1.1　History

The Third-front Construction was a large-scale economic construction centered on national defense industry in China in the mid-late 1960s under increasingly tense international background.Chongqing was chosen as a major area for the Third-front Construction because of its outstanding industrial strength,advantageous location,and abundant energy resources.

The Third-front Construction in Chongqing included the establishment of dozens of national defense enterprises and institutions covering weapons,ships,aerospace,electronics,and nuclear industries,as well as supporting civil enterprises covering machinery,instruments and apparatus,metallurgy,chemicals,transportation,etc.The construction of the Third-front Project had built a certain scale of strategic rear base with complete industrial categories and strong technical force.The base could provide great productivity for the development of the national economy of Chongqing and greatly improve the strength of Chongqing as the economic center of southwest China.(https://www.daowen.com)

Due to the specific historical background,the Third-front Construction was in a rush in combat situation with imbalanced investment,poor supporting facilities and dispersed layout.It was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s when international situation was improved,that China carried out the reform and opening-up policy and its national economic system was transformed gradually from planned economy to market economy.Then,the inherent problems of the third-front enterprises appeared,such as poor living conditions,products surplus,low economic efficiency,and so on.At the end of 1983,the State Council decided to reform the third-front enterprises in Chongqing.The reform was carried out under the overall planning of the country,which mainly included three stages:the comprehensive governance stage during the seventh five-year plan period;the layout adjustment stage centered on“moving out”during the eighth and ninth five-year plan period;and the closeout stage during the tenth five-year plan period.During the layout adjustment,some enterprises were closed down,merged,transferred or moved out,forming leftover buildings including abandoned plants,office buildings,dormitories,auditoriums,schools and hospitals,which were the so-called heritage sites of the third-front enterprises.