Nestled in the western part of Chongqing's central urban area, Shapingba is a major district for science, education, culture, and healthcare in Chongqing, a key area of the Western (Chongqing) Science City, and the starting point of the New Western Land-Sea Corridor. Covering 396 square kilometers, it governs 26 towns and sub-districts (including four in the High-Tech Zone), with an urbanization rate of 97.18%. Home to 1.49 million residents with an average age of 35, Shapingba achieved a regional GDP of 113.94 billion yuan in 2023. The district is striving to establish itself as a central hub in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, a model for high-quality development, high-quality living, and efficient governance, and a leader in innovation-driven growth and inland openness.
Shapingba is steeped in a rich historical and cultural heritage. As an integral part of Chongqing’s historic city, Shapingba is the birthplace of Bayu culture, an important origin of wartime culture, and the source of inspiring “Hongyan Spirit” – the spirit of revolutionary martyrs in Red Crag (Hongyan). Recognized as one of the first national culturally advanced districts and a national leader in cultural heritage protection, Shapingba preserves over 70 wartime sites, including Linyuan (where the Chongqing Negotiations took place), Guo Moruo’s residence, and the “July 7 War of Resistance Against Japan” auditorium at National Central University. Sites like Baigongguan and Zhazidong are among the top ten red-themed tourism destinations in China and serve as patriotic education bases. Revolutionary martyrs such as Jiang Zhuyun, Wang Pu, and Chen Ran left a powerful legacy here with the “Eight Articles from Prison,” which still resonates as a call to future generations. Established in 1938, the Shaci Cultural Area was the most vibrant cultural hub during wartime, where one-eighth of the nation’s college students and teachers gathered, creating the celebrated “Shapingba School Lights” phenomenon. This district attracted luminaries like Xu Beihong, Zhang Boling, Bing Xin, and Ba Jin, who produced lasting works, such as The Water-fetching Ba People and Little Orange Lamp. The ancient town of Ciqikou, known as “Little Chongqing,” is a Chinese historical and cultural zone. Embracing the spirit of Hongyan, Shapingba also hosts the world’s largest indoor theater, the Chongqing 1949 Grand Theater, where the red-themed production Chongqing 1949 has been celebrated as a “National Immersive Performing Arts Demonstration Case.”
Hongyanhun Square
Ciqikou Ancient Town
Shapingba is richly endowed with resources that drive creativity and innovation. As the city’s educational epicenter, Shapingba boasts 16 higher education institutions, including Chongqing University and the Army Medical University. Additionally, it is home to 88 primary and secondary schools, including Chongqing No. 1 Middle School, Nankai Middle School, Chongqing No. 8 Secondary School, and Shuren Primary School. With a vibrant community of 470,000 students and teachers, Shapingba has been chosen as a pilot city for youth development nationwide, promoting the vision of a “City of Youth”. The district has launched four key initiatives – innovation center concentration, outcome transformation, platform quality improvement, and ecosystem optimization – bringing together provincial and ministerial-level R&D platforms such as the National Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission. Cutting-edge projects, including the 1491 Future Design and Innovation Center and the Intelligent Organ Manufacturing Engineering Research Center, are progressing rapidly. Shapingba's commitment to research and development is evident in its R&D spending intensity of 4.79%, which surpasses the city average by 2.43%. With a focus on application-oriented talent training and a balanced approach to cultivating and attracting talent, the district now boasts a talent pool of 400,000 people. Among them are 15 academicians of either the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering, over 4,000 top-level professionals, and more than 50 high-level research and development teams.
Chongqing University
Wuyun Quantum Laboratory
Shapingba shows distinguishing advantages in the level of openness. As the core hub and showcase for Chongqing’s inland openness, Shapingba launched China’s first China-Europe Express (Yuxinou) freight train in 2011 and its first New Land-Sea Corridor train in 2017, establishing a “four-way access” international corridor. The International Logistics Hub Park serves as the city’s multimodal transport railway port, housing Southwest China's largest railway marshaling station and Tuanjiecun Railway Container Center Station, as well as national-level open platforms like the Free Trade Zone, the China-Singapore Connectivity Project, and railway bonded logistics centers (type B). It is home to over 600 logistics enterprises, including Singapore’s Mapletree and America’s Prologis, and has the city’s first automobile import port, leading the country in vehicle imports at inland ports. By deepening institutional openness, Shapingba took the lead in exploring land trade rules. It issued the world's first International Letter of Credit for Railway Bills of Lading and promoted it nationwide, creating 13 innovation cases, including the One Bill System for multimodal transport and international rail mail delivery. It also issued Chongqing’s first Cross-Provincial Business License to support administrative reform in the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. The district’s foreign trade reached over 300 billion yuan, ranking first in the city.
Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park
Inland International Logistics Hub Exhibition Center
Shapingba boasts thriving specialized industries. As an important industrial base in Southwest China, the district is home to established brands such as Jialing Industry, Lifan Automotive, and Seres. It persists in advancing manufacturing, developing modern service industries, and promoting high-end, intelligent, and green industries. With Seres’ AITO M7 in production and Southwest Pharmaceutical undergoing a capacity upgrade, Shapingba has forged clusters in intelligent connected vehicles and biomedicine. It has attracted nine pharmaceutical enterprises, including AstraZeneca, Roche Diagnostics, and TOPGEN, leading in synthetic drugs, in-vitro diagnostics, and medical devices. The district’s large-scale industrial output totals 245.72 billion yuan, about one-tenth of the city’s total. It has developed a new landmark for West China’s consumption, with the nation’s first high-speed rail TOD complex, “Longfor Light Year”, and the Three Gorges Plaza Business District, designated a “National Night Culture and Tourism Consumption Cluster.” The district is constructing the West China Future Design Capital, home to over 100 companies specializing in architectural, industrial, software, and creative design. Aiming to build a supply chain finance ecosystem, Shapingba has attracted 35 financial institutions, including Meituan Financial Technology, Trip.com’s online micro-loan service, and Ruiyuan Private Equity, and is actively setting up a logistics trading center.
Longfor Light Year TOD
Seres New Energy Vehicle Global R&D Headquarters
Shapingba offers a livable and work-friendly environment. With the Jialing River winding through and Gele and Jinyun Mountains running north to south, Shapingba is a national health district, a national model city, and a “Natural Oxygen Bar of China.” It hosts three major high-speed rail hubs – Chongqingxi Railway Station, Shapingba Railway Station on the Chengdu-Chongqing High-Speed Rail, and the Science City Station (under construction) on the Second Chengdu-Chongqing High-speed Railway. The district has six railway lines (Chengdu-Chongqing High-Speed Rail, Suining-Chongqing Railway, Lanzhou-Chongqing Railway, Chongqing-Huaihua Railway, Chongqing-Xiangyang Railway, and Chongqing-Guiyang Railway), four highways (Chengdu-Chongqing Highway, Chongqing-Chengdu Highway, Chongqing-Suining Highway, and Chongqing Ring Highway), and eight rail transit lines (Line 1, Line 5, Line 9 and Loop Line in operation; Line 15, Line 27, Line 7, and Line 17 under construction), establishing itself as a critical transportation hub. The city unfolds as a landscape of dual cores, with its eastern and western areas reflecting both urban vitality and natural beauty. The eastern area is advancing the renewal of old neighborhoods and enhancing key districts like the Jialing Bay Area, creating beautiful scenery right on residents' doorsteps. Meanwhile, in the west, the new urban zone is developing three major hubs: an international logistics city, Qingfeng Science and Innovation City, and a high-quality international community. Centered around the Liangtan River, it is building a Hundred-Mile Ecological Corridor to become a place for peaceful living and prosperous work for scientists and entrepreneurs. In the central area, Gele Mountain serves as the “green lung” of Chongqing's main urban area, where efforts are underway to nurture brands of rural culture that fuse agriculture, culture, and tourism, creating a “pastoral paradise” across the countryside. Shapingba boasts seven nationally renowned Grade III hospitals, including Southwest Hospital and Xinqiao Hospital, along with 746 other healthcare facilities, ranking second in the metropolitan area in the 2023 citywide comprehensive health quality assessment, as public services continue to improve. With initiatives like the “Honoring the Spirit of Hongyan” program, projects focused on “anchoring governance in party-building”, and the Heshun Teahouse shortlisted as a national social governance innovation case, Shapingba is at the forefront of national innovation in governance practices. It has established the first national-level grassroots legislative liaison point in the region, been recognized as a model city for rule-of-law governance, and honored as a Peaceful China Demonstration Zone, with citizens' sense of happiness, security, and fulfillment steadily rising.
Chongqingxi Railway Station Gele Mountain National Forest Park
Urban Renewal
