From Farming to Industry and Sideline 　　
The predecessor of the Nanshan Group is Qiansong village of Longjiang town in Longkou city. Surrounded by mountains, in the 1970s the Qiansong village had 4 production teams and 260 families with a population of 800. Due to many mountains in front of the village and the barren land, one at any time villager got seven or eight fen of farmland in average, and the houses they lived had “three rooms and half”. In that small village, people earned a living mainly by agriculture, and to earn more bread, some villagers went out to do odd jobs or peddled among villages. Known as a poverty-stricken village, during the 20 years from the 1960s to 1978, no villagers here could afford to build a new house and the young males were to poor to find a wife. Villagers made a saying describing the difficulties here: “So impoverished is Qiansong Village that when come of age girls marry outward, leaving boys single”.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened in 1978 evoked the inspiration of the Qiansong people. Song Zuowen, President of Nanshan Group and former leader of the No.3 Production Brigade realized that farming on these barren lands can only prevent hunger, and only through developing industry and sideline could they shake off poverty. From then on, the Nanshan people began developing industries. Under the leadership of Song Zuowen, the No.3 Brigade engaged in sidelines including making bean curd, remaking cement bags and making asbestos shingles. During the all-round contract system period in 1983, instead of distributing and spending all their savings, the No.3 Brigade worked in unity to start programs including glass fiber processing, cotton spinning, wool spinning and towel weaving. Later the production volume amounted to 24,000 ingots of wool spinning, 4 production lines of chemical fiber and silk spinning, over 1200 jacquard looms, and an annual processing capacity of 180 million cotton blankets, towels and pillow towels. Of which the acrylic pillow towel industry boasted over 70% of domestic market share and became the largest village-run woolen mill in China at that time. By the end of 1987, the fixed assets of the No.3 Brigade reached 55 million yuan.

　　In the year of 1987 the collective fixed assets of the No.3 Brigade totaled 55 million yuan, and the average assets of the 56 families in the village reached 1 million yuan. Then they built villas together so that each family had one with 166 ㎡.

In the re-election of the Party branch held in 1988, Song Zuowen was elected by a unanimous vote as Secretary of the Party Branch of Qiansong Village. Since then, the Nanshan people have embarked on a new road towards development, and this period is a milestone marking the shift of Nanshan from agriculture to industry.

From First Rich Helping Latter Rich to Common Prosperity
　　 Since 1992 when Deng Xiaoping made the speech in his Southern Tour, the Nanshan people have firmly grasped the new opportunities of development brought by opening up. Through developing industry and sideline, the No.3 Brigade got rich. In order to bring affluence to all villagers, Song Zuowen persuaded members of the No.3 Brigade to earmark 200,000 yuan on paying the debts of the village, so a new round of development began. By 1994, an enterprising group came into being encompassing towels, wool spinning, worsted spinning, aluminum materials and wood. With the fixed assets amounting to over 600 million yuan, one family had 2 million yuan in average and all 260 families of the village moved to identical villas.

Although Qiansong Village had become rich, the several villages in its vicinity were still poverty-stricken. Considering this, after serious discussion which led to the approval of villagers and the support of the superior Party branches, the Party Branch of Qiansong Village made a historic choice and decided to adopt the strategy of“the Strong Helping the Weak”by the end of 1994. In the spirit of“acting according to local conditions, implementing step by step, complementary advantages, reciprocity and mutual benefits”, Qiansong Village merged 4 deprived neighboring villagers and paid off their debts amounting to 1.7 million yuan. They provided thousands of laborers with jobs in the enterprises, provided education for all children of schooling age, and invested over 80 million yuan to build villas identical to that of Qiansong Village for the 700 families from the 4 merged villages. By 2008, the Nanshan Group had taken over 36 deprived villages under four neighboring towns and the villagers lived a well-off life featuring common prosperity.

From Rudimentary Industry to Modern Industry

With the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guideline, since 2000 the Nanshan Group had increased fruitful investment into the domestic and international markets. Within a short period, they had initiated plenty of large-scaled industrial programs of high standards and with good profits, and their main industries encompassed energy, aluminum, textile garment, building materials, wine, tourism, golf, education and finance. Due to their competitive strengths including a large scale, good quality and low cost, Nanshan’s aluminum industry has become a large aluminum processing industry who boasts the most comprehensive industrial chain centralized in one area in China and the world at large. Nanshan’s textile apparel industry has become the largest base for producing worsted and compact yarn and most modern base for producing high-quality suits. As for the touring industry, with an investment totaling 2.2 billion yuan since 2000, the Nanshan Group has constructed the Chinese Religion Culture Zone, the Chinese History Culture Zone, the Nanshan Ecological Culture Park, the International Golf Course, culture centers and corresponding tourist service facilities. Aside from regular investment, the Nanshan Group endeavors to win more markets: currently the Nanshan Group has two holding companies listed. In the year of 2008, the Nanshan Group Finance Co., Ltd. and a national level technology center were established under the approval of the authorities of China.

From Developing New Villages to Developing New Cities

The booming economy promoted the development of rural urbanization. From the experience of leading villagers towards a well-off life, the Party Branch of the Nanshan Group realized that living in the villas was not enough for a high-level comfortable life. If they were to fundamentally change peoples’living conditions and environments, improve their living standards, and ensure a superior affluent life, they must take the road of urbanization. In the early 1990s, the Nanshan Group set urbanization as their goal and determined to“make an urban city of the village”.

In accordance with the standards of facilities in modern cities, the Nanshan Group set “high-starting-point planning, high-level construction, and optimum management” as the guideline and accelerated the urbanization in a comprehensive manner. They invited Beijing Design Institute, America Jerde Company and other professional institutes to give an overall plan of the urbanization development and set “mutually functional norms and development” and “promoting rural urbanization and integration of cities and villages” as the rational of development. After over a dozen years of endeavor, the Nanshan Group now encompasses modern industry zones, education zones, living zones, business and trade zones and touring zones. They owns superb cultural, P.E. and recreational facilities including the Nanshan Theatre of high level in Yantai, the Nanshan Stadium with 20,000 seats, and golf courses of high standards in Asia. Also they boast first-rate hospitals, schools, optimum star-level hotels, international conference centers and man-made lakes surrounded by verdant trees. Now the forest area of the village amounts to 30 square kilometers, and the green area per capita is over 1000 ㎡. With endless rows of factory plants, well-arranged villas, tree-lined roads, lush grasslands, blossoming flowers and sparkling man-made lakes, a modernized “village city” is emerging and the Nanshan Group appeals to worldwide visitors with its unique charm.