Yumen (玉门) is an emptied out industrial city in the hinterland of Jiayuguang (嘉峪关), Gansu Province (甘肃省). The surrounding oil fields are still operating. In 1939 China’s first oil well was drilled here, reached a peak in 1959 and has been declining ever since. Many traces and remains are kept and intact by the state-controlled city, where work and life can be integrated in single compounds. Recently tens of thousands of residents were relocated 70 kilometers away to a new Yumen Town, leaving the old place abandoned, yet there are declining work opportunities in the new Yumen. The old Yumen is the memorial site of the State-owned industry of China’s pre-Capitalism. [2017]