Shougang Park, Beijing: A Steel Mill Cold for 16 Years That Shows You Today's China

Oct 15, 2026·7 min read

On this page

• What it is, exactly
• The landmarks
• The ski jump
• The blast furnaces you can walk inside
• Water, walkways and one very photogenic bridge
• The part that is still moving
• Half a day or a full day
• Getting there
• When to go
• Where a tour fits
• FAQ
• Does Shougang Park need a ticket?
• How do I get to Shougang Park?
• How long should I spend there?
• When is the best time to go?
• Check dates and availability

Most first-time visitors to Beijing arrive with three words in mind: Great Wall, Forbidden City, roast duck. All worth it — but that trip home is a picture of ancient China only.

Shougang Park is the other half. A steelworks that ran from 1919 until its last furnace went cold in 2010, it kept the blast furnaces, the pipes, the silos and the cooling towers standing and used them as the setting for a bookstore, a sci-fi theme park, an Olympic ski jump and a permanent convention centre.

The site covers about 8.63 sq km — roughly 1,200 football pitches — on Shijingshan Road in Shijingshan District, on the western extension of Chang'an Avenue. There is no gate and no ticket.

If you come from a city that used to make things — Sheffield, Essen, Pittsburgh, Detroit — the story needs no translation. Beijing built its own answer to the Ruhr, and it did not put it behind glass: more than 1,300 companies had moved in by the end of August 2026, mostly in sci-fi, gaming and e-sports, virtual reality and robotics.

What it is, exactly

• Built in 1919 as the Shijingshan ironworks of the Longyan Iron Mine Company, around a 397.8 m³ furnace using American technology — China's first modern iron-making furnace. First molten iron: 20 November 1938.
• Renamed Capital Iron and Steel in 1967. By 1994 it was producing 8.24 million tonnes of steel a year, first in the country.
• 2010: the last heat of steel, as the plant moved out of the city.
• Instead of demolition, the works were kept and refilled with something else. It joined the second batch of China's 20th-Century Architectural Heritage in 2017, and the first national industrial heritage list in 2018.

The landmarks

The ski jump

The most photographed object in the park is the Big Air Shougang, a slope shaped like a stiletto heel — locals call it the crystal shoe. The design draws on the flying apsaras of the Dunhuang murals, and it is the world's first ski big-air venue built to be kept and used permanently after the Games. Eileen Gu won gold here at Beijing 2022.

The best angle is not from underneath. Stand on the far bank of Qunming Lake and the water holds the jump and the Western Hills in one frame.

The blast furnaces you can walk inside

No.1 Blast Furnace, called the meritorious furnace, broke ground in 1919 and produced Shougang's first iron in 1938. It stands 104.4 m tall on an 80 m base. Production stopped in December 2010; in February 2024 it reopened as a sci-fi park built on 5G, VR, AR and holograms, themed around space exploration. It closes on Mondays.

No.3 Blast Furnace, the plant's first above 2,500 m³, was completed in May 1959. Its body has been given a deliberately rusted finish with a glass viewing platform part-way up. Going to the top needs a reservation, and published heights differ — 104 m and 107 m both appear — so the sign on site is the one that counts. Inside, the old casting floor now holds a bookstore and a gift shop, which is the point: you drink your coffee where the iron used to run.

Water, walkways and one very photogenic bridge

• Xiuchi Pond, dug in 1940 as a cooling pond for the ironworks, is where the rusted furnace lands in its own reflection — the coupling the original workers summed up as "iron bones, tender heart". An underwater exhibition hall sits at its edge.
• Qunming Lake, a former industrial cooling pool, is now the park's easiest walking. Boats have started running, which puts the furnaces and the ski jump in front of you from the water.
• The elevated walkway is a high line built out of old industrial pipes and corridors, strung in the air between the main stops, with the lake below and Shijingshan hill beyond. It can close in rain.
• The New Shougang Bridge crosses the Yongding River with two inverted-U steel towers leaning against each other — nicknamed the Gate of Harmony. Late afternoon is when the photographers arrive.
• One detour: Liugonghui, a commercial block rebuilt from the plant's former second pumping station, is where the restaurants are.

The part that is still moving

In September 2026 the park hosted CIFTIS, the national services trade fair, from the 9th to the 13th. Since 2025 that fair has been held at a single permanent site, and the permanent site is Shougang. Three new halls beside No.4 Blast Furnace add 144,600 sq m, with roof gardens and outdoor corridors linking the permanent halls; a designer involved put the intent simply — not a walled compound, but an open town.

That is the argument for spending time here. The direction inbound travel in China is being pointed in is exactly this: not only ancient history, but the new everyday landscape Chinese people actually use. The China Tourism Academy made that case at its own conference in this park in September 2026 — in a steelworks that investors could have flattened instead.

Half a day or a full day

The park deliberately has no single centrepiece, and it is large enough that walking all of it is a mistake. Shared bikes fix most of that.

• Half day (3–4 hours): New Shougang Bridge → Big Air → Qunming Lake → No.3 Blast Furnace → elevated walkway → Liugonghui.
• Full day (6–8 hours): add the No.1 Blast Furnace sci-fi park and a boat on Qunming Lake, then stay for the bridge at sunset.

Inside the park	Cost	Notes
Park entry	free	open district, no reservation
No.3 Blast Furnace summit	reservation	glass platform part-way up; on-site signage is final
No.1 Blast Furnace sci-fi park	separate ticket	closed Mondays
Qunming Lake boats	separate ticket	running
Some exhibitions	separate ticket	check the official park app first

Prices for the ticketed parts move around and the park's own app is the place to confirm them on the day — do not budget from an old blog post.

Getting there

• Metro: Line 11 to Xinshougang Station, exit A or D, then about 5 minutes on foot into the core. Or Line 6 to Jin'anqiao and change to Line 11 for one stop.
• Bus: routes 325, 337, 941 or 959 to the Shougang east gate stop.
• Car: pick the car park that matches your destination — Xiuchi underground, Liugonghui, or the Big Air. Spaces go quickly on public holidays, so the metro is the safer bet.

When to go

• 15:00 to 20:00 does both jobs: low light on industrial brick, then the naked-eye 3D light show on the cooling towers after dark.
• September and October are the best-behaved months in Beijing, and also the park's event season.
• Earlier in the day is perfectly fine — it is just a flatter place in flat light.

Where a tour fits

Shougang is one of the rare Beijing sights where a tour is genuinely optional, because the two hardest things about a Chinese attraction — the ticket and the gate — do not exist here. Entry is free and the district is open to anyone.

What a guide can take off your plate is a very large, very spread-out site: the metro-plus-walking routing, an order that puts the ski jump in good light and the furnaces at the end, and knowing which ticketed pieces are actually open on the day you are there.

A guide changes the logistics, not the rules — nobody can shrink 8.63 sq km, get you to the top of No.3 Blast Furnace without the reservation, or open the sci-fi park on a Monday. If you book anything, book the part that has a queue.

FAQ

Does Shougang Park need a ticket?

No. It is an open park with free entry and no booking. Individual attractions inside — the No.3 Blast Furnace summit, the No.1 Blast Furnace sci-fi park, some exhibitions — are ticketed or reserved separately.

How do I get to Shougang Park?

Metro Line 11 to Xinshougang Station, exit A or D, then about 5 minutes on foot; or Line 6 to Jin'anqiao and change. Buses 325, 337, 941 and 959 stop at the Shougang east gate.

How long should I spend there?

Three to four hours covers the highlights. Adding the sci-fi park and a lake boat makes it a six-to-eight-hour day.

When is the best time to go?

15:00 to 20:00, for the sunset light and the evening light show. September and October have the best weather.