Steel blast furnaces have been reborn as digital showcases; Winter Olympic legacies renewed as future-ready scenes; and the industrial rust belt risen into an intelligent hub. Seeds of future industries have taken deep root in Shougang Park’s fertile ground, growing rapidly to shape a vivid, clear vision of a world-class innovation hub for future digital spaces.

On January 30, 2026, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a collective study to plan and develop future industries. Just 10 days later, on February 9, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the National IT Application Innovation Park in Beijing E-Town, focusing on innovation in information technology and the construction of the International Center for Science & Technology Innovation. These two major events at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period sent a clear signal: future industries are not optional—they are a must for national competitiveness and high-quality development, with unprecedented strategic importance and urgency.

Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, Shougang Group has built on its transformation journey and leveraged Shougang Park’s unique strength in revitalizing industrial heritage while advancing digital innovation. Aligning closely with national strategies, Shougang supports Beijing’s goals to build the “Top AI City,” a global digital economy benchmark, and a world-leading Zhongguancun Science Park. Taking the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone as its strategic pillar, Shougang has laid out future industries ahead of the curve, deepened urban renewal and industrial upgrading, and continuously contributed to the capital’s growth and the Beijing International Center for Science & Technology Innovation.

Strategic Early Moves: Future Industries Gather Momentum

Positioning for future industries is a strategic choice to create new opportunities amid change—requiring long-term vision, careful planning, and decisive action. Even while supporting the Winter Olympics, Shougang was already planning and positioning for future industries.

Since 2020, the China Science Fiction Convention, China’s most authoritative, large-scale, and cutting-edge sci-fi industry event, has been held in Shougang Park for five consecutive years. It has drawn global creators, researchers, and investors, gathering massive resources for the park’s sci-fi sector. In 2022, the ZGC Science Fiction Industry Innovation Center, China’s first sci-fi metaverse incubator, officially settled in Shougang Park, further strengthening the industrial foundation. In 2023, public tech platforms for VR including light-field imaging, motion capture, and spatial audio were launched, enabling low-cost, high-efficiency R&D for park enterprises. In 2024, leading sci-fi and metaverse firm China Mobile Migu and top gaming company Happy Elements established operations in the park. Thus, the industrial base expanded, supporting enterprises clustered along the value chain, and cluster effects for sci-fi metaverse and esports began to emerge.

After years of dedicated positioning and accumulated momentum, 2025 marked a milestone for future industries in Shougang Park: the official inauguration of the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone. This key strategic move by the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Government upgraded Shougang Park’s industrial level, represented a milestone for the “Two Parks and One River” initiative, and formed the latest strategic layout for the Beijing International Center for Science & Technology Innovation. Riding this momentum, future industries in Shougang Park accelerated and scaled up. By the end of 2025, more than 1,000 enterprises had settled in the park, with tech enterprises accounting for 67.6%. They cover sci-fi metaverse, intelligent robotics, virtual reality, gaming and esports, and next-generation IT, with an industrial scale of nearly RMB80 billion. High-quality enterprises with relevant certifications, including national high-tech, specialized and sophisticated, and gazelle enterprises, exceeded 190. More than 10 public industrial tech platforms are in operation, forming an innovation system of “leading enterprises + clustered SMEs + tiered growth.”

From strategic early planning aligned with national goals to achieving industrial scale, Shougang Park has become the core carrier of Beijing’s “one core, multiple nodes” sci-fi industry layout, accelerating the development of future industries. A mission-driven, future-oriented new landscape of digital economy is unfolding rapidly across Shougang Park.

Mid-Game Momentum: Innovation Clusters Grow and Integrate

In the early spring of the first year for the 15th Five-Year Plan, a wave of innovation surged from Shougang Park: the domestic game Counter War: The Future held its launch event, blending industrial domes with sci-fi visuals; Unitree Robotics, Noetix Robotics, and Galbot appeared on CCTV Spring Festival Gala with cutting-edge tech displays; government, university, and enterprise representatives gathered to plan the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone; highlighting “Cultural-Intelligent Symbiosis and Holistic Revitalization”, Shijingshan District’s “Cultural Tech Nexus” was named among Beijing’s first four AI Innovation Blocks. All of these innovation milestones originated in Shougang Park.

Shougang Park’s unique landscape—mountains, water, Winter Olympic legacy, and industrial heritage—provides exceptional physical space and real-world scenarios for future industries. Based on the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone, Shougang aligns with national strategies and the capital’s functional positioning, focusing on key sectors of new quality productive forces. It continues to attract investment and talent for future industries, complete industrial chains, and strengthen collaborative innovation. In pursuing high-quality development, Shougang’s transformation resonates and aligns with the capital’s progress. A dynamic, distinctive ecosystem for future industries is taking shape in Shougang Park.

With regard to sci-fi metaverse and virtual reality domain, Shougang Park has gathered nearly 200 enterprises, with output exceeding RMB10 billion in 2025, covering a complete industrial chain of content creation, computing power, display and interaction, platforms, and scenario applications. For gaming and esports, leading firms including Happy Elements, S-game, and Lumverse have settled here, alongside Dragon Ranger Gaming. The park has hosted the China Esports Industry Annual Conference, SNK Championship Series, and more. The former Winter Olympics short-track speed skating arena was renovated into the Shougang Park Esports Center, enabling sustainable use of Olympic heritage while building a comprehensive esports ecosystem of top tournaments, content creation, talent training, and industry cooperation. In the field of robotics, the 88,000-square-meter former Winter Olympics Organizing Committee office area serves as the core, supporting a “one Base + one Center + one Fund” model, namely one industrial base, one data training center, and one industrial development fund. More than 50 robotics enterprises have moved in, including INSPIRE-ROBOTS, RealMan, and NARWAL, covering data, algorithms, robot bodies, and core components. Beijing’s first humanoid robot data training center is located here, forming a closed-loop “data–training–scenario” system that produces more than one million high-value multimodal real data sets annually. Shougang has also invested in leading robotics firms, products of which won 12 gold medals and 37 total medals at the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games.

For industrial innovation, a shift from “physical gathering” to “chemical integration” has taken place, which relies on a precise and efficient service system. To realize tech empowerment, with support from municipal and district governments, the park has launched high-level public tech platforms including light-field imaging, motion capture, and spatial audio, offering full-chain technical support for enterprises. To facilitate incubation, the “Zhongguancun Tongli Sci-Fi Metaverse Incubator”, Beijing’s only metaverse-themed benchmark incubator, has been established. The park also formed China’s first sci-fi industry innovation consortium, launched the nation’s first sci-fi industry fund with Shijingshan District, and founded the AI metaverse digital IP ecosystem alliance. Startups in the sci-fi metaverse sector receive full-cycle incubation: office space, technical support, capital access, and policy guidance. For industry-university-research cooperation, the park has partnered with Communication University of China and Beijing Normal University to establish the “Beijing Key Laboratory of Sci-Fi Film and Intelligent Imaging” and the “Beijing Key Laboratory of Sci-Fi Digital Audio-Visual Space”, aligning R&D closely with industrial needs.

Today, led by the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone, Shougang Park focuses on future industries including sci-fi metaverse, gaming and esports, VR, and intelligent robotics. It continues to attract resources, improve the industrial ecosystem, enrich scenarios, and upgrade services. Future industries are growing with higher capacity, stronger clusters, a more complete ecosystem, and more diverse applications—accelerating toward a 100-billion-yuan sci-tech innovation cluster.

Overall Strategy

Embarking on a New Journey of Digital Space Development

Building on early strategic positioning and mid-game momentum, Shougang Park will continue to draw on its century of industrial heritage and Winter Olympic legacy to unlock the full potential of future industries. With the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone as its core, Shougang will plan comprehensively, accelerate resource integration, scenario implementation, and ecological coordination, and build a full-chain innovation system for the digital space industry. This will strongly power Beijing’s development as an International Center for Science & Technology Innovation and a global digital economy benchmark city.

Anchored in future industries, Shougang Park will attract even more resources. Focusing on sci-fi metaverse, esports, VR, and robotics, it will integrate deeply into the Zhongguancun innovation system, forming a distinctive, complementary digital space industry matrix. This will foster new growth engines for Beijing, support its global digital economy benchmark status, and strengthen the construction of world-leading Zhongguancun Science Park.

To support commercialization of technology innovation results, Shougang Park will provide increasingly diverse application scenarios. Based on the “Exhibition Town” and “Esports Center,” it will blend industrial heritage with cutting-edge digital technology to launch new, interactive tech consumption experiences. The Innovation Pilot Zone will become a key showcase for Beijing’s future industries and Zhongguancun’s innovation strength.

Focused on high-quality development, Shougang Park will keep upgrading its industrial ecosystem. It will introduce landmark projects, achieve key technological breakthroughs, and launch high-level innovation carriers including public tech platforms, benchmark incubators, and key laboratories. Catering to enterprises’ full-cycle growth needs, it will enhance value-added services and build a sound ecosystem for digital space industries’ high-quality development.

Future industries are deeply clustered and thriving in Shougang Park, attracting high-quality consumer resources and famous IPs from cutting-edge sectors. Industrial capacity and consumption vitality have risen together, creating a strong dynamic of “flourishing industries, high popularity, and booming consumption.” In 2025, Shougang Park hosted more than 240 events with over 100 participants each and 19 with over 10,000 participants each, including CIFTIS, the China Science Fiction Convention, and WTT China Smash. It held 50 exhibitions with a total contracted area of 2.67 million square meters—about 15% of Beijing’s total exhibition space. More than 130 consumer businesses operate in the park, which welcomed over 14 million visitors and became one of Beijing’s 29 urban consumption centers. It has earned titles including National Night Cultural and Tourism Consumption Agglomeration Zone, Global Premiere Center, and “National New Tourism Landmark,” making it a major cultural, tourism, and consumption hub in the capital.

A century of industrial heritage lives on; Winter Olympic glory shines bright; and the digital tide surges forward. On this land of steel and history, old factories coexist with future industries, and industrial culture blends deeply with digital intelligence. A new era of transformation and renewal is unfolding, and a magnificent vision of future industries is taking shape. Planning for the whole city through one park, serving the whole city with one park—Shougang Park will take the Beijing Future Digital Space Innovation Pilot Zone as its core pillar and Beijing’s AI Innovation Blocks as key support. It will bravely shoulder its mission, strive to build the Shougang highland of the Beijing International Center for Science & Technology Innovation, become a new growth pole for the capital’s future industries, and create a world-class new landmark of urban renewal. In doing so, Shougang will contribute fully to Beijing’s accelerated development as the “Top AI City.”