Relocation of Urban Factories

The Beijing municipal government has decided to move all factories away from the urban area and those that create pollution from city before 2008. Many of the city's big factories will be involved in the massive relocation plans.

The biggest name on the list is the Capital Iron and Steel Group, the city's biggest state-owned enterprise that once employed one-tenth of Beijing's production workers.

Located 17 kilometers west of Tian'anmen Square, the Group has launched a 50-billion-yuan relocation project to the Caifeidian port, an island town 300 kilometers east of Beijing. The deadline for the relocation plan is 2010, but all production in Beijing will be stopped during the month-long Olympics if the relocation is not be finished before the Games.

Another big chemical factory to be moved is Beijing Huaer Company Ltd., which was purchased by China Petrol last month for 3.3 billion Yuan.