China announces first patch of pioneering smart factories

China unveiled its first batch of pioneering smart factories at the 2025 World Intelligent Manufacturing Conference on Thursday in east China's Nanjing City, marking another push to advance smart manufacturing. A total of 15 factories made the inaugural list, covering key sectors including equipment manufacturing, raw materials, electronic information, and consumer goods.

According to officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, these factories integrate next-generation information technology, advanced manufacturing technology, and lean management concepts, representing the highest benchmark for intelligent manufacturing in China.

"The 15 pioneering smart factories, leveraging their respective strengths, have explored future manufacturing models of research and development, production, management, and services, developing new models and business forms such as shared manufacturing, extreme manufacturing, and island manufacturing," said Ao Li, chief engineer with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.

So far, China has built over 7,000 advanced smart factories. With intelligent upgrading completed, hundreds of factories have seen average product development cycle shortened by 29 percent, production efficiency increased by nearly 22 percent, and carbon emissions reduced by around 20 percent.

"In the future, persistently advancing the cultivation and development of smart factories will remain a key priority for a considerable period ahead, driving the intelligent and digital transformation of the entire manufacturing sector," said Su Bo, chair of the National Expert Committee on Intelligent Manufacturing.

China announces first patch of pioneering smart factories

Domestic travel in China hit record highs both in 2025 and during the 2026 Spring Festival holiday, Minister of Culture and Tourism Sun Yeli said on Saturday.

The minister made the statement in briefing news media on China's travel boom in the past year and this year's Spring Festival holiday running from Feb 15 to 23, at a press conference on people's livelihood on the sidelines of the fourth annual session of the 14th National People's Congress.

"This year's Spring Festival holiday saw a surge in China's culture and tourism market. During the nine-day holiday, the country recorded 596 million domestic tourist trips, with tourism spending surpassing 800 billion yuan (about 115.93 billion U.S. dollars), both setting new records," Sun said.

The travel surge during the Spring Festival holiday season was merely a snapshot, the minister said, adding that the past year witnessed thriving momentum across the culture and tourism sectors.

"Data show that the business revenue of enterprises above the designated size (those each with an annual revenue of 20 million yuan or more) in culture and related industries hit 15 trillion yuan in 2025, up 7.4 percent year on year, while their total profits reached 1.4 trillion yuan, up 6.5 percent year on year. In terms of tourism, domestic tourist trips by Chinese residents exceeded 6.5 billion, up more than 16 percent year on year, with tourism expenditure reaching 6.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.5 percent -- setting new records in both the volume and spending," Sun said.

The annual session of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, opened on Thursday and is scheduled to run till March 12.

China's domestic travel hits record highs in 2025: official