In December last year, Yuelai Crops (formerly Chongqing Jiangbei Fertilizer Factory), located in Yuelai International Convention and Exhibition City, Liangjiang New Area, was selected as the "Third Batch of Municipal Industrial Heritage" and "Chongqing Industrial Cultural Tourism Demonstration Base". Why are the fertilizer plants of the past now called "crops"? What is its appeal? Recently, the new Chongqing-Chongqing ** reporter conducted a field investigation.
It retains the industrial imprint of more than half a century as it is.
Step into Yuelai Crops and look around, the 64-meter-high granulation tower is the first thing that catches your eye. The four big red characters of "Jiangbei Chemical Fertilizer" on the white tower seem to tell the production boom of the year.
The predecessor of the historical Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant can be traced back to the coke plant built with the aid of the Soviet Union in 1958. In 1969, Jiangbei Nitrogen Fertilizer Plant (i.e., Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant) was officially completed. In 1991, the urea production line of Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant produced the first batch of products, ending the history of Chongqing not producing urea.
This exciting time is the "first-hand witness" of the granulation tower – it is an important piece of equipment in urea production, which can mix urea with other raw materials and make them into granules through chemical reactions and particle formation processes, so as to control the rate of urea release and improve fertilizer efficiency.
Located in Yuelai International Convention and Exhibition City, Liangjiang New Area, Yuelai Crops, the M-House demonstration area renovated from the liquid ammonia compressor room displays the tables, chairs, benches, factory slogans, equipment and so on used by the workers back then. Photo by reporter Zhang Jinhui Visual Chongqing.
It can be seen from the old ** that in the Jiangbei Fertilizer Factory in the 90s of the last century, trucks came and went, and there was a big red flower in front of each vehicle, which meant that the fertilizer transported from here would bring a prosperous harvest.
Chemical fertilizers will help crops grow, and we hope that through the overall construction, more business formats will be introduced, and the cultural heritage here will be explored, so that 'Yuelai Crops' can produce more "spiritual food". This is how the staff of the Yuelai Crops project explained the reason for the name "Yuelai Crops".
In 2016, Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant stopped production and relocated. In 2017, Yuelai Investment Group settled in and carried out protective development here.
Today, in addition to the granulation tower, the weighbridge, liquid ammonia compressor room, cooling tower, and pipelines that weigh the trucks have also been retained.
The reporter saw that the weighbridge has become the base of the introduction board of the Yuelai Crops Project, and the liquid ammonia compressor room has been transformed into today's M-House demonstration area, and the cooling towers and pipelines have become natural "color blocks" and "lines", outlining the unique "industrial style" of the Yuelai Crops Project.
The reporter learned that at present, M-House has a permanent exhibition and an art exhibition, in the permanent exhibition area, visitors can see the old objects of Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant, such as testing instruments, tables, chairs and benches used by workers back then, factory slogans, etc.; In the art exhibition area, works by domestic and foreign artists will be introduced from time to time. Currently on display is "Conversations Between Others" by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota.
Excavate the new vitality of the old plant.
In fact, there are still many old factories that have been preserved. The building of Soviet specialists next to the M-House is one of them.
The reporter learned that the Soviet expert building adopts the Soviet-style architectural style, and the design has symmetrical and square elements. In order to make this "old" factory more than half a century more vigorous, under the premise of meeting the relevant protection requirements, the Yuelai Crops Project has painted the window frames of the factory with color to make it look more lively and fresh.
Yuelai crops in Yuelai International Convention and Exhibition City, Liangjiang New Area, photographed on January 30, 2024. Photo by reporter Zhang Jinhui Visual Chongqing.
According to statistics, after the official suspension and relocation of Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant, there are still 36 buildings of various types such as red brick style workshops and modern workshops built with the aid of the former Soviet Union, with a construction area of about 40,000 square meters and more than 200 sets of facilities and equipment of the fertilizer plant. There are 23 main reserved buildings, with a construction area of about 20,000 square meters.
In order to retain the unique memory of Jiangbei Fertilizer Plant, Yuelai Crops Project uses the means of "micro-renewal" to follow the restoration of historical architectural features in the overall planning, and basically retains the original architectural style, spatial scale, road system, greening system and other characteristics.
It is reported that in the next step, through the protection and excavation of the existing historical and industrial heritage resources of Yuelai International Convention and Exhibition City, Yuelai Crops will build a new cultural and artistic highland integrating cultural and artistic blocks, cultural characteristic exhibition halls, museums, art galleries, characteristic homestays, and art consumption, and will be built into an art and design micro-vacation destination, an industrial heritage protection exhibition area, and an industrial architecture expo.