ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of Zhangjiang – now a global innovation brand – from a ‘hi-tech park’ to a ‘science city’. It situates Zhangjiang’s evolution within China’s strategy to pursue its goal of becoming an innovative nation to drive economic restructuring. This provides the context for understanding the area’s growth, quantitatively and qualitatively. The chapter identifies and describes an innovation eco-system that has incubated and nurtured the hi-tech industry clusters in Zhangjiang and this eco-system’s key economic indicators. It documents Zhangjiang’s evolution in four stages, illustrating each stage’s distinctive development attributes, and the latest planning approaches to transforming a ‘park’ to a ‘city’. Zhangjiang lies in the centre of two national strategies in Pudong – a free trade zone and an innovation zone – and is strategised to become a National Science Centre and to lead Shanghai’s goal of becoming a global sci-tech innovation centre. The chapter concludes with reflections on Zhangjiang’s opportunities in the global innovation race and its challenges from competitor cities, overseas and at home.
