By staff reporter YU JIE and LI MENG

Qiyi Road.

ZHUZHOU has a glorious cultural, revolutionary, and industrial history. It is the birthplace of Yan Di, one of the founding Chinese ancestors, and its Chaling County was where China's first Soviet was established. The city also boasts many industrial firsts, such as the first piston aero-engine and the first motorbike engine.

An Industrial City

"The city of Zhuzhou was dragged into existence by the wheel," as Wang Tingming, secretary of the Zhuzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, puts it. The railway is indeed an integral feature of the city. Zhuzhou is the largest transportation hub in southern China, and has been a strategic passageway since ancient times. In the 1940s the Zhu-Ping (present-day Zhejiang-Jiangxi) and Yue-Han (present-day Beijing-Guangzhou) Railways all passed through Zhuzhou. In the 1950s the Hunan-Guizhou Railway also intersected the city.

Its transportation advantages earned Zhuzhou designation as one of the eight cities for key industrial construction during the first Five-Year Plan period (1951-1955). Out of the 156 key projects then aided by the former Soviet Union, four were in Zhuzhou. They were the Nanfang Power Machinery Company, the Zhuzhou Power Plant, the Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Works, and the Zhuzhou Coal Washery. The railway thus gave rise to factories, and factories to the actual city of Zhuzhou.

The Diamond brand carbide alloy hammer, produced by Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Works, the second largest in the world.

Several large factories, such as the locomotive and bridge plants, are closely related to the railways, and have further propelled their development in Zhuzhou. At Zhuzhou Railway Station trains arrive and depart every 6.5 minutes.

Zhuzhou is in central Hunan Province, and forms a provincial golden triangle with the capital city of Changsha and the industrial city of Xiangtan. The three cities are 30 kilometers apart. Following Changsha, Zhuzhou became the second industrialized city in the province, and its comprehensive industrial strength ranks 26th in the country.

State-owned enterprises were once the pride of the local people. They not only produced industrial wealth for the country, but also provided for the welfare of their workers, by means of hospitals, and kindergartens and schools for their children. Upon China's opening and reform, however, the city soon began to feel the burden of these "white elephants."

In the 1980s Zhuzhou was among the pioneer cities in China to initiate labor, personnel, and wage reforms in state-owned enterprises. The introduction of a series of reform measures and new operation mechanisms has helped a group of state-owned enterprises to survive and expand into pillars of local industrial development. The city's Nanfang Group, the electric locomotive plant, the metallurgy plant, the cemented carbide works, and Qianjin Pharmaceuticals, contribute more than 90 percent of Zhuzhou's gross industrial profit. Of the country's top 500 industrial enterprises, six are located in Zhuzhou.

A workshop of Qianjin Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

The Qianjin Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., the Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Works, and the Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Plant epitomize state-owned enterprises reforms. Qianjin Pharmaceuticals evolved from the Zhuzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory, and is now among the top 50 patent traditional Chinese medicine plants in the country. In the early 1980s, it was on the brink of liquidation, owing to severe losses and debts. Then general manager Zhu Feijin stepped in. He mobilized the workers and boosted their morale by being the first among his Chinese counterparts to adopt a new capsulating technique for the factory's patent medicine, the Qianjin Tablet (for the treatment of gynaecological complaints). Over a period of five years, the medicine earned over 10 million yuan in profits and taxes. It received a silver medal from the state and was designated a basic medicine by the Ministry of Health (basic medicines are those covered by China's medical care programs). In 2001 the Qianjin Tablet brought in a sales income of 600 million yuan.

The Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Works, founded in 1954, is the largest producer and researcher of its kind in China. It has developed through various stages of reform, such as contract responsibility, and shareholding. Today it owns a state-level technological center, an analysis and testing center, and a post-doctoral research station, and has branches in the United States, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong. Its trade network covers 69 countries and regions around the world, and its annual exports and imports exceed US$ 80 million.

The 60-year-old Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Plant produces China's most powerful passenger locomotive, the SS9. The plant facility is enormous, stretching out beyond view. There are rail tracks everywhere, and standing or moving locomotive cars. In recent years the plant made a major breakthrough in developing cars for urban track lines. It recently won the bid to supply 168 cars, worth over 1.5 billion yuan, for a subway line in Shanghai.

High and New Technology Industrial Development Zone

Colorful urban street life.

The Zhuzhou High and New Technology Industrial Development Zone was founded in February 1992 and won state-level status approval by the State Council in December the same year. The zone has a planned area of 35 square kilometers.

Until two years ago, the zone was still a desolate wasteland. Project feasibility study reports went the rounds of several departments for weeks and even months, with the result that impatient prospective investors looked elsewhere for more readily available sites.

In the winter of 1999, the Ministry of Science and Technology called a meeting in Jilin, nicknamed by those attending the "Conference for Snail-Paced High and New Technology Zones." Zhuzhou was among the 10 participants. They were given a warning: speed up development, or lose state-level status.

This ultimatum came as a rude awakening to the Zhuzhou development zone, prompting the municipal government to implement its "environment development strategy" and re-organize administrative procedures for the zone. The representative of the Fujian-based Dachen Environmental Protection Science and Technology Co., Ltd., was pleasantly surprised at the newly founded administrative examination/approval service center's streamlined efficiency, when all required procedures for entry were completed in just a few days, rather than the few months they had previously taken.

In a period of just two years the investment environment in the Zhuzhou development zone has changed dramatically and attracted numerous investors. The Hongyuan Group in Shenyang, Northeast China invested 1.35 billion yuan in the construction of Asia's largest chemical building material park, which will cover an area of 45 hectares in the zone. Sun Lijun, vice president of the Hongyuan Group, said that Zhuzhou's advantageous geographical location, solid industrial foundation, and complete infrastructure apart, his group also chose the city for its straight-dealing policy regarding land use, tax, project examination and approval, finance, insurance, and water and electricity supplies.

Wang Tingming, secretary of the Zhuzhou Municipal Committee of the CPC, at the inauguration ceremony of Siemens Traction Equipment Ltd., Zhuzhou.

Today the Zhuzhou development zone has established cooperative relations with over 10 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan. Some of the world's top 500 enterprises, such as Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Yamaha, have come here to establish enterprises.

Zhai Dupei, head of the development zone, speaks proudly of an investment seminar the zone recently held in Shanghai, which was attended by over 100 enterprises from around the world. At the conference, the zone signed letters of intention with seven investors involving US$ 6 million and 800 million yuan. One Hong Kong investor intends to invest 380 million yuan in the construction of the "New Century Paradise" in Zhuzhou.

The 150-hectare Tiantai Industrial Park in the development zone is now full to capacity with various enterprises. In 2001, the zone's gross industrial output value stood at 7.448 billion yuan.

Urban Construction Breaks out of Its Straitjacket

Zhuzhou receives many corporate visitors from abroad.

Forty years ago, Zhuzhou invited some experts from the former Soviet Union to plan its urban construction. At the time, it was little more than a village, and Soviets accordingly designed Zhuzhou as a city with an area of 10 square kilometers and a population of 100,000. This blueprint proved a hindrance to the later expansion of the city.

Today the city's population exceeds 700,000, and its urban area covers 65 square kilometers. While enjoying the benefits of industrialization, the local people have also known the tension and depression brought on by outmoded factory facilities, and are trying to get ahead.

As three railway tracks traverse the city, and the Xiangjiang River zigzags across it, Zhuzhou is cut into various sections. In the past, roads radiated mainly from the Central Square, with a few cross connections. All east-west/north-south traffic passed through the Central Square.

The Xiangjiang River, one of the seven main tributaries of the Yangtze , is the largest river in Hunan Province and flows for 120.8 kilometers through Zhuzhou. It is 600 meters across at its widest point and 800 meters at times of heavy rainfall. In 1999 an urban high-speed ring road began construction. The project covers a total of 32.79 kilometers, with six two-way lanes, and is composed of two bridges over the river, five ring roads, and three cloverleaf junctions. At a total investment of 1.8 billion yuan, it will link up the stretches of land isolated by railway tracks, hills and the river. Today two bridges, connecting the old and new districts, straddle the Xiangjiang River.

The city's aesthetics were formerly marred by its dangling web of overhead power transmission lines. By the end of last year, all overhead wiring had been replaced by underground cable, and there is now an impeded vista of the urban skyline.

According to the urban construction plan, old houses in the downtown area are to be replaced by modern residential communities developed by the Shanghai Haichuang Real Estate Development Company. The Zaolin Real Estate Company of Guangdong will undertake the construction of the Taizi Island Commercial Plaza, and a 200,000-sq.-m Taiwan-invested supermarket has started construction. Green areas now account for 37.75 percent of the city, and Zhuzhou has been cited by the Ministry of Construction as a city excellent in comprehensive environmental construction.

Tourism Development

In recent years Zhuzhou has expended great efforts on making good use of local tourism resources, and has focused on the promotion of four tour programs.

Searching out the roots of Chinese civilization:

The roots of the Chinese nation can be traced back to the Yan Di and Huang Di periods, 5,000 years ago. Even today, Chinese people the world over still describe themselves as the descendants of Yan and Huang. Many come to the Yan Di Mausoleum in Zhuzhou to pay tribute to their originator during the Double Ninth Festival.

The Yan Di Mausoleum, first built in 967, is in Yanling County in the southernmost part of Zhuzhou, a hilly area of dense woods. The mausoleum, with its golden-tiled roofs and vermilion walls, is magnificent. It is a five-entrance complex. The first entrance is the Meridian Gate; the second, the Salutation Pavilion; the third, the main hall, which houses the statue of Yan Di; the fourth, the tablet pavilion; and the fifth, the tomb itself. The tomb mound is 4.58 meters high and 6.47 across. Flanking the hall and tomb are other memorial structures.

Enjoy natural beauty: Zhuzhou's landscape has a tranquil, primitive beauty. It has a diversified terrain of mountains, hilly areas, and basins, featuring streams, caves, waterfalls, and primeval forests. Taoyuan Cave is a state-level forest park, covering an area of 23,786 hectares. The local population density is, on average, 6.4 per square kilometer. The park has two natural caves, one hidden behind a waterfall, and the other believed to be several kilometers deep. No one has ever dared to probe and discover its real depth. Zhuzhou also boasts a beautiful scenic belt along the Xiangjiang River; the Jiufujiang Scenic Area, which incorporates a large reservoir, karst caves and geothermal resources; and the Dajing Scenic Area. Tracing the roots of the Chinese revolution: Zhuzhou has a glorious revolutionary heritage. Chinese revolutionary pioneers, including Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Chen Yi and Peng Dehuai, conducted a series of revolutionary experiments here. Zhuzhou also saw the birth of China's first soviet and Red Army arsenal. Today, there is still a chance to see the Red Army slogans of the first civil war. Modern Science and Technology Tour: Zhuzhou is a key industrial city in southern China. Its industrial bases are open to tourism, enabling visitors to witness the progress of industrialization in China and the country's achievements in science and technology.