Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine Co has ranked top among the first batch of the National Industrial Heritages recently announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
According to the ministry, industrial heritage is an important carrier of industrial culture, which has recorded the important information of various stages of China's industrial development, and witnessed the evolution of the country and its industries. It is of great historical value, scientific value, social cultural value, and artistic value.
The early factory of Changyu winery. [Photo/Xinhua]
Changyu, the only Shandong-based company on the list, has 11 core items developed over the course of China's modern wine making history. The items include the Underground Grand Cellar, the old gate of Changyu Pioneer Wine Co, the stone stele of Changyu Road and the stone boundary monument of Changyu, 1892 Club (former residence of Chang Bishi) and Changyu Treasury, King of Barrel in Asia and imported oak barrels in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), plate and frame filter, distiller, gold star Cognac Brandy, Sun Yatsen's inscription for Changyu "Pin Zhong Li Quan" in 1912, gold medals of Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and the brand registration certificate of "Cabernet" in 1937.
Changyu's historical significance has been well-recorded in the more than 100 years that the company has been in operation.
The Overview of Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine Co published in a business newspaper in 1907 introduced that Changyu's Underground Grand Cellar was first built in the spring of 1896, and was rebuilt in 1902 and 1904 and finally completed in 1905.The Survey Report about Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine Co published in the Shandong Agricultural and Mineral Department Communique in 1930 described that the cellar covers an area of 4 mu (0.27 hectares), is about 10 meters underground, and has 30 long alleys inside.
The cellar was listed on the seventh batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 2013.
According to The Past of Changyu published in 1999, the old gate of Changyu was engraved with the company's name "Changyu Pioneer Wine Co" by Weng Tongsu, an official of late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). On the gate is also engraved the company's philosophy "making various fine wine with western techniques". Above its philosophy is written "Fine Selections Wine from Western Style".
According to the Survey on Yantai published in The Guide Weekly in 1924, Yantai once had a road named Changyu Road, but Changyu Pioneer Wine Co was located at the Dama Road. A researcher at the Changyu Wine Culture Museum said that Changyu invested in the road in front of its gate at its early stages in order to make it more convenient for the delivery of grapes from vineyard to the company. The road was then called "Changyu Road" by local citizens, renamed Zhangyu Road in 1936, later becoming Jiefang Road in 1948 until now.
The stone boundary monuments of Changyu, including monuments for Changyu Wine Store and monuments for Changyu Co, were founded in different periods. The Guide Weekly said that the company was founded by Chang Bishi, who established buildings and cellars of more than 60 mu, and built vineyards covering thousands of mu...
The 1892 Club (former residence of Chang Bishi, Changyu's founder) was located on the east of the original site of Changyu Pioneer Wine Co. A picture book Changyu Wine Culture Museum published by the China Travel and Tourism Press in 2012 said, "the 1892 Club, covering about 900 square meters, is a building of brick and concrete structure and in the western style."
The Changyu Treasury was located on the west of the "International Vine and Wine City" Memorial Sculpture Square at the Changyu Wine Culture Museum.
According to the picture book, the treasury was used to store the money used for construction, purchasing and marketing in the early stages of the company's history. It reflected the characteristics of currency circulation at that time and served as a symbol of Changyu's prosperity. It was said that the underground treasury was a secret known only by the general manager and accountant at that time.
The Brewing Industry in Yantai published in Economic Research in 1940 described the company's cellar as being able to "store a maximum of 6 million liters of wine", and that "it now as more than 600 barrels capable of storing over 1 million liter wine".
The same publication noted, "the barrels were bought from Europe. The most expensive barrel costs 6,000 yuan, able to store 15,000 liter wine. The barrels are made of white oak, which is firm and helps wine grow mature and produce better brandy."
