Case library · Unofficial English translation · Glossary

How Chinese cities are reusing
inefficient land

Twenty-nine case studies from the 2026 national collection on revitalizing existing and inefficiently used land — from aerospace parks on old textile sites to a soy sauce brewery that bought out its neighbours. Each case is translated in full, with its location, key figures and the land and planning tools it used.

Cases
29
Provinces
19
Themes
6
Land covered
29 km²

Geographic spread

Where the cases are located

Province-level administrative boundaries come from the site's local China boundary dataset; points show the case cities.

Points mark the city of each case, not the exact site. The boundary geometry is loaded locally; no third-party basemap tiles are used.

Clear

Government-led

17 cases

Liangxi District, Wuxi, Jiangsu · 3,735 mu · 249 ha

Industrial Upgrading of the Yangming Aerospace Industrial Park, Wuxi

无锡市扬名空天产业园产业升级

A 3,735-mu traditional industrial cluster in central Wuxi was consolidated by the district government and rebuilt by a state-owned platform as an "industrial community" for commercial aerospace. Multi-storey "skyscraper factories" raised the park-wide floor area ratio from under 0.8 to over 2.5, while tax revenue per mu tripled.

Park-wide floor area ratio below 0.8 → above 2.5

Paojiang, Shaoxing Binhai New Area, Shaoxing, Zhejiang · 6,988 mu · 465.9 ha

Urban Renewal of "Shaoxin Valley", Shaoxing

绍兴市“绍芯谷”城市更新

Shaoxing relocated dozens of dyeing and chemical plants across county boundaries to dedicated industrial zones, then redeveloped the vacated 6,988-mu Mahai area as "Shaoxin Valley" for semiconductor-related industries. A menu of "four categories, ten methods" let each landowner choose self-redevelopment, joint development, buy-out or exit instead of blanket government acquisition.

Average floor area ratio after self-redevelopment below 1.0 → above 2.0

Jin'an District, Fuzhou, Fujian · 5,325 mu · 355 ha

Upgrading the Fuxing Economic Development Zone, Fuzhou

福州市福兴经济开发区提质增效

A 30-year-old development zone in central Fuzhou, 80% built out, revitalized 1,100 mu of inefficient land without new construction-land quotas. Tools included a parcel-by-parcel data base, property-for-property swaps for expropriated warehouse owners, tiered 20–50-year industrial land leases and a much faster approval process.

Industrial output per mu 3.67 → 4.73 CNY million

Weiyang District, Xi'an, Shaanxi · 19,605 mu · 1,307 ha

Urban Renewal of the Tuanjie Area, Weiyang District, Xi'an

西安市未央区团结片区城市更新

A 13-square-kilometre area of northern Xi'an with fragmented tenure — approved-but-unsupplied land, land awaiting recovery and urban-village plots — was renewed under a city-funded, district-implemented joint land reserve. A railway park was opened up to surrounding streets, and TOD development was planned around metro stations.

Heping District, Shenyang, Liaoning · 6.9 mu · 0.46 ha

Reuse of a Vacant Former Bank Building for the Stomatological Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang

沈阳市医大附属口腔医院盘活利用

Three vacant office buildings on allocated land in central Shenyang were rezoned for healthcare and sold on the secondary land market — Liaoning's first online public listing with timed bidding for allocated land — to a neighbouring dental hospital, which converted them into a second campus without demolition.

Floor space brought back into use 0 → 19,078 m²

Jiao District, Jiamusi, Heilongjiang · 13.4 mu · 0.9 ha

Conservation and Reuse of the Textile Mill Workers' Housing, Jiamusi

佳木斯市纺织厂家属楼保护利用

Four 1952 Soviet-style workers' housing blocks, listed as historic buildings but rated structurally unsafe, were bought out from 217 households and converted into 189 affordable rental homes. The case presents this as China's first conversion of a listed historic building into affordable rental housing, with rents funding upkeep.

Xialu District, Huangshi, Hubei · 10 mu · 0.67 ha

"Workers' Teahouse + Happiness Canteen" — Reusing an Idle Warehouse, Huangshi

黄石市“工友茶馆+幸福食堂”功能提升

An empty steelworks-company warehouse beside an old workers' housing estate was turned into a retro teahouse and subsidized community canteen for older residents. Using a five-year transition policy that keeps the original owner and land use unchanged, the subdistrict office avoided any transfer of title and paid for the hard renovation, while an operator fitted it out and runs it.

Caofeidian New City, Tangshan, Hebei · 168 mu · 11.2 ha

Qinglong Lake Data Ecosystem Centre, Caofeidian, Tangshan

唐山市青龙湖数据生态中心改造升级

Land next to an oilfield production area, hemmed in by well sites and pipelines and left undeveloped, was taken back into the government reserve and rezoned as new-type industrial land combining research and manufacturing. Multi-storey factories cut the building footprint by about 77% compared with conventional single-storey layouts; more than 40 firms have moved in.

Factory footprint vs. conventional layout 73,736 → 16,936 m²

Bagongshan District, Huainan, Anhui · 346 mu · 23.1 ha

Repurposing the Bijiagang Coal Mine Site as a Green Food Industrial Park, Huainan

淮南市毕家岗矿区业态重塑

A coal mine closed in 2003 and ecologically restored in 2016 still sat idle because of overlapping tenure and an outdated mining land use. The district government recovered the land from the mining group, rezoned it, bundled factory land with utilities in a single supply package, and offers standard factories on a "lease first, transfer later" basis.

Floor area ratio 0.3 → above 1.5

Nankang District, Ganzhou, Jiangxi · 940 mu · 62.7 ha

Upgrading Old Furniture Industry Clusters in Nankang District, Ganzhou

赣州市南康区老旧家具产业集聚区集约提质

Three self-built furniture workshop clusters of tin sheds on 5–10-mu plots were re-plotted from 66 scattered holdings into 60 regular parcels. A transparent "land-share ratio" formula gave each firm net land in proportion to what it originally occupied, after deducting roads and fire lanes, so that firms could rebuild multi-storey factories themselves.

Average floor area ratio 0.5 → 2.0

Central urban area, Changchun, Jilin · 439 mu · 29.3 ha

Integrated Redevelopment of the Water Culture Ecological Park, Changchun

长春市水文化生态园一体化改造

Changchun's first waterworks (1932), closed in 2015, had become an informal public park but its land was still zoned industrial. The city took it into the reserve, allocated 25.95 ha back to the owner as parkland, and sold 3.33 ha of commercial and parking land as a bundle together with tourism and parking operating rights — a "combined supply" of land and concessions.

Guancheng Hui District, Zhengzhou, Henan · 46 mu · 3.07 ha

Bodu Xinxiang Historic and Cultural District, Zhengzhou

郑州市亳都新象历史文化街区活化利用

A vacant former college campus inside the protected core of the Shang dynasty capital site was acquired, rezoned for mixed commercial and cultural use, and sold with heritage obligations — height limits, street pattern and a performance bond — written into the land contract. The courtyard-style district opened in 2025 and drew over 500,000 visitors in its first holiday week.

Hejiang County, Luzhou, Sichuan · 698 mu · 46.5 ha

Revitalizing the Xianshi Soy Sauce Factory, Luzhou

泸州市先市酱油厂升级焕新

A heritage-listed soy sauce brewery in a Sichuan market town expanded by buying out neighbouring vacant houses and a disused state grain depot, and by acquiring small leftover plots by agreement. Residential and public-service land was rezoned to industrial land with 30% commercial use allowed, linking brewing, a museum, homestays and an old-street tourism district.

Phase 1 output 1,000 → 2,000 tonnes per year

Doilungdêqên District, Lhasa, Tibet · 23.1 mu · 1.54 ha

Organic Renewal of the Longteng Building, Doilungdêqên, Lhasa

拉萨市龙腾大厦有机更新

Two run-down plots with incomplete land records — allocated government land and an old start-up centre of unclear title — were merged, rezoned commercial and transferred to a district-owned company together with the buildings on them. A minimum investment of CNY 250 million was written into the land contract; the new mixed office, retail and talent-housing complex opened in 2024.

Floor space under 15,000 → 52,307 m²

Zhiqian Town, Jintan District, Changzhou, Jiangsu · 500 mu · 33.3 ha

Linking Rural Industries "Like Beads on a String" in Zhiqian Town, Jintan, Changzhou

常州市金坛区乡村产业“串珠成链”

A long, narrow crab-farming town with scattered small plots outside the urban development boundary revived about 500 mu of old village-enterprise land through 16 projects. Five industrial nodes along roads and rivers link processing, cold chain and logistics to the crab ponds; some collective land was contributed as equity, giving villages a share of rents.

Investment intensity 1.5 → 3.0 CNY million per mu

Yinan Economic Development Zone, Linyi, Shandong · 199 mu · 13.3 ha

Clearing and Redeveloping a Court-frozen Steel Pipe Plant in the Kelute Area, Yinan, Linyi

临沂市科鲁特片区腾退整备

A bankrupt steel pipe plant's 199-mu site was frozen by repeated court seizures. A county state-owned company bought the bank debt, had the court auction the land, won it, then subdivided it for four new manufacturers — all in production within 18 months of launch.

Floor area ratio 0.3 → above 1.2

Xiangtan Economic Development Zone, Xiangtan, Hunan · 1,510 mu · 100.7 ha

Revitalizing the Bankrupt Taifu Heavy Industry Site for Zoomlion, Xiangtan

湘潭市泰富重工整备焕新

A 1,510-mu heavy-machinery plant left empty by bankruptcy was taken over through court-supervised restructuring by Zoomlion, a firm whose products could use the existing sheds. Missing drawings and approvals were retro-fitted, and indicators were balanced across the area so a noisy test track could be moved away from homes — saving 300 mu of new land.

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