Why did the Seventh Research Institute of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications move from Beijing to Houma in the 1960s?

In the mid-1960s, the international situation was complex and ever-changing. The Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao analyzed the situation and decided to relocate some scientific research and military industry units to "third-tier areas". At that time, the three lines were divided: the first line was the coastal and border areas; the second line was the coastal and border areas later; and the third line was the northwest and southwest regions.

In order to implement Chairman Mao's strategic vision, all central ministries and commissions took active actions.

As a major department under the State Council, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications acted very quickly and immediately came up with an action plan. It was decided to integrate resources from big cities such as Tianjin and Beijing and move to third-tier areas to build ten factories.

After some site selection, it was decided to move the two factories to Houma, Shanxi. One is the factory code "6502" that manufactures cables, and the other is the factory code "6501" that manufactures telephones. 6502 was the later Houma Cable Factory of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and 6501 was the later Seventh Research Institute of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

The reason why they are called 6501 and 6502 is that 65 means 1965. 01 and 02 are the first two of the ten factories that the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is planning to move to the third line. Later, people used to call these two factories ‘501’ and ‘502’.

In March 1969, the Zhenbao Island conflict broke out between China and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union deployed millions of troops on the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian borders, eyeing the possibility of moving south at any time.

On October 18, Lin Biao issued the "No. 1 War Readiness Order". On October 20, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China requested that senior central officials and some important scientific research departments evacuate out of Beijing immediately.

At that time, Lin Biao's nephew Lin Xinran was serving as the vice president of the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications. Of course, he had to actively respond to the central government's order and move out of Beijing. With hundreds of people and machinery and equipment, the third-tier areas involve 13 provinces in the central and western regions. Where should they move to?

So in a hurry, we sent out several groups of people and visited several places. Finally, we selected the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to build a telephone factory in Houma, Shanxi, code-named '6501', which had been under construction for three years. The factory currently has four buildings left behind after the Soviet experts evacuated them, and initially has production and living conditions.

The following are the memories of grandma "Yishui" who was an eyewitness at that time:

''A group of people from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Research Institute came to Malay 501 for another inspection, and they decided on the spot to move the Research Institute to 501 . Stop the phone, stop it! Externally trained technicians withdrew. Civil engineering has also been suspended for redesign. It is really a quick way to cut through the mess and swallow up 501.

The superiors instructed the factory not to build a fence, so that the enemy planes would not see that this was a factory and would not bomb, so they demolished the original fence. The enemy planes would not be able to see that this was a factory. You Do you think you can live and see the things in the factory?

They returned to the institute and said at the mobilization meeting of the No. 1 War Readiness Order: The Soviet atomic bomb has been aimed at Beijing, and we must move as soon as possible! Go to Houma, Shanxi! Several fish in the river there can be killed with one stick (I heard this as a joke from comrades at the institute).

Everyone on the list went home and prepared to move in three days. Those who were able to go to the third front during the Cultural Revolution considered themselves politically reliable and were happy. The Ministry of Railways has to give the green light, and there is no need to treat guests or send gifts to the station for approval.

Around the end of November, a special train loaded with materials from the institute arrived in Houma, and then every three days there was a train, all containing office supplies and equipment, and a team of four Jiefang trucks went to the 501 Factory in Houma, Shanxi. Transport things. The institute has finished hauling all the things from the public house, including the belongings of each household. No matter how big the 501 is, hundreds of households will move in. Even if you blow with air, you won't have time to blow through so many houses. You need to have time to negotiate when you move to the village, right? manage?

One cannot choke to death by urinating! So I immediately went to Yicheng to buy bunk beds, which filled the big factory building one by one. How wide is the middle aisle? People have to move in and out like crabs, with children and the elderly living in the lower bunk, and young people living in the upper bunk. The newly moved families have people who came earlier to work for them, and they bring their own chefs to cook for them. They eat with a big bucket of vegetables, and a big bucket of rice is piled on the ground and served by themselves.

It’s much more lively than a temple fair when adults cry and children cry.

The Beijing Research Institute was also vacated, and the sign "Seventh Research Institute of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications" replaced the "501 Engineering Office" and was hung at the gate.

Under such difficult circumstances, my first research laboratory successfully trial-produced a 60-way newspaper fax machine. The development of fax machines for office and home use has also been successful, samples of optical cables have been produced, and Chinese character recognition machines have also achieved initial results. ‘’

Grandma Yishen’s memories are vivid and vivid, as if taking us back to that fiery era.

This is why the Seventh Research Institute of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications moved from the capital to Houma, also known as ‘501’.