An aerial view of Mengqi Town in Yuhang district, Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/IC]

Located in the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, East China's Zhejiang province, Mengqi Town (literally"a habitat for a design dream") was designated as a provincial characteristic town in 2016 and is China's first such town to focus on high-end machinery and equipment design. As of November 2020, the town completed a total of 7.59 billion yuan ($1.17 billion) in fixed-asset investment, gathered nearly 500 design projects, and drew more than 3,300 talents.

With a design center as the core area of the town, Mengqi Town has made great efforts to create two industrial design demonstration zones. Specifically, it has built the China Industrial Design Institute, held the World Industrial Design Conference twice, and established the world's first open university of design in cooperation with the China Industrial Design Association. Besides, it has also cooperated with the Zhejiang Industrial Design Association to build a base providing industrial design innovation services province-wide. 

In addition, Mengqi Town has launched a program to reshape the traditional design industry and cooperated with traditional manufacturing enterprises to tailor products and plan production chain upgrading, bringing about transformation of the traditional design industry. Moreover, the town has built the Open University of Design to cultivate design talents and established China's first public service platform of intellectual property pertaining to industrial design.

Mengqi Town has also held many design activities and created design atmospheres to improve its fame and build a reputation as the No 1 industrial design town in China. It has also drawn talents by strengthening its interactions with the authorities in charge of the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City for construction of an art gallery that showcases the 5,000 years of Liangzhu culture.

Mengqi Town is located in the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/IC]

In the future, Mengxi Town will expand its industrial design scope to innovative design, switch from its government-led system to a market-oriented operation, and improve its hardware and software environments to become the center of China's industrial design, a highland of the world's industrial design, and a global resource integration platform.