In the mountains of Xiaoping Town, Chenxi County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, there is an abandoned military factory - the state-owned Yuanjiang Machinery Factory, code-named "861 Factory". This is a real century-old enterprise, which can be traced back to the Hubei Gun Factory in the late Qing Dynasty. 1951, the factory was built in Xiaoping, Chenxi, and moved to Xiaoping in the spring of '52. 1962, the factory was separated into two independent enterprises, with the part of the factory in Chenxi called Yuanjiang Machinery Factory, and the part of the factory in Xiangtan called Jianglu Machinery Factory; in 1988, the Yuanjiang Machinery Factory was renamed Baiyun Household Electric Appliances General Factory.
Xiaoping is surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing one side, the terrain is very hidden. At that time, the factory mainly produced aviation bombs. To enter the Yuanjiang Machinery Factory, you have to go through a nearly 1,000-meter-long natural cave, accompanied by an underground river, which can only allow one car to enter and exit. After entering the cave, the factory was surrounded by mountains on all sides, just like a basin, and was called a "paradise". At that time, there were more than 10,000 employees living here, nearly 50,000 family members, and nearly 80,000 farmers in the neighborhood.
After 1989, 861 factory due to the emerging market economy, the quality of the refrigerator also appeared to be a problem production decreased year by year, the benefits of a general reduction in the factory shut down the entire line, the rapid rise of the brand and quickly into decline. With the factory shutdown, many foreign workers began to return to their hometowns, divided into housing also resold to nearby villagers.
In the square in front of the factory gate there is a statue of Zhang Zhidong, Zhang Zhidong single-handedly founded the Hubei Firearms Factory, which is the predecessor of 861 factory. He single-handedly promoted the development of China's heavy industry, worthy of remembrance. The factory buildings here have a clear architectural style of the 1950s, with simple shapes and flexible compositions. Now some of them have been converted into Internet cafes, and some are unused.
The living quarters of the factory still retain the style of the era, and most of the dormitories are inhabited. Most of them belong to the periphery of the neighborhood residential buildings, along the road was a cross grid layout, reasonable layout, arranged in an orderly manner, next to some green areas and residents of the outdoor activities of the open space. The road is horizontal and vertical, the left and right sides are the 70s and 80s of the Soviet-style buildings, walking in which, very charming.
The staff club of the Arsenal, a four-square Soviet-style building, the golden "club" three big words standing on the roof, from afar looks very imposing. The open-air basketball court in front of the club has become a place for grandparents to exercise after tea and dinner, and the sound of square dancing has echoed over the playground for a long time. The military service club still exists today, only replaced with a roll-up door, the inscription on the roof with the passing years, disappeared in the history of time.
In August 1998, Hunan Huaihua Cloud Arrow Machinery Factory was established on the original site, and in 2003 it was restructured into Hunan Cloud Arrow Group Limited, which once again brought this military enterprise back into the limelight.