Industrial heritage inspires new creative outlooks

Shougang Park

In China, one of the most renowned examples of industrial heritage preservation and regeneration is Shougang Park in Beijing. The site, featuring the world's first permanent big air venue, hosted the big air events during the 2022 Winter Olympics. As athletes soared against the backdrop of industrial giants, images of the transformed park captivated a global audience.

Located in western Beijing, the expansive complex was once home to China's oldest and largest steelmaker. Founded in 1919, its blast furnaces operated continuously for nearly a century, producing steel for bridges, buildings and railways across the nation. Production ceased in 2010 as part of the city's environmental overhaul.

Today, four massive blast furnaces stand preserved as striking monuments to the site's past. Nearby, former workshops have been converted into offices, hotels, restaurants and exhibition spaces. Railway tracks now weave through landscaped greenery, and the cooling pond has been transformed into a clear artificial lake. In 2021, the China International Fair for Trade in Services made Shougang its permanent home, with one furnace adapted into the fair's main venue.

The dominant feature of Shougang Park's transformation is the preservation of the site's original spatial and industrial logic, Qiu said.

"Those structures with the clearest historical and spatial value — the huge factory buildings, the major industrial landmarks — were preserved as a foundation of the landscape," he said. "New commercial, exhibition and cultural functions were added to that."

The result is not a museum frozen in time, but a living district where the industrial past coexists with contemporary life.

Across the country, cities are developing their own approaches, tailored to local conditions and histories, to breathe new life into their industrial heritage.

In Qingdao, Shandong province, the Tsingtao Beer Museum is housed in the century-old factory building of the brewery founded in 1903, during Qingdao's period under German colonial influence. The industrial fabric has been well preserved: the redbrick building, designed in the "Jugendstil" architectural style popular in Europe at the turn of the 20th century, features an 1896 Siemens electric motor, old copper mash kettles, and fermentation vessels made of ancient oak.

Building on this heritage, the museum has developed a profitable business model by offering visitors an immersive experience. After exploring fermentation cellars and learning about the brewery's production process from 120 years ago, visitors can taste freshly brewed beer, enjoy theater and light shows and purchase creative products ranging from beer glasses to wine-flavored ice creams.