After the Beidaihe Meeting, 90 million people in the country got involved in �backyard� steelmaking, resulting in tremendous waste of manpower and resources. Small blast furnaces such as those shown here could be seen every-where in the country.

During the �great leap forward� period, many large-and medium-sized projects were built, creating great production capability. However, people were overanxious for quick results and the role of man�s willpower was exaggerated. As a result, the national economy suffered an imbalance, and agricultural production and the people�s standard of living actually dropped.