AN-SHAN

Pinyin Anshan, city in central Liaoning sheng (province), China. It lies about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Shen-yang (Mukden). Originally a post station on the road from China proper to Liao-yang, 15 miles (24 km) to the northeast, An-shan was established in 1387 and was fortified in 1587 as part of the defenses set up by the Ming dynasty (13681644) against the rising power of the Manchus. Under the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (16441911), however, its walls fell into decay, and during the Boxer Rebellion (an anti-foreign uprising in 1900) the town was destroyed by fire. Further destruction followed during the Russo-Japanese War (190405), which reduced it to little more than an impoverished village. Modern An-shan grew up some 6 miles (10 km) north of the old town and was entirely industrial in its origins. In 1909 extensive iron-ore deposits were found in the area. There are further iron deposits in a belt around An-shan at the towns of Ta-ku-shan, Ying-t'ao-yan, and Kung-ch'ang-ling. The South Manchurian Railway established an ironworks at An-shan in 1918, but production was low until initial difficulties, caused by the low grade of the iron ore, were overcome by new techniques. Under the Japanese occupation after 1931, An-shan was at first a producer of pig iron for use in the Japanese steel industry, but a local steelworks was established, and production began in 1935. In 1937 An-shan was taken over by the Manchurian Heavy Industry Company, a company partly backed by the Manchukuo government, the Japanese puppet regime in Manchuria. The industry concentrated on the production of steel for armaments, and the city expanded rapidly. In addition to the steelworks, various heavy engineering plants were built, and a shortage of coking coal ended with the development of coal mining at Fu-hsin and elsewhere. After World War II, An-shan suffered from looting by Soviet forces, who removed most of the advanced equipment. The plant had been heavily bombed toward the end of the war and was further damaged during civil warfare that followed the Soviet withdrawal. By 1948 the population had fallen, and steel production had virtually ceased. After 1949 the rehabilitation of heavy industry at An-shan and elsewhere became a major goal of the Communist government. Under the First Five-Year Plan (195357) An-shan was built up again into the major iron and steel complex in China and was reequipped with the latest equipment, much of it from the Soviet Union. By 1957 it was producing a wide variety of steel products (such as heavy rails, steel plates, seamless tubes, and alloy steels). An-shan also produced equipment for other major iron and steel complexes elsewhere in China. By the late 1950s it was producing more than 40 percent of the total Chinese production of iron and steel. As the chief centre for industrial development, numbers of technicians and workers were sent to An-shan from other parts of the country for training. An-shan suffered from the withdrawal of Soviet aid in 1960 and the industrial cutbacks that followed, but the city recovered. By the early 1980s it was producing one-fourth of China's steel. In the 1960s the attempt simply to increase productive capacity was replaced by efforts to make specialized products, which had previously been imported. In the late 1970s An-shan was China's chief centre for metallurgical research and technological innovation in the steel industry. It was also a centre of the engineering industry. Industrial products include tractors, chemicals, cement, and paper. An-shan is part of a well-integrated industrial complex in the southern section of the Northeast (Manchuria). It is supplied with coal from Fu-hsin, Fu-shun, and Pen-ch'i, magnesium from Ta-shih-ch'iao, and obtains food largely through Liao-yang. Its steel production is supplied to the engineering and machine building industry in other large cities in the Northeast. It also has an oil refinery. It ranks as the fourth industrial city in China by capacity, being exceeded only by Shanghai, Tientsin, and Wu-han. An-shan is connected by railway with Shen-yang and L-ta. Pop. (1935) 33,000; (1940) 214,000; (1948) 166,000; (1953) 549,000; (1958 est.) 833,000; (1983 est.) 1,210,000.