Shiyan
Mao built a secret truck factory in these mountains during the Cold War. Dongfeng Motor made Shiyan China's second-wealthiest city—then moved to Wuhan. Now 500 auto manufacturers, Wudang Mountains tourism, and Beijing's water supply define a company town seeking its next act.
Mao Zedong built a city from nothing in these mountains because he feared invasion. In 1967, as part of the Third Front—China's Cold War program to relocate strategic industry to remote interior locations—25,000 construction workers descended on a poverty-stricken village in northwest Hubei to build the Second Automobile Works. By 1969, truck production had commenced. Shiyan's population exploded. At its peak, the Dongfeng Motor Corporation employed nearly 200,000 workers, and Shiyan briefly held the second-highest living standard in China—behind only Shenzhen.
Then the factory left. In 2003, Dongfeng relocated its main passenger car operations to Wuhan, and Shiyan's population declined. The city that Mao conjured from paranoia faced the classic company-town crisis: when the anchor employer moves, what remains? Over 500 vehicle and auto parts manufacturers still operate here, with annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles. Industrial output grew 10.4% recently—ranking among the top nationally. But Shiyan's GDP of approximately 175 billion yuan and its demographic profile tell a more nuanced story: 40% of the population works in agriculture despite the secondary sector generating 44% of GDP.
Shiyan's three 'world-class business cards' reveal its attempt at economic diversification. The Wudang Mountains—a UNESCO World Heritage Taoist complex with 200 temples—anchor spiritual tourism. The Danjiangkou Reservoir, enlarged as part of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (the largest water transfer in history), makes Shiyan the core water source area for Beijing and Tianjin. And the Dongfeng auto cluster is pivoting to new-energy commercial vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells, and autonomous driving—a joint intelligent driving research center with Tsinghua University operates here.
The founder effect is geopolitical rather than economic: Mao chose the location for military secrecy, not market logic. Shiyan's challenge is converting a Cold War military-industrial artifact into a commercially viable auto cluster. Like organisms transplanted into artificial habitats, the city must either adapt to its economic environment or remain permanently dependent on state support—an ecological experiment conducted at the scale of 3.4 million lives.