How China’s liquor heartland traded old spirits for new energy
Home to one of the nation’s legendary baijiu makers, Yibin is racing to reinvent itself as a hi-tech manufacturing hub – though stark challenges remain
Wuliangye, China’s second-largest liquor producer, is a household name. But Yibin, the lower-tier city in Sichuan province home to the famous baijiu maker, has long flown under the radar.
So when I received an invitation earlier this month for a media trip to Yibin, the first question that sprang to mind was: where exactly is it?
Tucked away behind the hills of western China, we had to fly to Chengdu, Sichuan’s capital, followed by a bus transfer. And when we finally arrived, local officials were keen to show us everything the city had to offer – except the liquor.
“Wuliangye is old-fashioned,” local cadres said.
What followed was a tour of a prefecture-level city trying hard to redefine itself: from a sleepy backwater into a manufacturing hub, with many of the costs typically associated with breakneck development.
One of the first things that caught our eye was a 288-metre (about 944 feet), 57-storey skyscraper rising from a prime waterfront plot with sweeping vistas of the Yangtze River. The building, one of the tallest in Sichuan, is expected to house the province’s first five-star Westin hotel in 2027 after its developer signed a contract with America’s Marriott International.