【History of Haichuan Petrochemical】Changling Refinery – Code 6501 | China’s first third-line construction project
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The following content is shared from the internet; thanks to the original author! ——————————@jjjjjjj 01 Introduction: The mysterious “6501” project; its name is said to derive from the Central Committee’s First Document of 1965. This massive underground complex, which cost 600 million yuan and was secretly constructed by the military, has been dubbed the “Chinese Underground Great Wall” by the outside world; yet its actual purpose has become a mysterious topic of speculation following the 913 incident. The following are Mr. Luo Dingrui, the second-generation representative of Project 6501 on the third line,’s memories of Project 6501. In early spring of 1965, when the weather was still cold, in a remote and quiet small mountain village in the Wenqiao Township area of Linxiang County, Hunan Province, thousands of people from other places (from the Northeast) suddenly appeared there. Most of them wore vertical-striped cotton work clothes; they brought their own bedding to stay in tents and sheds, and worked secretly day and night in the nearby valleys under the light of stars and moon, which aroused much suspicion among the local farmers. This was the Third Front construction, carried out in accordance with the 1964 directive of \"Dig deep holes, stockpile plenty of food, and avoid hegemony,\" for the purpose of preparing for war, using the vast areas of the central and western regions as its base. Back then, with the slogan \"Preparing for war and shortages for the people; good people and good horses head to the Third Front,\" China’s first Third Front construction project was officially launched.
02 The First Third-Tier Project: On January 25, 1965, the Central Committee issued the top-secret document Zhongfa (65) No. 45, titled “Notice on Approving the Construction of Two Oil Refineries in Datong and Yueyang”. The Ministry of the Petroleum Industry ordered Fushun Refinery Construction Company to form a production team codenamed 6501, which was sent to Yueyang in Hunan to assist in the construction of the Changling Refinery (codenamed 3101). In March 1965, Zhang Yuan, the company’s deputy manager, led this team and also served as the manager of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry’s 6501 production team for the refinery construction. My father, Luo Yumin, was a key member of this team. At the age of 94, after being honored as a healthy senior by Sinopec, he wrote a memoir titled \"The Development Process of Sinopec’s Construction Units\" filled with deep emotions; on his 97th birthday, he would often recall this glorious yet challenging history. In September 1964, Ao Mingmo (originally from Lucheng, Linxiang, Hunan), who was then the chief engineer of the Infrastructure Department of the Petroleum Ministry, represented the ministry in reviewing the site selection for the oil refinery as part of the Third Front construction project. After thorough consideration, Ao Mingmo believed that building the refinery in Changling, Ma’anshan – located near the Yangtze River – was the best option to meet **military readiness requirements. Whether it came to concealment behind natural barriers, transportation facilities, or the urgency of carrying out the Third Front construction efforts, Changling represented a once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. Of course, there is also inevitably a touch of nostalgia for one’s hometown here.
The main purpose of building the Changleing Refinery is to produce and store military fuels for aircraft, vehicles, ships, etc., as well as raw materials for chemical fibers (rayon) in a safe, third-zone area. In accordance with *’s three-pronged strategic approach of \"having backing, remaining concealed, spreading out, and moving into caves,\" and with the approval of the central authorities, a war-ready refinery was constructed at a site in Yueyang, Hunan. Hunan Changling Refinery is located in Yueyang, Hunan, on the banks of Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River. It is bordered by the Yangtze River to the north and the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway to the south, and is adjacent to national highways, offering convenient access by water and land. A few years ago, I and Ao Li, the son of President Ao, talked on several occasions during gatherings about the location selection for the Changlian Design project and reflected on those times.
The main production units at Changling Refinery include atmospheric and vacuum distillation, catalytic processing, cracking, platinum reforming, and coking – the renowned \"five golden flowers\" of domestic oil refining. The storage depot for refined oil products is located in the remote mountainous areas far from the production zones; at the foot of Ling Mountain, in Xinhuwu Group, Qiuping Village, Zhongfang Town, Linxiang, there lies a large network of artificial tunnels. To strengthen preparations, the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the \"Several Interim Provisions on the Construction of Hidden Oil Depots\" in 1965. Thereafter, following the principle of \"relying on natural barriers, decentralization, concealment, mobility, a combination of large, medium, and small depots with an emphasis on the smaller ones,\" efforts were made to systematically and on a large scale to build underground and semi-underground hidden oil depots.
03 Migration to the Northeast: In the same year, in line with the strategy of \"preparing for war and shortages for the benefit of the people, and deploying capable teams to the third front,\" the Ministry of Petroleum urgently assigned tasks related to the storage of materials needed for construction in that area. From Fushun, which was one of China’s most capable petroleum construction bases at that time, four specialized teams under the Ministry of Petroleum, designated as 6501, 6502, 6503, and 6504, were dispatched across the country to carry out these tasks. Fushun 6501 Goes to the South (Yueyang) – Construction of the Changling Oil Refinery and strategic oil storage facilities in Yueyang, Hunan; the construction team was known as the \"Petroleum Ministry 6501 Production Team\", while it was referred to externally as the Petroleum Ministry 6501 Project. Fushun-6502 to Hanzhong (Yangpingguan) – construction of a second strategic oil depot; the Zhujiaya Oil Depot in Daijiaba Town, Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province, was named Project 6502 of the Ministry of Petroleum. Fushun-6503 to Luoyang (Yiyang) – to build a third strategic oil depot, designated as Project 6503 of the Ministry of Petroleum ； To maintain confidentiality, the construction team for the oil project at the Yiyang combat readiness oil depot is referred to as Production Team 6503. Fushun-6504 to Guangxi (forestry) – to build a fourth strategic oil depot; it remains a military facility not open to the public.
Someone on the internet asked why everyone in \"Hello, Lee Hwan-yeong\" speaks the Northeastern dialect I think there are several factors at play. First, since the founding of New China, the Northeast has been an important industrial base, and most of the resources used to support industrial development across the country came from this region. Especially after 1964, those working on projects in the third-tier areas had to relocate there, and each unit established its own kindergartens, schools, and hospitals, thereby passing on the Northeastern dialect to the children of those working there as well as to the people living in the surrounding areas. It’s the same in my family as well; influenced by the Northeastern dialect, our family’s ancestral home is Hebei. Before and after the liberation, my parents left their hometown when they were still young to work in the petroleum industry in the Northeast, and they still speak with a strong Hebei accent. But our generation was born in the Northeast; the company had its own hospital, and the kindergartens and schools we attended as children were all run by the company, with teachers selected from among the company’s employees. Let’s put it this way: aside from not having its own crematorium, everything else is available. A company is like a small society – it covers all aspects of life, from eating and drinking to sleeping, as well as all daily necessities like food, oil, salt, and tea; everything is taken care of there. Most of them live in the areas between urban and rural zones or in rural areas, with little contact with the outside world; as a result, their accents are similar – somewhere between the Northeastern dialect and Mandarin. We call this accent the \"enterprise accent\" or \"third-tier area accent\", and it can be found throughout the country. Another important factor is that there are indeed many people from the Northeast. The Northeast includes 3 and a half provinces and regions: Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, plus half of Inner Mongolia. In the early days of the People’s Republic of China, the Northeast was a industrial province with a large population; even in an era when transportation was not very developed, the population there remained high. This trend is even more evident today, as one can hear the Northeastern accent everywhere. Another factor is that the Northeastern dialect has a strong appeal and is very easy for people to accept. It is said that in a university dormitory with 8 people from various parts of the country, only one person spoke the Northeastern dialect; after living together for 4 years, everyone could speak it fluently without any need for deliberate learning or special instruction – it just came naturally over time.
04 Entry into the cave at the refinery: The “History of Changling Refinery” contains a brief mention stating that “in December 1965, the Ministry of Petroleum officially instructed the design unit—the Changling Refinery—to enter the mountain and go into the cave” (Internal document—Xiang Chu Zhun Zi (91) No. 37, “Twenty Years of Development and Progress—Changling Refining and Chemical Plant”, page 473). Plans are in place to hide the refinery, with an annual processing capacity of 1.5 million tons, by placing it inside caves; it will be built in such caves that planes in the air cannot reach them and that they cannot be located underground. The railway tracks from the Jingguang Line will be connected to these caves through a line running through the Taolin Mine, so that trains and trucks can pass through the tunnels, allowing thousands of tons of oil products, supplies, and mechanical equipment to be handled inside the caves. Historical documents record it this way. (66) Oil Refining Office Document No. 30, “Report on Requesting Approval for the Land Used for the New Location of Changling Oil Refinery”: In accordance with the instructions sent by the Ministry of Petroleum on July 1st, and in order to meet military preparedness requirements, it was decided to relocate the main facilities of Changling Oil Refinery to the Dingjiafan area under the jurisdiction of Zhongfang Commune in Linxiang County for construction. ……A total of 494.65 mu of land was expropriated this time. Of which: 47.382 mu of paddy fields ； 111.434 mu of dry land ； 335.843 mu of barren mountains ； For use in the construction of refining facilities, railways, roads, dormitories, etc. However, the design for docks, oil and power transmission projects, etc., has not yet been completed, and further land acquisition procedures are required. In May 1966, Document No. 003 from Changling Refinery titled “Regarding xxx” (file number 6 from 1966) described the process of drilling tunnels and excavating cavities at the Changling Refinery to penetrate into the mountains.
The first builders to arrive at the Dingjiafan construction site were the \"6501 Production Team of the Petroleum Industry Ministry\"; they were the first group of oil workers to enter the \"Nishuidong\" in Lingshan – as called by local farmers – or \"Yinshuidong\" according to documents from Changling Refinery – (internal document: Xiang Chu Zun Zi No. 91/37, \"Entrepreneurship and Progress – 20 Years of Changling Refining and Chemical Plant\", page 474) – to drill tunnels there. China’s first third-line construction project, 6501: As time passed and the project progressed, a large number of oil workers from across the country came to work on it; the unit to which they reported was referred to as “6501”” ； After arriving, the workers from Changlian referred to the new site (in the front) at the construction site as the “front line” or “dam” (referring to the location of the Zhongshui Reservoir dam), compared to the old site in Lucheng (at the intersection) ； The cave that failed in the initial excavation attempts in Heshan was named “Old Cave”” ； The new site for building the plant through drilling and tunneling is called “6501”. The local people of Yueyang, through their contact with **workers, migrant laborers, and ordinary citizens involved in the construction of that mysterious plant, came to use terms such as “6501”, “Project 6501”, and “6501 Military Preparedness Project” based on preconceived notions and established conventions; these terms gradually spread among them.