Hanzhong: Cradle of Han Culture & Eco City in Qinba Mountains

1. City Characteristics and Development Orientation

Hanzhong is located in the southwestern part of Shaanxi Province, a vast basin nourished by the winding Hanjiang River. Praised as the Southern Land of Abundance since ancient times, it is widely recognized as the cradle of Han Culture and the hometown of Zhang Qian, the trailblazer of the ancient Silk Road, boasting profound historical heritage of the Two-Han and Three Kingdoms periods.

Covering an administrative area of 27,091.9 square kilometers, Hanzhong recorded a permanent resident population of 3,130,000 at the end of 2025, with an urbanization rate of 55.19%. Its regional GDP hit RMB 2003.89 billion in 2025, growing by 4.2% year-on-year.

Guided by the core strategy of building an eco-city, Hanzhong follows the "1266" development framework for the 15th Five-Year Plan period. It strives to build a cross-regional modern regional central city, a national strategic industrial base, a top-tier ecological & cultural tourism destination, a modern logistics hub of the Western Triangle Economic Zone and an international exhibition center for Han culture. The city focuses on cultivating five RMB 100-billion-level industrial clusters: aviation high-end equipment, advanced new materials, green food & biopharmaceuticals, cultural tourism and green energy, as well as three emerging industrial chains of low-altitude economy, digital economy and intelligent manufacturing.

2. Investment Promotion Overview and Investment Environment Features

A comprehensive three-dimensional transportation network integrating expressways, high-speed railways and civil aviation has been fully completed in Hanzhong, supplemented by general low-altitude aviation airports and Hanjiang river shipping channels. Endowed with superior ecological conditions, abundant mineral reserves and diverse rare flora and fauna, Hanzhong is reputed as China's Natural Cornucopia and a Natural Species Gene Pool, and also serves as the core water source reserve area for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the only global habitat of crested ibises.

The city has rolled out a parallel examination and approval mechanism for investment projects and a full-cycle integrated one-stop enterprise service platform, delivering efficient administrative services and full-cycle ecological & environmental support for settled enterprises.

In 2024, Hanzhong advanced chain-based targeted investment attraction around its five core industrial clusters. At the 8th Silk Road International Expo, it signed 128 investment projects with total contracted investment reaching RMB 311.56 billion, realizing RMB 19.5 billion in actual domestic paid-in capital. Multiple world-class industrial giants settled in specialized industrial parks covering aviation manufacturing, new materials and digital economy, and the city became a key node of the Xi'an-Hanzhong-Chengdu aviation industrial belt and the Qinchuangyuan Aviation Equipment Innovation Cluster.

3. Current Key Industrial Investment Directions

(1) High-end Aviation & Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing 

Strengthen full-chain manufacturing of civil aviation equipment, and expand production capacity for new energy vehicles, intelligent machine tools and energy special equipment. Core investment carriers include Hanzhong Aviation Smart City (Qinchuangyuan Aviation Innovation Cluster), which undertakes R&D and mass production of civil transport aircraft, civil helicopter assembly lines and special general aviation aircraft, while fostering supporting industrial chains for drones and low-altitude operation equipment. The Baohan-Tian industrial mother machine cluster, a national advanced manufacturing cluster, attracts supporting precision processing enterprises.

(2) High-Performance Modern New Materials 

Build specialized new material industrial bases covering high-quality special steel, zinc, copper, nickel and lightweight magnesium-titanium alloy structural materials; develop high-value graphene-based high-performance new material industrial clusters for aerospace, electronic and medical applications. Expand industrial chains of silicon carbide, gallium nitride and electronic polysilicon for semiconductor manufacturing.

(3) Green Food & Biopharmaceutical Industry 

Prioritize modern Chinese herbal medicine deep processing, biopharmaceuticals and characteristic agricultural product intensive processing. Key projects include peony planting demonstration bases, corydalis alkaloid extraction production lines, organic grain & rice planting bases, standardized selection and processing parks for genuine Chinese medicinal herbs such as Gastrodia elata. Develop whole industrial chains for ecological agricultural featured products including edible fungi, Chinese herbal medicine and characteristic livestock products.

(4) Cultural, Ecological & Low-Altitude Tourism 

Upgrade core scenic spots including China's Most Beautiful Karst Sinkhole Group, Tianhan Changjie (national nighttime cultural & tourism consumption block), Tiantai National Forest Park and Longtoushan Mountain Resort. Develop themed tourist blocks for Diqiang folk customs, multi-scene hiking routes around Liangyating, Caoping and Heilongtan waterfall groups, and integrate low-altitude aerial sightseeing, Han & Three-Kingdom cultural research tours and ecological leisure tourism to build world-famous ecological cultural tourism destinations.