Datong: Pursuing New and High Quality Development

Amid a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions has become a new opportunity for the development of various regions in China. By visiting the high-tech industrial parks and leading enterprise workshops, China Report presents the “new blueprint” drawn up by Datong City of Shanxi Province.

Datong City boasts a prominent geographical advantage, strategically located at the intersection of three major urban agglomerations: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Taiyuan, and Hohhot-Baotou-Ordos. High-speed rail journeys to these areas take less than two hours. Datong also possesses abundant natural resources, being a significant coal production base in China with rich reserves of minerals such as iron, copper, zinc, and lead. Furthermore, Datong stands out for its data advantages, with 204,000 large-scale and above high-density data center racks (equivalent to 727,000 standard racks) and over three million servers, establishing the city as a veritable hub of computational power.

In recent years, Datong has been leveraging its industrial foundation and resources to advance the upgrading of traditional industries, the expansion of emerging industries, and the cultivation of future industries. The city has strategically planned and laid out four major sectors: technology (advanced manufacturing), energy, agriculture, and cultural tourism consumption. Datong has been empowering its economic takeoff by developing new quality productive forces according to its specific conditions.

Digital Economy

Digital economy is the most promising, explosive, and influential sector for the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. One of the first pilot cities for new smart cities in Shanxi Province, Datong is accelerating the construction of a new digital economy ecosystem in a bid to become the data and computational power service hub for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Data, as a new production factor, is becoming the core engine driving the deep development of the digital economy. According to Zhang Nan, the Solutions Director at JD Technology, explained, the core of smart city construction is data-driven development. This involves building a data elements market, integrating information from various channels such as public opinion monitoring, the “12345” government service hotline, urban management, transportation, and emergency response. The goal is to form a diverse set of data elements that serve various industry sectors, empowering relevant departments and promoting the integrated construction of a digital government. This effectively enhances the modernization of urban governance. Additionally, a city-level app is being developed to provide convenient services to citizens.

“It is a historic mission for Datong to build itself into a gateway for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and lead the province’s high-quality development,” said Wang Hongshuan, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC of Datong and Director of the Datong Development and Reform Commission, in an interview with China Report.

Datong is leading industrial innovation through technological innovation. It is intensifying the construction of the Datong Base of Shanxi Innovation Valley as an innovation platform, focusing on areas such as new equipment, new materials, new energy, and artificial intelligence (AI). This initiative promotes the integration of production, education, and research, accelerating the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. By advancing the construction of innovation-driven platforms and nurturing new types of productivity tailored to local conditions, Datong aims to enhance the intensity of its industrial transformation and upgrading, providing long-term momentum for high-quality development.

As of early June, the Datong Base of Shanxi Innovation Valley has built cooperation with over 100 various industrial resource projects and is in negotiations for around 40 projects. 15 enterprises and technology innovation platforms have established bases in it. Currently, the millimeter-wave radar pilot base, co-constructed by Xidian University and Zhongwang Huaxin Co., Ltd., has been established and is conducting industrial experiments in underground coal mine scenarios. The Datong Base has formulated a comprehensive policy ecosystem that supports scientific innovation teams and enterprises from initial setup to achievement transformation, from R&D to pilot testing, and finally to industrialization, providing all-encompassing innovation services for enterprises.

New Quality Productive Forces for Energy Transformation

“Chain-leading” enterprises are the main drivers for both industrial innovation and and the development of new quality productive forces.

CRRC Datong Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. (CRRC Datong) is a “chain-leading” company on the industrial chain of high-end equipment manufacturing. CRRC Datong has been vigorously advancing in seven major areas encompassing 30 key tasks related to chain supplementation, extension, construction, and strengthening. It is deeply building an industrial pattern characterized by “one core, two wings, and one pillar,” and is comprehensively fostering and expanding strategic emerging industries such as mining transportation equipment and new energy products.

In 2021, CRRC Datong launched China’s first domestically developed hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotive. In 2023, the company introduced the Ningdong hydrogen-powered locomotive boasting the largest hydrogen fuel cell installed power in the world, which setg a global benchmark for the application of clean energy in rail transit equipment. In the same year, CRRC Datong developed and completed China’s first electrified highway and mining transportation system demonstration project. This project filled a technological gap in the country and provided a Chinese solution to the global challenge of energy saving and carbon reduction in highway transportation.

The concept of new quality productive forces features the new fields, focuses on quality and highlights its essence on productivity. It signifies a leap in productivity centering on digitalization and intelligence.

Li Sheng, Director of the Corporate Culture Department of CRRC Datong, noted that in recent years, the company has made digitalization and intelligence a priority, steadily advancing its industrial digitalization projects. As a result, the overall production efficiency of its manufacturing and assembly lines has increased by approximately 30%. Smart manufacturing has become a core brand for CRRC Datong in fostering new quality productive forces.

Li Xiaojun, Deputy Chief Economist of CRRC Datong, added that the company will further rely on new-quality productivity to continuously optimize the allocation of internal production factors. This will drive the company towards high-end, digital, intelligent, and green transformation.

Wang Zhiqing, Secretary of the Datong Party Committee and Director of the Energy Bureau of Datong City, told China Report that currently Datong is accelerating the integrated development of the energy industry with the focus on building itself into a comprehensive energy supply base for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The city is steadily improving the quality of its energy system and promoting Datong’s transformation and development through an energy revolution.

Beidou Impowered Intelligent Agriculture

Datong, located at the 40th parallel north, falls within the global golden planting zone. It has a cool climate, significant day-night temperature differences, and long hours of sunshine. Serving as a key vegetable supplier for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Datong is a core demonstration city for the northern agriculture and animal husbandry belt in China, and a key demonstration area for the Yanmenguan agriculture and animal husbandry belt in Shanxi Province.

In recent years, Datong has accelerated the development of special and high-quality agriculture, comprehensively solidifying its responsibility for grain production. Its goals include stabilizing planting areas, increasing yield per unit area, and ensuring total production. Datong is applying new productive forces in agriculture, leveraging technology to enhance grain sowing, and promoting high-quality development through intelligent agriculture.

“The Beidou navigation for planting ensures that each seedling maintains a spacing of 18 centimeters, which is more precise than manual seeding. It ensures no missing or overlapping seedlings, guaranteeing a high overall emergence rate,” said Ji Ziping, director of Datong Yuzi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.

According to measurements, in the pilot fields of Dongshidian Village, Xiguzhuang, Pingcheng District of Datong City, covering an area of 1,180 mu (78.7 hectares), 5,997 maize plants were sown per mu. Currently, 5,421 seedlings are thriving, achieving an emergence rate of 90.3 percent. This is 7.3 percentage points higher than the 83.0 percent emergence rate in nearby maize fields relying on manual planting. The maize in the pilot fields is growing vigorously.

Liang Quan, Director of the Datong Agricultural and Technology Information Development Center, opined that Datong is implementing the Beidou + Smart Agriculture Initiative to support large-scale maize yield improvement trials. The goal is to explore a model that aligns with the actual agricultural production needs in Datong City. This initiative aims to enhance the comprehensive benefits and competitiveness of Datong’s high-quality agriculture, ensure national food security, and promote high-quality development of agricultural and rural economies.

Intelligence for Cultural Toursim

In recent years, the cultural tourism sector in Datong has been embracing rapid-growing momentum, making the city one of the nationally recognized popular tourist destinations and a favorite check-in place for tourists and visitors. Datong is seizing the opportunities to integrate culture and tourism so as to leveraging new quality productive forces to achieve integrated growth.

To improve tourism experiences, Datong relies on its unique cultural and tourism resources to promote the Datong Smart Tourism. This initiative significantly improved the overall tourist experience, attracting a large number of visitors. During the May Day holidays, the Tianxia Datong Wechat mini-program, led by the Datong Municipal Bureau of Statistics, had been highly praised by the tourists. The mini-program included features such as scenic area reservations, navigation, holiday activity descriptions, and schedules, offering localized and precise services like finding restrooms, parking spaces, exploring scenic spots, and participating in local activities. This one-stop “eat, stay, travel, explore, shop, and entertain” service greatly facilitated visitors during their trips to Datong.

An Yukun, Director of the Datong Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, noted that the city is ready to seize new opportunities and embrace new challenges. As the era of new quality productive forces leading the development of cultural and tourism sectors arrives, Datong is pursuing high-quality development in cultural and tourism industries by focusing on creating new productive forces. The city aims to move towards innovation and achieve sustainable development, transforming transient popularity into lasting appeal and turning internet sensations into enduring attractions.

As new productive forces like big data, AI, and virtual reality accelerate their application in the cultural and tourism sectors, Li Yingdong, Chairman of the Datong Tourism Distribution Center, suggests that it is imperative to expedite the digitalization of consumer experiences in cultural and tourism settings. He advocates for the introduction and cultivation of various new integrated formats such as virtual reality scene tours, intelligent interpretation systems, digital cultural relics, digital collections, virtual avatars, and district-level metaverse environments. These initiatives aim to digitally empower high-quality development in the cultural and tourism industries, positioning Datong towards the future and leading the national forefront in digital cultural tourism.

Developing new quality productive forces is a long-term and comprehensive undertaking involving various fields and sectors. Datong City has consistently regarded innovation as the primary driving force for development with in-advance planning and reasonable design. Pursuing the new quality productive forces, Datong is vigorously a new blueprint to make significant contribution to the Chinese modernization.

By Ma Xiao, Yao Quanmao