China on the move: Tie Xi district under transformation

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From the "Cradle of Revolution" to the "cradle of China's heavy industrial base". That's the Tie Xi district in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province. But Tie Xi has lost its glamour with the shift from a planned to a market economy. In today's China on the Move series, Liu Ying takes a closer look at how "the cradle of China's heavy industrial base" has struggled to reinvent itself to stay competitive.

At a workshop of the Shenyang Heavy Machinery Group, workers are busy with plant relocation... They must ensure every piece of the gigantic equipment is carefully disassembled and loaded onto trucks.

Dismantling work started in May at this 72-year-old large-scale state-owned enterprise. The group is scheduled to move to its new site in the economic development zone by October.

Many workers find it hard to say goodbye. Che Wen is a veteran of the enterprise of more than 30 years.

Che Wen, worker of Shenyang Heavy Machinery Group, said, "The plant has been here for so many years. My father used to work here too. For many workers my age, it's a factory of two generations."

This is the oldest workshop of the Shenyang Heavy Machinery Group. It has a history of 72 years. This workshop saw the smelting of the first batch of steel after the founding of the People's Republic of China 60 years ago. It witnessed the rise and fall of the factory over the past decades. Today with the factory being relocated, the workshop has finished its mission and faces demolition.

Shenyang Heavy Machinery Group, or S-H-M-G, was the first heavy machinery manufacturer of the People's Republic. Today it is still the largest. A merger and restructuring three years ago saved the group from bankruptcy.

In fact, S-H-M-G is one of the last few to bid farewell to the Tie Xi district. Hundreds of state-owned factories have moved out since the municipal government launched a massive enterprise relocation plan in 2002.

Professor Feng Guisheng from the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences was involved in the creation of the plan.