Shenzhen: the innovation engine that keeps compounding
Shenzhen closed 2025 with its gross domestic product reaching 3.873 trillion yuan, up 5.5 percent year on year in constant prices. That growth rate matters because it was the highest annual average growth rate among China’s first-tier cities, which also include Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou over the 2020 to 2025 period.
The city’s transformation from manufacturing base to technology hub shows up clearly in the numbers. The added value of Shenzhen’s strategic emerging industries reached 1.67 trillion yuan last year, accounting for 43 percent of the city’s GDP. Officials now expect the local economy to exceed 5 trillion yuan within the next five years during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, making it the third city in China after Beijing and Shanghai to reach that milestone.
Hefei: from provincial afterthought to double-trillion powerhouse
Few cities illustrate a two-decade turnaround as starkly as Hefei. Over that span, Hefei’s municipal district GDP reached 1.35077 trillion yuan in 2024, with a permanent population of 10.002 million, a scale that would have seemed unimaginable for a city once known mainly as a modest inland provincial capital.
The pace of the climb is just as telling as the size. In terms of GDP, Hefei ranked 47th among national cities in 2004, rose to 25th in 2014, and ranked 19th in 2024, climbing 28 places in twenty years, while among provincial capitals it rose from 16th to 10th. Much of that momentum came from industry: in the first three quarters of the most recent year, Hefei ranked first among trillion-level cities in industrial growth rate, reaching 15.2 percent, the highest in 44 months, with electronics and automobile manufacturing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Chongqing: heavy industry meets electric mobility
As one of China’s four municipalities under direct central government control, Chongqing has leaned heavily into new energy vehicles to keep its growth story alive. In 2025, the city’s GDP reached about 3.37 trillion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent, a figure that held up despite broader headwinds facing manufacturing-heavy regions.
The automotive sector has been the standout performer. During the first half of that year, the automotive sector’s value added increased by 8.4 percent, contributing 1.7 percentage points to GDP growth, while new energy vehicle production surged 25 percent to 489,300 units. Chongqing is now aiming for more of the same, having set a target of GDP growth above 5 percent for 2026.
Chengdu: the inland hub anchoring western China
Chengdu rarely gets the same attention as coastal giants, yet it anchors one of China’s most ambitious regional projects: the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. That combined region saw its GDP rise from 6.9 trillion yuan in 2019 to 9.7 trillion yuan in 2024, increasing its national share from 7.09 percent to 7.18 percent.
Manufacturing depth is a big part of the appeal here. The two cities together have jointly established four trillion-yuan industrial clusters including electronic information, equipment manufacturing, advanced materials, and specialty consumer goods, with the output of laptops in the area accounting for one-third of the global total. That kind of concentration is rare even by Chinese standards and explains why global electronics supply chains still route heavily through the Sichuan basin.
Hangzhou: the quiet tech capital behind the “Six Little Dragons”
Hangzhou has built its reputation less on smokestacks and more on code. In 2025, the city’s GDP reached 2.30 trillion yuan, up 5.2 percent year on year, a rate that was 0.2 percentage points higher than the national average.
The city’s tech scene has become something of a national talking point, with phenomenal new-generation tech enterprises like the “Hangzhou Six Little Dragons” garnering global attention. Household income growth has tracked the broader expansion too, with per capita disposable income reaching 80,017 yuan in 2025, up 4.2 percent, suggesting the gains are reaching residents rather than staying locked in corporate balance sheets.
Guangzhou: steady growth in China’s oldest trading port
Guangzhou’s story in recent years has been one of resilience rather than explosive expansion. As China’s fifth-largest urban economy and a major trading hub, the city has had to work through a soft patch in its auto industry while leaning on services and consumption policy to keep momentum going.
The numbers reflect that balancing act. Guangzhou’s economy reached CNY1.5 trillion in the first six months of a recent year, after growth accelerated from a 3 percent clip in the first quarter, with service sector output jumping 4.3 percent to CNY1.13 trillion. It is a reminder that even China’s oldest commercial gateway has to keep adapting to stay in the conversation alongside younger, faster-growing rivals.
Suzhou: the manufacturing giant next door to Shanghai
Suzhou often surprises people who assume Shanghai’s shadow limits its neighbors. In 2025, Suzhou achieved a GDP of 2,769.51 billion yuan, an increase of 5.4 percent year on year at constant prices, putting it among the handful of Chinese cities with an economy larger than many mid-sized countries.
Industry remains the backbone of that success. The contribution rate of the city’s industry to economic growth was 53.0 percent in 2025, and research intensity runs deep, with more than 90 percent of industrial enterprises above designated size in Suzhou having their own R&D institutes. The city’s foreign trade also held up well, with total import and export volume reaching 2.81 trillion yuan, up 7.4 percent.
Nantong: the Yangtze River Delta’s quiet overachiever
Nantong rarely makes international headlines, but its growth trajectory over the past decade tells a familiar story of Yangtze River Delta cities riding Shanghai’s coattails while building their own industrial identity. The city’s GDP grew from RMB 455.8 billion in 2012 to RMB 773.4 billion in 2017, representing a growth rate of 69.67 percent, and its industrial base has only diversified since.
Rather than resting on traditional strengths, Nantong has pushed into higher-value sectors. The city continues to develop its mainstay industries such as high-end textiles, electronic information, and marine engineering, while nurturing emerging industries including intelligent equipment, new materials, new energy, and new-energy vehicles. Its location has helped too, since being on the Yangtze River Delta has allowed Nantong to foster greater cooperation with other cities in the region, especially Shanghai.
Guiyang: from state-owned industry to a big data frontier
Guiyang is perhaps the least expected name on this list, and that is exactly what makes it worth including. Once dependent on heavy state-owned industry, the city has spent the past decade reinventing itself, and once reliant on state-owned industry, it is now emerging as a centre for big data.
Major technology firms have taken notice. Alibaba hosts a cloud-computing facility in the city, a new science park is in development, while state telecoms companies are investing in data centres. More recently, population data has reinforced the trend, with Guiyang’s provincial capital ranking second nationally in population growth, trailing only Hefei among China’s major inland cities.
What these cities reveal about China’s growth story
