Published : 2024-07-15
On July 15, 1953, the foundation stone of China's first automotive manufacturing plant, the "First Automobile Works" (第一汽車製造廠), was laid in Changchun City, Jilin Province.
The construction of the First Automobile Works was one of the 156 Projects in China's First Five-Year Plan, which received strong support from the former Soviet Union.
Not long after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong took a visit to the former Soviet Union, during which a tour of the Stalin Automobile Factory was included.
When Mao saw a string of cars coming out of the factory, he immediately told his companions, "We also need such a factory."
In June 1953, Mao Zedong issued the "Directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Striving to Establish Changchun Automobile Factory in Three Years".
And he personally wrote the inscription of the foundation stone, which was "Commemoration of the Foundation Stone Laying of First Automobile Works" (第一汽車製造廠奠基紀念) in eleven Chinese characters.
On July 15, a marble foundation stone inscribed with these 11 characters was brought to the foundation-laying ceremony by six young Communist Party members and placed in the centre square of the factory site.
