Nestled along the upper reaches of the Yellow River in central Gansu Province, Baiyin stands as China's sole city named after a precious metal, its very identity forged from the mines that built it. As a pioneering pillar of New China's non-ferrous metal industry, this historic hub once held the national crown for copper output, production value, and tax revenue for 18 consecutive years, earning it the moniker "Copper City." Now, as the 15th Five-Year Plan period dawns, this storied industrial base is penning a new chapter of transformation along the river's edge, one defined by a resilient and comprehensive industrial ecosystem.
On August 21st, at a provincial press conference themed around the 15th Five-Year Plan's opening, Baiyin's acting mayor, Wang Yang, unveiled the city's strategic roadmap. The plan centers on driving industrial upgrades, fortifying a robust industrial framework, intensifying efforts to bolster the industrial sector, and cultivating new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions. The city aims to construct a modern industrial cluster system, with a target to double its total industrial output value, surpassing 250 billion yuan by the end of the plan period, while raising the share of strategic emerging industries' added value to over 15% of the total above-scale industry.
Where the transformation begins
Industry is the bedrock of Baiyin and the primary arena for its transformation. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the city will pivot towards high-end, intelligent, and green development, vigorously implementing technological upgrades and equipment renewals. Efforts will focus on optimizing and enhancing traditional sectors like non-ferrous metals, rare earths, circular chemicals, and building materials, while nurturing emerging industries such as new materials, new energy, intelligent equipment, and biomedicine. The city is also strategically positioning itself for future industries, including hydrogen energy, new energy storage, frontier materials, and artificial intelligence.
In the non-ferrous and rare earth sector, a chain-strengthening initiative will accelerate projects in high-conductivity materials, recycled copper and aluminum, and rare earth metal capacity expansion. The goal is to scale up the production of rare and dispersed metals like rhenium, tellurium, bismuth, and zirconium, pushing them towards higher purity and larger scale. In circular chemicals, the focus will be on three key areas: phosgene chemistry, inorganic salt chemistry, and modern coal chemistry, with projects like specialty polycarbonate and electronic-grade lithium fluoride extending the value chain. The new energy sector will see the implementation of a "New Energy Plus" action, promoting the integrated development of source, grid, load, and storage, accelerating the construction of zero-carbon industrial parks, and building a clean energy base with a capacity of ten million kilowatts. Concurrently, forward-looking plans for long-duration energy storage, artificial intelligence, and biological manufacturing are being laid to seize the high ground of future development.
From local specialties to national treasures
The Yellow River meanders through Baiyin for 258 kilometers, providing a unique advantage for agriculture. The city plans to apply industrial thinking to farming, aiming to create a modern agricultural development hub along the river. This includes implementing projects to increase grain yields and building high-standard farmland to ensure the sowing area remains stable at over 3.95 million mu and total grain output exceeds 1 million tons. The strategy emphasizes a full-industry-chain approach, linking agriculture with processing and sales. Key industries such as beef and mutton, vegetables and melons, wolfberries, yellowhorn, and miscellaneous grains will be prioritized. The ambition is to cultivate four industry chains—vegetables and melons, beef, mutton, and pork—each exceeding 10 billion yuan in value, and three chains—wolfberry, yellowhorn, and potato—each surpassing 5 billion yuan. The total output value of these featured industries is targeted to break 60 billion yuan.
Furthermore, Baiyin will strengthen regional public brands like "Jingyuan Lamb" and "Jingtai Tiaoshan Pear," alongside the "Gansu Flavor" corporate brand, to introduce more high-quality local agricultural products to the national and global stage.
Forging a strong backbone with soft services
The service sector is crucial for connecting the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. Leveraging its role as a national pilot city for modern commercial circulation systems, Baiyin will accelerate the construction of a modern logistics system with a "one core, three belts, five nodes" framework. Agricultural services will be enhanced with improved machinery trusteeship, warehousing and preservation, and production-sales connectivity, alongside the adoption of smart agricultural machinery and drones. For industrial services, the focus will be on boosting R&D, inspection and testing, and supply chain management, while expanding intelligent services like the industrial internet, digital transformation, and smart operations and maintenance. Consumer services such as retail, dining, accommodation, housekeeping, and elderly care will be upgraded for greater convenience. The "Incredible Baiyin on the Yellow River" cultural tourism brand will be polished, with efforts to develop the Yellow River Stone Forest into a 5A-level scenic spot, creating a high-quality, multi-functional tourist destination in the upper reaches of the river.
Baiyin's journey from a resource-dependent "Copper City" to a diversified "new engine" is underway. Ge Yonghong, the city's executive vice mayor, emphasized that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Baiyin will focus on creating a development pattern of "three places and one pole," guided by new quality productive forces. The path forward involves deep integration of technological and industrial innovation, with a new type of industrialization as the lead and the coupled coordination of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries as the path, all aimed at accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system. With Lanzhou and Baiyin so close, and the scenery so beautiful, a new picture of an old industrial base's transformation is gradually unfolding on the banks of the Yellow River.