Once known for its challenging natural conditions and vast stretches of undeveloped land, Lanzhou New Area in Northwest China's Gansu province in the past decade has rapidly emerged as a hub for future-oriented industries driven by technological innovation, smart manufacturing and digital trade.

At the heart of its high-end medical equipment sector is a domestically developed medical heavy-ion accelerator created by Lanzhou Ion Therapy Co Ltd (LANITH). The device enables precise tumor treatment using heavy-ion therapy, offering new hope for patients with deep-seated and hard-to-treat cancers.

"The device generates carbon ion beams and accelerates them to nearly 70 percent of the speed of light before delivering them to treatment terminals," said Wei Tianhao, a physical design engineer at LANITH. "This enables us to precisely control the energy and focus it on tumor lesions, minimizing damage to healthy tissue."

Traditional manufacturing in Lanzhou New Area is also undergoing intelligent upgrading. At LS Group, automated production lines now issue welding instructions, monitor operations in real time and optimize production scheduling.

"Our intelligent system has helped raise the one-time welding qualification rate to 100 percent and increase production capacity by around 15 percent," said Xu Wenkui, deputy manager of the Heavy Equipment and Petrochemical Branch of LS Group.

Lanzhou New Area is one of China's special customs supervision zones with the highest level of opening-up and the most streamlined procedures. "We are expanding exports of high-end equipment, new energy and new materials to regions including the Middle East and Southeast Asia," said Lyu Jiabiao, deputy director of the management committee of the Lanzhou New Area Comprehensive Bonded Zone, which is further strengthening the city's global links with Belt and Road markets.