On January 27, the sixth session of the Eighth Nanshan District People's Congress in Shenzhen opened. It was announced that Nanshan District successfully surpassed the "trillion-yuan" GDP threshold in 2025, becoming the first district-level administrative division in China to achieve this economic milestone. Within a compact area, vibrant momentum has been cultivated. Although its land area constitutes only one-tenth of Shenzhen's total, Nanshan's economic output accounts for approximately one-quarter of the city's gross domestic product. The added value of its strategic emerging industries represents 60% of the total, and it is home to over 200 listed companies. Why has Nanshan been able to become the nation's first "trillion-yuan district"? How does this "giant" continue to unleash massive energy?
By fostering and expanding new quality productive forces, Nanshan is stimulating fresh dynamism. Located in the Nanshan valley between the southern foothills of Shenzhen's Yangtai Mountain and Tanglang Mountain, a cluster of robotics listed companies—including Doogbot, ROBOSENSE, and Ubtech—is thriving, with hundreds of firms across the robot industry chain continuing to gather here. This area is famously known as Shenzhen's "Robot Valley." In early 2026, observations in this valley revealed an increasing number of robots being deployed into factories and various applications, generating robust "new quality" momentum. At Ubtech, a newly developed hot-swappable autonomous battery replacement system for humanoid robots prevents task interruptions caused by charging downtime, thereby enhancing overall production efficiency. Tan Min, Chief Brand Officer of Ubtech, stated that by the end of 2025, the company's humanoid robot business had secured orders totaling nearly 1.4 billion yuan. The vigorous development of the robotics industry epitomizes Nanshan's strong economic momentum.
In the view of many industry insiders, Nanshan is the birthplace of the epoch-making "Shekou Model" and the iconic slogan "Time is money, efficiency is life," with an "innovation gene" deeply embedded in the district's foundation. Companies such as Konka, Kejian, Huawei, and Tencent all started in Nanshan. A willingness to "be the first to eat crab" has enabled Nanshan's residents to keep pace, find their niche, and seize opportunities. Just as Zhongguancun is renowned in the north, Nanshan's Science and Technology Park is a southern powerhouse. After years of development, the park has attracted the headquarters of major tech firms like Tencent. Xiang Tianye, Director of the Nanshan District Industry and Information Technology Bureau, noted that in 2025, the revenue from Nanshan's software and internet industries exceeded 900 billion yuan, continuously consolidating the advantage of industrial agglomeration.
The low-altitude economy is flourishing, with an industrial scale surpassing 80 billion yuan; the artificial intelligence sector is accelerating, gathering over 1,300 AI enterprises above a designated size; and the district has cumulatively nurtured more than 6,000 national high-tech enterprises and 394 "little giant" firms specializing in niche sectors. A series of data points from the government work report presented at the sixth session of the Eighth Nanshan District People's Congress are rich in "newness," demonstrating the district's upward trajectory in climbing the value chain. Guo Wanda, Executive Vice President of the China Development Institute in Shenzhen, remarked that Nanshan's economic development practice demonstrates how scientific and technological innovation can break through resource bottlenecks and constraints, highlighting the powerful momentum of new quality productive forces and reflecting the broad prospects and immense potential of China's economy.
The continuous optimization of the business environment has cultivated an innovation "rainforest" in Nanshan. Many industry experts consider this ongoing refinement a crucial "development code" behind the "trillion-yuan district." Qiu Chunxin, a graduate of the Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), founded ROBOSENSE. The lidar technology developed by his company is often described as the "eyes" for autonomous vehicles, but a shortage of office space once left him at a loss. After seeking help from the district government's enterprise service center, Qiu received calls from multiple departments the very next day, with relevant authorities quickly coordinating dedicated parking spaces and test routes. The entire process, from seeking assistance to moving in, took just three months. Today, ROBOSENSE has grown into a listed company. A local official compared the dynamic to a pearl necklace: the "pearls" are the business entities, plump and radiant, while the invisible "string" is the business environment, connecting the pearls and providing robust support.
Nanshan has consistently rolled out policy "combination punches," using more inclusive measures to help entrepreneurs shed their burdens. In March 2025, Nanshan launched a "Six Ones" action plan, offering services such as "one person, one room, one desk, one fund, one scenario, and one-stop service" to support startups and enable "worry-free" innovation and entrepreneurship. The district adheres to a principle of "no disturbance without cause, but immediate response upon request." The local enterprise service mini-program "iNanshan" was upgraded to "Ai Nanshan," where an intelligent assistant named "Xiao Nan" is always available to answer enterprise queries and handle online procedures. According to the Nanshan District government work report, 1,842 cadres from relevant departments formed dedicated service teams, serving enterprises over 10,000 times and handling 1,074 requests in 2025. As the "string" grows longer and stronger, more "pearls" are gathering and maturing, contributing to the foundation of the "trillion-yuan district." Data shows that the number of business entities in Nanshan grew from 530,000 in 2020 to over 600,000 by 2025, while the number of listed companies increased from about 180 to 218. At the 2025 Shenzhen Global Investment Promotion Conference held in December 2025, the total investment value of negotiated and signed projects exceeded 770 billion yuan, with Nanshan accounting for over 150 billion yuan. Many business leaders remarked, "Nanshan is not just a place name; it is synonymous with innovation and entrepreneurship."
Zhang Jingping, Director of the Nanshan District Science, Technology, and Innovation Bureau, stated that Nanshan is focused on cultivating a "tropical rainforest" ecosystem where "large enterprises dominate the sky, small and medium-sized enterprises cover the ground, and innovative enterprises break new ground," thereby building a stronger foundation for the "trillion-yuan district" and establishing Nanshan as a highland for technological innovation. Through reform, opening-up, and persistent optimization, Nanshan is advancing toward superior quality and greater strength. "Climbing to high altitudes" is exceptionally challenging, but Nanshan's resolve to "never stop" remains firm. Being situated on a hotbed of reform and innovation, the district's endogenous economic动力 continues to generate. As a core urban district in a first-tier city, Nanshan faces constraints on industrial land. It addresses this through "vertical industrial parks," stacking industrial space upwards and accelerating projects like the Nanshan Intelligent Manufacturing · Honghualing Industrial Park to continuously strengthen "hardware support." Nanshan District has outlined its goals for 2026, focusing on achieving reasonable quantitative growth and effective qualitative improvement, and vigorously promoting the accelerated development of three key sectors: intelligence, green technology, and health. Nanshan will persist in the mutual reinforcement of "AI industrialization" and "industrial AIification," opening up application scenarios for more enterprises and providing computational power, toolchains, and incubation platform support for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Standing on the high ground of pioneering trials, Nanshan is unleashing strong momentum for integrated development within the Greater Bay Area. In December 2025, with the launch of the National Venture Capital Guiding Fund, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Venture Capital Guiding Fund Partnership Enterprise was established and registered in Nanshan, one of three regional funds under the guiding fund. With a target size of 50.45 billion yuan and managed by Shenzhen Capital Group, this fund will adhere to the principles of "investing early, investing small, investing long-term, and investing in hard technology" to aid the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces in the Greater Bay Area. By playing a symphony of opening-up, Nanshan is broadening bridges for cooperation that connect China with the world. Data indicates that Nanshan's total foreign trade import and export volume exceeded 900 billion yuan in 2025. In April 2025, the Global Service Center located in Nanshan District officially commenced operations. Li Xiaoye, General Manager of the center, explained that the institution has established a "Five Services" system covering business, legal affairs, financial affairs, taxation, and general affairs, providing precise and cost-effective services for Chinese companies "going global" and foreign enterprises entering China.
At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA, ROBOSENSE showcased its independently developed robotic "delivery guy," which autonomously completed a long-distance task involving gift packing, transportation, unpacking, and box recycling. An "innovation corps" of 110 Nanshan-based hard tech companies at the exhibition attracted widespread attention. "Nanshan will persistently aim to comprehensively build itself into a world-class modern innovation district, promoting the industrial system to seek new quality, upgrade for superiority, and advance toward greater strength, thereby achieving high-quality development, creating a high-quality life, and realizing high-efficiency governance," said Huang Xiangyue, Secretary of the Nanshan District Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Comments