Past: A Hundred Years of Forging and the Strategic Closure of the “Ten-Li Steel City” (1919–2010)

In 1919, the predecessor of Shougang Park, the Shijingshan Ironmaking Plant of Longyan Iron Ore Company, was founded. Over a hundred years of development, it became a “living fossil” of China’s steel industry, the backbone of Beijing’s industrial sector, and witnessed the birth of China’s heavy industries from the very beginning.

During the rise of the Industrial Age and the glory days of Shougang: after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Shougang developed rapidly and became one of the main pillars of the Chinese steel industry, breaking many industry records and becoming a model for enterprise reform since 1978. With an area of about 8.63 square kilometers, the complex formed a whole industrial system based on blast furnace, converter, and rolling mill, and had supporting facilities of silos, cooling towers, and transport corridors, so that it can be called the “Ten-Li Steel City”, contributing greatly to the country’s industrialization and Beijing’s development.

Shougang Park’s original industrial activities continued to grow well into the 2000s. To meet the needs of environmental protection for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and to match the functional positioning of Beijing’s city development, the State Council agreed to the relocation plan of Shougang in 2005, which was the largest steel mill relocation in China’s history. On December 19, 2010, the No. 3 Blast Furnace of Shougang produced its last batch of molten iron, and the last batch of steel was produced the following day, thus marking the completion of the shutdown of the old Shijingshan plant. The plant’s site would go on to become Shougang Park.

Present: Winter Olympics Empowerment and Diversified Revitalization (2011–Present)

Shougang Park used the “Preservation of industrial heritage with the Winter Olympics as a breakthrough” as its central strategy, making a successful transition from being a steel plant to a cultural landmark of Beijing’s “Two Olympics City”, creating a renewed Olympics site that stands out among other facilities used globally.

Shougang began to develop plans for transforming the old plant in 2011 and defined the positioning of the old plant as “Demonstration Zone for Green Transformation of Traditional Industries, High-End Industrial Innovation Hub in Western Beijing, and Post-Industrial Culture, Sports, and Creative Base”. In 2017, the Detailed Plan for the North Area of the New Shougang High-End Industrial Comprehensive Service Zone was formally approved, and established a unique landscape pattern of “mountain, water, Winter Olympics, and industrial heritage”.

In May 2016, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games chose the West Ten Silos as its first core “client” for the park. The former iron ore storage silos were transformed into the “brains” of the Winter Olympics. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Big Air Shougang was the venue of the freestyle skiing and snowboarding big air events, during which Gu Ailing and Su Yiming won two gold medals. It is the world’s first permanent ski big air venue and the first Olympic venue to utilize former industrial facilities. In addition, the coal workshop was transformed into the National Winter Sports Training Center, and the former coal transfer station into an ice hockey rink, completing the leap from fire to ice.

Since the end of the Winter Olympics, Shougang Park has further utilized the dual heritage resources sustainably, and has become the permanent location for the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the China Science Fiction Convention, and other international events like the WTT China Grand Slam. As of March 2025, the park has hosted more than 900 events and attracted more than 31 million visitors. In terms of tourist volume, the park has been among the top 10 scenic spots in Beijing in 2024.

The former industrial circulating water pond has been transformed into Qunming Lake, and the Yongding River Green Ecological Corridor has been built, forming a complete ecological landscape integrating “mountains, water, factories, and sports venues.” The park has also been integrated with the urban traffic network, realizing the integration of industry and city, and pushing the GDP of Shijingshan District to more than 100 billion yuan in 2022.

Historical and Modern Significance

Shougang Park is the first park to create a deep integration and sustainable utilization of industrial heritage and Olympics facilities, setting an example for the conversion of large-scale industrial sites and the continued utilization of Olympic venues after the Games take place. In addition, the transformation of otherwise harmful industrial structures such as circulating water ponds and coal facilities into ecological and functional spaces could answer China’s critical problem of dealing with industrial pollution resulting from rapid economic development.

Image References

All images not separately credited below filmed at location by Stories Rezoned team

1. Anonymous. Construction of No.1 Blast Furnace at Longyan Iron Ore Company Shijingshan Ironworks (Former Site of Shougang Park). 1919. Xiangshan Revolution Memorial Museum, Global Times, 15 Feb. 2022, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252317.shtml.
2. Anonymous. First Steel Billet at the Commissioning of Shougang Blooming Mill. 1969. Visible History, 10 Feb. 2022, https://www.360doc.cn/article/77176763_1016749695.html.
3. Zheng, Tao. Workers and Bicycles Waiting at Shougang Railway Level Crossing as Upstream 0688 Steam Train Passes. 1990s. Beijing Daily Client, 13 Feb. 2019, http://m.bjd.com.cn/mobile/20190213/5173364.html.
4. Luo, Xiaoguang. Last Heat of Steel Smelting at Shougang No.2 Steelmaking Plant. 19 Dec. 2010. Xinhua News Agency, 28 Dec. 2018, https://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2018-12/28/c_1123939978.htm.

References

1. Shougang Group. “Shougang Park.” Shougang Group Official Website, www.shougang.com.cn/p1/sgyq.html.
2. Beijing Daily. “‘Two Parks, One River’ Drives the Revitalization of Western Beijing.” 19 Dec. 2025, xinwen.bjd.com.cn/content/s6944f9b5d5de2ba1d69a5471.html.
3. Xinhua News Network Beijing Channel. “Creating the ‘Shougang Experience’ as a Model for Global Industrial Zone Revitalization.” 25 Dec. 2023, bj.news.cn/20231225/971f4336f7dc4f3090b0062db69299b3/c.html.
4. China News Service. “The Brilliant Transformation of the Ten-Li Steel City.” 13 Mar. 2023, www.chinanews.com/wap/detail/zw/sh/2023/03-13/9970286.shtml.
5. China News Service. “From Industrial Heritage to Internet-Famous Landmark: Empowered by Cultural and Creative Industries.” 23 Nov. 2025, www.chinanews.com/wap/detail/chs/zw/9984873.shtml.