Zhongguancun may be hailed as China's most famous village by foreigners. Dubbed as "China's Silicon Valley", the country's biggest high-tech park in west Beijing is not only home to Chinese high-tech companies such as Lenovo, Baidu and Sohu.com, it is also the China headquarters of world-renowned technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Intel.
As part of China's efforts to build an innovative economy, the State Council, China's Cabinet, recently approved a development plan called the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone (2011-2020) that allows companies in the area to try out new measures and pilot projects.
The plan, which includes a drive to boost the total revenues of companies in Zhongguancun to 10 trillion yuan ($1.8 trillion) in 2020 from 1.55 trillion yuan last year, is designed to help the area become one of the world's most famous technology hubs. The predicted income increase will come from increased sales on the back of tax incentives for companies moving there and research and development subsidies.
"Zhongguancun has entered a new phase of development," said Yang Jianhua, deputy director of the administrative committee of Zhongguancun Science Park. "I think in the next 20 years Zhongguancun will have the three top technology industry clusters in the world and will form a grouping of the world's top technology entrepreneurs.
Zhongguancun's history can be traced back to a crowded electronic avenue in the 1980s. Close to China's top universities and national academies, China's biggest technology hub first emerged as a small market for electronic components and devices for technicians and researchers.
In October 1980, Chen Chunxian, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, founded a technological development service department under the Beijing Society of Plasma Physics in Zhongguancun, making it the first civilian-run scientific and technological institution in the area.