The county-level city of Zhangjiagang – administered by Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province – is reportedly becoming a national model for high-quality development in counties.

Zhangjiagang Zhonghuan Hailu Advanced Equipment Co Ltd, a Zhangjiagang-based industrial metal forgings manufacturer, was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Aug 3, becoming the city's third share flotation in half a month. So far, the city has a total of five of its enterprises listed this year.

On Aug 2, the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list was released. Zhangjiagang local private steelmaker Shagang Group ranked 308th on it, with its operating income of more than $38.6 billion in 2020 and it has made it onto the list for 13 consecutive years now.

The 2021 Zhangjiagang Key Industrial Chain Development Conference kicks off on June 26. [Photo by Chen Jiaqi/WeChat account: zhangjiagangfabu365]

To date, Zhangjiagang has attracted more than 1,300 industrial enterprises above a designated size – companies with annual revenue of 20 million yuan ($3.09 million) or more – to locate operations there and it has established 35 characteristic industrial parks.

In the first half of the year, the output value of its manufacturers above a designated size reached 286.8 billion yuan, with its strategic emerging industry output value hitting 112.32 billion yuan, accounting for 39.2 percent of the total.

Zhangjiagang was included in the first group of national civilized cities in China and subsequently obtained high scores in the national civilized city competition for six consecutive years. In China, a national civilized city refers to a city that is officially recognized to have a high level of urban infrastructure and whose residents enjoy a high quality of life.

So far this year, 71 schools have been built, renovated or expanded and 51,000 university degrees have been conferred.