Fascinating adventures within and around Baotou

North Hauler - Terex Baotou 1997 [Photo by Bruce Connolly/chinadaily.com.cn]

It was in Baotou that I was to have some great ‘China experiences’ for I had been invited to visit the vast works of the Baotou Iron and Steel Company (baotou gangtie gongsi). Ahead, along Gangtie Dajie, rose the tall cooling towers of the original steel works but I would be taken to a newer complex. Wearing a yellow safety helmet I was ushered into the control centre for a huge blast furnace. Much of the production could be managed simply by touching buttons while monitoring the processes on computer screens. It was fascinating to then be taken around the shop floor and being able to watch so much close up. Another vast hall manufactured metal rods for reinforced concrete building construction. Large slabs of red hot steel were squeezed through giant presses eventually emerging as seemingly endless thin bars finally wound into coils. Railway wagons waited to be filled. Amazingly much of the work was automated, few workers actually involved. Later being driven through this huge complex making up Baotou Steel I felt very privileged at having witnessed some of the workings of this important heavy industrial plant.

Later I was driven to the city’s Qingshan District where a large China-UK-US joint venture was located. The company, North Hauler, manufactured giant Terex earth-moving dump trucks for mining and construction projects including the then on-going Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Many of the vehicles were so large they had to be transported by railway, in parts, and assembled on-site. Amazingly there I met two fellow Scots who were representing the overseas part of the joint-venture with North Hauler. A great local delicacies lunch followed, accompanied by considerable boisterous singing by the restaurant staff!