THE CEO, his wife and daughter packed their bags.

The family from Minnesota, US, was heading for what was to be an exciting trip.

Meanwhile in Hangzhou, China, a jobless, divorced man with an ex-inmate son, also packed his things. They filled half a paper bag.

Tang Yongming attacked and killed Mr Todd Bachman, 62 and seriously hurt his wife Barbara, 62.

Their daughter, Ms Elisabeth McCutcheon, 29, who competed for the US volleyball team at the 2004 Athens Games, was with them at the time, but escaped injury.

After the attack, Tang leapt to his death from the balcony of the Drum Tower, one of the best-known historic monuments in Beijing.

Why he did it is not known but the roots to this tragedy may have been planted long before Tang, 47, made his fateful trip.

STRUGGLING MAN

Tang was like countless other middle-aged, marginally skilled men struggling to find their way in the new China, reported The International Herald Tribune.

Laid off from a factory in the central city of Hangzhou, Tang, 47, briefly sustained himself as a security guard and then, two years ago, found himself idle and living alone in a rented room with no furniture.

Friends and former co-workers said he was irritable, unmoored and unable to find his footing in the surging Chinese economy.

On the outskirts of Hangzhou, where Tang spent most of his life, neighbours and former co-workers expressed little sympathy for him, saying he was prone to arguing.

'He grumbled a lot, very cynical. He had an unyielding mouth,' said former colleague Zhang Liping.

Although their recollections were impossible to verify, Zhang and a few others said he had more than once raised a hand against his wife, whom he suspected of infidelity.

At the very least, they all agreed, Tang typified the many workers cast aside by ailing state-run industries.

He was angry at being left behind by China's headlong rush into an economy that lacked the succors of the Socialist past, they said.

'He had a quick temper and was always complaining about society. Usually we avoided offending him, ' said a former co-worker, who would give only his nickname, Aqing.

Tang worked as a metal presser at the Hangzhou Meter Factory for more than two decades.

When a private company bought the plant about five years ago, he got a less desirable post as a guard at the factory gate, but lost that job in 2004 for reasons that were not clear.

In 2006, his wife, who also worked at the factory, divorced him.

Soon after, their son, 21, was sentenced to six months in jail for burglary.

SOLD HOUSE

In financial need, Tang sold his house and rented a room in the nearby town of Hengjie, now part of Hangzhou's industrial sprawl.

Mr Jiang Beigen, his landlord, said Tang paid $53 a month for an unfurnished room.

He and other tenants said that Tang had only one shirt and one pair of pants and washed both by hand at night.

He had no job, they said, and often slept late into the day.

His landlord said last week Tang announced he was leaving, but did not say where he was going.

The police said he had called his son that evening and told him he would not be returning until he found success.

Daughter Elisabeth and her husband, Mr Hugh McCutcheon, the head coach of the current Olympic volleyball team, released a message that said: 'We send a special thank you to the people of Beijing, the people of New Zealand, and of course, the people of America.

'We have been lifted up by the outpouring of support and love we've received from around the world.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on August 12, 2008.