The former Tianjin Third Cotton Spinning Factory in the city's Hedong district has been included on the fourth national industrial heritage list. Reconstructed and renovated by the Tianjin Housing Group in 2015, creative blocks, as it is now known, have become a unique landscape in the city.

Tianjin is one of the birthplaces of China's modern industry and is an important textile center in northern China. Its modern textile industry has been developing for more than 100 years, since 1898.

Initially built in 1920, the factory served a series of functions such as cotton transportation, storage spinning, packaging and inventory. It was one of the city’s six famous major cotton mills, but as the industry advanced, in time it became the only one left.

Most of the shareholders at that time were financial and military figures with political backgrounds, as well as socialites such as Mei Lanfang, the famous Peking opera artist.

Ta Kung Pao set the precedent of implementing an eight-hour work day.

The many industrial buildings founded between the 1920s and the end of the century serve as relics of the development of the modern textile industry.

In 2015, the Tianjin Housing Group made full use of the original factory buildings. For instance, the No. 5 building, which used to be the warehouse of the cotton mill, is now the reception and exhibition zone of the creative block, named "1921 Exhibition Hall" after the year it was founded.

Nowadays, it has gradually developed from a regional creative park to the city’s cultural landmark after more than five years of careful operation.