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

Public–Private Partnership

7 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

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

Tinghu District, Yancheng, Jiangsu · 21.6 mu · 1.44 ha

"No. 8 Xinsheng" Digital Technology Innovation Park — Repurposing a Vacant School, Yancheng

盐城市 8 号新生·数字科技创新园功能重塑

The vacant old campus of Yancheng No. 8 Middle School was rezoned from education to business office use and sold by public listing — with its buildings and a design scheme attached — to the district's urban investment company. A specialist operator turned classrooms into offices and labs and dormitories into talent apartments; 35 digital-technology firms now occupy 95% of the space.

Occupancy 0% → 95%

Laishan District, Yantai, Shandong · 47.4 mu · 3.16 ha

Upgrading the Shandong Port International Exchange Centre, Yantai

烟台市山东港口国际交流中心迭代更新

A disused 1980s seafront hotel owned by Yantai Port Group was demolished and rebuilt by the owner itself as an international conference and training centre. Without changing the land use or site area, the floor area ratio rose from 0.27 to 0.75 and about 9,400 m² of basement space was added.

Floor area ratio 0.27 → 0.75

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.

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

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

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