replaced, workers hope, by a menu of stock options. ()