Shougang transforms factory into theme park

Shougang Group, one of China's largest steel makers, plans to invest 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) to build an industrial-themed park on its former site in southwest of Beijing.

Chen Shijie, assistant general manager of Shougang Group, said on Saturday that the park, with the characteristics of "post-industrial era", will be ready within five years and is expected to cover an area of 83 hectares.

Located on the site of a former factory of Shougang Group near the West Fifth Ring Road, it will preserve some of the factory's former facilities including workshops, chimneys and crane tracks.

The company halted all its steel-making operations in the factory since January 2011, reducing its discharge of air pollutants in the capital's sky from a maximum 9,000 tons a year to zero, he said.

"We planned to move the factory out of Beijing as early as the year when Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games," Jiang Xinghong, deputy secretary of Shougang Group's Communist Party Committee, told nearly 30 overseas journalists during a media tour on Saturday.

The company has a production capacity of 30 million tons of steel annually, and to maintain steel production, the company has built a new plant in Caofeidian in Hebei province, which is 220 kilometers to the east of Beijing.

The development of the company's former site has started immediately after the relocation.

Shougang Group has also invested 80 million yuan to renovate one of its former workshops into an exhibition hall in the industrial-themed park, said Chen, the company's assistant general manager. The hall has attracted artists to display their artworks, which has helped to promote the park, Chen said.

Among them is an exhibition themed "Iron and Steel Melody", which has been ongoing since Oct 12. It showcases statues created by Zhao Chengmin, a statue artist and a member of China Artist Association. The gear wheels, nails and screws of the art pieces were made by the steel company. The ticket for the exhibition is 30 yuan each, with student ticket at half price.

Shougang Group is far from breaking even its investment of tens of millions yuan, even with the opening of the exhibition hall as the whole recreation area is not completed, Chen said.

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn