Nigeria Times

By Han Xin, Cheng Yuanzhou, People’s Daily

At 9:00 a.m., electronic markets at Huaqiangbei commercial area in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province, were already bustling with activities. Known as the largest commercial area for electronics markets in China, Huaqiangbei was crowded with people running errands, making purchases and enquiring about prices.

Lu Dongli, in his forties, walked through the crowds and made his way into the Black Ark, a hardware innovation center in the Electronic Technology Building of Huaqiangbei.

Lu came to Huaqiangbei in 2006 for semiconductor trade. Five years later, he founded his company ChipReal in a small cubicle within the SEG Science and Technology Park of Huaqiangbei. Such a tiny cubicle measuring one meter in width was also referred to as a “one-meter counter.”

There are countless one-meter counters in Huaqiangbei, each representing a business venture and the aspiration of entrepreneurship.

“Thanks to the complete industrial chain and aggregation effect in Huaqiangbei, our company has experienced steady growth in recent years,” said Lu.

In October 2022, Lu moved his office to an office building in the central area of Huaqiangbei, turning his one-meter counter into a business start-up that covers over 300 square meters.

There are millions of entrepreneurs like Lu in Huaqiangbei. Before China began the reform and opening up process in 1978, Huaqiangbei was only a large paddy field. After Shenzhen was established as a special economic zone, major enterprises started building factories in the region, laying the foundation for the electronics industry in Huaqiangbei, which later emerged as one of the most vibrant business hubs in Shenzhen.

Just one month ago, Lu’s company received an unexpected call from a customer, who placed an order for 40,000 power supply chips annually. Lu immediately contacted his suppliers, only to be told that market prices had risen and their previously agreed price was no longer valid.

Lu made a quick decision to replace the supplier. “I don’t want to make a poor deal and couldn’t risk losing a potential client as well,” said Lu. 

“There’s nothing you can’t buy in Huaqiangbei,” Lu said. 

As a business area covering 1.45 square kilometers, Huaqiangbei is home to around 110,000 businesses, each of which has business relations with factories across China. This has made Huaqiangbei the world’s largest distribution center of electronic parts and components.

After spending nearly two hours making phone calls, Lu eventually found a supplier whose office was right in the building next to his.

Lu received the samples at 2:00 p.m., checked the necessary details, and then sent them to a third-party organization for examination. Subsequently, he received the approval certificate, which marked the success of his new deal.

Technical services are also essentially for a seller of electronic parts and components. Since 2018, ChipReal has expanded its business into product distribution, providing clients with technical assistance throughout the entire production process, from solution design to mass production.

Behind this expansion was a change in its business strategy. “Trading a single product can lead to quick profits, but it also comes with high risks. By expanding our range of services, our business has become more stable and sustainable,” said Lu.

Thanks to the expanded technical services, ChipReal has seen an annual revenue growth of 15 percent and gained nearly 900 new clients in China’s Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and northeast China. 

In the first half of this year, the company’s sales volume rose by over 10 percent year on year, with technical services contributing nearly 40 percent to the increase.

The Huaqiangbei Electronics Market, which gave birth to numerous “one-meter counters,” is undergoing a profound transformation. Last year, 100,000 square meters of business areas were newly built in the market, and over 80 percent of the space of newly renovated electronics markets has been rented. This year, 14 business incubators began serving more than 400 innovative companies, and daily foot traffic in business areas has exceeded 1 million people.

Seizing new opportunities, Huaqiangbei is brimming with new vitality. Planning to build itself into a global electronic component trading hub, a global hardware innovation and entrepreneurship center, and an international consumer center for trendy electronics, it is growing into an internationalized district for innovation and entrepreneurship.

By You Yi, People’s Daily

At 5:10 p.m., China’s “panda train” Y152 taking 459 passengers pulled out of the Chengdu West Railway Station, southwest China’s Sichuan province, embarking on a 16-day journey to multiple popular tourist attractions in northeast China, such as Beiji village or “North Pole village” located at China’s northernmost tip in Mohe city, Heilongjiang province, and the Tianchi Lake on Changbai Mountain, Jilin province.

With panda images painted on its body, the panda-themed tourist train offered throw pillows printed with panda patterns and panda-shaped pastries, attracting many tourists to take on.

Stepping into a carriage, passenger Liao Yong saw a washroom, a locker, and a shower cubicle located on both ends. In his cabin, there were two double-deck berths, clean and tidy. The cabin was equipped with a television, an attendant call device and a storage cabinet. Liao even surprisingly found a socket beside his berth, which allowed him to charge his phone at anytime.

As suppertime neared, Liao went to the dining carriage with his friends, where they were welcomed by a wide array of delicacies, such as panda-shaped rice balls with nori and panda-shaped tangyuan made of glutinous rice and black rice. There were also appetizing many exquisite Sichuan dishes, including cold pot skewers, spicy Dan Dan noodles and leaf-wrapped sticky rice buns.

“I heard there is also an entertainment carriage, where passengers can sing karaoke and drink tea. It just feels so good,” said Liao.

He said that the “panda train” offered a relaxing travel experience after retirement as he could enjoy the scenery and have a good rest onboard.

The panda-themed train is a high-end boutique tourist train operated by China Railway Chengdu Bureau Group Co., Ltd. Travelers can take the “panda train” to experience cultures and ethnic features in different parts of China. With multiple functions including transportation, accommodation and entertainment, the train was developed to meet the emerging tourism needs of the silver-hair group, and well combined tourism resources in northeast China, including natural scenery, folk customs, history and culture.

“Compared to conventional tourist trains, the panda train is equipped with more facilities, such as smart locks, entertainment devices and thermostatic showers. It also provides customized services for different tourist groups, including afternoon tea and karaoke activities,” said train conductor Zheng Li.

According to statistics, the “panda train” has made 84 trips since it started trial run in March 2021, carrying more than 20,000 passengers to multiple tourist attractions, such as Dunhuang in northwestern China’s Gansu province, Urumqi in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Ejin banner in north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan province and Yantai in east China’s Shandong province. It perfectly combines sightseeing with train travel, meeting travelers’ need for a flexible journey.

“Since this year, there has been a growing demand for the train among tourists in Sichuan, southwest China’s Chongqing, and southwest China’s Guizhou province. So far, we have launched over 200 panda-themed trains, handling nearly 100,000 tourists,” said Chen Xuan, head of Sichuan Southwest Rail International Travel Agency of Sichuan Chengdu Railway International Business Travel Group.

According to Chen, the “panda train” has launched multiple tourism routes covering major tourist attractions across China for travelers to appreciate the country’s rich historical sites, natural landscape and dedicated food.

With tourism routes centered around seasonal features and innovative tourism products, the “panda train” offers unique travel experiences, meeting the needs of the Chinese tourism market for personalized, comfortable, convenient, and diverse travel options.

By Yu Weiliang, Fan Haotian, People’s Daily

High-quality development of enterprises relies heavily on technology and talent. In Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province, a dedicated platform has been established to bridge the gap between enterprises and technological expertise.

In a laboratory of the School of Automation, China University of Geosciences, associate professor Zhang Jingjing was working with Yan Wenlin, head of R&D with Wuhan AI Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., to test a newly developed temperature and humidity sensor prototype. Connecting circuit boards to oscilloscopes and multimeters, they examined waveforms, and measured voltage and current.

Just three months ago, Zhang and Yan, whose offices are only two kilometers apart, had never met each other. What brought them together was the Hubei Sci-tech Innovation Supply Chain Platform (hereafter referred to as “the Platform”). 

The Platform was launched in 2023, with companies proposing research topics and universities and research institutes offering responses, creating an industrial innovation ecosystem that is demand-oriented and enterprise-centered. 

It provides services for users across the province, such as contract signing and supply-demand matchmaking of technology, human resources, and financing.

Zhang, engaged in computer vision research, had long entertained the idea of empowering agriculture with artificial intelligence, but had not found the proper approach yet.

Wuhan AI Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is a business startup committed to developing affordable sensors that can be used by aquaculture farmers. Before meeting Zhang, Yan had sought technological support from multiple agricultural universities and research institutions, only to be met with disappointment.

Yan attributed it to two reasons. “First, researchers’ focuses don’t always align with the needs of companies; second, they don’t have enough trust for small enterprises like us.”

Thanks to the Platform, enterprises can now easily find technological support just like they would shop online. “The intelligent matching model on the Platform enables ‘one-click matchmaking,’ which can ensure quick and easy connections between supply and demand. Behind every piece of effective information is a technology manager who provides comprehensive services to both enterprises and research institutions. This allows for rapid communication and problem-solving,” said Li Tianpei, general manager of Hubei Sci-tech Innovation Supply Chain Co., Ltd.

Learning about the Platform, Yan registered on it through a quick QR code scan and posted a request for creating a micro temperature and humidity sensor. Soon, Yan was recommended with multiple eligible technology suppliers.

Finally, Yan selected Zhang’s team under the recommendation of a technology manager. In just a week, Zhang devised a detailed development plan for developing the sensor, rapidly completing the prototype design and moving on to the testing phase.

How can sci-tech achievements be turned into commercial products after aligning supply and demand? 

Hubei has rolled out new policies to improve the incentive mechanism by taking Wuhan East Lake High-Tech Development Zone (EDZ) as a pilot, in an effort to boost collaborations on the Platform.

An annual special fund of 200 million yuan ($27.85 million) has been set up to support the phased transformation and commercialization of sci-tech achievements. It also supports collaborative research among enterprises, universities, and research institutions, with the government providing enterprises with one-third of the actual investment. The maximum financial support for a single project is 1 million yuan.

In February this year, Wuhan Ganwei Technology Co., Ltd. posted on the Platform a demand for a highly integrated industrial-grade infrared optical gas sensor. Experts from the Optics Valley Laboratory (Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics) located in EDZ, also known as  Optics Valley of China, soon took up the task. “Initially, our projected budget was 1 million yuan, but the cost proposed by the experts was slightly higher,” said Zhang Junlong, the company’s general manager.

Thanks to a project it joined under the encouragement of EDZ, the company became eligible for a 1-million-yuan incentive fund, which allowed Zhang Junlong to focus on the collaboration with the laboratory.

As of now, the Platform has attracted over 34,000 active companies, which have released more than 16,000 demands. Over 4,500 collaborations have been facilitated.