SHENZHEN - A small district in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen punched above its administrative weight as its gross domestic product (GDP) last year exceeded one trillion yuan ($143 billion).

Nanshan district, home to Chinese tech giants such as Tencent and DJI, saw its GDP grow from 652.7 billion yuan in 2020 to over 1 trillion yuan in 2025, Li Xiaoning, head of the district government, told the local people's congress on Tuesday.

The figure makes the Nanshan district the nation's first county-level economy to beat the mark and attain a remarkable economic scale. The district covers a land area roughly one-tenth that of Shenzhen, to which it is subordinate.

As a pioneer in China's reform and opening up, Nanshan district has now emerged as a leading hub for technological innovation and advanced manufacturing within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

Official data show that the added value of strategic emerging industries accounts for around 60 percent of Nanshan's GDP. In addition to hosting tech giants, Nanshan has also increasingly attracted startups from Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and further boosted the development of future-oriented sectors.

Guo Wanda, executive vice-president of the China Development Institute, said Nanshan's development demonstrates how technological innovation can overcome resource bottlenecks to unleash the vitality of new quality productive forces, underscoring the vast prospects and great potential of China's economy.

This comes as the GBA pushes forward with integration. The region's combined economic output is expected to surpass 15 trillion yuan in 2025, according to the annual session of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress.