Dream Factory – Made in Xi'an

By staff reporter ZHANG HONG

CAPITAL for more than a dozen royal regimes – national or regional – Xi'an in Shaanxi Province is a monument to China's rich and splendid past. Now it is putting its stamp on one of the industries that define the nation's future – manufacturing. In its northern suburb, the largest manufacturing center in western China is on the rise. Jingwei New City is the latest star to be born in the Western Development Drive.

From Wasteland to Promised Land

Even in the dead of winter the northern fringe of Xi'an is alive with the clangs and rumbles of the area's many construction sites. High-rise buildings are popping up one after another in what used to be a little-visited, sparsely inhabited rural community. Local residents seem dizzy from coping with the change. "Just five years ago there was nothing but crop fields lining Fengcheng 8th and 9th streets," said a man surnamed Zhou. Zhou's hometown has been reborn under the name Jingwei New City, which will become Xi'an's new administrative center this March. It is one of a quartet in the Xi'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, construction of which began 16 years ago.

Xi'an and its peripheries have a solid foundation of basic industry, and are viewed as the beachhead in China's drive to rejuvenate its vast, underdeveloped west. Xi'an, the provincial capital and an old equipment manufacturing base, has lost its luster in recent decades. Once it regains its national industrial might, it can offer traction to the army of minor cities around it. Expectations are that if the Xi'an area aligns with Chongqing and Chengdu – two important metropolises in the west, a golden triangle will arise as the fourth economic powerhouse of China, following the dynamic Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim Economic Circle.

Zhang Baotong, president of the Institute of Economics of the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, knows it will take effort to make Xi'an the pivot point for unfolding the anticipated golden triangle. "At present Chongqing and Chengdu are two mighty pillars, and Xi'an is a slim bamboo prop. In the mission of driving the western provinces to an economic Promised Land, Chongqing and Chengdu are the draught horses, and Xi'an the donkey. The triangle won't be firm and steady until Xi'an gets its footing."

Under pressure to flex the economic muscles the city aspires to, the Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Jingwei New City in particular, has attracted 92 companies involved in, to name the majors, the automotive, heavy machinery, new materials and new energy industries. The total investment so far exceeds RMB 30 billion. Among them is the Shaanxi Automobile Group Co., Ltd., whose facilities and technologies can rival those of the biggest names in the trade worldwide. According to Lei Peijun, its chief engineer, the company's export of heavy-duty trucks is larger than those of all other automakers in the nation combined. In 2009 the figure went well above 10,000.