Shenzhen's Nanshan District has "ascended" to become the nation's first city district with a GDP exceeding one trillion yuan! On January 27, news emerged from the sixth session of the Eighth Nanshan District People's Congress of Shenzhen: in 2025, Nanshan District is projected to achieve a gross domestic product (GDP) exceeding one trillion yuan, establishing itself as China's first city district at the prefecture level to surpass this monumental economic threshold.
Examining the urban fabric of Nanshan District reveals a remarkable story—it occupies less than one-tenth of Shenzhen's total land area yet contributes over a quarter of the city's entire economic output. Within this compact 185 square kilometers thrives a potent and vigorous development dynamism. What is the secret behind this "small space" achieving such "high output"? The answer can be explored from three distinct dimensions.
The first dimension is the altitude of industrial development. High-tech manufacturing and advanced manufacturing account for 60.7% and 58.6% of the value-added of industries above a designated size, respectively, while the modern services sector constitutes nearly 90% of the tertiary industry... This "dual-high leadership" industrial structure has effectively positioned Nanshan District at the commanding heights of the global industrial division of labor. Furthermore, it has enabled the district to persistently break through even as broader economic downward pressure intensifies, maintaining an average annual GDP growth rate exceeding 5.8%.
The second dimension is the density of innovative entities. A "tropical rainforest" of innovation ecology serves as the intellectual engine for Nanshan's continuous leading performance. Tech giants like Tencent, DJI, and ZTE stand at the forefront of their waves; the district hosts 637,000 market entities and is home to 218 listed companies, boasting the highest density of listed firms nationwide. It also leads Shenzhen in the total number of national-level manufacturing "single champions" and "little giant" specialized and sophisticated enterprises... In Nanshan, innovation is not a solo performance by a select few corporations but a grand chorus involving businesses of all sizes, from large to small and medium-sized.
The third dimension is the intensity of research and development investment. In 2025, Nanshan District's number of invention patents per 10,000 people is expected to exceed 860, approximately 22.9 times the national average; cumulative PCT international patent applications have reached 25,000, accounting for about one-fourteenth of the national total; the R&D intensity ratio has surged to 7.87%, nearly triple the national level... The scale of R&D investment is intrinsically linked to future development momentum. By relentlessly strengthening fundamental research and mastering core technologies, Nanshan unleashes the powerful potential of its innovation-driven growth model.
Using Nanshan District as a reference point, let us unfold the map to observe China's regional economic landscape. At the county level, representatives like Kunshan and Jiangyin in Jiangsu, and Yiwu and Keqiao in Zhejiang, underpin the developmental confidence of these major economic provinces. Scrutinizing these individual "powerhouse districts" reveals a common "golden key" to tailoring economic strategies to local conditions: focus on industrial sophistication, increase the density of innovation, and amplify the intensity of R&D. By using scientific and technological innovation to break through resource bottlenecks and constraints, these individual "small areas" can release "massive energy," ultimately converging into the enduring and磅礴 (vast) kinetic force of China's development.
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