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Shengzhou city [Photo provided to enshaoxing.com]

Shengzhou city, located in the east of Zhejiang province, is home to the country's first counties (cities) to open up to the world. It is adjacent to Hangzhou in the north and to Ningbo in the east. Occupying some 1,789 square kilometers. The city has 10 towns, one village, four subdistricts, and 291 communities.

Shengzhou has various snacks and is honored as the "Famous City of Snack Culture in China". [Photo provided to enshaoxing.com]

Shengzhou enjoys a long history of more than 2,100 years that can be traced back to the Qin (221-206 BC) and Han (202 BC- AD 220) dynasties. It was established as a city in 1995. The city is home to a number of cultural celebrities, such as modern composer Ren Guang and educator Ma Yinchu. It is also the birthplace of Yueju Opera. At the ecological reserve of Yueju Opera, which has been listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage ecological reserve, visitors can get a glimpse at folk handicrafts such as clay figurines, bamboo weaving and wood carving, and have a taste of local specialties like steamed buns and fried rice cakes.

The city, surrounded by mountains and converging rivers, boasts beautiful natural landscape and a favorable climate. The forest coverage rate reaches 67.2 percent. Thanks to the pleasant natural environment, Shengzhou was an attractive tourism destination for more than 300 literati, including Li Bai and Du Fu, famous poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) who left poems about the city.

Charming night view in Shengzhou [Photo provided to enshaoxing.com]

Shengzhou enjoys a favorable location within the one-hour economic circle of Zhejiang province. The Shangyu-Sanmen and Ningbo-Jinhua expressways converge in the city. By the end of 2020, the city is expected to have two railway lines, three expressways, two national highways, two high-speed rail passenger stations, and one railway freight station. The major traffic projects like Hangzhou-Shaoxing-Taizhou Inter-city Railway and 500-ton Cao'e River Channel are under construction, turning the city into a traffic hub in eastern Zhejiang.

Shengzhou is well-known for three industry clusters – ties and other clothing elements, electrical appliances and kitchen ware, and mechanical and electrical equipment. As the world's biggest base for tie production, wholesale and export, it is home to more than 2,000 enterprises which can annually produce over 300 million ties, 90 percent of China's and 60 percent of the world's. There are also more than 500 enterprises engaged in electrical appliances and kitchen ware, including Siemens, Haier and Midea. The approximately 450 kitchen ware enterprises can annually produce 5.5 million gas stoves, 30 percent of the national capacity. It is China's biggest production base of electroacoustic accessories. It has about 2,000 enterprises that can annually produce over 30 million micromotors covering more than 1,000 kinds like energy-efficient motors and special electrical machines.

In 2025, Shengzhou recorded a GDP of 85.33 billion yuan ($11.96 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6.7 percent. The added value of the primary industry reached 4.83 billion yuan, up 4.2 percent; the secondary industry totaled 36.5 billion yuan, up 6.3 percent; and the tertiary industry reached 44 billion yuan, up 7.3 percent. The city’s per capita GDP was 122,155 yuan.

The total output value of the city's 771 industrial enterprises above a designated size increased by 3 percent year-on-year, while total industrial added value grew by 8.6 percent. In terms of foreign trade, Shengzhou's self-operated exports reached 12.43 billion yuan, representing a 9.9 percent year-on-year increase.

The per capita disposable income of Shengzhou residents reached 69,096 yuan in 2025, up 6 percent from the previous year. The per capita disposable income of urban residents was 83,652 yuan, a 5.6 percent increase, while that of rural residents was 48,427 yuan, up 6.3 percent.