In the Lin猗 County demonstration park spanning the Yellow River's golden triangle, cleaning robots glide along predetermined paths while robotic arms in neighboring workshops assemble magnetic powder cores of varied shapes—rings, columns, blocks—in steady succession. The hum of machinery blends with the bustle of workers, painting a vivid picture of industrial vitality.
This is Yuncheng, where over 4,600 years ago, early Chinese civilizations harvested natural crystalline salt from local pools, beginning a chapter of history that earned the region its enduring claim as "the earliest place called China." Today, this city, home to 102 nationally protected cultural heritage sites, is redefining its economic landscape through what locals call "Hegic Biomaterials"—a strategic framework combining four pillars: "He" for deep integration of information technology with manufacturing, "Qi" for the automotive industry, "Sheng" for biomedicine and health, and "Cai" for advanced materials.
Digital Transformation Reshapes Manufacturing's Core
At Shanxi Xingchen Yunru Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., the showroom displays vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing drones, inspection robots, and cleaning robots in orderly formation. In the production area, assembly lines for intelligent cleaning robots operate with precision, each step from screws to circuit boards adhering to strict standards. "We build robots that genuinely work," explains Zhong Xianfa, marketing head at the company. "Our focus is on deep adaptation to B2B and specialized industrial scenarios." The company's platform-based approach allows different algorithms to be deployed for various applications.
Why did this tech firm choose Lin猗 County? Zhong credits the supportive business environment and policies. The local innovation park offers standardized rental factories, talent housing, and a "plug-and-play" setup with lower rent and labor costs, plus incentives for investment and taxation. Operating on a "Shenzhen headquarters R&D + local validation and application" model, the company achieved 80 million yuan in output within its first year of production starting April 2025, with projections exceeding 100 million yuan by 2026. Plans are underway for an annual production capacity of 80,000 functional robots and 500,000 smart sensors, with phase two slated for 2027.
Building the Heart's Protective Shell for Engines
Inside Yaxinke International Casting (Yuncheng) Co., Ltd., waves of heat roll through the workshop in the Yuncheng Economic and Technological Development Zone. Core assembly robots, core-setting robots, and handling robots work in coordinated motion while a "smart factory cockpit" display shows real-time data on output and quality rates. This foundry specializes in heavy-duty engine cylinder blocks and heads, with an annual capacity of 120,000 tons, serving major clients like Cummins, Caterpillar, FAW Jiefang, Dongfeng Motor, and Sinotruk.
In 2021, the company invested 1.05 billion yuan to build a 272.79-mu facility with a 60,000-ton annual output of automotive parts. "Order volumes are so high that our existing capacity couldn't meet demand," says staff member Han Longfei. "To expand, we responded to Yuncheng's investment attraction policies and set up here." If the engine is a car's heart, the cylinder block and head are the protective shell—their quality directly determines performance and longevity. Current monthly output has reached 3,000 to 4,000 tons, with 2025 production value hitting 1.52 billion yuan and first-half 2026 output at 1.126 billion yuan.
This company is not alone in Yuncheng's automotive sector. Multiple vehicle manufacturers and key component suppliers are working in concert, establishing a complete industrial chain from metal smelting and casting through machining, parts, assemblies, and finished vehicles.
From a Single Herb to a Proven Remedy
Yuncheng boasts a long history of traditional Chinese medicine cultivation. Varieties like Polygala, Scutellaria, Bupleurum, and Chrysanthemum—among the "seven signature herbs of Yuncheng"—hold significant national market shares. The city has developed six 10,000-mu demonstration bases and 200,000 mu of standardized production fields.
At Yabao Pharmaceutical Group in Ruicheng County, high-precision automated equipment produces Dinggui Erqi patches. From raw material feeding, mixing, extraction, twisting, packaging, and inspection, the entire 86-station line with over 2,000 sensors ensures precise quality control. The line produces 600 patches per minute, selling 100 million annually with a maximum capacity of 300 million. In this vast workshop, only about 40 workers monitor screen parameters. In 2024, Yabao invested 100 million yuan in a new oral soft-bag intelligent production line at Ruicheng Industrial Park, with annual capacity of 300 million bags.
"We allocate 5% to 8% of annual sales revenue to R&D and innovation," says Niu Huimin, general manager of Yabao's Ruicheng Industrial Park. The Yabao brand has been listed among the first batch of "Shanxi Consumer Quality Products," achieving 2.24 billion yuan in revenue in 2025. The company earned the "National Advanced Collective in Industry and Information Technology" honor—the only pharmaceutical firm in Shanxi to receive this recognition.
In Wanrong County, Shanxi Huakang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a national key agricultural industrialization leader, uses a "company + base + rural labor" model to cultivate over 20 herbal varieties including Bupleurum and Scutellaria, boosting income for more than 15,000 farming households. From a field herb to a factory-produced medicine to a patient's prescription, Yuncheng's "traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces—formula granules—injections" chain is rapidly expanding. The city now hosts 26 large-scale pharmaceutical processing enterprises, generating 5.45 billion yuan in revenue in 2025.
From Selling by the Ton to Selling by the Piece
Advanced materials represent the centerpiece of Yuncheng's transformation. Historically, the city exported aluminum, magnesium, copper, and specialty steel in raw forms like ore and ingots, priced by weight. Now, a quiet revolution is shifting from "selling by the ton" to "selling by the piece."
At Shanxi Dongmu Magnetic Materials Co., Ltd. in the Lin猗 Modern Agriculture Demonstration Zone, high-purity reduced iron powder undergoes insulation coating, pressing, and sintering to become magnetically sensitive components sold individually. These find use in home appliances, new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and 5G communications. The company invested 150 million yuan to upgrade over 100 machines, boosting daily capacity from 800,000 to 1 million pieces with automation penetration exceeding 80%. "With robotic arms, one worker can manage over five presses, and the yield rate has improved by about 10%," says Yao Lei, head of the company's comprehensive department.
From iron-based magnetic components to rare-earth permanent magnets, Yuncheng's magnetic materials sector is advancing on multiple fronts. Zhongci Technology Co., Ltd., which started as a small plant in Wanrong County in 2002, has grown into one of China's largest single-factory producers of high-performance sintered NdFeB permanent magnets, with the most complete process chain and annual capacity of 12,000 tons. "Despite the equipment's size, it consumes precisely proportioned 'fine ingredients'—iron, boron, cobalt, and rare earths," explains technical department head Wei Jiang. NdFeB, known as the "king of magnets," can have ordinary N35 grades lift objects over 600 times their own weight. In the sorting workshop, automatic magnetizers hum as hub motor magnets—less than a tenth of a palm's size—emerge from the line. Many electric bicycles on city streets run on these "power hearts." In 2022, the hub motor magnets won the national "Manufacturing Single Champion" title; in 2024, the company earned "National Green Factory" status. In 2025, Zhongci produced 12,257 tons of blanks, generating 1.7 billion yuan in value.
This transformation extends beyond isolated examples. Shanxi North Copper New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. processes cathode copper into 6-micron "hand-torn copper foil" with single rolls exceeding 20,000 meters. Yinguang Huasheng Magnesium Industry Co., Ltd. has pivoted from selling magnesium ingots to die-cast components used in aerospace and national strategic projects. The shift from "selling by the ton" to "selling by the piece" marks Yuncheng's departure from the crude path of raw material exports toward a sophisticated route of technology and precision.
From Salt City to Innovation Hub: A Millennial Leap
Yuncheng derives its name from salt. Over 4,600 years of salt pool extraction served as a fiscal pillar for successive dynasties. The titles "the earliest place called China" and "the first city of national treasures" have enriched this region's cultural legacy. Meanwhile, its relative scarcity of coal has paradoxically spurred earlier industrial transformation awareness.
In 2021, Yuncheng introduced the "Hegic Biomaterials" strategy, upgrading it in 2025 to "strengthen and expand." Over five years, this framework has become a catalyst for industrial high-quality development. This is not a simple aggregation of four sectors but an interconnected, mutually reinforcing ecosystem. Information technology provides the intelligent foundation for automotive, pharmaceutical, and materials industries; the automotive sector offers application scenarios for new materials; biomedicine is rooted in herbal cultivation traditions while undergoing modern advancement; and advanced materials feed back into automotive lightweighting and high-end equipment upgrades. This chain-based approach enables weak industries to be strengthened, advantageous ones extended, traditional ones elevated, and emerging ones established.
The numbers testify to this transformation's depth. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Yuncheng's GDP grew from 165.45 billion yuan to 224.80 billion yuan, averaging 5.9% annual growth. In 2025, GDP growth reached 6.0%, surpassing both national and provincial averages. The number of large-scale industrial enterprises and strategic emerging enterprises both doubled within five years, with strategic emerging industries contributing 22.4% of added value. The city now hosts six national-level enterprise technology centers, 17 advanced-level smart factories, and four national-level manufacturing single champions.
As 2026 ushers in the 15th Five-Year Plan, Yuncheng is targeting the "One City, Two Zones, Three Gateways" vision, accelerating its role as a priority destination for industrial transfer, a tourism hotspot, and an inland opening-up hub. From a salt transport city to a "city of good fortune," from millennium-old salt pools to "Hegic Biomaterials," this "first city of national treasures" is proving to the world that even the most ancient lands can nurture the most cutting-edge industrial strength.