Qingbaijiang: Another Gateway from Chengdu to the World

On the map of China's economy, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration are undoubtedly the three major growth poles.

Who will be the "fourth pole" of China's economic growth? Will it be the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, known as the "thoroughfare of nine provinces," or the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration, which is "setting sail toward the sea"... For a time, the map is alive with "rising contenders."

Compared to other strong competitors, the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration, nestled deep in the inland southwest, still manages to shine despite being surrounded by mountains.

Chongqing uses rivers as swords to break free from the confinement of the mountains. But how did Chengdu, without relying on rivers, successfully break through?

First, Chengdu leveraged hundreds of flight routes from its two major airports, Shuangliu and Tianfu, to soar over the mountains and weave a "high-speed cloud network."

At Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, planes streak across the sky, leaving silky trails in the deep night.

Additionally, railways crisscrossing the land sound the "land assembly call," with trains laden with goods converging in Chengdu from all directions, embarking on journeys to the world.

Please view horizontally: a schematic map of Chengdu International Railway routes. With Chengdu as the hub, it connects over 100 cities domestically and internationally.

At the railway assembly point, colorful containers are parked, turning the area into a veritable land "port."

The owner of this port is none other than Qingbaijiang District of Chengdu.

Qingbaijiang, a poetic name. Yet, beneath its lyrical charm lies a story of dramatic twists and turns.

In 1949, New China emerged from its long agricultural civilization. Faced with Western skepticism that it "couldn't solve the food problem for hundreds of millions," a group of soldiers who had survived the hail of bullets were dispatched to the northwest, northeast, and other regions to build New China's granaries.

In the southwest, the Chengdu Plain has long been hailed as a "granary." However, relying on traditional farm manure had reached the limit of grain yield increases, and poor transportation deterred fertilizers from outside Sichuan. Thus, building a fertilizer plant on the Chengdu Plain became an urgent task.

Please view horizontally: the Qingbaijiang River meanders across the Chengdu Plain. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Bian (biàn) entered Sichuan as an official and declared his resolve by the river: "My will is as clear as this river," giving rise to the name "Qingbaijiang." Later generations adopted it as "Qingbaijiang."

Across the vast Chengdu Plain, where would this fertilizer plant of extraordinary significance be located?

In the northeast of Chengdu, the Qingbaijiang River flows gently, while the Longquan Mountains stretch diagonally, bringing lush greenery.

A topographic and hydrographic map of Qingbaijiang District.

Between these mountains and rivers lies fertile land.

Please view horizontally: a distant view of the Longmen Mountains from Qingbaijiang District.

Here, spring blossoms and autumn bears fruit, with generations of farming sustaining a civilization.

Some important unearthed artifacts in Qingbaijiang District indicate that humans had already inhabited and thrived in the area over 4,000 years ago.

Here, an ancient city has guarded the local life for millennia, with its courtyards seemingly freezing time for a thousand years.

The Baoji–Chengdu Railway, which fulfilled the "century-old dream of a railway out of Sichuan," traverses Qingbaijiang to the north and established the "Qingbaijiang" station by the river. The roar of trains shattered the long, silent agrarian era of this land.

The Qingbaijiang section of the Baoji–Chengdu Railway is now a vital freight corridor for the China-Europe Railway Express.

In 1956, on an open field southeast of the station, China's first domestically produced medium-sized nitrogen fertilizer plant—Sichuan Fertilizer Plant (the predecessor of Sichuan Chemical Works)—broke ground.

With fertilizer, steel for farming tools was also needed. Two years later, northwest of Sichuan Chemical Works, Chengdu Iron and Steel Plant (the predecessor of Pangang Group Chengdu Steel) began construction, ending Chengdu's history of "having grain but no steel" with its record of producing steel in just 108 days.

Chairman Zhu De inspected Sichuan Chemical Works, which was one of the key large-scale fertilizer projects during the First Five-Year Plan period.

The fervent years were mixed with the blood, sweat, and tears of a generation of workers. They came from all corners of the country and eventually made the factory their home.

In 1960, due to the need for municipal management of the factory area, an administrative district named "Qingbaijiang" was established, officially marking the emergence of "Qingbaijiang District, Chengdu."

The main gate of Sichuan Chemical Works' headquarters in the 1960s-1970s.

Sichuan Chemical Works and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel acted like powerful magnets, attracting industries such as chemicals and machinery to concentrate here. By 1965, the district had 50 industrial enterprises. Among them, Sichuan Chemical Works and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel were undoubtedly the two leading giants, bringing Qingbaijiang District over half a century of glory.

In the 1970s, Sichuan Chemical Works built China's first large-scale fertilizer production facility, capable of producing about 480,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer (commonly known as "urea") annually. Mass production significantly reduced fertilizer costs, enabling enthusiastic farmers in the post-reform era to afford fertilizers and increase grain yields.

Meanwhile, Pangang Group Chengdu Steel shifted its production focus from agricultural steel to construction steel, meeting the demand for large-scale construction projects in the southwestern region.

To facilitate the transportation of raw materials and products, seven dedicated railway lines were built directly into the factory areas. Batches of fertilizers and steel could be loaded and shipped directly out of Sichuan.

Sichuan Chemical Works and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel—one supplied fertilizer for New China, holding the "rice bowls" of tens of millions, while the other supported major national projects like the Gezhouba Dam and Luzhou Bridge.

In 1990, driven by the two tax giants, Sichuan Chemical Works and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel, Qingbaijiang became the first district in Chengdu to achieve a total fiscal revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.

Booming production spurred municipal development. The "workers' villages" around the factory areas were filled with apartment buildings, schools, theaters, and other recreational facilities, all equipped with water, electricity, and gas.

From the factory to the residential areas, workers lived a routine and comfortable life between two points. Stable and generous benefits retained generations of workers, who found employment, married, raised children, and retired here...

Poetic records of Qingbaijiang District's industrial construction era.

Yet, even in such peaceful times, a crisis was brewing.

In the 1990s, the market was flooded with affordable, high-quality products. However, state-planned enterprises like Sichuan Chemical and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium appeared somewhat "clumsy" in the face of the surging market tide, with their single product lines and low production efficiency.

In 2008, a financial crisis swept the globe, driving up raw material prices and causing a market slump... Traditional industries fell into a "winter." Five years later, the state issued shutdown notices to 120 old industrial bases, with Chengdu's Qingbaijiang District prominently listed.

In 2014, Sichuan Chemical's production lines ceased operation. A year later, the last blast furnace of Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium was permanently shut down. The two giants, which once accounted for nearly 70% of Qingbaijiang's industrial output, ultimately succumbed to the tides of time.

In 2015, the total profits of Qingbaijiang's industrial enterprises plummeted to -2.23 billion yuan, reflecting severe losses. This was the "acute pain" of the two state-owned giants' exit. Yet, this pain did not last. Within three years, Qingbaijiang turned losses into profits—what exactly did it do right?

As early as the turn of the century, Qingbaijiang had begun laying out new industries, shifting its focus to glass fiber material production by introducing industry leaders like Taiwan Glass Group and China Jushi. While traditional industries floundered in losses, the new sectors thrived against the odds.

Interior of Jushi's glass fiber production workshop. The "silver-thin" fiberglass materials, known for their high strength, are widely used in aerospace and electronics manufacturing.

Moreover, over half a century of industrial development had nurtured a cluster of equipment manufacturers that adapted more flexibly to market changes. For instance, Chengdu Tianma Railway Bearings achieved high-end transformation through wind turbine bearing production, while Sinotruk Chengdu Commercial Vehicles broke into overseas markets with its "premium trucks."

Even more encouragingly, Sichuan Chemical and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium did not collapse entirely.

Sichuan Chemical fragmented its massive structure into smaller companies. Later, leveraging its remaining factory land as capital, it partnered with Sichuan Energy Investment Group and Huading Fund to establish Huading Guolian, venturing into the automotive power battery sector and reinventing itself as a new energy enterprise.

After shutting down its blast furnaces, Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium worked tirelessly to repurpose its steel capacity. Offline, it built an integrated industrial park for steel storage, logistics, and processing. Online, it created a steel trading platform, boosting circulation across Southwest China.

This fearless pivot became the foundation for moving forward. The successful reforms of Sichuan Chemical and Pangang Group Chengdu Steel & Vanadium were even featured in the UN's *2019 China Human Development Report Special Edition: 40 Years of Human Development in China During Historical Transformation*.

Qingbaijiang's transformation mirrors Chengdu's broader shift. Entering the new era, Chengdu also pivoted: old industries gradually phased out while new ones were introduced. However, high transportation costs slowed its progress.

Thus, this city encircled by mountains launched an all-out effort—spanning highways, railways, and aviation—to make convenient logistics its driving force.

Qingbaijiang's former factory sites were repurposed or demolished, leaving the land "blank" again. This vast, rail-crossed terrain was chosen by the times once more. In 2008, the Chengdu Railway Container Center Station was established in Qingbaijiang.

Two years later, container cargo from Chengdu began converging here. Around the rails, logistics parks sprouted one after another.

On this land, every departing freight train and every cargo transaction sows a new hope.

This hope resembles the 300,000 trees planted years ago—destined to grow tall, someday shading Qingbaijiang with lush greenery and vitality.

It also resembles the cherry blossoms by Phoenix Lake, destined to bloom in time, someday painting Qingbaijiang with vibrant hues.

In 2013, a Europe-bound freight train—the Chengdu-Europe Express—departed from the Chengdu Railway Container Center Station.

Its roar pierced dawn and dusk, cutting through northwestern winds as it raced 9,826 kilometers westward to Europe. The journey took just around 12 days—nearly a month faster than traditional sea freight and far cheaper than air transport.

In 2015, the Chengdu-Europe Express began operating in both directions. Since then, French wine, German cars, Italian beef, Russian timber, and more have successively arrived in Qingbaijiang, officially making it the bridgehead where "Made in China" meets "European charm."

Imported cars parked at Chengdu International Railway Port

In the logistics park, industries with mature logistics systems such as Hema Fresh and Cainiao have settled in.

On the bustling railway port, Qingbaijiang's vitality has returned.

In 2017, Qingbaijiang District secured a place in the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone with its 9.68-square-kilometer railway port. Three years later, the Chengdu International Railway Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone officially passed national inspection.

Chengdu International Railway Port at night. The port operates around the clock, enabling 24/7 customs clearance for goods.

The railway port, bonded zone, and free trade zone have significantly reduced logistics costs. If goods were merely transshipped here, Qingbaijiang would miss this enormous opportunity of the era.

A wave of manufacturers has sensed this huge opportunity. In the railway port's bonded zone, they can more conveniently use imported materials for processing trade targeting the European market.

On the southern side of the railway port, a European Industrial City has risen from the ground, with standardized factories providing comfortable conditions for more businesses to settle in Qingbaijiang.

On the northern side, in a high-performance fiber materials industrial functional zone, researchers conduct project trials and pilot-test various high-tech products, aiming to one day spread technology internationally via the railway.

Leveraging the railway port, Qingbaijiang's industries have undergone a "great transformation," with logistics trade, smart manufacturing, and advanced materials becoming new economic highlights.

In the internationally connected Qingbaijiang District, traditional agriculture has also entered the "tech track," as modern agricultural parks illuminate the once-rural landscape. The world's largest dendrobium germplasm and gene bank, as well as the largest single-site edible mushroom factory, have found suitable "soil" here.

In 2021, Qingbaijiang District officially became a national economic and technological development zone. The label of "old industrial base" was finally shattered by time.

Please view horizontally: Qingbaijiang District, lush with greenery.

With the advantage of the "International Land Port," Chengdu's cars, electronics, and other products can more easily reach the European market, overcoming the previous dilemma of relying solely on "borrowing ports for exports."

Against the backdrop of the "Chengdu-Chongqing Twin Cities Initiative," Chengdu and Chongqing jointly launched the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) brand. From the Chengdu-Europe Express to the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing), tens of thousands of trains have shuttled day and night in just a few years, transporting over 400,000 containers between China and Europe.

Annual operation trend chart of the Chengdu-Europe Express and China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing).

Among the shipped goods, besides electronics and cars, Sichuan tea, fruits, and other small specialties have entered Europeans' daily lives through the "LCL (less-than-container-load) mode."

Under the "Multimodal Transport Single Document" model, Chengdu International Railway Port integrates water, land, and air logistics, further improving transport efficiency.

Such obvious transportation advantages attract goods from all directions to converge in Chengdu, embarking on a journey to the world. With its land port, Chengdu stands shoulder-to-shoulder with many coastal cities.

Today, Chengdu has long shed the dilemma of "hard roads in Shu," with Fortune 500 companies like Dell and Lenovo setting up operations there, gradually erasing the label of a "landlocked city in Southwest China."

Number of Fortune 500 companies established in Chengdu since 2005

The mountains may encircle the land, but they cannot contain the millennia-old yearning of generations on the Chengdu Plain to connect with the outside world.

A thousand years ago, the ancestors of Shu traversed the mountains, reaching the Western Regions with nothing but boats and carts. That ancient history of trade lies hidden in fragments of texts and silent artifacts.

The Eastern Han bronze horse—its clip-clopping hooves were the ancestors' means of distant travel.

A millennium later, in Qingbaijiang, exotic goods are displayed in the Asia-Europe National Pavilions, where people pause to gaze. Though time and space have shifted, the anticipation and delight of being "worlds apart" remain the same.

Asia-Europe National (Commodity) Pavilion in Qingbaijiang District—Greece Pavilion

Qingbaijiang District bears witness to the millennia-spanning encounter between Shu's ancient and modern Silk Roads. The surging history and changing eras have merged into today's Qingbaijiang, where the sparks of civilization from past to present converge.

In this ancient city of a thousand years, a modern Chengxiang Reception Hall, shaped like the "flying eaves and dark tiles" of the old town, offers foreign guests a glimpse of Tianfu's charm. Soon, visitors from afar will embark on a journey through time and space here, experiencing profound traditional culture in the metaverse.

Chengxiang Reception Hall—the booming metaverse industry will soon take root in Chengxiang Ancient Town, blending modern trends with ancient culture.

On this fertile land, the old industrial furnaces fade as new-era skyscrapers rise, building a home for yet another generation.

Qingbaijiang District Sports and Cultural Center—its twin wings resemble Qingbaijiang's "soaring."

Time marches on inexorably, yet the people of this land remember their era in countless ways.

Within the ancient city that has condensed millennia, stories of noble-minded heroes and the daily lives of ordinary folk endure.

Amid the greenery, the old furnaces, too cherished to demolish, are medals of youth for generations of workers.

Qingbaijiang District Changliuhe Industrial Heritage Park

Today, the speeding China-Europe Railway will become the new generation's memory of home, sung by poets of the future:

"The China-Europe Railway departs the Middle Kingdom, piercing the throat of the western winds.

Through night and day, it breaks free from the bustle.

Carrying spring blossoms and autumn moons anew, like the east wind's breakthrough."

Time is not a ribbon, but a desolate battle blade.

The world is merely the distance between the previous second and the next.

No sand blocks the way, no ladder reaches the sky.

In Qingbaijiang District, the world was once so far away, yet now it feels so close.

The above verses are excerpted from "The World Is the Distance Between the Previous Second and the Next" by Yang Yide, a modern poet from Qingbaijiang District. Please view horizontally: Qingbaijiang city at dawn.

- CREATIVE TEAM -

Proofreaders | Xiang Buxiang, Wang Luoji

Special collaboration unit for this article: Publicity Department of the CPC Qingbaijiang District Committee, Chengdu

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[10] He Jie. Analysis of Chengdu’s Construction as an Inland Open Economy City[D]. East China Normal University, 2015.

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