Illustration of two chinese dragons whose bodies are shaped like graph lines facing off

Illustration: José Navarro

Jun 8th 2026|YICHUN AND YINGTAN|9 min read

IN YINGTAN, a city in the south-eastern province of Jiangxi, China’s high-tech future is spilling into its economically backward past. Old-fashioned open-air markets and street-side eateries make it feel like any other rural town in the Chinese interior. An industrial park to the south of the city, packed with companies working on technologies for industrial digitisation, gives off a techie vibe. A national communications laboratory has set up a state-of-the-art research centre nearby.

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