In the red: Shedding light on China's indebted cities

Regional officials did much soul searching in 2013 – and they found mounds of debt. Now the central government is stepping in and looking to upend an inefficient system through reforms to bond markets, land sales and the amount city governments spend on their residents.

Our four part series looks at how and why local governments amassed such huge debt, and the options Beijing has to deal with it.

Part one: China’s debt pile – where did it all come from?

Part two: Can bond markets bail out China’s local officials?

Part three: Edging local governments out of the land market

Part four: Closing the wealth gap is a battle between China’s cities