The city's Jiangdong district registered nearly 5,800 technology start-ups in the past five years. These small and micro businesses are new engines for local economy.

In the first 11 months of this year, the district reported 7.65 billion yuan (US$1.19 billion) in fiscal revenue, up 8.8 percent from the year before, ranking third in revenue growth among the 11 districts and counties in Ningbo.

Jiangdong has only 0.4 percent of the total land of Ningbo but it boasts 40-plus technology platforms, including 10 national platforms, with many technology firms and one third of the city's human resources companies. The district has 133,000 skilled professionals, including 4,800 high-end professionals, up 27.2 percent from 2010.

Maker spaces in Jiangdong now have about 300 start-up projects involving more than 1 billion yuan of investment. eTop Club is a business hub for e-retailers and it is fully occupied one year after its establishment. The total sales income of its e-retailers is expected to exceed 500 million yuan this year.