This year marks the fifth anniversary of the People's City concept. As the birthplace of this concept, Yangpu is thriving with the vigorous development of the digital economy and vibrant youth. Let's experience this increasingly "YOUNG" people's city together...

In the northeast corner of Shanghai, there is an 8.2-square-kilometer park that constantly sparks entrepreneurial inspiration and technological innovation... The Yangpu Great Knowledge & Innovation Development Demonstration Zone, connecting Wujiaochang in the south and reaching Xinjiangwan KIC in the north, is located among many key universities such as Fudan University, Tongji University, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Last year, it was named a national-level cultural industry demonstration park.

Starting in 2003, Yangpu Great Knowledge & Innovation has grown from a small 1 square kilometer to now nurturing more than 4,500 dual innovation enterprises. Among them, 63 enterprises have an operating income of over RMB 50 million, 15 enterprises are listed on various capital markets, and the total operating income exceeds RMB 300 billion. It is not only a well-known cultural and technological industry highland but also a dream home for students from surrounding universities and fertile soil for the incubation and growth of startups.

Deep Integration of Campus, Park, and Community

Drinking a cup of coffee on University Road, you can collide with outstanding talents; more than 150,000 knowledge workers start businesses, work, and live here, bringing academic frontiers and technological creativity... Yangpu Great Knowledge & Innovation's unique location advantage and the co-creation and integration of campus, community, and park allow this hotbed to condense modern wisdom and historical heritage, and gather the scholarly atmosphere of the ivory tower and the aroma of life from residential areas.

In 2003, Shanghai made a major decision to build the Yangpu Knowledge Innovation Zone; our district proposed the core concept of "three-zone integration and linkage development," namely the deep integration of university campuses, science and technology parks, and public communities. That year, our district cooperated with SHUION Group and drew on the successful experiences of Silicon Valley in the United States and the Left Bank of Paris in France to create the "KIC," which was only 1 square kilometer at that time, practicing "three-zone linkage."

Since then, centering on the core area of "KIC" and relying on resources such as the Jiangwan Stadium historical protection buildings and the knowledge spillover effects of surrounding well-known universities, this scientific and technological innovation hotbed has successively built KIC Plaza, University Road block, and Chuangzhi Enterprise Center in more than 20 years, and has expanded northward to lead the high-tech headquarters base with Chuangzhi Technology Center and Chuangzhi International Plaza, and explored and created a complex functional space development integrating culture, technology, experience, display, and interaction. In the story of "Industrial Yangpu" transforming into "Innovative Yangpu," Great Knowledge & Innovation has also become a landmark for the integrated development of innovation, entrepreneurship, culture, and technology in Shanghai, and a model for the transformation and development of Shanghai's industry-city integration.

"Three-zone linkage" adds the aroma of life and also helps enterprises grow. In the University Road block, outdoor seating is allowed on the street, attracting young people to enjoy outdoor afternoon tea and make more like-minded friends; at night, the area is brightly lit and colorful, allowing residents, white-collar workers, and students to share the city's nightlife. Today's University Road not only gathers many characteristic brands in Shanghai but also jointly launched the "University Time-limited Pedestrian Street" with Wujiaochang Sub-district in May last year to boost the development of the night economy and enrich the 15-minute community life circle.

Agora, the first stock of the global real-time interactive cloud market, grew up in the environment of "three-zone linkage." "It's a five-minute walk to popular restaurants, where you can exchange experiences and collide with ideas with entrepreneurial students from surrounding universities at any time. Why don't you go and take a look at 'Great Knowledge & Innovation'?" In 2014, Zhao Bin, who had just returned from overseas, followed his friend's advice and rented 3 workstations in KIC, taking the first step in founding "Agora." The surrounding universities continuously supply outstanding scientific and technological talents, constantly injecting new vitality into the company's innovative development, forming a virtuous ecological cycle. Today, Agora's technical services have covered more than 200 countries and regions, becoming the leader in the global real-time interactive cloud market share.

As more and more international university offices land in Great Knowledge & Innovation, more academic frontiers and scientific research achievements will further bloom in value here. In August last year, the Shanghai Center of the Chinese University of Hong Kong was established on University Road. It will carry out teaching courses, academic research projects, and alumni activities, build a communication bridge between the government, enterprises, and alumni, and assist our district in connecting with international scientific and technological innovation forces, support Yangpu's science and technology enterprises in introducing international first-class talents and projects, provide one-stop innovation and entrepreneurship support for the transformation and industrialization of scientific research achievements at the Shanghai base of Chuangbohang, and promote the landing of high-quality scientific research projects in our district. In January this year, the Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, with Academician Shing-Tung Yau serving as the first chairman, was also unveiled in Great Knowledge & Innovation. The institute is a new type of R&D institution that carries out research on mathematics and interdisciplinary sciences, talent introduction and cultivation, international academic exchanges, and other activities. It is committed to achieving major original results in basic mathematical theory and applied research, helping solve the "bottleneck" problems in China's strategic fields, and leading the innovative development of high-end industries. In addition, the brand offices of international universities in Shanghai, such as Washington University in St. Louis and Boston University, have also "settled" in Great Knowledge & Innovation.

Industrial Agglomeration, Upstream and Downstream Just by Going Up and Down the Stairs

"Here, meeting with partners is not a difficult matter. You can go to a partner company by going down the stairs, have a simple small meeting, and continue to return to your own position to work." Papergames was founded in 2013 and has well-known games such as Love and Producer and Nikki series under its banner. This year, the first stop of Apple CEO Cook's visit to Shanghai was this local game company. The staff introduced, "Behind the rapid development of Papergames is the integration of culture and technology. We chose to settle in Great Knowledge & Innovation because we saw the integration of the cultural and technological industry ecology in Great Knowledge & Innovation. This high-quality industrial ecology provides a very good environment and atmosphere for our entry and settlement, industrial agglomeration, and exchanges between enterprises."

Enterprises like Papergames that combine "culture + technology" can be said to be "like a fish in water" in Great Knowledge & Innovation. Great Knowledge & Innovation has effectively integrated the cultural and technological industry ecology. Our district has introduced multiple cultural and technological industry policies to promote the development of the digital cultural industry with content technology as its characteristic and the online economy as its engine. In 2020, Bilibili and Papergames successively settled in Chuangzhi International Plaza; in 2021, ByteDance's East China headquarters signed a contract to settle in Great Knowledge & Innovation; in addition, Great Knowledge & Innovation has also nurtured first-tier companies in subdivided fields such as Agora, UCloud, Wanwuxinsheng, and Sunmi Technology; a batch of new online cultural and entertainment enterprises, such as Yuanwanggu, Wuyou Media, Wufeng Technology, Opportunity Group, and Xiaoyuzhou Podcast, have also grown up... Cultural new economy head enterprises develop upstream and downstream industrial clusters, with nearly a hundred upstream and downstream related enterprises of several head enterprises, forming an enterprise "galaxy" with its own aura in our district, allowing "upstream and downstream just by going up and down the stairs" and realizing "having an industrial chain without leaving the park."

It is precisely the "good ecology" of industrial agglomeration that makes finding partners an easy matter. Cai Yun, Senior Director of Public Affairs at Agora, mentioned the boost of industrial agglomeration to enterprise development, "Here, it can be said that you can have customers without leaving the district. Some head enterprises will also form their own ecosystem, and many small and medium-sized enterprises will also leverage our customer resources to connect with some head enterprises here, which is also a way for us to empower startups."

In April this year, the "Great Knowledge & Innovation International Ecological Innovation Alliance" was established. With the purpose of "innovatively connecting the world," relying on Great Knowledge & Innovation's innovation ecosystem, based in Shanghai and facing the world, the alliance focuses on industrial directions such as artificial intelligence, online cultural entertainment, and medical and pharmaceutical, links global innovative enterprises, connects upstream and downstream resources, takes park enterprises as the core, absorbs diverse partners, builds an innovation ecosystem, and explores innovative cooperation with global universities and scientific research institutions with an open mind.

Nowadays, combining with the practice of our district's construction of a "1+2+3+4" innovative modern industrial system, Great Knowledge & Innovation rides the momentum and positions the park's development as "culture + technology," forming three major development directions of "pan-entertainment, big design, and new consumption," focusing on the development of five major industries: online audio-visual, animation and games, creative design, cultural leisure, and cloud computing and big data, leveraging our district's "intelligent +" and "Internet +" foundation, and actively integrating into the hundred billion-level industry cluster.

Superior Business Environment, Creating Fertile Soil for Entrepreneurship

"When I was studying at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2003, this place was an old community and abandoned roads. Now it can be used for leisure and entertainment, and you can feel the charm of the digital and intelligent era." A tourist who specially came to "check in" at University Road in Great Knowledge & Innovation said.

The tremendous changes in Great Knowledge & Innovation over the past 20 years are inseparable from our district's superior business environment and the park's thoughtful "one-stop" services. Our district makes every effort to create the warmest urban district for the business environment and "runs towards each other" with enterprises. In Great Knowledge & Innovation, in addition to basic park services, assistance is also provided in areas such as overseas talent special fund application, talent apartments, and public rental housing applications. The region has further introduced more than 70 mass innovation platforms and incubators, providing differentiated services such as resource docking, listing cultivation, project incubation, talent cultivation, and intellectual property rights for enterprises here. A superior business environment creates fertile soil for enterprise growth. Angelalign, incubated by Great Knowledge & Innovation and growing together with Great Knowledge & Innovation for a long time, is currently a leading brand enterprise in the intelligent medical industry. Angelalign has developed and grown at an astonishing speed in the past few years and was listed on June 3, 2021, becoming the "first stock of Chinese orthodontics."

With the support of the "enterprise service package" mechanism of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and Municipal Government, Great Knowledge & Innovation promptly follows up on the operating conditions and difficulty demands of park enterprises, and provides personalized services such as policy training and on-site guidance to enhance the "stickiness" between enterprises. In addition to inclusive policies such as talent apartments and rental subsidies, targeted push is also sorted out according to the different industrial fields and development stages of enterprises, such as exclusive policies for online new economy enterprises and relevant policies for medical and pharmaceutical enterprises.

Looking to the future, Great Knowledge & Innovation has unlimited prospects. The Great Knowledge & Innovation Digital Park will be officially put into use in the second half of this year. The central activity area of about 10,000 square meters will provide better communication space for surrounding enterprises; an exhibition center that can hold large-scale conferences and small and medium-sized exhibitions is also being planned to meet the high-end conference needs of surrounding universities and "big factories"; Jiangwan Stadium will usher in an upgrade and renovation to provide citizens with more diverse sports experiences...

Moreover, Great Knowledge & Innovation will also comprehensively build the "one axis and one line" of Great Knowledge & Innovation with the goal of "deeply integrating into the global innovation chain and creating an innovative ecology for Yangpu's scientific and technological innovation industries." The "one axis" refers to the University Road science and technology innovation block axis, and the "one line" refers to the Great Knowledge & Innovation green axis, opening up a fertile ground for entrepreneurs who are pursuing their dreams.