Just a 40-minute drive from Beijing's CBD lies Tongming Lake in Yizhuang, Beijing. Here, the lake shimmers, surrounded by lush greenery and colorful flowers, while high-rise buildings encircle its shores. Nestled by Tongming Lake is the National Information Technology Application Innovation Industrial Park in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (referred to as the National IT Innovation Park in the Development Area).
Economic Development Zone National Information Creation Park Sand Table, photo by Shen Chunlei
In September 2019, the National Information Creation Park in the Economic Development Zone was jointly established by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Beijing Municipal Government, tasked with cultivating an independent information technology system and ensuring the security and reliability of strategic projects. Officials from the National Information Creation Park in the Economic Development Zone reported that in the first quarter of this year, with a group of leading companies and state-owned enterprises joining as high-quality "newcomers," the number of registered enterprises in the park increased by over 100% compared to the same period last year, with the total number of settled enterprises surpassing 300.
On April 8th, a collective interview organized by the Beijing Municipal Committee Propaganda Department, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and the Zhongguancun Management Committee focused on the construction of the Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center. The group visited the National Information Technology Application Innovation Industrial Park in the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Beijing to closely understand cutting-edge information technology and explore stories from the "three cities" and "one zone."
It is understood that the "three cities and one zone," consisting of Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Future Science City, and the Innovative Industry Cluster Demonstration Zone (including the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Beijing and Shunyi District), are the main platforms for strengthening the construction of Beijing's science and technology innovation center. Today, the "three cities and one zone" in Beijing have formed a consensus on overall coordination and integrated development, working together to accelerate the establishment of a high-level science and technology self-reliance system and foster the development of new productive forces.
Settling in the Economic Development Zone
"We moved from Haidian to Yizhuang." "I have been living and working in Yizhuang, and life here is very convenient." In the National Information Creation Park in the Economic Development Zone, there are both original residents and newcomers. Now they have all settled here, working hard for the development of the information creation industry.
"Our team is relatively old, with gray hair, because we have been in this industry for over 20 years," said Wu Ruosong, general manager of Transparent Wisdom Cloud (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Transparent Wisdom Cloud), with a smile. "Our company is relatively young, established in 2021, mainly focusing on ensuring the security and reliability of enterprise data transmission in the cloud."
It is introduced that the "Transparent Lake Application Delivery Gateway" is a new generation application delivery gateway system developed by Transparent Wisdom Cloud, with four major engines including traffic management, application optimization, application security, and elastic computing, providing observability, controllability, and high availability guarantee for enterprise core applications.
Transparency Lake Application Delivery Controller, photographed by Shen Chunlei
Two tightly closed white doors, with a blue circular panel embedded in the middle. After gently touching the panel with your palm, the lights on the white doors flicker and gently push open to the sides, revealing the exhibition hall of Beijing Suaneng Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Suaneng).
Not only is the entrance to the exhibition hall cool, but Suaneng's focus areas are also cutting-edge. It mainly engages in the research and promotion of computing power products such as TPU and RISC-V, and has built a full-scenario application matrix covering "cloud, edge, and terminal" with self-developed products as the core. It provides computing power products and overall solutions for applications such as urban brain, smart computing center, smart security, smart transportation, safety production, industrial quality inspection, and intelligent terminals.
The exhibition hall of UOS, photographed by Shen Chunlei
Creating a desktop operating system for Chinese users has been the vision of UnionTech Software Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as UnionTech Software hereafter) since its inception in 2019, and it has now become a reality.
According to officials from UnionTech Software, in recent years, the company has developed a range of product lines including desktop operating systems, server operating systems, intelligent terminal operating systems, as well as application products such as centralized domain management platforms, enterprise-level application stores, and Rainbow platform migration software. These products can meet the diverse needs of different users and application scenarios for operating system products and solutions. They are now being used by governments, large state-owned enterprises, leading industry customers, and individual users. Currently, the globally oriented desktop operating system created by UnionTech Software, the deepin (Depth) community, has users in over 100 countries and regions worldwide.
Introduction to the Tianxin Desktop Operating System
A photograph by Shen Chunlei
Officials from the National Innovation Park in the Economic Development Zone introduced that the park gathers over 90% of the leading information technology companies nationwide, with industrial revenue exceeding 50 billion CNY in 2023.
Beijing's Three Science Cities
From Tongming Lake northward, over 70 kilometers away, at the foot of the Yanshan Mountains in Beijing, flows a clear lake. Every spring and autumn, flocks of geese settle here, hence the name Yanqi Lake.
Since 2017, Yanqi Lake has become increasingly lively, not only attracting tourists but also a group of scientists from all over the country. They gather here spontaneously because a science city is being built here—the Beijing Huairou Comprehensive National Science Center (hereinafter referred to as the Huairou Science City).
As early as November 1958, to undertake tasks related to "Two Bombs, One Satellite," the Chinese Academy of Sciences established a test base in Huairou, where the spirit of "Two Bombs, One Satellite" has been passed down. Subsequently, the Beijing Huairou Science and Education Industrial Park of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has risen to the level of collaboration between the academy and the city. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Beijing Municipal Government signed an agreement to jointly build the Beijing Comprehensive Research Center.
Today, Huairou Science City focuses on five major scientific directions: material science, information and intelligent science, space science, life science, and earth system science. Huairou has become one of the four major science centers in the country.
Moving south and west from Huairou Science City, there are two more science cities: Future Science City and Zhongguancun Science City.
It is reported that in the Future Science City, the Precision Construction R&D Platform of Life Valley, shared technology platforms for research, testing, and clinical trials, as well as 35 shared service platforms such as the Beijing Vaccine Testing Center, are being promoted. In the Energy Valley of Future Science City, central enterprises play a leading role and have built 23 technology collaborative innovation platforms, 3 platforms for innovation integration of large, medium, and small enterprises, and 2 technology innovation alliances. In the Shahe Higher Education Park of Future Science City, 3 open innovation laboratories for collaborative innovation between universities and enterprises have been established, along with 5 integrated training bases for industry and education, and a concept verification center for achievements of universities in the park, continuously improving innovation vitality and achievement transformation efficiency.
Up to now, Future Science City has gathered 10 universities, 113 national and provincial-level innovation platforms, established 7 academicians' workstations, and gathered more than 20,000 scientific research talents.
The main area of Zhongguancun Science City is the Haidian Park of the Zhongguancun Science Park, covering an area of 174 square kilometers and expanding to the entire Haidian District. It is also the core area of Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center.
Currently, there are 37 universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University in the area of Zhongguancun Science City, 96 research institutes represented by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 32 national engineering research centers, and abundant basic research resources. With flexible institutional mechanisms, new research institutions such as Zhiyuan Research Institute, Quantum Institute, and Microchip Research Institute continuously contribute vitality to Zhongguancun Science City.
Integration of the "Three Cities" and "One Zone"
It is understood that Beijing attaches great importance to the coordinated development of the "Three Cities and One Zone," and the city's "14th Five-Year Plan," the "14th Five-Year Plan" for the international science and technology innovation center, and the municipal government work report all propose to improve the coordinated and integrated development mechanism of the "Three Cities and One Zone."
In recent years, Zhongguancun Science City has collaborated with Huairou Science City and Future Science City to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between Haidian and Huairou, Haidian and Changping, in scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, business environment, and talent pool. Among them, Future Science City plays the role of a connecting point for the "Three Cities and One Zone," strengthening transportation connections among them, connecting basic research and original achievements of Zhongguancun Science City and Huairou Science City, and serving as a hub-type main platform. Huairou Science City fully leverages its advantages in latecomer development and the aggregation of national scientific and technological heavyweights to build a world-class original innovation carrier zone. The Economic and Technological Development Zone of Beijing focuses on receiving and transforming original achievements from the three major science cities, consolidating industrial foundations, serving as the core node of the industrial innovation system, and linking the innovation chain of technological research and development, product development, engineering production, and commercial application.
On November 11, 2023, the first joint meeting on the coordinated development and integration of the "Three Cities and One Zone" was held in Haidian District. The meeting emphasized the need to accelerate the transformation of consensus on coordinated development into practical cooperation, promote the synergy of innovation sources among the "Three Cities and One Zone," promote the integration of innovation systems, vigorously promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, create a good innovation ecology, and jointly promote the construction of national strategic scientific and technological strength. On March 31, this year, the second joint meeting on the coordinated development and integration of the "Three Cities and One Zone" was held in the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Beijing, and the "Several Measures for Promoting the Coordinated Development and Integration of the 'Three Cities and One Zone' (Trial)" was officially released at the meeting.
To facilitate transportation linkage among the "Three Cities and One Zone," currently, each area has realized the service of two or more rail lines, with at most one transfer required for direct connection. Among them, there are 11 rail lines serving Zhongguancun Science City (M1, M4, M6, M8, M9, M10, M13, M15, M16, M19, S2), 4 serving Future Science City (Changping Line, M8, S2, M17), and 2 serving Huairou Science City (Huaimi Line, Tongmi Line); there are 3 serving the Economic Development Zone (M8, M17, Yizhuang Line).
The latest statistics show that in 2023, the Beijing Innovation Industrial Cluster Demonstration Zone undertook more than 270 achievements from the three major science cities.
It is also understood that Beijing has developed a network service platform for the Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center, integrating and gathering innovation resources from the "Three Cities and One Zone" to better promote the docking of achievements and resources.
