A Digital City Rises in Ya’an, China

The 5th Big Data Application Practice Conference was held in China-Ya’an Big Data Industrial Park on July 29th, 2022. The conference prioritized focus on technological innovation and development of the big data industry, as well as the integrated development of big data with relevant industries and realms. The conference also explored and discussed the establishment of Ya’an as a regional big data industrial base to tap into the support of the guiding national strategies.

As one of the key big data industrial bases in western China, the Ya’an Big Data Industrial Park commenced operation on June 28th, 2019. With constructed machine rooms totaling over 150,000 square meters and more than 20,000 racks, Ya’an is currently the largest single big data center in Sichuan Province, boasting the highest construction standard and best cost-efficiency.

Ya’an, home to the industrial park, is also a charming city full of attractions. Not only is this city a birthplace of tea culture, it is also the first place in the world where the first giant panda was scientifically discovered.

Easy accessibility, comfortable environment, low operation costs and developed network are essential conditions that have convinced big data corporations to settle in the industrial park.

Transportation is extremely convenient in Ya’an, as Chengdu is within reach in one hour whether journeyed by rail or highway. The local annual average temperature of 15.6oC is conducive to natural heat dissipation and cooling of big data operation, resulting in reduction of power consumption. As one of the top ten hydropower bases in China, Ya’an’s power supply is guaranteed to be stable and reliable. The relatively low electricity cost can effectively cut operating costs of enterprises and achieve “zero carbon” emissions. At the same time, the Ya’an Big Data Industrial Park is directly connected to primary national backbone network hub nodes, and the developed communication network is instrumental to realizing data storage, trading, research and development, and application.

Upon the launch of the national “East Digital, West Computing” (that is, channeling data from the eastern areas to the western regions for storage and computing) project, the Ya’an big data industries have also ushered in opportunities for sustainable development. After three years of development, the 1st Data Center of Ya’an Big Data Industrial Park has commenced operation, the scale and volume of which are ranked first-class nationwide. The comprehensive operating cost of the industrial park amounts to only 60% of the average level in the Chengdu-Chongqing region, and it has already attracted an array of leading Chinese companies to set up operation in the park, including Alibaba, ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu and China Mobile. A total of 169 big data and related industry projects have been signed, with an accumulated investment of over 48 billion yuan.

It has been estimated that the digital economy of Ya’an will exceed 50 billion yuan by 2025. Ya’an will achieve breakthroughs in diversified cloud services, intelligent computing power, innovation applications and talents cultivation, deeply anchoring itself in the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing Dial-city Economic Circle and leveraging the industrial park’s construction of China-Yayun Digital Technology City to realize transformation from an industrial zone into a digital new city.

Source: China-Ya’an Big Data Industrial Park