Shijiazhuang is undergoing a rapid industrial transformation. In an AI laboratory equipped with the latest technology, robotic arms conduct multiple drug trials simultaneously. At a century-old locomotive factory, refrigerated transport containers for nationwide distribution are now being produced. A helmet-style satellite phone ensured uninterrupted communication during a recent emergency disaster relief drill. This raises the question: How can an old industrial city develop new quality productive forces, and how can traditional industries become incubators for them?
Since 2021, Shijiazhuang has explicitly aimed to build five trillion-yuan industrial clusters: biomedicine, new-generation electronic information, advanced equipment manufacturing, modern food, and modern commercial logistics. Over the past five years, the city's economic output has grown from 604.59 billion yuan in 2020 to 865.17 billion yuan in 2025, with its national ranking rising from 40th in 2021 to 34th. Today, all five industrial clusters have surpassed the hundred-billion-yuan mark, accelerating the city's path toward comprehensive modernization.
Pharmaceutical Sector Transformation: AI Labs Fuel Modern Biomedicine R&D
In 2021, after identifying the five major industrial clusters, Shijiazhuang quickly established leading groups for each industry. It introduced and continuously updated supportive policies to foster rapid cluster effects across many industries. The transformation of the traditional pharmaceutical industry was one of the pioneers of this change. Shijiazhuang is a major city for pharmaceuticals, once known as the "Medicine Capital of North China," housing numerous pharmaceutical R&D and production enterprises, many of which are nationally renowned leaders.
On August 1st, inside the AI laboratory of CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd, a veteran biomedical enterprise in Shijiazhuang, robotic arms deftly performed drug synthesis experiments while an intelligent system automatically transported various experimental materials. The lab director explained that CSPC had been exploring the use of intelligent technology to assist drug R&D for over a decade. This laboratory, put into operation in 2024, integrates artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology, applying AI to all stages including preliminary project selection, drug discovery, and clinical trials, thereby empowering the entire innovative drug R&D process. The platform utilizes AI-driven high-throughput screening technology to rapidly complete precise screening from billions of molecules down to a few dozen, shortening the early-stage R&D time for new drugs by one-third.
In Shijiazhuang, more new technologies are rapidly transforming the traditional pharmaceutical industry, spurred by a series of new industrial policies. It has established an industrial system led by biotechnological drugs, with chemical drugs as the mainstay, modern Chinese medicine as a specialty, and high-end medical devices as a supplement. The proportion of high-end formulations, innovative drugs, and biological drugs continues to rise, while bulk pharmaceutical chemicals, the mainstay of the traditional industry, now account for less than 30%.
In the Shijiazhuang High-tech Zone, the clustering effect of the new biomedical industry is becoming apparent. At the Shijiazhuang International Biomedical Park, over 300 biomedical enterprises have gathered, leveraging the high-tech zone's 11 national-level science and technology innovation platforms and key national laboratories to fast-track pharmaceutical innovation. Huapu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., located in the park, houses R&D, pilot-scale, production, and testing laboratories. The company's deputy general manager stated that their main product is a CpG vaccine adjuvant, which has been successfully developed. Three innovative CpG adjuvant vaccines are in Phase I/II clinical trials. This is Huapu's third-generation C-type CpG adjuvant. Compared to traditional adjuvants, it can achieve higher antibody titers and earlier antibody production, enhance cellular and humoral immune responses, and significantly boost the body's immune response, breaking China's "bottleneck" technology in novel adjuvants. As an "enhancer" and "engine" for next-generation vaccines, CpG adjuvants will drive the vaccine industry from traditional technology to precise immune regulation, revolutionizing the sector and greatly promoting the upgrade of China's vaccine products. Additionally, CpG can promote the killing of tumor cells by immune cells, achieving anti-tumor effects; four Class I anti-tumor drugs utilizing CpG are also in Phase I clinical trials concurrently.
Another pharmaceutical company, Luye Pharma Group's subsidiary, an administrative and government affairs head, Sun Zhenxing, told reporters that the company has developed the world's first long-acting sustained-release microsphere formulation for treating Parkinson's disease. Administered once a week, it is a weekly preparation that better aligns with the concept of "continuous dopaminergic stimulation" compared to traditional drugs. Similar stories are numerous. A park official noted that supportive policies have played a major role in Shijiazhuang's pharmaceutical transformation. The construction of the biomedical park, for instance, brings together upstream and downstream industry chains, creating a better innovation environment for tech enterprises. Government-provided financing support also gives enterprises stronger momentum for innovation. Recognizing the high investment, long cycle, and high risk of the biomedical industry, Shijiazhuang established a leading industry development fund to support enterprise innovation. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the revenue of Shijiazhuang's biomedical industry grew from 77 billion to 142.3 billion yuan.
Information Technology Sector Accelerates: Tech Products Covering Air, Ground, and Space
How can a wearable satellite communication terminal shaped like a helmet change disaster relief? In Shijiazhuang, relying on the industrial foundation laid since the 1960s by the two national teams, the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) Industrial Basic Research Institute and the CETC Network Communication Research Institute, new-generation technologies and products are rapidly developing, becoming representatives of new quality productive forces.
On August 2nd, the showroom of Far East Communication Co., Ltd. displayed various new products. A company representative explained that Far East Communication is a well-known domestic provider of private network communication equipment and high-end timing/frequency devices. Unlike the public communication methods used in daily life, private network communication primarily serves specific industry users like emergency services, subways, public security, power utilities, petrochemicals, and airports for production scheduling and command communication. Currently, the company's urban rail transit communication business covers over 300 lines in more than 50 cities nationwide. Far East Communication ingeniously integrated two satellite communication methods into a single helmet, ensuring continuous connectivity in disaster-stricken areas and solving emergency communication challenges. Timing/frequency devices are the heart of electronic equipment. Far East's domestically developed dedicated chip for OCXOs (Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators) broke foreign monopolies, and by 2020, its OCXO products achieved the world's largest market share.
Today, Shijiazhuang has formed an electronic information industry system centered on semiconductor chips, modern communications, space information, new displays, and automotive electronics, achieving a full-chain layout from sky to ground, from materials to products, from chips to modules, and from design to application. In Luquan District, there are companies that solved the "bottleneck" technical problem of high-purity electronic chemicals for photoresists, the largest domestic supplier of third-generation semiconductor power amplifiers for 5G base stations, and a leading domestic automated production line for MEMS sensors. A complete electronic information industry chain, from semiconductor material production to chip manufacturing, packaging, and application, has been established. Data shows that in 2025, Shijiazhuang's new-generation electronic information industry revenue reached 153.96 billion yuan, becoming a new engine for the city's economic development.
Furthermore, the development of the artificial intelligence industry, a key area of the information sector, is also progressing rapidly. Shijiazhuang has built an AI computing center, providing powerful computing support for the development of the AI industry in Shijiazhuang and its surrounding areas. This is an important platform for attracting AI enterprises and cultivating innovation ecosystems, as well as a key carrier for supporting technological innovation and industry-university-research cooperation in the AI field. The center's construction has accelerated the digital transformation of various industries in Shijiazhuang, enhancing the city's digital economy innovation capability and overall technological strength.
Intelligent Manufacturing Transformation: Traditional Industries Evolve into Trillion-Yuan Clusters
On August 1st, in a factory of CRRC Shijiazhuang Co., Ltd., two rows of large containers were on display. These included modern cold-chain logistics containers suitable for both road and rail, and urban cold-chain delivery vehicles. These cold-chain logistics units utilize the latest temperature control technologies, including independently developed refrigeration units. A staff member reported that the equipment is already used on trains, such as those on the China-Laos Railway transporting Southeast Asian specialties. The units can maintain an internal temperature of around 15 degrees Celsius in over 30-degree Celsius heat, ensuring fresh produce like durians and mangosteens from Southeast Asia can be delivered to North China.
CRRC Shijiazhuang, formerly the Shijiazhuang General Machinery Plant of the Zhengtai Railway established in 1905, is one of China's oldest railway vehicle manufacturers and a witness to the century-long changes of this industrial city. Today, it produces metro vehicles and logistics equipment using the latest technology, while also undertaking the repair and construction of railway freight cars nationwide. In the company's production command center, Production Manufacturing Department Director Guo Qi monitors the progress of all tasks in real-time. On this smart platform, production and maintenance data updates every half hour.
In Shijiazhuang, more traditional industries are transforming into modern "intelligent manufacturing" sectors. Shijiazhuang's metro vehicles are now made locally, new energy vehicles are manufactured entirely within the city, high-end "digital intelligent drilling and anchoring" equipment covers the national market, and drone R&D and production are developing rapidly. As one of Shijiazhuang's five key development industries, the advanced equipment manufacturing sector has undergone years of transformation, achieving a "stringing together beads to form a chain, gathering chains to form a cluster" landscape, and reached its trillion-yuan cluster target in 2024.
Located in Luancheng District, Shijiazhuang, Enric Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. is the world's largest producer of CNG energy storage and transportation equipment. As early as 2001, the company researched and produced China's first large-volume steel seamless cylinder, breaking the monopoly held by the United States. This product was dubbed the "pride cylinder." Now, in the era of green production, the company is a pioneer in hydrogen energy storage and transportation, operating national-level green factories and zero-carbon factories. Sales Director Zhou Yahui told reporters that the company can now provide full-industry-chain equipment solutions for hydrogen energy production, transportation, and reuse across the country.
Food Industry Transformation: "Shijiazhuang Flavor" Brand Influence Continues to Expand
In Shijiazhuang, the new industrial clusters are not limited to high-tech or heavy manufacturing; they also include sectors closely related to daily life, such as health and food. In the production workshop of Tongfu Group's Dahealth Food City in Luancheng District, each steamed bun's interior is formed by folding dough layers upon layers. The company's unique rolling technology gives each bun over 530,000 layers. Tongfu Group is a national key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization. It started in Shijiazhuang, later moved to Anhui, then relocated its national headquarters back to Shijiazhuang in 2022, with the decision to signing taking only 5 months. During the relocation, the local government, through a "business whistle-blowing, department responds" mechanism, had relevant departments connect with experts within 2 days to solve the project's energy consumption issues, secured over 10 million yuan in matching funds such as special loans for technological transformation, and assisted the company in establishing three R&D centers and introducing AI large models for its digital platform. Now, Tongfu's workshops are covered by automated equipment across the entire chain, from raw material input to finished product output, with minimal worker presence. The group's central kitchen IoT traceability system enables full traceability.
In Shijiazhuang, the modern food industry focuses on "health, safety, taste, uniqueness, and branding." The influence of the "Shijiazhuang Flavor" brand continues to grow. In 2025, Shijiazhuang's modern food industry crossed the one-hundred-billion-yuan threshold, becoming a new growth pole.
Located in Luquan District, the Junlebao Science Nutrition Research Institute is built within a vast, hundreds-of-mu pasture. The institute integrates four functions: scientific research base, innovative product incubation base, national project demonstration base, and consumer experience base. Its R&D covers the entire chain from pasture planting, cow nutrition feeding, and embryo breeding, to dairy processing technology and new product development. On a broader scale, Junlebao is expanding from Shijiazhuang into high-consumption markets in East, Central, and South China, building dairy production clusters encompassing cow breeding, raw milk sales, dairy processing, and industrial tourism to effectively cover core national markets. It currently owns 33 modern self-owned pastures and 20 dairy production factories, with a herd of 200,000 cows, ranking third nationally in breeding scale. Meanwhile, Junlebao is accelerating its global market layout; its fresh milk brand, Yuexianhuo, has entered markets in Singapore and other regions, gaining international recognition.
Driven by modern digital intelligence technology, the food industry is undergoing profound changes. In the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan," Shijiazhuang continues to guide and encourage food enterprises to accelerate their transformation and upgrading using digital intelligence. Leveraging the cultivation of traditional advantageous food production areas and local specialty food industries, the city aims to build a product and brand matrix of "top-tier premium products + strong mid-tier players + specialty items," using brand leadership to help enterprises rapidly expand market share and sustainably promote the high-quality development of the modern food industry.
Logistics Sector Expansion: Commercial Hub in the Hinterland of North China
Shijiazhuang is located at a vital transportation hub, connected in all directions, earning it the moniker "North-South Thoroughfare, Gateway to Shanxi." In the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shijiazhuang, as a regional central city in the world-class city cluster centered on the capital, shoulders the mission of helping Hebei Province build a national important base for modern commercial logistics. The city has formed a layout of six major logistics clusters in the Economic Development Zone, Luancheng, Luquan, Zhengding, Gaoyi, and Xinle. It has been approved for multiple national pilot projects, including a land-port type national logistics hub, a production-service type national logistics hub, and a national backbone cold-chain logistics base. The core carrier is the Shijiazhuang International Land Port.
In 2025, the Shijiazhuang International Land Port was successfully approved as a Central China region China-Europe Railway Express consolidation center. International trains departing from Shijiazhuang reached 1,282 trips, compared to just 212 trips in 2021. Currently, on 18 regular international routes from the land port, an average of 5 to 6 China-Europe (Asia) trains depart daily, reaching over 50 regions across the Eurasian continent, radiating its logistics network globally. In the first half of 2026, 814 trains have already been dispatched, a year-on-year increase of 42.06%.
While international logistics continues to expand, local logistics are also being optimized. The Shijiazhuang International Agricultural Products Wholesale Trading Center, located in Dahe Town, Luquan District, sits east of the Shijiazhuang West Service Area on the Beijing-Kunming Expressway. The connection between the market and the service area has been opened, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to pass through. People resting at the service area can shop for fruits and vegetables in the market, while market visitors can go to the service area's comprehensive business center for shopping and leisure. In August, the wholesale market is filled with the fragrance of melons and fruits. The busiest time is in the early hours, when tens of thousands of vendors enter this 1,000-mu park to wholesale goods from over 2,500 merchants, which then disperse to retail markets, supermarkets, and stores across Shijiazhuang and surrounding cities. Market Director Jia Wenlong explained that the center is a result of Shijiazhuang's efforts to promote functional dispersal, spatial restructuring, and cluster leapfrogging, turning the city's locational advantages into development advantages during its modernization.
The Shijiazhuang Eastern Modern Logistics Hub Base in the Shijiazhuang Economic Development Zone is another example of the city's modern logistics industry. This 3.2-square-kilometer modern logistics industrial park houses numerous leading logistics companies, with over 3 million parcels flowing through daily. The park adopts a green production model, with photovoltaic panels installed on warehouse roofs meeting 70% of the park's electricity needs. It also attracts production enterprises, integrating manufacturing with logistics. Today, Shijiazhuang has 95 logistics enterprises rated 3A or above, with the clustering effect of the industry becoming increasingly evident. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the scale of Shijiazhuang's commercial logistics industry continued to expand, with operating revenue maintaining double-digit growth for four consecutive years. The number of enterprises above the designated size increased from 1,340 in 2021 to 2,338 in 2025, not only driving rapid economic growth for the city but also allowing more people to enjoy the convenience of modern logistics.