In 2012, an ancient city wall of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) with a history of 1,000 years was found at the construction site of Wanda Mansion in Kaifu District. This ancient city wall not only testifies the location of the main urban area of Changsha has not changed since its establishment, but also proves that Kaifu District has been in the prosperous center of Changsha since ancient times.

Huachuang International Office Building

Located in the north of Changsha City, Kaifu has been a place gathering merchants since ancient times. Xiangchun Street, Chaozong Street, Zhongshan Road and Beizheng Street were once bywords of Changsha’s prosperous business. The busy traffic in Xichang Street, Maojiaqiao and other markets is unforgettable memory of Changsha. As one of the five districts in Changsha, Kaifu is a famous city in Chu and Han Dynasties and important birthplace of Hunan culture. It’s an important door for Changsha to integrate into the Yangtze River Economic Belt and connect the “Belt & Road” Initiative. It’s also the core area for Changsha to promote the “Great Northern Changsha” strategy.  

Qingzhu Lake

Recently, Kaifu ranked 28^th among China’s top 100 districts with high-quality development, according to the 2020 Report on High-Quality Development of China’s Urban Areas. All previous Kaifu district committees and governments have made utmost efforts to promote the high-quality development of economy. As early as 2015, the tax revenue of Kaifu first exceeded 10 billion yuan in the urban areas across the province, and has been selected as one of China’s top 100 districts with high-quality development and China’s top 100 districts with comprehensive competitiveness. Today, Kaifu is developing rapidly with good prospects. 

Liuyang River

Building Economy

Buildings are the name card of a city and the source of vitality of a region. Every generation of Changsha people has a landmark building in their hearts. In order to tap the potential of buildings, the district has created many models of building economy. After more than seven years of development, the district’s building ecomomy has seen rapid growth. Statistics show that as of December last year, there are 155 commercial buildings with a floor area of more than 5,000 square meters in Kaifu, with a total area of 6.32 million square meters, nearly double that of six years ago. Building economy has become an important carrier for Kaifu to cultivate tax sources, develop modern service industry and promote the development of regional economy.

New Hunan Building

According to the data of Kaifu Modern Service Industry Development Center, there are 42 buildings with tax revenue of over 10 million yuan, 20 buildings with tax revenue of over 50 million yuan and 11 buildings with tax revenue of over 100 million yuan in the district, accounting for more than 50% of the total tax revenue of the whole district. Last year, it was rated as one of China’s top 10 potential districts with building economy, and was successfully selected as one of China’s top 100 districts with comprehensive competitiveness in 2019.

The local governments regard the development of building economy as the foundation of the district. Cao Zaixing, Secretary of CPC Kaifu District Party Committee, made it clear that Kaifu’s building economy has a good future, and all enterprises and financial institutions have made great contributions. The district should make joint efforts to develop building economy.

12 high-quality professional buildings including New Hunan Building, Pomp International Plaza, and Changsha Greenland Center have been certified as featured  professional buildings.

This is the first time that Kaifu launched a featured professional building selection activity based on international standards in Kaifu, aiming to guide the commercial building projects to achieve differentiated positioning, promote building projects and services to become more famous, excellent and professional. These 12 featured professional buildings have also become a “representative” of the building groups in Kaifu and the new “business card” of the urban development.

At the same time, at the 2020 China Building Economy Global Cooperation Summit & China Building Building Economy Expo which ended in November last year, Kaifu won the award of “China’s Leading District for Developing Building Economy”, becoming a model of China’s building economy development.

In addition, Kaifu has also built “building government-enterprise service station”, which is a life-cycle system jointly built by the district modern service industry development center, streets, building projects and third-party service platform to serve the building enterprises. It will provide policy publicity and consultation and other services for the building enterprises in Kaifu, further expand the building industry chain, and promote the steady development of regional economy.

Industrial construction

As early as January last year, at the Kaifu District Party Committee Plenary Session and Economic Work Conference, the 433 industrial strategy was approved. It focuses on 4 pillar industries of video cultural creation, modern logistics, finance and commerce, and intelligent manufacturing, strives to promote the construction of 36 major industrial projects. It takes the development of major industrial projects as the carrier to make sure stability in 6 key areas and effectively meet 6 priorities and promote the high-quality development of regional economy and society.

On January 7 this year, the district held the 20^th Plenary Meeting and Economic Work Conference of the 5^th District Party Committee Session, which strengthened the concept of building Kaifu’s strength in industries, education, talents and quality. It will focus on 4 pillar industries, implement high-quality projects, and strive to create a national leading innovation base for video cultural and creative industry with international influence, an advanced characteristic manufacturing center, a national first-class modern logistics center, and a high-end modern service center in central regions, and speed up the construction of a prosperous, beautiful and happy Kaifu.   

Last year, the district saw a rapid development in video cultural and creative industry. Malanshan Video Cultural & Creative Industrial Park achieved revenue of 43 billion yuan, up 16%. The modern logistics industry showed a steady progress, 5 projects of over 100 million yuan were introduced, achieving revenue of 60.5 billion yuan, with an increase of 5%; the revenue of medicine logistics industry was nearly 30 billion yuan, accounting for 50% of the city’s total revenue. The scale of finance and trade sectors was expanded, with the added value of the finance sector reaching 14.2 billion yuan, up 10%. The intelligent manufacturing made major progress, and 12 industrial projects including leading enterprises in the consumer electronics industry and COMAC were introduced.  

With a long history and profound culture, Kaifu is the birthplace of Hunan culture and has a solid foundation for the development of cultural industry. There are many famous cultural enterprises gathering here, including Hunan Broadcasting System, Hunan Daily Press Group, Binjiang Cultural Park and Shaping Hunan Embroidery Industrial Park. In recent years, Malanshan Video Cultural & Creative Industrial Park has been developing rapidly, forming a highland for video cultural and creative industry.

Changsha Jinxia Economic Development Zone

Kaifu is the only district with railway, highway and water transportation in Changsha, so it has unique conditions for the development of modern logistics industry. As for industrial development in Kaifu, Malanshan Video Cultural & Creative Industrial park and Jinxia Logistics Park are the main force.

The Letianzhizuo Video Cultural & Creative Industrial Base settled in Malanshan, This studio will become a smart studio with the largest construction area, the most complete facilities and the highest degree of specialization in Hunan Province. On November 19 and 23 last year, Malanshan introduced 10 key projects, including Malanshan Video Technology Research Institute and Malanshan Cultural Innovation Center on the Special Forum of China New Media Conference, Guangzhou Cultural Fair and Changsha urban culture promotion and other festival activities.

President Xi Jinping, paid a visit to Malanshan Video and Creative Industrial Park and brought significant opportunities for Kaifu on September 17 last year. Now, there are 1,567 newly registered companies, and 18 of them are in the Fortune 500, top 200 in China, top 20 in domestic industry, and listed companies and other renowned enterprises. The development pattern with large enterprises being the mainstay and small enterprises spreading overwhelmingly has initially formed. 

The boom of Jinxia’s foreign trade is the epitome of the industrial transformation and upgrading and the construction of an open highland in Kaifu. Jinxia Economic Development Zone takes the advantage of being a unique transportation hub in Hunan, actively integrates into the development pattern of “One Belt & One Sector”, vigorously develops the logistics industry and open economy, and strives to build a large open platform.

Now, China-Europe Railway Express (Changsha) is one of the four cities that ensures shipment on a daily basis in the country. It has opened 11 international routes, which connects 15 countries in Europe and Asia and 27 regions. It’s an important logistics channel for Hunan to integrate into the construction of “Belt & Road” Initiative.

Relying on its unique advantages of opening up, Kaifu has become the key node and strategic fulcrum for Changsha to integrate into the Yangtze River Economic Belt northward. It is the core carrying area for the construction of China (Changsha) Cross Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone and National (Changsha) Logistics Comprehensive Hub with land-port type, the joint development zone of Hunan Free Trade Zone, and the battlefield for Hunan to build a highland of reform and opening up in inland areas.

In addition, Jinxia Consumer Electronics Industrial Cluster and QuaTernes in Kaifu are two of Changsha’s 17 key landmark manufacturing projects. The Intercity Intelligent Equipment Industrial Base with a total investment of 1 billion yuan was built and put into operation in the same year. 14 projects including Hunan Creative Design Headquarters Building, Changsha International Railway Port and Runhe International Plaza have been completed.

Business environment optimization

Kaifu has always been a blessed place for business and entrepreneurship, especially Middle Furong Road, which enjoys a reputation of Wall Street in central areas.

The district has carried out traffic optimization measures based on its actual conditions around buildings in financial and business districts such as New Hunan Building, Huachuang and Wanda Plaza.  

“After the surrounding traffic is optimized, the passenger flow of the commercial complex increases significantly,” the person in charge of Huachuang International Plaza said. The district has implemented 28 measures to optimize traffic organization, which is one of the measures taken by Kaifu to optimize business environment.  

A good business environment is an important manifestation of the soft power of regional economy, and the district has always attached great importance to it. Kaifu secretary Cao Zaixing said that the district has adhered to optimize the business environment from five aspects of reducing process and costs and time limit, improving services and increasing benefits, and constantly improved the convenience, satisfaction and sense of gain of the people to handle affairs and start businesses. The opening of “24-hour government services hall” is a major achievement of Kaifu in optimizing service process, expanding service channels and innovating service methods. He hoped that the district could take this opportunity to further streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services, allowing residents and enterprises in Kaifu to enjoy more intelligent, efficient and convenient services.  

Last year, the district has also launched a series measures and favorable policies to optimize business environment and achieved fruitful results. These favorable policies for enterprises have injected new energy into the high-quality development of commercial buildings in Kaifu. 

Edited by Li Ling