First Batch of Industrial Heritage List Announced

Shougang, State-owned Factory 738, the Telegraph Building, the Enamel Factory and 7 others selected

A weathered smelting blast furnace, a bell tolling with the times, a receiver that records history—all may carry legendary stories belonging to Beijing.

Yesterday, the Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology announced the first batch of recognized industrial heritage sites in Beijing, 7 in total: State-owned Factory 738 (Beijing Wire Communication Factory), State-owned Factory 751 (751 Park), Beijing Telegraph Building, Beijing Enamel Factory, Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry, Shougang Group, and Beijing Huadian Hydropower Co., Ltd. (formerly Miyun Hydropower Plant).

　Vicissitudes and Great Changes

Shougang Witnesses the History of National Industry

After the founding of New China, Beijing formed multiple industrial zones and established an industrial system covering metallurgy, machinery, textiles, electronics, chemicals, power and other categories, truly transforming from a consumer city into a production city. These factories created countless "firsts" in China's industrial history.

Among them, Shougang in Shijingshan, with a history spanning a century, is also the oldest on this list. "Shougang has undergone vicissitudes and great changes—from nothing to something, from small to large, from weak to strong—creating one miracle after another and serving as an epitome of the development of China's national industry," said the head of the Municipal Industrial Economic Research Center responsible for the recognition. Shougang once built China's first oxygen top-blown converter steelmaking plant, invented and manufactured China's first bell-less top furnace, and the first top-combustion hot blast stove.

In addition, Beijing Huadian Hydropower Co., Ltd. (formerly Miyun Hydropower Plant), built in 1958 in sync with the Miyun Reservoir, was also an important part of the reservoir project and is currently the first flood discharge outlet and power supporting facility in the Baihe area of the Miyun Reservoir.

"The plant's more than 60-year history is a history of the development of hydropower construction in New China. The main powerhouse of the Baihe Station and all generating units have not undergone large-scale renovation and have basically maintained their original appearance from the early days of construction," said the aforementioned head. In 1973, the plant also successfully pioneered the localization of pumped-storage units, filling a gap in China. Over the decades, it has also trained a large number of technical personnel for hydropower stations in Hebei, Shanxi, Xinjiang and other places as well as for relevant domestic universities and colleges, and has dispatched hydropower experts and transferred hydropower technology to many countries.

　Written All Over with Glory

Setting Multiple "Firsts"

Due to urban development, industrial upgrading, environmental protection and other reasons, a number of old industrial plants have been transformed one after another, but they have left behind a large amount of industrial remains such as factory buildings and machinery and equipment, which have important historical, technical and social value.

Such is the case with State-owned Factory 738 (Beijing Wire Communication Factory). The factory was one of the 156 key projects during the national "First Five-Year Plan" period and was completed and put into operation in 1957. China's first automatic telephone exchange, first vacuum-tube digital computer, and first transistor computer were all born here. "State-owned Factory 738 made contributions to the modernization of national defense, including the two bombs tests, satellite launches and missile launches, and cultivated a large number of technical personnel," said the aforementioned head.

One of the core items of this industrial heritage, the original site building of State-owned Factory 738, the "Pentagon," has stood for more than 60 years. In the early stage of preparation, it referenced the layout of the former Hongxia Wire Communication Factory in the Soviet Union. To this day its industrial form is completely preserved, and its pavilions, cedars, statues and Red Star observation tower are full of the flavor of the era. Previously, the relevant enterprise has repeatedly renovated and repaired the public facilities inside the building and the industrial landscape and facilities outside.

Not far away, State-owned Factory 751 is also on the industrial heritage list. It once mainly provided comprehensive energy supply for the electronics industry and also provided stable guarantees for Beijing's urban development and production and daily life, and was listed alongside the Beijing Coking Plant and the Shougang Gas Plant as one of the capital's three major artificial gas source plants. Today, the old furnace area's south and north plazas and the dedicated railway line and other sites of Factory 751 have undergone basic renovation, enabling the old factory area to appear with the brand-new look of 751 D·Park.

A "Sounding" Memory

The Telegraph Building's Bell Becomes a Classic

Many old Beijingers are deeply impressed by the bell of the Beijing Telegraph Building. The building was prepared in November 1955, began construction in April 1956, and was completed and put into operation in September 1958. It was New China's first large-scale integrated communications hub and China's first Soviet-style telegraph building, and was the general hub of China's telegraph communications at the time.

Public records show that the Beijing Telegraph Building, shaped like the Chinese character "山" when viewed from above, has a four-sided tower clock on top and is magnificent in scale, making it one of the representative buildings of the people's postal and telecommunications undertaking. "The bell of the Telegraph Building was once an important symbol of New China and New Beijing, and its business hall was once the largest comprehensive telecommunications business hall in Asia," said the aforementioned head. The Telegraph Building was included in the first batch of Beijing's Outstanding Modern and Contemporary Architecture Protection List as early as 2007.

The core items of the Telegraph Building's industrial heritage include vacuum-tube wireless receivers, teleprinters, motorcycles used for telegraph delivery, and the plaque of the Beijing Telegraph Office, as well as the 1952 edition of the Standard Code Book, the Beijing Telegraph Office business date stamp and business hours sign, and the "The East Is Red" time-signal melody.

In addition, the Beijing Enamel Factory on the list was established in January 1956 through the merger of 42 private enamel factories, the Imperial Workshops (which manufactured exclusively for the imperial palace), and workshops, and is the only China Time-honored Brand in the national cloisonné industry. The Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry was officially inaugurated on June 1, 1958, and is one of the earliest scientific research institutions in China engaged in comprehensive petrochemical research, strongly supporting the development of New China's modern petrochemical industry from nothing to something, from small to large, and from weak to strong.

After being recognized as industrial heritage, these old buildings and old objects will receive better protection. According to previously issued policies, industrial heritage units shall set up a dedicated department or assign dedicated personnel to monitor the preservation status of the heritage, delineate protection scope, adopt effective protection measures, maintain the heritage's layout, structure, style and appearance features, and ensure that core items are not damaged; where major changes occur in the heritage's layout, structure, style and appearance features, they shall be restored in a timely manner, and where core items are damaged, they shall be repaired in a timely manner.