Zhengzhou is one of China's eight ancient capitals, growing into a leading central city after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Its long history and its modern rise are both evident in the city's development.
In recent years, Zhengzhou has continued to renew its cultural tourism offerings, receiving 180 million visitors annually. It has optimized its industrial structure and built seven leading industrial clusters, each worth over 100 billion yuan. The city has consolidated its strengths as a transport hub with air, land, digital and maritime links connecting it to the rest of the world.
Innovation is redefining Zhengzhou's cultural tourism, its industrial sector and its role as a hub. Over the next five years, Zhengzhou plans to make further progress in building a modern national central city.
Known throughout history as "the Center of Heaven and Earth," Zhengzhou is one of the key locations where Chinese civilization emerged and developed. Human activity here dates back to the Paleolithic era. The Peiligang, Shuanghuaishu and Dahecun sites all lie within the city, as does the site of the Shang dynasty capital. Beneath layers of sediment lies an unbroken cultural lineage.
In recent years, Zhengzhou has drawn deeply on its historical and cultural resources and advanced the creative and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture. A wave of immersive and themed cultural tourism experiences rooted in real life has sprung up.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhengzhou was designated a new industrial base. Cotton mills, grinding wheel plants and other factories went up across the city. Decades on, some of those factories have fallen silent, yet the city's industry has never stopped advancing.
Today, Zhengzhou is home to 38 of China's 41 major industrial categories, with a combined output worth about 2 trillion yuan. The city, whose manufacturing roots reach back thousands of years, is now undergoing a profound industrial transformation.
Since the start of this year, China's first fully domestic 100,000-card AI supercluster, Sugon 8000 (Dengfeng), has gone into operation in Zhengzhou. AgiBot's industrial complex developing embodied intelligence in Central China has begun production in Xinzheng. The first batch of EngineAI's T800 humanoid robots made in Zhengzhou has been completed, and the units will soon enter global markets. Practical applications are driving industry forward as demand fuels innovation, and these new industries are emerging as a new growth driver in Zhengzhou, broadening the city's horizons.
Zhengzhou owes its rise to the railways. More than a century ago, the Beijing–Hankou and Lanzhou–Lianyungang lines converged here, making the city a major transport hub.
In recent years, Zhengzhou's status as a railway hub has continued to strengthen. It not only became the first to complete an asterisk-shaped high-speed rail network, but also opened a land corridor to Europe, Central Asia and Southeast Asia through the China Railway Express. More than 20,000 China Railway Express trips have departed from Zhengzhou's hub in Henan since the service started in 2013, reaching over 40 countries and more than 140 cities across Eurasia.
Zhengzhou will keep opening up new platforms while fostering an open, innovative ecosystem, converting its strength as a hub into growth drivers. It will invite the world in and reach out in turn, serving as a strategic node in China's dual circulation strategy.
