In order to understand the differences between company towns, this paper focused on the relationship between a brewing company and a city. Three kind of data, the ratio of the company's profit in Yibin's GDP, the company's employees in Yibin's total population, and the company's lands in Yibin's area, were used as evaluating indexes to analyze the relationship between the enterprise and the city from the economy, population and urban space aspects.
Specialized brewing studios showed up in the Ming Dynasty in Yibin. After the establishment of the People's Chinese Republic of China, these studios were combined to one national company, and a rapid industrial expansion was realized after the Reform and Open Up. In the 1990s, the company went public and purchased some related companies with a large sum of capital. As a result, a production chain has been fully established.
If looking at the urban space, it will be found that the factories were mainly constructed in the countryside, along the northern riverbank before the 1980s. After 1990, as the number of the employees increased to 17,832, a city-sized factory housing complex was built. In addition, in order to create a convenient transportation system for the products, the company also paved some main roads connected to the city center.
Comparing with Luzhou, Yibin has a similar general flow of the industrial modernization. The difference is that in Yibin, the company caught the chance of the system reform in the 1990s. It purchased some related enterprises within the city, by raising a large sum of funds independently before the rapid urban expansion. This is the biggest reason for evaluating the relationship of the enterprise and the city as moderate.
As a conclusion, in Yibin, the enterprise constructed housing complexes, city infrastructures, and has formed a separated urban space within the city, therefore, it can be classified as “A City Within A City” company town. This structure has been formed due to the balance of the enterprise and the city government, the national polices and so on.
