Chee Hsin Cement 启新洋灰


Chee Hsin (Qixin in pinyin; 中文版) was initially founded by Tang Jingxing in 1889 in Tangshan, an industrial city one hundred miles west of Beijing. It folded four years later due to costly materials, corruption, and mismanagement.
In the spring of 1900, Zhou Xuexi, the general manager at the Kaiping Mines, tried to revive the company. However, the Boxer Uprising swept through Northern China, and the revolt decimated the Kaiping Mines. Herbert Clark Hoover, future U.S. President, was the mine’s chief engineer. He would later be involved in the selling of the mines, and subsequently get sued for it.

Both books are sold on Amazon.

In 1906, Zhou, China’s first Captain of Industry, saw the opportunity in producing and selling mortar while founding Luanzhou Mining Co. But the Europeans tried to grab the defunct cement plant from him. After a hard-fought victory, he finally got the cement company off the ground. He named it Qixin (Chee Hsin), which translates to ‘Start Anew’.
Zhou Xuexi was often credited as the father of northern Chinese industry. and Qixin was the cornerstone of his empire (a list of his ventures). For more info, please check out my book, Chee Hsin 130 Years, which is sold on Amazon.

Chee Hsin (Qixin) Pottery and its tiles.

For more photos, see my trip to Qixin Museum in 2019.

 

Before the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), eight cement companies in China followed 1:

Year Name Location Capitala Outputb Equip. ®
1889 Chee Hsin Tangshan, Hebei 14,000 350,000 Smidth Horse
1909 Huaxin Daye, Hubei 60,000 Polysius Pagoda
1920 Shanghai Longhua, Shanghai 2,500 100,000 Polysius Elephant
1921 China Longtan, Jiangsu 5,400 275,000 Humboldt Taishan
1932 Xicun Guangzhou 8,000 180,000 Polysius Sheep
1934 Xibei Taiyuan, Shanxi 45,000 Japan Lion
1935 Jiangnan Nanjing 8,000 220,000 Smidth – c
1936 Sichuang Chongqing 2,000 45,000 Smidth River
Zhijing Ji’nan, Shandong 30,000 Krupps c

1 Cement Industry 水泥工业 Dec 1947.
a Yuan 国币元 in ‘000.
b max. annual output in metric ton
never shipped 从未出货.


A few medals of Chee Hsin:

  • A bronze medal from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo, also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. 1904年美国圣路易斯赛会铜质奖章
  • A gold medal from the Panama-Pacific International Expo held in San Francisco in 1915. The award • 奖状. 1915年旧金山举行的巴拿马赛会头等奖.
  • A special award of Tianjin Domestic Products Fair in 1929. 1929年天津特别市国货展览会特等奖章.

 

 

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