Jingxian Iron Tower in Hebei Province: The Development Path from Sprout to Soaring

The Historical Origins of Jingxian Iron Tower

Ancient legends add a mysterious color

In Jing County, Hebei Province, there is a fantastic folk legend about the origin of Jingzhou Pagoda. Legend has it that a long, long time ago, there lived two female immortals in the Jing County and Fucheng areas of Hebei Province. They were sisters in law and had vast powers, able to summon wind and rain, move mountains and fill seas, and have lived peacefully for many years. Together, they blessed the people of this area and made them live in peace and happiness. The people of the two places built temples in Jingzhou and Fucheng respectively to express gratitude for the blessings of the two immortals. The Kaifu Temple in Jingzhou enshrines a young girl, while the temple in Fucheng enshrines a sister-in-law.

However, due to the high terrain, fertile land, and favorable weather conditions in Fucheng, people's lives are prosperous. In contrast, Jing County has low-lying terrain and barren land, and is located in the Heilonggang River basin. With nine floods in ten years, the people's lives are relatively poor. This has led to a gap in the incense offerings between the two temples, with Jingzhou Temple having much less incense offerings than Fucheng Temple. Over time, the sister-in-law became jealous and proposed to compete with her sister-in-law. They agreed to build a 13 level tower in Jingzhou and Fucheng each overnight, starting from midnight when the people were quiet and continuing until the rooster crows loudly in the early morning. Whoever couldn't build it would give up the temple incense to the other. At first, the sister-in-law was not willing to take into account the face of the younger sister-in-law, but the younger sister-in-law insisted on a comparison. Helpless, the sister-in-law had no choice but to agree, provided that the relationship between the two was never hurt.

After the competition began, my sister-in-law built in Fucheng and my sister-in-law built in Jingzhou. The two immortals each displayed their divine powers and busily prepared bricks, tiles, and wood to start building the tower. Due to the younger sister-in-law's slightly inferior magical power, she only completed the construction of a magnificent and beautiful 13 level pagoda in three watch days. However, the younger sister-in-law was slow to build and was busy until almost five watch days before half of the pagoda was completed. As the rooster was about to crow and the sky was about to light up, the young lady was very anxious. In a moment of desperation, she used Taoist techniques to move the upper half of the tower that her sister-in-law had repaired onto the half tower she had built herself. After dawn, the competition ended. Regardless of the outcome, my sister-in-law was magnanimous and the prime minister was able to support the boat. She generously gave a portion of the incense to my sister-in-law, and from then on, my sister-in-law reconciled as before. In this way, Jingzhou left behind a complete brick and wood structure of a 13 story tower, which is the Jingzhou Tower that still stands in Jingxian City after thousands of years of wind and rain, while the half section tower in Fucheng is now unknown whether it still exists.

These legendary stories have been passed down from generation to generation among the people of Jing County, adding a mysterious color to the Jingzhou Tower and demonstrating its unique position in the hearts of the people. It carries the profound culture of this region and also lays the seeds for the development of Jing County's iron tower industry, allowing future generations to have a deep cultural foundation to trace when developing the iron tower industry.

Cultural heritage serves as a profound foundation

Jing County is located in a very unique geographical location, at the junction of Shandong Province, Dezhou City, Hengshui City, and Cangzhou City in Hebei Province. It is situated at the intersection of Qilu Culture and Yan Zhao Culture, and has been deeply influenced and nurtured by both cultures since ancient times. The collision and fusion of cultures here have formed a unique and strong regional cultural atmosphere.

Since the establishment of the county in the Qin Dynasty, formerly known as "Tiao" County, there have been many famous figures in history. Dong Zhongshu, a master of Confucianism in the Western Han Dynasty, was from Jingxian. His proposal to "eliminate all schools of thought and exclusively respect Confucianism" had a profound impact on the development of Chinese thought for more than 2000 years, pioneering the unification of thought. In addition, Jing County was also the fiefdom of Zhou Yafu, a famous military general of the Western Han Dynasty. The culture and spirit carried by these historical figures are like shining stars, illuminating the land of Jing County and making its cultural heritage even more profound.

The characteristics of Confucianism, commerce, innovation, and inclusiveness in Qilu culture, combined with the spirit of generosity, sorrow, and chivalry in Yan Zhao culture, have blended together here, giving birth to the character traits of Jingxian people who not only value cultural inheritance but also have innovative and pioneering spirit. Under the nourishment of such cultural soil, sufficient nutrients have been provided for the development of various industries, and the iron tower industry is no exception. The profound cultural heritage has led the people of Jingxian to have a persistent pursuit of skills. When it comes to the construction of iron towers, they not only focus on their practical functions, but also integrate cultural connotations and artistic aesthetics. They uphold an attitude of continuous innovation and excellence to develop the iron tower industry, nurturing a thriving soil for its development. This has gradually transformed Jingxian's iron tower industry from obscurity to fame, becoming one of the iconic industries in the local area.

The Development Start of Jingxian Iron Tower

Sprouting from the development opportunity of the communication industry

The steel structure industry of Jingxian Iron Tower sprouted in the 1980s, when China's communication industry ushered in a flourishing opportunity and the demand for various types of iron towers began to gradually increase. Against this backdrop, Jing County has opened up the development path of the iron tower industry with its own geographical advantages and the keen market insight of local people. At first, they only made relatively basic objects such as aluminum ladders, but the people of Jingxian County adhered to the spirit of diligence, steadfastness, and continuous improvement, gradually accumulating experience, technology, and funds, and gradually expanding their business to the field of producing various iron towers and light and heavy steel structures as the main products. The product variety is becoming increasingly rich, covering a series of products such as communication towers, TV towers, navigation towers, craft decoration towers, observation towers, lightning protection towers, wind measurement towers, power towers, etc., which are widely used in many fields such as communication, broadcasting and television, transportation, electricity, forestry, water conservancy, and military. With the passage of time, the iron tower industry in Jingxian has grown into an important pillar industry for local economic development, accompanying the continuous growth of China's communication industry.

The initial scale and layout of the industry

In the early days, the iron tower industry in Jing County showed a relatively concentrated geographical distribution, mainly concentrated in Guangchuan and Longhua towns. Guangchuan Town is located in the southwest of Jing County, with 42 administrative villages under its jurisdiction. It is known as the "hometown of iron towers" and is one of the four major communication equipment production bases in China. Iron tower steel structure is the leading industry in the town, and its distinctive advantages are very obvious. And Longhua Town also has numerous iron tower related enterprises distributed.

In terms of the number of enterprises, at that time, Jing County had 402 iron tower production enterprises, 265 related supporting enterprises such as galvanizing, accessories, and installation, and 38 enterprises above designated size. In addition, 127 of them obtained production licenses and all passed the ISO 9000 international quality management system certification and ISO 14000 international environmental management system certification. These enterprises have gathered a large number of employees, totaling about 7149 people, of which technology personnel account for about 10%.

In terms of sales scope, the products of Jingxian Iron Tower Industry are sold well in all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions except Taiwan, and have already gone abroad, exported to more than 20 countries and regions such as Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Kuwait, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mali, Tanzania, Zambia, etc. The annual production capacity exceeds 600000 tons, and the export volume reaches 200000 tons, occupying a place in both domestic and international markets, demonstrating the strong influence and development potential of the industry since its inception.

The growth and expansion of Jingxian Iron Tower

Technological cooperation enhances technological content

The iron tower industry in Jingxian can continue to develop and grow, and technological cooperation has played a crucial role, especially the iron tower enterprises in Guangchuan Town, which have shown outstanding performance in this regard. Over the years, the iron tower enterprises in Guangchuan Town have established long-term and in-depth cooperative relationships with many well-known domestic research institutions such as Tsinghua University, Tongji University, and North China Electric Power University. These top universities have gathered numerous industry masters and professional research talents, who have brought cutting-edge concepts, advanced technologies, and innovative thinking to the Jingxian Iron Tower industry.

During the cooperation process, Jingxian Iron Tower Enterprise has made significant progress in production equipment. For example, the world's largest and most advanced prefabricated steel structure building product system has been introduced, and it is equipped with the most advanced equipment in the domestic iron tower industry, such as CAD drawing design network, iron tower full stress calculation program, fully automatic production line for iron tower main materials, automatic submerged arc welding production line, steel plate diagonal cutting production line, etc. These equipment provide strong guarantees for the production of high-quality iron towers, making the production of iron towers more efficient and accurate, and the product quality also reach a higher level.

At the same time, there is continuous innovation in technology and processes. The assistance of research institutions has enabled enterprises to master more sophisticated iron tower manufacturing techniques, which can cope with various complex design requirements and construction conditions. The produced iron towers have reached a high level of structural stability, wind and earthquake resistance performance.

Moreover, sophisticated detection instruments are widely used. The enterprise has a series of advanced testing methods from raw material testing to finished product quality control, such as German imported direct reading spectrometer, infrared carbon sulfur analyzer, universal tensile testing machine, impact testing machine, X-ray flaw detector, ultrasonic flaw detector, coating thickness gauge, etc., to ensure that every iron tower can meet strict quality standards and withstand the test of time and practical use.

    Through cooperation with these research institutions, the technological content of Jing County's iron tower industry has been greatly improved, laying a solid foundation for its fierce market competition and accumulating strong momentum for further development in the future.

The Rise and Contribution of Advantageous Enterprises

In the process of continuous growth and expansion of the iron tower industry in Jingxian, a group of large-scale enterprises with significant industry influence across the country have emerged, such as Hebei Communication Equipment Factory, Hebei Sanxin Metal Structure Co., Ltd., and Hebei Junhao Communication Technology Service Co., Ltd.

As a designated manufacturer of communication equipment of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, Hebei Communication Equipment Factory is the first enterprise in the same industry in China to obtain two production licenses from the state and the military. It has a profound foundation and exquisite craftsmanship in the field of iron tower production, and the produced iron towers are widely used in various important communication projects. With excellent quality and reliable performance, it has won a good reputation.

Hebei Sanxin Metal Structure Co., Ltd. has also performed outstandingly. It has not only obtained the National Defense Communication Network Equipment Network Access License, but also passed the GJ9001A-2001 Military Product Quality System Certification, National Level 2 Confidentiality Qualification Certification, and obtained the National Weapon Equipment Research and Production License. It is worth mentioning that the company actively adjusted its product structure and shifted towards light and heavy steel products with good market prospects. It also manufactured a 50 meter radio telescope antenna bracket for China's "Chang'e Project", which has been praised by experts for its quality and reliability, and has contributed to China's aerospace industry and other related fields.

Hebei Junhao Communication Technology Service Co., Ltd. also plays a crucial role in the industry. After obtaining relevant licenses and certifications, it continuously improves product quality and service level. The iron tower products produced are popular throughout the country and have played a key role in many large-scale communication projects and infrastructure construction projects.

These advantageous enterprises have played a leading role in the process of industrial development. They not only have strong development momentum themselves, but also drive many related enterprises in the surrounding areas to make progress together, promoting the scale and standardized development of the entire Jingxian iron tower industry. At the same time, relying on their own strength and qualifications, they actively participate in the construction of important projects such as national defense communication, contributing to the protection of national communication security and supporting the national defense cause, demonstrating the important value and social responsibility of Jingxian's iron tower industry.

景县铁塔面临的困境

Crisis caused by market saturation

In recent years, with the development and changes of the communication industry, the iron tower industry in Jingxian is facing a relatively severe market situation. In the past, large communication towers played an important role in the construction of communication infrastructure, and many tower companies in Jing County also gained a share of the market with their production advantages. However, nowadays the market for large communication towers is gradually saturated, and most of the business is limited to the replacement of old towers and a small amount of tower construction work in remote areas, resulting in very small order volumes.

At the same time, after entering the 5G era, the demand for 5G small towers in the market is not satisfactory, because the brackets provided by 5G communication equipment suppliers can be attached to existing facilities such as old towers, lamp posts, and rooftops, which can already meet the demand. Under such dual influences, some iron tower enterprises in Jing County have fallen into difficulties, some are in a state of shutdown, some are only maintaining semi shutdown, and the entire iron tower industry is showing a downward trend. It is urgent to find new breakthroughs and development directions to reverse this situation.

Limitations of one's own shortcomings

During the development process of Jingxian Iron Tower Steel Structure Industry, some of its own shortcomings have gradually been exposed. On the one hand, the industrial chain is relatively short, and communication towers, as a basic component of the entire communication equipment, have few derivative products in the upstream and downstream of the industry. There is insufficient involvement in key components and core technologies, and most enterprises are concentrated in relatively basic production links with small individual scales. There are few enterprises in the county's iron tower steel structure industry with annual sales revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.

On the other hand, the production process is relatively simple, and the technological content of the products is low. Compared with some high-end manufacturing industries, iron tower products have gaps in technological innovation, functional expansion, and other aspects. Moreover, due to factors such as raw materials and market, the production cost is relatively high, which makes the competitive advantage of Jingxian's iron tower industry weak in the fierce market competition. When competing with similar industries in other regions, it often faces significant pressure, restricting the industry from further expanding and strengthening.

The transformation and upgrading of Jingxian Iron Tower

Policy guidance and support

Jingxian actively implements the "Implementation Plan for the Transformation and Upgrading of Jingxian Iron Tower and Steel Structure Industry" (2018-2023), helping enterprises identify upgrading goals and determine transformation directions. In this process, the guiding role of various support funds from higher authorities was fully utilized, and through the implementation of the "18 Measures for Supporting Industrial Development and Investment Promotion in Jing County" (trial), policy support was provided to enterprises from various aspects such as transformation and upgrading, technological innovation, brand building, and project construction, greatly stimulating the vitality of enterprise transformation and upgrading. For example, for enterprises that actively invest in research and development innovation and strive to expand into new markets, assistance can be provided in terms of funding subsidies, tax incentives, etc., so that enterprises can have more confidence and motivation to explore a suitable transformation and upgrading path for themselves, laying a policy foundation for the breakthrough development of Jingxian's iron tower industry in the face of market difficulties.

Industrial Agglomeration and Collaborative Development

Jing County relies on the two major gathering areas of iron tower enterprises, Guangchuan Industrial Park and Longhua Industrial Park, which are provincial-level development zones. It fully leverages the demonstration and driving role of the provincial-level new industrialization industry demonstration base "Equipment Manufacturing - Jingxian High tech Industrial Development Zone Guangchuan Industrial Park" to accelerate the aggregation of industrial, technological, talent and other resource elements to the park/base. By guiding small and medium-sized enterprises to collaborate in innovation and manufacturing with large enterprises, an industrial cluster with vertical chains, horizontal clusters, and comprehensive advantages has gradually formed. In Guangchuan Industrial Park, numerous small and medium-sized iron tower enterprises collaborate around larger core enterprises in the production process. Large enterprises are responsible for overall control and key technology research and development of some large-scale iron tower projects, while small and medium-sized enterprises cooperate to complete parts processing, supporting services, and other work. Everyone's advantages complement each other, jointly enhancing the competitiveness of the entire industrial cluster and forming a strong agglomeration effect in the Jingxian iron tower industry in the region, further consolidating the foundation of industrial development.

Innovation driven diversified exploration

Jingxian's iron tower industry is deeply implementing an innovation driven strategy and exploring the path of transformation and upgrading through multiple channels. On the one hand, actively establishing the Iron Tower Steel Structure Industry Academician Workstation, hiring domestic experts in the iron tower steel structure industry to provide advice and guidance for industry development and transformation and upgrading work. At the same time, fully leverage the dominant position of backbone enterprises in technological innovation, comprehensively carry out the construction of R&D institutions for enterprises above designated size, encourage enterprises to increase R&D investment, and enhance their own innovation capabilities.

In terms of expanding the market, firstly, we will expand and strengthen the power tower market, encourage enterprises to focus on improving the production capacity of power towers as a technological development priority, increase technological research and development efforts, focus on improving processing technology and processing accuracy, and strive to obtain the production qualification of power towers, especially 500KV and above transmission and transformation line towers, as soon as possible, so as to enter the processing ranks of the highest voltage level line towers in China and seize the opportunity in the ultra-high voltage market; The second is to expand the scale of steel structures in building spaces, relying on existing tower technology, brands and other resources, focusing on the construction engineering market such as industrial plants, mobile homes, underground space structures, etc., to achieve the transformation of some enterprises, and gradually break through the bottleneck of high-rise steel structure technology; The third is to develop new smart steel pole products, utilizing leading enterprises, technology research institutes, etc., to accelerate the development of small-scale, universal, and modular steel structure products, so that they can be attached to any site such as walls, utility poles, existing buildings, etc., to meet the development needs of micro base stations and ultra micro base stations in the 5G era, seamless coverage, flexible diversity, etc., and promote collaboration between enterprises and municipal transportation, iron tower companies, etc., to develop integrated steel structure products such as road light poles, video poles, power poles, communication poles, and other social towers, integrating multiple functional modules such as tower communication, outdoor advertising, environmental monitoring, street lighting, urban monitoring, etc., achieving multi-purpose and resource sharing in one tower. For example, the smart light pole product developed by Hebei General Microwave Tower Co., Ltd. is a successful example driven by innovation. It integrates multiple functions and plays an important role in the construction of smart cities. It also provides a good example for the transformation and upgrading of Jingxian's iron tower industry.

Current and Future Prospects of Jingxian Iron Tower

Overview of Industry Status

At present, the iron tower industry in Jing County, Hebei Province has presented a new scene of vigorous development. In terms of the number of enterprises, there are numerous iron tower production and related supporting enterprises distributed in various regions of Jing County, forming a relatively dense industrial network. As far as practitioners are concerned, they have absorbed a large number of local and surrounding labor forces, contributing positively to solving employment problems.

In terms of output, the annual production volume is quite considerable, and its product types are diverse, covering multiple series such as communication towers, TV towers, navigation towers, craft decoration towers, observation towers, lightning protection towers, wind measurement towers, power towers, etc., which can meet the needs of different fields. In terms of sales revenue, the entire industry has achieved steady growth, and recent statistical data shows good economic benefits.

In terms of market share, the tower industry in Jingxian has achieved remarkable results, with communication towers accounting for about 80% of the domestic market share. It has become one of the largest gathering places for the production and sales of communication towers in the country. Its products are not only sold well in various provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions except Taiwan, but also exported to more than 20 countries and regions such as Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Kuwait, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Mali, Tanzania, Zambia, etc. The export volume has been increasing year by year, and it has also won a place in the international market, demonstrating strong market competitiveness.

For example, since 2023, Hebei Junhao Communication Technology Service Co., Ltd. has placed communication tower orders with foreign companies in France, Australia, Cameroon and other countries.

After transformation and upgrading, the iron tower industry in Jingxian has significantly improved in terms of technological level, product quality, and other aspects. It has gradually shifted from simply focusing on output to developing towards high quality and intelligence, laying a solid foundation for further expansion in the digital economy era.

Future Development Prospects

Looking ahead to the future, the iron tower industry in Jingxian County is facing many new opportunities and broad prospects in the digital economy era. With the continuous advancement of technology, the transformation towards smart light poles and other fields has become an important trend in industrial development. As a new type of infrastructure that integrates multiple functions, smart lamp posts not only have the lighting function of traditional street lamps, but also integrate many cutting-edge technological applications such as 5G micro base stations, meteorological stations, air quality monitoring, urban WiFi coverage, video surveillance, photovoltaic power generation, charging piles, etc., which can meet the needs of information collection, transmission, and intelligent applications in smart city construction.

With its strong foundation in the iron tower industry and continuous spirit of exploration and innovation, many enterprises in Jingxian have increased their investment in the research and production of smart light poles. For example, 70% of enterprises have newly installed smart light pole production lines, and some enterprises have developed innovative smart light pole products, such as the smart light pole product developed by Hebei Junhao, which has played an important role in the construction of smart cities and become a successful typical case of industrial transformation and upgrading.

At the same time, the superior location advantage of Jing County will also help the iron tower industry to further soar. Located in the economic circle of Beijing Tianjin and Bohai Sea, as well as the economic development center of Beijing Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Jinan, it belongs to the Beijing Tianjin two-hour economic circle. The Beijing Shanghai Railway and Beijing Fuzhou Expressway pass through the area, while the Shide Railway and Hengde Expressway traverse the east and west. The transportation is very convenient, which is conducive to the transportation of products and foreign exchange and cooperation.