Exploring China’s Silicon Valley Engine: A Travel Guide to Beijing’s “Three Cities and One District”

While foreign tourists wander through the red walls and ancient buildings of Beijing, another side of the city—the sci-tech matrix centered on the “Three Cities and One District”—is interpreting the charm of “China’s Silicon Valley” with strong strength. Zhongguancun Science City, Huairou Science City, Future Science City, and Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (Yizhuang) perform their respective duties and work together to form the core engine of Beijing’s sci-tech innovation. This area is not only a highland for R&D, but also hides many tangible and interactive sci-tech tourism resources, allowing tourists to understand the transformation code of Beijing from an ancient capital to a sci-tech famous city while experiencing cutting-edge technologies.

As the “source of original innovation” in the “Three Cities and One District”, Zhongguancun Science City is the preferred starting point to explore Beijing’s sci-tech vitality. This area, which undertakes the mission of China’s independent innovation, gathers leading tech enterprises such as Baidu and ByteDance, as well as the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center, a core tourist landmark. With the theme of “innovation-driven”, the exhibition hall comprehensively presents breakthrough achievements in artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and other fields through immersive interactive exhibits and cutting-edge technology demonstrations. Foreign tourists can experience real-time AI speech translation, autonomous driving simulation cabins, metaverse scene interaction and other projects here, feeling how technology reshapes life up close. The exhibition hall provides English interpretation services, taking about 1.5 hours in total. Every Saturday, it also holds a “Sci-Tech Open Day”, inviting enterprise engineers to share technical application cases on site. The surrounding Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street is full of youthful vitality, with maker spaces and tech cafes everywhere. You can sit here in the afternoon to feel the strong innovation atmosphere and meet entrepreneurs from all over the world.

If Zhongguancun focuses on “software innovation”, Huairou Science City highlights the “hard power” of sci-tech innovation with “large scientific installations”, making it a unique popular science tourist destination in the “Three Cities and One District”. It gathers world-class large scientific installations such as the High Energy Synchrotron Radiation Source and Huairou Quantum Science Center. These facilities, which are usually only open to researchers, regularly hold popular science open days for the public. Among them, the High Energy Synchrotron Radiation Source is known as a “super microscope”. Tourists can visit the main body of the device through an exclusive channel to learn how it uses synchrotron radiation to explore the microstructure of matter. Staff will explain scientific principles in simple language with English manuals. In addition, Huairou Science City has built a science-themed park, integrating abstract scientific knowledge into landscape design, with interesting check-in points such as quantum mazes and energy interaction devices, suitable for parent-child tourists or those interested in basic science. The surrounding Yanqi Lake Scenic Area is beautiful with mountains and clear water. After the tour, you can walk along the lake to feel the unique atmosphere of “coexistence of sci-tech and ecology”.

The core positioning of Future Science City is a “hub for achievement transformation”, which focuses more on transforming scientific research results into experiential products and services, suitable for tourists who hope to deeply understand the sci-tech industrial chain. The Future Science City Exhibition Center in the area shows the achievement transformation cases in fields such as biomedicine, new energy, and high-end equipment manufacturing along the context of “from laboratory to market”. Tourists can experience the health monitoring function of smart wearable devices, the power system demonstration of new energy vehicles, and even participate in the touch test of new materials. Some settled enterprises have set up open experience spaces. For example, the popular science exhibition hall of a biomedicine enterprise allows you to understand the vaccine R&D process through experimental simulation, and professional guides will explain the application of biopharmaceutical technology in English. The architectural style of Future Science City is both technological and practical, with clean and spacious streets. There are many characteristic restaurants integrating technological elements around, where you can taste creative foods such as molecular cuisine, allowing your taste buds to also feel the “sci-tech charm”.

As the “main position for high-end manufacturing”, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (Yizhuang) is the area with the closest integration of industry and tourism in the “Three Cities and One District”, focusing on core fields such as medical and health care, integrated circuits, and intelligent connected vehicles. The China Pharmaceutical Museum here is the first comprehensive medical and health museum in China, showing the development process from traditional Chinese medicine to modern biopharmaceuticals through cultural relic displays, experimental simulations, health popularization and other forms. Foreign tourists can experience interactive projects such as simulated traditional Chinese medicine processing techniques and genetic testing popularization. The museum is equipped with English guidebooks and interpretation services. In addition, the intelligent connected vehicle demonstration zone in Yizhuang allows tourists to book autonomous driving vehicle experiences, feeling cutting-edge driverless technology on designated road sections. Reservations need to be submitted through the official platform 3 days in advance. The surrounding Yizhuang New City Riverside Forest Park is an ecological secret in the industrial new city. In the evening, you can ride and walk here to enjoy the scenery of the setting sun and the lights of the industrial park reflecting each other.

A two-day tour route can be planned to connect the sci-tech tour of the “Three Cities and One District”, balancing in-depth experience and comfort. On the first day, focus on Zhongguancun Science City and Future Science City: go to the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone Exhibition Center in the morning to experience cutting-edge technologies; have a light meal on Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Street at noon; go to Future Science City in the afternoon to visit the Achievement Transformation Exhibition Center and experience interactive projects; return to the urban area in the evening and stay in a hotel near Wangfujing for convenient travel the next day. On the second day, go to Huairou Science City and Yizhuang: participate in the popular science activity of large scientific installations in Huairou Science City in the morning, and taste characteristic farm food near Yanqi Lake at noon; go to Yizhuang in the afternoon to visit the China Pharmaceutical Museum and book an autonomous driving experience; end the trip in the evening. You can choose to go to Daxing International Airport for the subsequent journey or return to the urban area to visit traditional landmarks.

It should be noted that some venues and experience projects in the “Three Cities and One District” need to be booked in advance: the English interpretation of the Zhongguancun Exhibition Center needs to be booked 1 day in advance, the open day of Huairou Science City needs to be registered through the official WeChat public account 3 days in advance, and the autonomous driving experience needs to be applied 3 days in advance with the note “foreign tourist”. In terms of transportation, Zhongguancun and Future Science City can be reached directly by subway, while Huairou Science City and Yizhuang are recommended to be reached by intercity railway or chartered car. Both subway and bus support Alipay and WeChat payment for tickets. It is advisable to wear comfortable casual clothes and carry a portable water cup. Photography is prohibited in some exhibition halls, and on-site regulations must be observed to make this sci-tech tour fulfilling and smooth.