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

Private Enterprise

14 cases

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

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.

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.

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

Binhai New Area, Tianjin · 1,545 mu · 103 ha

Transforming a Logistics Park into the Tianjin International Agricultural Products Trading Centre

天津市国际农产品交易中心转型升级

Half-empty warehouse land in Tianjin's port area was rezoned for a wholesale agricultural market. Because national logistics policy lets wholesale-market land be valued at industrial rates, no land premium was payable on the change of use — saving the operator nearly CNY 600 million — and the remaining lease term carried over to 2061.

Floor space 100,000 → 770,000 m²

Qinhuai District, Nanjing, Jiangsu · 19.5 mu · 1.3 ha

Urban Renewal of Jinling Changlefang, Nanjing

南京市金陵长乐坊城市更新

A former knitwear factory turned Walmart, vacant since 2020 and next to the Confucius Temple area, had mixed allocated and sold land and 29,000 m² of unpermitted buildings. After penalties were imposed, the buildings were regularized, the owner paid CNY 233 million to convert allocated industrial land to commercial use, and the complex reopened as a culture-and-retail destination.

Floor space brought back into use 0 → about 40,000 m²

Shengshan Town, Cixi, Ningbo, Zhejiang · 48.2 mu · 3.21 ha

Joint Redevelopment of the Shengshan Innovation Park, Cixi, Ningbo

宁波市胜山创新园区联合改造

Three neighbouring bicycle-parts makers merged six small industrial parcels into one, rebuilt them together as multi-storey factories and shared roads, fire lanes and green space. Lease terms were aligned to a single expiry date, and after completion each building received its own title with shared land apportioned by floor area.

Floor area ratio 0.8 → 2.72

Chidian, Jinjiang, Quanzhou, Fujian · 206 mu · 13.8 ha

Parcel Merger and Term Extension for the Anta Jinjiang Smart Industrial Park, Quanzhou

泉州市安踏(中国)有限公司并宗开发

Sportswear maker Anta merged five adjacent industrial parcels bought between 2005 and 2024. A Jinjiang rule let the merged site take the longest remaining term (to 2074) rather than the shortest, for a top-up premium of CNY 6.4 million, and planning indicators were balanced across the merged site, raising the floor area ratio from 1.4 to 4.0.

Floor area ratio 1.4 → 4.0

Kunming Economic and Technological Development Zone, Kunming, Yunnan · 72.5 mu · 4.83 ha

Subdivision and Transfer of Surplus Industrial Land from Qicai Yunnan Qingfengxiang Tea, Kunming

昆明市七彩云南庆沣祥分割转让

A tea company that no longer needed 72.5 mu of its 163.8-mu industrial site had the surplus split off as a separate parcel and sold it on the secondary market to a developer of standard factories. Because the law requires 25% of investment to be completed before land can be transferred, the buyer was allowed to register the transfer in advance and start building, with final title issued once the threshold was met.

Original parcel 163.8 → 91.3 mu

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

Zhaijia Town, Linyi County, Dezhou, Shandong · 176 mu · 11.7 ha

Demolition and Renovation of a Bankrupt Packaging Plant for the Zhuoyue New Materials Industrial Park, Dezhou

德州市卓越高新材料产业园拆改结合

A new-materials company bought all the assets of a bankrupt packaging firm by negotiation, then had a court confirm the sale and lift encumbrances so title could be transferred. Existing buildings were assessed one by one — some kept and refitted, most rebuilt — and the project started construction 45 days after obtaining the land.

Floor area ratio below 0.3 → 1.02

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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