The Xiaoliangzhuang Military Reclamation Site

The Xiaoliangzhuang Military Reclamation Site

The Xiaoliangzhuang Military Reclamation Site is a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Xiaoliangzhuang is the only well-preserved former military reclamation site in China featuring a Soviet-Russian style farm complex that once served as the divisional headquarters of a production and construction corps. It is a national key cultural relics protection unit, originally built in 1953.

In March 1970, Xiaoliangzhuang and its subordinate production companies were ordered to be handed over to the Water Conservancy Engineering Regiment, while other units withdrew to Sishihu Tan. Starting from 1971, the Xiaoliangzhuang area became a military garrison and production base for the Xinjiang Military Region. Successive units stationed there included the "Jiang" 910 Unit, an artillery regiment, the Military Region Garrison Division, the 36151 and 36143 Units, and the 9th Engineer Regiment. In 1989, the military withdrew and the site was handed over to the Logistics Department of the Xinjiang Military Region for management. With no permanent residents, it fell into disuse for 20 years, eventually becoming a historical site.

On March 31, 2009, after efforts by the regiment’s Party committee, the Joint Logistics Department of the Xinjiang Military Region finally transferred the entire Xiaoliangzhuang site back to the original developing and constructing unit — the 147th Regiment of the Eighth Agricultural Division. This regiment focused on building a “One Village, Two Parks” model (Xiaoliangzhuang, the Wenzhou Industrial Park of the Production and Construction Corps, and the Returning Farmland to Forest Ecological Park) to establish a new pattern for economic development. Plans were made to develop Xiaoliangzhuang into a regional tourism hub integrating red tourism, national defense and military reclamation education, a cultural film city showcasing the military reclamation heritage of the corps, and leisure and vacation facilities. It would serve as a living fossil embodying the indomitable pioneering spirit of the corps with the title “The First Military Reclamation Village.”

In May 2013, the Xiaoliangzhuang Military Reclamation Site was listed as part of the seventh group of national key cultural relics protection units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units