A Landmark Park of Hi-Tech Enterprises

LOCATED in the northern part of Beijing’s ZhongguancunScience City is a hi-tech industrial developmentzone， a patchwork of modern office buildings with aconstruction area of about 50 hectares. It’s ZhongguancunNo.1， a landmark in the science and technology innovationzone of China （Beijing） Pilot Free Trade Zone， and also a representativeartificial intelligence （AI） park in ZhongguancunScience City.

With more than 150 hi-tech enterprises in the fields of AI，commercial aerospace， and fintech， the park has taken thelead in the industrial development of science and technology.Its objective is to build an innovation center for global keytechnology.

Among the companies located there， hi-tech enterprisesrepresent over 70 percent， unicorn companies 5 percent， andlisted companies some 7 percent. Around 20 percent are smalland medium-sized enterprises which sustain their developmentwith dedication in a niche market， meticulous managementand constant innovation. Enterprises in the park ownnearly 10，000 intellectual property rights， and create a totaloutput of more than RMB 22 billion.

Being the first fully operational smart park in Beijing’sHaidian District， it has built a convenient service system forenterprises. The park organizes high-level dialogues to assistentrepreneurs in industry communication， and also enrichesthe daily lives and personal growth of young employees inits community by hosting music festivals， sports games， andmatchmaking events.

Intelligent Mobility

With the rapid development of AI， autonomous driving hasbecome a new area of development for the global automotiveindustry. Application scenarios， such as unmanned shuttles，patrols， delivery， and retail vehicles， have emerged. Manyplaces in China are making plans to expand the testing areasfor autonomous driving.

Zhongguancun No.1 boasts an enabling environment forthe development of AI industry as it gathers top-notch talentsand businesses in China. The park covers various sectors ofthe AI industry and has formed China’s most powerful innova-tion cluster. The test road for autonomousdriving in the northern area of ZhongguancunScience City has been expandedto 330 kilometers， providing a biggerspace and richer application scenarios forthe daily testing of related enterprises.

Pony.ai is a leading company in thefield of autonomous driving. Peng Jun andLou Tiancheng wrote the first line of codein this field and founded the companyin December 2016 in both China and theU.S. It is committed to providing safe， advanced， and reliableautonomous driving technology and services to help usher ina new future of transportation.

Building on years of research and development， it has createdthree core lines of business that rely on its “virtual driver”technology – robotaxis， robotrucks， and intelligent driving ofpassenger vehicles. As of August 2024， the company had accumulatedover 35 million kilometers of autonomous drivingmileage on a testing basis.

Pony.ai has obtained driverless testing and operating permitsin many places in China. It has launched unmanneddriving fleets in four Chinese mega cities of Beijing， Shanghai，Guangzhou， and Shenzhen， and its commercial taxi servicesare being operated in Beijing， Guangzhou， and Shenzhen.

Recently， it tested autonomous driving vehicles going betweenthe Beijing South Railway Station and Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area in the south of Beijing，becoming one of the first enterprises conducting such a test.This is also the first time that Beijing has allowed driverlesstesting in its core urban area.

Zhang Ning， vice president of Pony.ai and head of the company’sR&D center in Beijing， said that autonomous driving isa typical scenario for developing new quality productive forces.Autonomous driving can improve urban traffic efficiency，reduce accident risks and transportation costs， create socialand economic value， and bring users a new travel experienceby transforming the vehicle into a third space apart from theirworkplace and home. At the same time， intelligent vehiclesand driverless technology have become strategic opportunitiesto promote high-quality development of the automotiveindustry as they are expected to create a multi-trillion-dollarmarket.

Commercial Satellites

The north of Haidian District， where the ZhongguancunNo.1 park is located， is also home to many commercial aviationenterprises. Seven years ago， Minospacebuilt its presence in ZhongguancunNo.1 to provide satellite R&D and manufacturingservices.

In 2015， the National Developmentand Reform Commission， the Ministry ofFinance， and the State Administration ofScience， Technology and Industry for NationalDefense jointly released a mediumand long-term plan （2015-25） for buildingnational civil aviation infrastructure. Thedocument explicitly encourages private enterprises to growthe commercial aerospace industry. Answering the call， GaoEnyu founded Minospace in August 2017 and dedicated himselfto the fledgling sector of satellite manufacturing.

Gao has rich experience in the aerospace field. He workedat the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and theChina Academy of Space Technology， and participated in thedesigning of many satellites and rockets.

Minospace independently develops satelliteplatforms， core components， groundcommunication terminals and gateway stations.After seven years of development， it hassecured more than 300 patents and createdeight satellite platforms.

In satellite manufacturing， it follows stateof-the-art design principles and manufacturingprocess， and has improved the performanceand reliability of satellites. It also usesnew materials to make its satellites lighterand more resistant to radiation and hightemperatures， enabling them to better adapt to complex spaceenvironments.

So far， the company has successfully launched 25 satellites.On January 23， 2024， five satellites developed by Minospacewere launched into orbit. Key technologies used in the five satellitesfilled the gaps in multiple fields of commercial satellitesin China.

Minospace also explores scenarios for satellite applications.On July 5， 2024， a dam breach occurred in Dongting Lake， centralChina’s Hunan Province. The company dispatched a seriesof satellites that monitored the incident site and reported thepotential risks to relevant departments in real time until theembankment was enclosed.

Satellites made by Minospace have also been used inagriculture. With crops monitored by satellites， farmers areinformed of the growing conditions， potential risks and yieldestimations. Manpower can be put into agricultural productionin the most efficient manner.

Digital Finance

Many people have had the irritatingexperience of waiting in longqueues to get an invoice. Baiwang.com made this a thing of the past.Today， people can get an electronic invoiceinstantly by scanning a QR codeon their bills.

Baiwang.com in the ZhongguancunNo.1 park works on data-driveninnovation， providing digital solutionsand services， such as invoice compliancemanagement， intelligent finance and taxation service，and intelligent risk control to governments， companies， andpublic organizations over the nine years since its founding.

In 2015， China’s State Taxation Administration began toimplement a policy of replacing business tax with value-addedtax in sectors such as construction， real estate， finance， andlife services. This meant that the number of enterprises thatpaid value-added tax would expand from around 500 to about13 million. Chen Jie， founder of Baiwang.com， seized the hugemarket opportunity and embarked on the exploration of digitalinvoice business.

Chen worked in the field of information security technologybefore starting her business adventure， and had participatedin several government information system projects. Based onher 15-year expertise in information security， she and her teamcreated a complete electronic invoice system， and later thefirst cloud platform in China.

The business of her company covers services for procurementoptimization， account checking and settling， electronicinvoice management， smart finance and taxation， payments，and financing. Through its online， automated， and intelligentservice system， Baiwang.com has helped the digital transformationof many industries.

Today， Baiwang.com has provided digital taxation servicesto over 2，000 big corporations and over 23 million growingbusinesses in fields such as finance， retail， insurance， manufacturing，education， energy， and life services. On July 9， 2024，Baiwang.com was officially listed on the main board of theHong Kong Stock Exchange. It promises to continually improveinnovation and expand service boundaries， and worktogether with customers， partners， and investors to embracenew opportunities in the global capital market.

With hi-tech enterprises like these， Zhongguancun No.1will continue to attract talent and emerge as a driving force forhigh-quality industrial development.