When Jiang Guifang came to Shihezi, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 1952, the oasis city was just a desert with only a dozen households.

Now 74, Jiang was one of 200,000 pioneers of Bingtuan who helped reclaim China's once-barren northwestern regions.

Wenzhou street of Shihezi in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Bingtuan soldiers turned Shihezi into a populous city. Asianewsphoto

Inside a showroom at Shihezi Army Reclamation Museum, there is an old photo of several female Bingtuan soldiers from Shandong province.

With short hair and bright eyes, a smiling Jiang is pictured standing among them.

"Bingtuan" is a historical Chinese word, short for Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC). After the founding of New China, Xinjiang was liberated in 1949.

About 200,000 soldiers literally exchanged swords for plows and settled down in the Gobi Desert to build a new home.

Jiang began working by hand or using simple tools to reclaim the desert lands as soon as she arrived in 1952.

Jiang carried baskets of dirt, helped dig canals and worked leveling the land to grow cotton and other crops.

"I picked cotton for over 30 hours, sometimes without a rest, and my workmates called me 'iron girl' " Jiang recalled.

"Life was tough at that time, but we were very motivated by any small changes that happened on the land," she said.

As a model worker, Jiang was introduced to Chairman Mao Zhedong in 1961. The formal recognition of her efforts made her a "super star," inspiring songs and dances based on her accomplishments.

Since the 1950s, many Bingtuan soldiers like Jiang have built water projects and reclaimed wastelands along the edges of the Xinjiang, Taklimakan and Gurbantunggut deserts. They also built transportation networks and green belts.

Shihezi, about 150 km away from Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has become a city of 320,000 with tidy streets and modern architecture amid flourishing trees and flowers.

Shihezi is one of several new cities created by Bingtuan soldiers.

Altogether, the XPCC now has 14 divisions across the autonomous region with a population of 2.57 million.

The divisions represent 179 farms, 1,400 independent enterprises, 13 listed companies and also universities, media outlets and medical institutions.

The combined GDP of the XPCC divisions totaled 53.2 billion yuan in 2008, up 11.7 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics.

Fixed asset investments totaled 123.3 billion yuan, while foreign trade volume was $8.8 billion in 2008.

From its beginnings in agricultural product processing, the XPCC has developed an industrial system that includes steel, coal, construction material, chemicals, heavy machinery, light industry and textile operations.

"As one of China's most significant commercial cotton bases, the cotton output of XPCC is estimated at 1.25 million tons, which accounts for one-sixth of the country's total output," said Zhao Guangyong, a spokesman for the XPCC.

The region's environmentally friendly cottons have become a pillar of China's textiles exports.

China produces about 30,000 tons of "natural color" cotton each year, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the world's total.

About 95 percent of China's colored cotton is produced in Xinjiang on about 20,000 hectares of land.

China Colored Cotton (Group) Co Ltd, China's largest producer of colored cotton under the XPCC, has developed more than 1,200 colored cotton products.

The company has set up joint ventures in Malawi and Mozambique in Africa to further expand overseas markets.

XPCC spokesman Zhao said the XPCC also owns the country's largest water-saving irrigation base.

It's water-efficient irrigation technologies have been implemented across the autonomous region, covering an area of more than 600,000 hectares.

The XPCC started construction of large-scale farmland irrigation projects in the 1950s to serve its mechanized and intensive agricultural system. Now the XPCC is striving to promote its drip irrigation technologies nationwide and also globally.

Earlier this year, Xinjiang Tianye Water Saving Irrigation System Co Ltd, an XPCC enterprise, sold 1.3 million yuan worth of water-saving facilities to Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, the XPCC has continued to expand its agricultural production.

The XPCC's output of tomato sauce currently is about 44,500 tons, accounting for 75 percent of Xinjiang's total output.

Zhao said the XPCC will dedicate more efforts to developing value-added tomato products such as lycopene and tomato essential oil in the future.

The XPCC also is becoming a leader in the developing lavender industry, Zhao said, in addition to developing the regional specialties of Kuerle's sweet pears and Hami's melons.

Despite this year's global financial crisis, the XPCC projects achieving a GDP of 59 billion, representing a 12 percent year-to-year increase. Fixed asset investments are expected to reach 30 billion yuan, representing 27 percent year-to-year growth.

Xu Chuanshu, 67, was a Bingtuan soldier who continues to live in Shihezi, the city he helped build.

"We people of Bingtuan could not tear ourselves away from the city after we retired," Xu said.

"It has become our beloved hometown as we built up the city and also contributed our youth and dreams to Xinjiang's economic development," Xu said.