The narrative of Zhengzhou as a pivotal hub has been told for many years. High-speed rail networks shaped like the character "米", the China-Europe Railway Express, and the aviation port are the most prominent labels affixed to this city by the outside world. For years, leveraging its extensive transportation network, Zhengzhou has firmly held its position as a major inland transport hub. However, it long remained in the stage of "transit economy," merely serving as a conduit for goods and people flow, struggling to form a core competitive edge. Today, Zhengzhou is undergoing a transformative shift. Recently, a group of young editors and reporters engaged in an educational practice activity to enhance their capabilities visited Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. Through in-depth visits to key hub facilities and industrial frontlines, they captured the city's qualitative change: Zhengzhou is no longer content with being a "pass-through"; it is preparing for a decisive strike. What does this "final push" signify? It means the ball has been brought to the goalmouth, and the next step is to score. For Zhengzhou, this push is directed at transforming "flow-through" into "retained value," and "hub" into "engine."

Infrastructure Expands, But What It Carries Has Changed

On the large screen at the China-Europe Railway Express assembly and dispatch command centre, dense lines extend from Zhengzhou, passing through Kazakhstan, Russia, Poland, all the way to core European hubs like Hamburg. A cross-border logistics network connecting Europe and Asia is becoming increasingly mature. After years of dedicated hub development, Zhengzhou's corridor advantages have long been recognized at the national level. In July 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission allocated 2 billion yuan in central budget investment to support five cities, including Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi'an, and Urumqi, in developing demonstration projects for China-Europe Railway Express assembly centres. Zhengzhou was the only city in central and eastern China selected. This not only fully affirmed Zhengzhou's locational advantages but also provided strong support for its efforts to deepen the hub economy and build a national core for China-Europe Railway Express distribution. Relying on special support funds, Zhengzhou has continuously improved land port infrastructure, optimized train operation systems, and expanded its cross-border corridor network. Through years of cultivation and continuous iteration, Zhengzhou's hub capacity has been steadily upgraded. On July 1 this year, the Xinzheng Station in the Zhengzhou International Land Port Aviation Port Area added three scheduled routes, covering three core corridors: return trips from ASEAN, northbound ports, and westbound mainlines, taking its cross-border reach to a new level. On June 11, 2026, the inaugural Zhengzhou-Afghanistan Hilaron train successfully departed. "In the past, goods were unloaded upon arrival in Zhengzhou. Now it's different," explained on-site staff. "Goods come from all directions, are repackaged, consolidated, and integrated in Zhengzhou, and then uniformly loaded onto trains bound for the globe." This model is called consolidation. It fundamentally breaks the previous limitation of "transit and go," upgrading Zhengzhou from a mere transport corridor to a core distribution hub for Eurasian goods.

A step beyond consolidation is institutional innovation. Zhengzhou actively promotes new business models such as "cross-border e-commerce + air freight charters," "cross-border e-commerce + belly-hold cargo," and "cross-border e-commerce + TIR." It simultaneously implements innovative measures like electronic payment of retail import duties, electronic guarantees, and intelligent verification of purchaser information. These practices intertwine the "Digital Silk Road" with the iron-track Silk Road, transforming Zhengzhou from a physical hub into an information hub and data node. While corridor advantages are continuously solidified, the rise of local manufacturing truly grounds the value of the hub, bidding farewell to the "transit economy" for good. "The corridor is an advantage, but products are the real confidence. Only with hardcore, self-manufactured products can the hub corridor truly be utilized for one's own purposes," said a relevant person in charge of Yutong's overseas business. In 2025, Zhengzhou's automobile production reached 1.277 million vehicles, ranking it among China's top ten automotive cities. Yutong's new energy buses are exported to over 100 countries and regions worldwide, including the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, and Italy, with cumulative exports exceeding 130,000 units. "Made in Zhengzhou" vehicles are now a common sight on streets in many European and American countries. Logistics "brings in and sends out," manufacturing "produces and sells out." This two-way empowerment and deep integration has become the core starting point for Zhengzhou's transformation from a flow-through point to a flow-retention point, and from a transport hub to an industrial engine.

With Computing Power Activated, Robots Get to Work

If the transportation network is Zhengzhou's physical skeleton, then the computing power network is the city's digital lifeblood. Currently, Zhengzhou is promoting the bidirectional overlay and deep integration of physical channels and digital computing power, constructing a new pattern for intelligent industrial development. The national supercomputing internet core node has landed in Zhengzhou, where over sixty thousand domestic AI accelerator cards operate at high speeds. Here, computing power is no longer a scarce resource but a public infrastructure as accessible as water and electricity. Users can submit demands as needed, and the system intelligently matches and allocates resources. "Previously, when companies conducted AI training or big data computations, they had to purchase computing power from other regions, which was costly and had high latency. Now, local computing power is readily available, directly empowering all surrounding tech innovation enterprises," said a relevant person in charge of Sugon. The value of the computing power hub ultimately lands in industrial applications. At the Zhongyuan Heterogeneous Humanoid Robot 4S store, a robot is learning to clean strawberry seedlings. For one pot of strawberry seedlings, the algorithm needs thousands of annotations to accurately identify them. The massive computational power required for training is efficiently addressed by relying on the nearby supercomputing centre, providing solid support for the iterative upgrade of intelligent equipment. "Every precise recognition by the robot requires massive computing power to support iterative training," admitted on-site staff. The supercomputing resources at their doorstep provide core support for the landing of Zhengzhou's tech innovation industry and the iteration of its intelligent industry.

While computing power enables iteration, core components address the shortcomings of the intelligent industry. Hanwei Technology Group, rooted in Zhengzhou for 28 years, holds over 70% of China's gas sensor market share, firmly ranking first in the industry. Its developed robotic "electronic skin" can sense subtle touches, and its "electronic nose" can accurately distinguish dozens of odours, endowing intelligent robots with sensitive perception capabilities, allowing machines to "sense the world and understand the environment." Hardcore new materials, meanwhile, solve core pain points for intelligent devices. The Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding developed China's first artificial diamond as early as 1963. With over sixty years of deep industry experience and profound technical积淀, the team has found the optimal solution to the computing power heat dissipation bottleneck: using diamond to cool AI chips. Using the "hardest material" to solve the "hottest problems" for AI chips and high-frequency base stations safeguards the stable operation of intelligent hardware. The three industrial chains of computing power, sensing, and new materials tightly interlock and work synergistically, forming a closed-loop, empowering industrial ecosystem. In the first half of 2025, the transaction volume of technology contracts in Zhengzhou reached 56.03 billion yuan, with a large number of laboratory research results accelerating their path out of the lab and into the market. Relying on well-developed scientific and technological innovation factors, Zhengzhou is no longer just a physical hub for goods circulation but has become a "smart entity" hub for intelligent technology iteration, intelligent equipment growth, and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

The Final Push: From "Place to Pass Through" to "City to Depart From"

A true hub is never just a "passageway" but involves "restructuring and regeneration." Goods are reassembled here, data is exchanged here, and industries interconnect here. The aggregation and closed-loop of factors constitute the core competitiveness of Zhengzhou's hub economy. Intelligent connected vehicles are the best缩影 of Zhengzhou's industrial closed-loop formation. The L4-level autonomous driving microbus "Xiaoyu," independently developed by Yutong Bus, is already operating routinely on open roads in Zhengzhou. It can precisely meet the "last mile" commuting and transfer needs of the city. The vehicle is fully equipped with local sensors, onboard computing power, and vehicle-infrastructure cooperative systems, achieving full-chain localization support. The supercomputing centre, vehicle manufacturing, and core component enterprises interact in close proximity. Combined with the China-Europe Railway Express digital logistics system, they have successfully integrated the entire process from order placement, production, customs clearance, to overseas shipment. According to the deployment of this year's Zhengzhou Development and Reform Work Conference, efforts will focus on building a modern industrial system, coordinating the dual-drive of "establishing the city through manufacturing" and "strengthening the city through services," and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy. On one hand, Zhengzhou aims to consolidate the foundation of its local manufacturing industry. On the other hand, it seeks to leverage its hub advantages to strengthen producer services like cross-border logistics and digital services, promoting the aggregation and restructuring of factors like industry, computing power, and capital, forming a virtuous cycle of "manufacturing empowering circulation, and circulation nurturing industry."

Relying on its profound hub积淀 and industrial foundation, in July 2025, Henan Province announced the list for the construction of a pilot zone for the hub economy, clearly designating the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone and the Economic and Technological Development Zone as the core carriers for building a provincial-level hub economy pilot zone. From a transport corridor to an industrial hub, and further to a provincial-level demonstration model, Zhengzhou's urban strategic positioning continues to upgrade, providing a practical样板 for inland cities developing a hub economy. This "final push" in the hub economy is not aimed at a ball, but at a city's self-positioning. Zhengzhou is forging its own path: possessing hardcore manufacturing, digital computing power, and innovative vitality, transforming from a transit station everyone passes through into a departure city everyone heads towards.