Honggu District is a distant suburban district of Lanzhou City. It is the excavation site of the Mamenchisaurus fossil – known as "Asia’s First Dragon" – and one of the cradles of the Qijia Culture and Majiayao Culture.
Established as a district in 1960, it covers a total area of 567.66 square kilometers. It administers 4 towns, 3 sub-districts, 34 administrative villages, and 22 communities, with a total population of 143,800. The population of 18 ethnic minorities, including the Hui, Manchu, and Dongxiang, accounts for 9.55% of the total population.
- National Highway 109, Beijing-Tibet Expressway, Lanzhou-Qinghai Railway, and Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-Speed Railway run through the entire district.
- It is adjacent to Gansu (Lanzhou) International Inland Port, with direct access to Lanzhou Zhongchuan Airport and Xining Caojiabao Airport within 1 hour.
- As a golden thoroughfare connecting the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with inland areas and a key node city in the Lanzhou-Xining Urban Agglomeration, it boasts prominent transportation advantages as a link between the east and west and a hub connecting four directions.
- There are two coalfields – Yaojie and Haishiwan – with a total geological reserve of over 700 million tons.
- It is rich in mineral resources such as petroleum, precious metals, non-metals, and non-ferrous metals, and is known as "Babaochuan" (Eight-Treasure Plain) and "Metallurgical Valley".
- The Datong River, Huangshui River, and four gravity irrigation canals irrigate 87,000 mu of cultivated land.
- It has formed an agricultural industrial system focusing on high-quality vegetables, efficient breeding, and forest seedlings.
- It serves as an important organic vegetable production base for Lanzhou and a key "Plateau Summer Vegetable" production base in northwest China.
- It has successively obtained five national-level policy platforms, including the National Demonstration Base for Urban Minerals.
- Within the district, there are two major parks: Honggu Park of Lanzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone and Honggu Park of Lianhai Economic Development Zone.
- A number of large and medium-sized enterprises have settled here, such as Yaojie Coal and Electricity Co., Ltd., Lanzhou Aluminum Co., Ltd., Fangda Carbon Co., Ltd., and Baofang Carbon Materials Co., Ltd.
- It has built a "7+X" industrial chain system covering coal-based recycling, non-ferrous metallurgy, high-end carbon, and urban minerals. It is Asia’s largest carbon production base and an important coal and electrolytic aluminum production base in Gansu Province.
- It acts as a non-staple food base, raw material base, and "transfer station" for commerce and logistics for large cities like Lanzhou and Xining.
- It is also a key strategic hub for Gansu’s "eastward expansion and westward opening-up" initiative.
In recent years, the CPC Honggu District Committee and the Honggu District Government have thoroughly implemented the "One City, Five Pillars" development strategy. The goal is to "build a key node city in the Lanzhou-Xining Urban Agglomeration", with key focuses on:
- Constructing an ecologically beautiful, high-quality city in the Huangshui River Basin;
- Building Lanzhou New Materials Industrial Base;
- Developing a key transportation pivot and modern logistics base on the Gansu-Qinghai Grand Corridor;
- Creating a golden post station on the National Gansu-Qinghai-Tibet Tourism Belt in the Lanzhou-Xining region;
- Establishing a demonstration zone for cooperative development in the Lanzhou-Xining Urban Agglomeration.
By consciously practicing the new development philosophy, Honggu District has maintained a sound momentum: steady improvement in the quality and efficiency of economic development, continuous enhancement of people’s well-being, harmonious and stable social order, in-depth advancement of Party governance, and a cleaner and more upright political ecosystem.
