Ms. Lu, a graduate student, was from the rust belt city of Shenyang in China's northeast.

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Even as the Shanghai factory runs on three shifts, its first joint venture in the rust belt city of Shenyang remains a morass.

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It isn't clear how much demand there would be for his planned 800, 000 square feet of office space in the Rust Belt city that has seen its population fall to 198, 000 from its peak of 290, 000 in 1960.

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And the course Dayton is taking may set the city apart from its rust belt neighbors.

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Rust (Guldbergsgade 8) is spread over three floors and attracts the city's finest DJs, who play anything from hip hop to techno.

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But it's a faith sorely tested in recent times by an exodus of Rust Belt jobs from Syracuse, once the nation's 30th-largest city but now no longer even among the top 125.

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But the demographic challenges of the Big Orange and the Windy City pale compared to those faced by many cities in the old industrial Rust Belt, which have either lost population or posted only weak increases.

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