A few days ago, at the opening ceremony of the home field city activities on Cultural and Natural Heritage Day 2023, the National Cultural Heritage Administration announced the list of the first batch of recommended cases in the high-quality development of cultural relics. As a case which is representative of the coordinated development of cultural heritage protection, as well as the economic, social and ecological environment, the project "Activating and Utilizing Industrial Heritage to Serve a Better Life for the People" submitted by the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, Beijing Shijingshan District Culture and Tourism Bureau, and Shougang Group Co., Ltd. was named a Top Ten Case in the High-quality Development of Cultural Relics.

The first fairy mountain in Yandu witnessed the regeneration of the "Ten-mile Steel City", Flying Apsaras in Dunhuang were incarnated as Big Air Shougang to realize dreams in the "Blessed Land of Double Gold Medals" of the Winter Olympic Games, and the meritorious blast furnace saw splendid cultural events along Yongding River. Over the years, Shougang Park has integrated cultural heritage protection into the overall situation of economic and social development, and explored a new unique path to the inheritance of industrial civilization.

"You can see the mountains, see the water and remember the emotions of Shougang". Implementing policies in different districts and confirming construction with protection, this Shougang project not only retains the memory of Shougang in Beijing over a hundred years, but also takes the initiative to develop the capital into a city with "high-grade, precision and advanced" industries in the new era, becoming a win-win model for the protection, transformation and utilization of industrial heritage, and a new landmark of urban rejuvenation.

Walking through Shougang Park, the renovation of industrial buildings has increased connectivity through convenient building-to-building walkways, the differential pressure power generation complex building has been transformed into a leisurely coffee shop, and waste materials are processed into landscape sketches. It retains the beauty of the old Shougang's "plain" industry and fully respects the texture of the original environment and the imprint of history, while the park’s green trees, fresh air and combination of rigidity and softness entice people to linger. Ascending Blast Furnace No. 3, people come and go on the viewing platform that was transformed from the overhauling platform. Jiang Jinyu, a former Shougang crane driver and gold medal commentator, proudly tells everyone about the past and present of Shougang.

Looking up, to one side stands the world-famous Big Air Shougang, while to the other lies Shijingshan, "a fairy mountain with jewelled palaces". Looking down, you can see the sparkling Xiuchi Lake and discern the "Centennial Shougang Timeline" on the wall of the underwater exhibition hall. The Xishi Winter Olympics Square Project of the Shougang Old Industrial Zone is located at the northern end of the north area of the park. "Shougang's development over more than 100 years has left a large number of industrial relics that represent the development merits of the steel and iron industry, and have become the epitome of modern Chinese industrial development. Passing on these industrial memories is a responsibility in our transformation and development of the Shougang Old Industrial Zone for Beijing. The Xishi Winter Olympics Square Project in the Shougang Old Industrial Zone has carried out the functional transformation and space renewal of the old industrial factory buildings, and transformed the old industrial plant in the blast furnace iron-making material storage area into the office area of the Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee on the premise of respecting the original industrial relics. The remains of industrial buildings stimulate the use potential of traditional industrial space," Zhao Hongxue from Beijing Shougang Construction Investment Co., Ltd. explained.

According to the known information, the area where the Xishi Winter Olympics Square is located was originally the Shougang Xishi Stockyard. Since 2005, under the leadership of the Beijing Municipal Government, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning and Land and Resources Management has organized the compilation of the Reconstruction Plan of Shougang Industrial Zone, and started five special studies including the Research Report on the Protection and Reuse of Industrial Heritage Resources in Shougang Industrial Zone. In 2014, in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Tsinghua University, and led by academicians, a special study on Shougang's urban features was carried out to explore "the relationship between tradition and modernity, as well as between inheritance and development". On the basis of actively protecting and utilizing the original industrial relics, the "urban darning" mode was innovatively used to integrate new functions, new spaces and new environments that meet the development needs of the era. In 2016, the first batch of personnel of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee settled in the Xishi Office Area, which greatly promoted Shougang’s transformation and development implementation process. In 2017, the Detailed Planning for the North District of the Comprehensive Service Area for High-end Industries in New Shougang was approved, and the planning and design concept of "innovation, repair, vitality and ecology" was put forward. On the premise of retaining the original technological process, the functions of industrial facilities were upgraded and ecological transformation was realized, highlighting the historical value, cultural value, ecological value and spatial characteristics of Shougang. The project team adheres to "faithful preservation" and "careful construction", presents a combination of static protection and dynamic renewal, and adopts design techniques including "darning", "linking" and "sewing". People-oriented, it combs the spatial scale relationships of buildings (structures) and combines industrial remains with modern elements by comparing old and new materials and old and new spaces, thereby transforming the original "ironmaking yards and silos" into "office spaces" and "culture show fields" with a unique style. Based on always adhering to the principle of "protection and utilization to the utmost extent", the project team took the lead in creating a new path of "building" with "protection" and classified protection. Zhao Hongxue said, "We adopt the protection and utilization strategy of industrial heritage by zoning and dividing strategies, and delimit core protection areas, cultural heritage areas and style coordination areas to guide the transformation and utilization of industrial buildings and structures in the subsequent development process of parks, in order to inherit Shougang's history, culture and industrial style in the process of urban renewal and development, which highlights the unique industrial features in the region where Shougang is located and how they are different from those in other parks."

At present, three major areas of Shougang Park have been built, namely Shijingshan Landscape Park, Winter Olympics Square and Industrial Heritage Park, forming a space carrier of about 940,000 m2, basically forming a characteristic landscape system of "Mountain – Water - Winter Olympics - Science Fiction - Industrial Heritage", entering the first batch of the list of China’s industrial heritage protection and becoming a high-end industrial comprehensive service area that integrates commerce, science and technology, sports, culture and tourism, and other types of business with an urban industrial community that features cross-border integration and faithfully serves a better life for the people.

Begun due to the Summer Olympic Games and prospering due to the Winter Olympic Games by "maximizing the utilization benefits of Winter Olympic heritage", post-Olympics Shougang Park exerts the influence of the Olympic brand and the attraction of its characteristic industrial features, and actively creates a new highland of "first stores", "first launches" and "first shows". In addition to ice and snow sports, there are new labels such as the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) and Yongding River Cultural Festival in Xishan, Beijing, with more than 400 related activities held so far. In recent years, Shougang Park has also been selected as an education base for caring for the next generation in Party history and national history, an industrial culture research and study practice education base, and an on-site teaching point for Party members' education and training in Beijing. Research and study teams of teenagers can be seen everywhere in the park. After enjoying the industrial style and appreciating the historic sites under the fairy mountain, people can also visit the "Reading for All" cultural space on the first floor of Blast Furnace No.3 which has a unique steel structure bookshelf, a "time and space ribbon" around the core of the steel and iron furnace, pleasing cultural and creative products, and tempting "Giant Furnace Coffee", "Blast Furnace Ice Cream" and "Steel Slag Ice Cream". Sitting around discussing the "Culture-themed Tour Exhibition for both the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games" held here last year, they will unconsciously be integrated into Shougang time in "Nighttime Beijing". Colorful lights decorate the coke ovens, coal bunkers, silos and other industrial relics in a cool and beautiful way. People appreciate exhibitions in the nighttime, visit intangible cultural heritage in the nighttime, listen to music in the nighttime, read books in the nighttime and enjoy delicious food in the nighttime. New friends and old friends gather here to collect beautiful things and imagine the future.

In Shougang Park today, the landscape is deeply blended with humanism as the historical context and modern civilization add radiance and beauty to each other, displaying a gorgeous transformation from "industrial rust belt" to "life show field" in a way that serves a better life for the people. Shougang will consciously integrate into the functional construction of the "Four Centers" in Beijing, speed up the creation of a dynamic space and hotspot for development that faces the future, youth and internationalization, and make Shougang Park a new landmark of urban rejuvenation themed "Together for a Shared Future".