With a simple mouse click, computing instructions are sent from Beijing and transmitted via fiber optic cables to Huailai for processing, with results returned in under 2 milliseconds end-to-end latency. Zhangjiakou's "super data centers" collaborate with the capital's "strongest computational brain" to provide robust computing power support.

As a core city in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei computing hub under China's national "East-West Computing Power" project, Zhangjiakou closely aligns with regional computing demands and develops big data industrial clusters and advanced computing capabilities based on local conditions. The industrial chain continues to improve while application scenarios expand, injecting new momentum into regional economic development.

**Strengthening Computing Infrastructure Foundation**

On the morning of August 5th, Liu Ping, Vice President of 21Vianet, drove from Beijing to her workplace at the 21Vianet Huailai Data Center Base in Huailai County. Last year, 21Vianet partnered with Zhongguancun Environmental Protection Technology Demonstration Park to create an artificial intelligence park training ground and collaborated with other excellent Haidian enterprises to build a computing service platform. Considering enterprises' real-time intelligent computing needs, computing centers cannot be too far from Beijing, making Zhangjiakou the preferred choice for承接首都算力外溢.

Leveraging geographical advantages and resource endowments, Zhangjiakou actively builds itself as a concentrated carrier of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei computing facilities and a main hub for computing resource scheduling, gradually forming data industry clusters centered around Huailai Big Data Industry Base and Zhangbei Cloud Computing Base.

"In 2017, Chindata Group Holdings Ltd invested 6 billion yuan to build a new media big data industry base in Donghuayuan Town, pioneering Huailai's big data industry," said Han Baoliang, head of Chindata Group Holdings Ltd's infrastructure operations department. From 2017 to 2024, Chindata Group Holdings Ltd's investment in Huailai reached 14.6 billion yuan, with IT capacity growing from an initial 20MW to nearly 500MW.

The region's long, cold winters and cool summers create climate conditions highly favorable for data center cooling and energy consumption reduction, while extending equipment lifespan. Leading big data companies including Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Heying Data, and Zhongming Technology have also established operations in Zhangjiakou, continuously strengthening the computing infrastructure foundation.

Currently, Zhangjiakou has completed and operates 48 data center projects with computing capacity exceeding 30,000P, making it one of China's fastest-growing big data industry regions.

Data centers fundamentally depend on electricity. Zhangjiakou serves as a national renewable energy demonstration zone with abundant wind and solar resources and sufficient green electricity. Current renewable energy installed capacity exceeds 43 million kilowatts, providing stable power sources for big data centers.

In Zhangjiakou, green electricity and green computing power advance together, achieving efficient integration. Luo Yongji, head of the coal and electricity section at Zhangjiakou's Energy Bureau, explained that the city steadily promotes "source-grid-load-storage integration" demonstration project construction, optimizing and integrating resources across power generation, grid, load, and storage sides to build a new power system with high integration, providing green, low-cost electricity for data centers and improving green electricity consumption rates.

In the first half of this year, Zhangjiakou's computing enterprises used over 30% green electricity. According to city planning, this ratio will increase to over 80% in the future.

**Building Complete Industrial Chain**

Accelerating computing power development represents just one segment of Zhangjiakou's expanding big data upstream and downstream industrial chain. Hebei InVek Company's headquarters is located in Shenzhen. Recognizing the future development potential of Huailai County's big data industry, they registered a subsidiary there in 2019, specializing in data center temperature control equipment. According to Vice General Manager Li Jie, as Huailai and Zhangjiakou's big data industry rapidly developed, business volume increased from 200 units in 2019 to currently 2,000 units.

Focusing on establishing an integrated industrial chain system of "integrated storage and computing, integrated training and inference, computing scheduling, equipment manufacturing, and application services," Zhangjiakou continuously extends, strengthens, and supplements its industrial chain, achieving transformation from single data storage to diverse formats including computing power, equipment manufacturing, and application services. The big data industry is rapidly transitioning from chain-style development to cluster formation.

In equipment manufacturing, the city actively promotes domestic manufacturing and assembly of storage equipment, network equipment, and data collection products. Baode Shuba server project and Hebei Lening Phase I electronic information manufacturing project have begun production, currently capable of producing 200,000 servers, 240,000 PCs, and recycling 600,000 servers annually.

In information software services, operational facilities include Huailai County Digital Port, Economic Development Zone Digital Creative Base, Zhangbei County Shuba Technology Information Technology Service Base, and Big Data Information Technology Service Base. Software and information technology service enterprises including SoftTech, China NetLibrary, Jingye Da, Alibaba Customer Service Center, and China Mobile Call Center are now operational.

Focusing on complete industrial chain development, the city conducts targeted precision investment promotion this year, prioritizing upstream manufacturing, midstream intelligent computing training and inference services, and downstream AI model development industries, while developing data annotation, processing, calling, outsourcing services, and analysis mining industries to deepen data integration applications and enhance data empowerment capabilities.

Currently, construction of the Digital Service Industry Base in Zhangjiakou Economic Development Zone is accelerating. The base focuses on data services, general and intelligent computing, and vocational education, prioritizing digital processing, e-commerce, digital creativity, digital applications, artificial intelligence, and innovation services. It includes innovation application centers and vocational training centers, creating a "six clusters, two centers" industrial development pattern to serve as the city's digital service industry cluster leadership area, the province's digital service industry development innovation area, and a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei digital service industry collaborative development demonstration area.

Zhangjiakou is building a "one corridor, four zones, multiple parks" big data industry spatial layout, establishing a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei big data industry development corridor to actively承接京津大数据产业外溢; using the Economic Development Zone as the leader to create a digital service industry functional area; using Zhangbei County as the leader to create a data storage and green low-carbon functional area; using Huailai County as the leader to create a data storage, computing, and integrated application functional area; using Xuanhua District as the leader to create an equipment manufacturing and data storage and computing functional area; while building multiple reasonably distributed, distinctively featured, and highly efficient big data industrial parks to create a multi-park collaborative development pattern.

**Cultivating Innovation Scenarios**

In Zhangjiakou's main urban area, 142 intersections have implemented intelligent traffic signal control. Algorithms provide traffic lights with "brains," transforming "vehicles watching lights" to "lights watching vehicles," real-time sensing of vehicle speed, traffic flow, and queue length, dynamically adjusting timing to significantly improve traffic efficiency.

"Leveraging big data industry advantages and computing infrastructure, we cultivate AI innovation scenarios to better empower various industries," said Zhang Huihua, Deputy Director of Zhangjiakou's Data and Government Services Bureau. The city focuses on county characteristic industry clusters, public services, and social governance, cultivating "AI+" application scenarios to create an industrial ecosystem with abundant computing power, rich data, and diverse applications.

The "Happy Zhangjiakou" app aggregates over 390 convenient services, developing 14 mobile "one-stop service" application scenarios; the "Yuangang Online" public employment service platform promptly publishes various job information, providing precise matching between employers and job seekers; implementing "unified online management" reform, building urban operation management service platforms, sharing access to relevant industry basic data, completing seven auxiliary decision-making systems for people's livelihood, construction management, public security, and markets, precisely identifying urban governance hotspots and responding quickly.

Zhangjiakou deepens digital-physical integration, committed to transforming more digital achievements into tangible, universally beneficial new landscapes.

On March 17th, the Zhangjiakou Trusted Data Space and Data Flow Service Support Platform, built by Zhangjiakou Digital Industry Development Group Co., Ltd., went online, making the city the first in the province to complete city-level data element circulation infrastructure.

"Building the Zhangjiakou Trusted Data Space and Data Flow Service Support Platform aims to release data element value, breaking through data circulation difficulties and bottlenecks, effectively supporting market-oriented allocation and efficient circulation utilization of public data and industry enterprise social data," stated Jia Liyuan, Deputy General Manager of Zhangjiakou Digital Industry Development Group Co., Ltd. The company fully leverages its role as the main force in the city's digital economy construction, strengthening cooperation with leading domestic digital economy enterprises, jointly building data element innovation laboratories, and developing data element application scenarios in industrial manufacturing, modern agriculture, commercial circulation, medical health, and other fields.