Tiexi: A reflection of NE China's development
- By Jason Lee
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 8, 2016
Tiexi District in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, was a Stalin-style industrial center from the 1950s to the 1980s. Now, it is synonymous for "slum town," after the planned-economy factories collapsed in China's market economy reform in the 1990s.
In fact, Tiexi's glory dates back to the 1930s, when Japanese occupiers started turning it into an "Oriental Ruhr." After nearly 20 years of painstaking management, they left many factories and industrial infrastructures there after their unconditional surrender to China in 1945.
Working in Tiexi's state-owned factories meant a reliable income and decent life for the locals. The factories provided cradle-to-grave services for workers, who enjoyed a much higher social status than farmers.
In the late 1950s, Tiexi was the No. 1 provider of steel and machine tools. In its golden times, 90 out of Shenyang's 99 large- and medium-scale state-owned enterprises were located in the district.
A large number of old factories and workers' apartment buildings have been demolished since the 1990s. There used to be 143 apartment buildings for workers in five clusters in Tiexie, which were built according to Soviet Union architects' blueprints and called Workers Village.
In the village were post offices, kindergartens, groceries, grain supply centers, small parks, squares, clubs, cinemas, primary schools and middle schools. Today, only 32 buildings are left, which were turned into a provincial-level cultural relic site under government protection in 2014.
Old workers like visiting the old buildings. The furniture and decoration in some rooms have been kept as they were in earlier decades. Visitors can see the changes of the workers' life throughout the years.
An old worker surnamed Liu said: "In the 1950s, only the model workers and retired-soldier workers could live in the community. Although the room is small, it has electricity, running water, heaters, gas and flushing toilets. In a word, it was dream home for all back then."
The other old worker echoed: "At that time, when people asked what communism looks like, many will answer like the Workers Village in Tiexi."
Liu said that neighborhood relations in the village were much better than those of modern residential communities today. "People knew each other very well, and neighbors lived like close relatives. They shared the public kitchen and toilet. They worked in the same factory, and their children went to the same schools. And their earnings were on the same level."
Locals are reluctant to talk about "the most difficult 1990s," when most old state-owned enterprises collapsed.
The workers lost their jobs, and the social pyramid was turned upside down. Many farmers set up their own business in cities after they were allowed to work as migrant workers in the cities. Workers in their 40s and 50s experienced most difficult times as job hunters in the employment market.
In early 21st century, all enterprises in Tiexi were relocated to an industrial park in a new development zone in the west of Shenyang, giving place to some high-technology corporations from Japan, France, the United States and Germany. The old neighborhood has become a memory of the old workers, who mostly moved to new residential communities funded by government subsidies.
In August 2012, the last factory left Tiexi, marking the end of an era.
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