Chapter 11 10. The First Automobile Factory: Wheels of the Republic

The First Automobile Factory, which began construction in 1953, is the well-deserved eldest son of the Republic's industry. China FAW Group Corporation, formerly known as Changchun First Automobile Manufacturing Plant, is located southwest of Changchun City, Jilin Province, in northeast China.The site was chosen in Changchun in Northeast China, on the one hand because it has a certain heavy industry foundation, and on the other hand because it is close to the "big brother" Soviet Union, which is convenient for receiving technical and personnel assistance; another automobile city, Hubei Shiyan, is located in In the deep mountains with inconvenient transportation.This kind of site selection is also a measure of the temperature of international relations. FAW is "good friends", but Shiyan is wary.The FAW Industrial Park appeared as a landmark for 60 years because it reflected the great industrial desire of the People's Republic of China in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.The factory, which started construction in 1953, produced China's first domestically produced Jiefang truck three years later. In 1958, it trial-produced my country's first "Dongfeng" brand car and "Hongqi" brand limousine.

Even today, the 55-year-old Changchun FAW's factory area and population can reach half of the Green Park where it is located.In Changchun, it is a real behemoth. The Changchun Diesel Engine Factory and Changchun Tractor Factory, which were once equally famous, are no longer glorious, but being an employee of FAW is still something to be proud of. For the 25-year-old Yu Jili, he felt really lucky to be an employee of FAW-Volkswagen in 1999.Many of the companions who played together when they were young did not get this opportunity.Yu Jili's parents are both FAW employees, and his uncle's family and brother-in-law's family are also FAW employees.Three generations of his neighbor's family are employees of FAW. From the beginning of building a factory to manufacture cars for the new China, to a joint venture with the Germans, they accepted the Germans' strict quality inspections.

He grew up in a factory, and the most proud thing for FAW's children is to be able to sit on the truck produced by his father's factory. "At that time, there were very few cars on the street, and we children of FAW could sit on the newly produced Dongfeng cars that had not yet left the factory." When they were very young, FAW already had its own TV station.Can watch the factory station, "The Andy Lau version and "Ping Zongxiaying" we watched at that time were not available in other places in Changchun City. Our factory station began to broadcast." After school, you can also go to the nearby shooting range of the Ministry of Armed Forces to pick up bullet casings - FAW still retained the military establishment in the early days.In order to pick up bullet casings, children often forget the danger. Once, a bold neighborhood kid rushed to pick them up, and the kids behind were anxious to see him. He was running, and his hat was blown away.

After finishing middle school, Yu Jili did not choose to go to high school and then go to university, but to go to a technical secondary school of FAW.This secondary school has almost become FAW's reserve team.The students are all the children of FAW, and it is logical for them to join FAW after graduation.But in Yu Jili's class, the situation became special.When the new century is about to enter, the entire old Northeast industrial zone has become faltering, and even FAW can't absorb all the children of its workers. "I was ready to go to other places to work. At this time, our principal called me and said that because of my grades, I was eligible to take the exam to enter FAW-Volkswagen. In our school, there were only 8 people who took the exam." Yu Jili said.He still clearly remembers these numbers. In that year, there were more than 2,000 graduates from all schools in FAW, 589 of whom were eligible to take the exam, and 100 people were admitted by FAW-Volkswagen, and his ranking in the exam was 23rd.

During the two weeks of preparing for the exam, my father said that his son had never worked so hard in his life.On the day the list was released, the whole family was crazy with excitement. Yu Jili's job is "CP8 Complete Vehicle Final Inspection and Acceptance", and he inspects everything from welding to painting to assembly.He has been very busy recently due to the production and acceptance of the new Bora.Because other cars are sent directly to the factory for open-air testing after acceptance, while new models are sent to Germany for further inspection by German technicians after acceptance. "It's very late when the whole car comes off the production line, and I have to check and accept it. I get off work very late every day, and I still have to think about not giving loopholes to the devils."

His father who is retired at home is suffering from illness, otherwise, he would be like a retired old worker in the park next to FAW, walking around with a small Maza in his hand, sitting down and chatting with acquaintances .Seeing me sitting next to them, I was also surprised, and continued to tell my own experience, talking about food prices, food safety, FAW's engine and the corrupt officials who had just been caught. Compared with many of his peers living in old industrial areas, Yu Jili is lucky.He is discussing with his girlfriend whether their child will continue to work in FAW in the future, or go to college to do something else.They come to the conclusion that let him/her do what he or she likes.

This huge auto industrial park is full of schools, parks, hospitals, and shops bearing the name of FAW.People in blue overalls walk on the street, among the well-planned streets, one of which is named "Benz Road" and the other is called "Feiyue Road". Standing on both sides of the street are four-story and six-story residential buildings, which are neat and clean.Residential development in these factory areas is fast.When Yu Geely can remember, he can remember that the building where his home is located is Building 413, the last building in the FAW residential area. When he was in the fifth grade in FAW No. 9 Primary School, there were more than 800 residential buildings in the factory area.And when he was in middle school, FAW Residential District gave up using buildings as units and switched to blocks as units.

On December 16, 1949, Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People's Republic of China, visited the Soviet Union.Unlike some of his colleagues, such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong never visited or lived in other countries.At this moment, he came to the Soviet Union as the supreme leader of a big country. The purpose was to hope that the "big brother" of the Soviet Union would give a helping hand to the newly born People's Republic of China and help China build some heavy industrial projects. The Soviets arranged for Mao Zedong to visit the Stalin Automobile Factory.Mao Zedong, who had never witnessed the process of car production and was still riding in a car provided by the Soviet Union, looked at the cars rolling off the assembly line one by one, and said to his companions: "We also want to have such a car factory. "

Nothing inspires desire and satisfies a leader's ambitions more than the auto industry.Henry Ford could impatiently interrupt the speech of a young man who tried to tell him how times had changed, and the old Henry said dismissively: "Young man, I made the times!" Young President Kennedy McNamara, who was the general manager of Ford at the time, said that he could provide him with two jobs for the "prodigy" McNamara to choose from, one was the Secretary of Commerce of the United States; the other was the Secretary of Defense of the United States, McNamara Ra said without hesitation, "If I want to influence American business, then I'd better stay at Ford as the general manager."

There is nothing better than making cars to show the strength of a country's heavy industry manufacturing.Those steel monsters running on the road have almost given birth to the entire modern road network, retail trade, and suburban real estate market. It expands the scope of human activities and shows the superiority of human beings over other species in nature.But nothing is more complicated than making it.To this day, people are still arguing why it is difficult for such a huge China to manufacture a complete vehicle.Moreover, the entire automobile industry can be easily converted into a military industry in times of war.Look at what Ford and General Motors did for America during the war!For Mao Zedong and his colleagues who had aspirations for a strong China, steel, automobiles, and food were all the standards for measuring this strength.

On July 15, 1953, the foundation stone of Changchun First Automobile Factory was laid.A year ago, Mao Zedong personally issued the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Striving to Build an Automobile Factory in Three Years." Mao Zedong, who wrote a good handwriting, also inscribed the "First Automobile Factory Foundation Laying Commemoration" for this automobile factory. Technical personnel from all over China were mobilized to Changchun, and what they faced was the empty black land.When Fu Jinling, a technical professional transferred to Changchun, asked his receptionist where our factory was, the receptionist pointed to the open land ahead and said, that is.He then asked, "When will we start construction?" The host looked at him: "We've already started!" The land area occupied by FAW is almost half of the entire Changchun City.People from all over the world gather here.Rao Bin, the factory director of FAW, was nicknamed "Rao Bantian" by Changchun people. Rao Bantian's first task was to produce China's own cars with the help of Soviet technical experts.Three years later, on July 13, 1956, the first batch of cars produced by Changchun First Automobile Factory was successfully trial-produced.It was named "Liberation" by Mao Zedong.These are a batch of general-purpose trucks with a load capacity of 4 tons, equipped with a 90-horsepower six-cylinder gasoline engine, with a maximum speed of 65 km/h and an economic speed of 33-35 km/h when fully loaded.In the heyday of FAW, one out of every two cars on Chinese roads was "Jiangsu". Next, in 1958, FAW produced China's first small car, which was named "Dongfeng" according to Mao Zedong's famous words "the east wind prevails over the west wind" when he judged the international situation. On May 22, when this streamlined six-seater sedan with a silver-gray upper part and a purple-red lower part was sent to Beijing, Mao Zedong sat in this car and made two laps in the back garden. He joked that he had never done it before. After such a high-speed car - the maximum speed of the first Dongfeng can reach 128 kilometers.Mao Zedong, who has a stronger personality, said: "I will ride in a car made by ourselves." The next day, Premier Zhou Enlai also came to see the car.Zhou Enlai asked the driver to open the engine cover and took a look. The well-informed Zhou Enlai said that this was a Mercedes-Benz.Zhou Enlai said that copying is okay, but it should be copied skillfully, key technologies are copied, and non-key technologies can be changed so that people cannot see it. Still, the car was treated like a hero in Beijing, with onlookers applauding as it drove by.Three months later, FAW imitated Chrysler and created the famous "Red Flag" sedan. The fate of the eldest son of the Republic’s industry is the same as the planned economic model it represents. Over time, it will turn from prosperity to decline, and then find its own new growth point.The famous Jiefang and Hongqi were both discontinued for a time.What really made FAW a leader in China's auto industry again was the joint venture established by FAW, Volkswagen of Germany and Toyota of Japan.The Audi, Toyota, and Mazda produced by the joint venture, like FAW's original models Jiefang and Hongqi, run on the roads of cities and villages in mainland China. The glory of the 1950s and 1960s, the decline after the reform and opening up, and the efforts to re-emerge in the new century, the history of Tiexi is almost a history of changes in China's state-owned heavy industries.Located in the southwest of Shenyang, a city in northeast China, Tiexi District is one of the most famous industrial areas in China.Tiexi got its name from the fact that this area is located on the west side of the railway.Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Japan, which regarded the Northeast as its sphere of influence, had invested heavily here. Before the "September 18th" Incident in 1931, Japanese capital had built 28 factories in Tiexi, of which the investment exceeded one hundred There are 11 for 10,000 yen.By 1944, Japanese capital had built 323 factories in Tiexi.Classified by industry, there are 140 in the electromechanical metallurgical industry, 65 in the building material industry, 46 in the chemical (including rubber and pharmaceutical) industry, 32 in the food brewing industry, 19 in the textile industry, and 21 in other industries.So far Tiexi Industrial Zone has been basically formed.After the liberation of Shenyang, the new regime carried out planned transformation and adjustment of Tiexi District, and listed Tiexi as a key industrial zone for transformation. During the "First Five-Year Plan" and "Second Five-Year Plan" period, the state poured one-sixth of its financial resources into Tiexi, making Tiexi gradually form a complete range of industries based on the equipment manufacturing industry, relatively concentrated large and medium-sized enterprises, and supporting capabilities. A relatively strong industrial base in New China with a strong industrial foundation.However, as an old industrial base with a long history, Tiexi then faced problems such as the need for industrial upgrading and the reduction of national income as the plan changed. A large number of state-owned enterprises in Tiexi were in trouble.Then there is the question of how to revitalize this old industrial base.