This Day, That Year
Item from June 25, 1982, in China Daily: A satellite town of the Yanshan Petroleum and Chemical Complex is still under construction in Fangshan county. Once a sleepy rural town 20 kilometers south of Beijing, the suburb of Huangcun now boasts 400,000 square meters of new housing, 10 km of new highways, a glass factory, a chemical fibers plant, and plans for textile and other light industries.
Like Fangshan, Tongxian, Changping, and a number of other suburbs, Huangcun has become a satellite town, designed to both relieve the congestion of crowded Beijing and give its burgeoning industry room to grow.
Four decades ago, Beijing residents would never have imagined living outside the capital's Fourth Ring Road, which is about 8 kilometers from the city center.
