On October 16, President Xi Jinping inspected Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia, visiting the Chahar Hi-Tech Development Zone to review a national hub node of the "East Data, West Computing" project and the green computing industry. Xinhua's First Observation put the background figures at 109 signed computing-center projects, 190,000 PFLOPS in operation as of August 2026, and more than 90 percent intelligent computing.
October 16: inspection site at the Chahar Hi-Tech Development Zone (Photo: Xinhua)
Policy, capital and orders follow such attention. Here is the asset base, and what it signals for suppliers.
| 109 projects |
190,000 PFLOPS capacity operating |
>90% AI share |
>RMB 500 bn total signed |
01 | How 109 Projects and 190,000 PFLOPS Were Built
Ulanqab launched its big-data industry in 2013 and became an Inner Mongolia hub starting zone when East Data, West Computing rolled out in 2022:
| Indicator | Data | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Signed computing-center projects | 109 | Xinhua, Oct 16 |
| Computing capacity in operation | 190,000 PFLOPS (Aug 2026) | Xinhua, Oct 16 |
| New-energy capacity / green share | 20.288 GW / 67% | City government |
| Data-center tariff | ~50% below Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei; cost 60%+ below tier-1 cities | City government |
| Fibre latency to Beijing | 2.1 ms one-way, measured | China Industry News |
Two figures matter most: an AI-compute share above 90 percent shows the shift from general-purpose to intelligent computing, positioning the city for training and inference; 67 percent green power plus an average 4.3 degrees Celsius is the physical base of the "green computing" the inspection targeted.
02 | Why Ulanqab: Power, Cold, Proximity
Power. Wind and solar sit in national Class-I resource zones, with a tenth of China's effective wind-farm area and over 3,200 sunshine hours a year. Chinadata runs China's first zero-carbon park on direct green-power supply and source-grid-load-storage integration: 848 million kWh self-consumed yearly, PUE below 1.2. Four more projects are under way, adding 1.6 GW.
Cold. An average 4.3 degrees Celsius gives nearly ten months of free cooling, cutting heat-dissipation costs well below southern China.
Proximity. It is the Inner Mongolia city nearest Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei: two 144-core dual-route fibre links reach Beijing at 2.1 ms one-way, enough for training and real-time inference. The city already carries 65,000-75,000 PFLOPS of Beijing overflow, hosting ByteDance, Huawei, Alibaba, UCloud and GDS.
Few cities combine all three, and Ulanqab turns wind and grid access into a cost advantage.
03 | From Selling Power to Selling Tokens
Local farm and livestock products shown during the Ulanqab inspection (Photo: Xinhua)
Late in 2025 the city launched a 2026-2028 action plan on a three-stage path: Grassland Cloud Valley, Intelligent Computing City, Token Capital. Officials call it the "3T industry": potatoes, ferroalloy and tokens, the last the new engine. Targets: over 200,000 PFLOPS by 2026, revenue above RMB 8 billion, and a pilot token trading platform. The logic: a kilowatt-hour sold as electricity earns cents, but delivered as tokens it can multiply value tens or hundreds of times. Nationwide daily token calls already exceed 140 trillion.
The Jing-Meng Zero-Carbon Smart Computing Park at Tuguiwula shows the pipeline: RMB 3.6 billion, 15,000 PFLOPS, buildings topped out and MEP installation under way — the order window for MEP EPC contractors, power-distribution and liquid-cooling vendors.
04 | Three Signals From the Readout
With computing-center engineers; the wall reads computing supply, chain extension, power coordination, network integration (Xinhua)
Signal one: computing-power and electricity coordination is now a work requirement. The readout calls for coordination between computing power and both electricity and water. The phrase entered the Government Work Report for the first time this year and an April Politburo meeting deployed "six networks". Direct green-power supply, storage integration and peak-shaving participation move from bonus points to mandatory items.
Signal two: efficient, green and secure are the acceptance criteria. These will weigh ever more heavily in site selection, filing and tenders; bidders should put green-power ratio, PUE and water-side design into their technical response.
Signal three: turning computing advantage into development advantage means extending the chain — upstream wind, solar and equipment manufacturing, midstream clusters, downstream data labelling, training, token trading and AI applications. Western hubs no longer offer only MEP EPC: rack manufacturing, O&M and scheduling platforms are also tendered.
05 | Inspection Photo Gallery
Xinhua photographs via gov.cn, in itinerary order.
Huangqihai Nature Reserve, Chahar Right Front Banner (Photo: Xinhua)
Huangqihai Nature Reserve inspection (Photo: Xinhua)
Huangqihai Nature Reserve inspection (Photo: Xinhua)
Chahar Hi-Tech Development Zone inspection (Photo: Xinhua)
Reviewing green computing development in the Zone (Photo: Xinhua)
06 | Data Sources
- Inspection, readout and project/capacity data: Xinhua First Observation and gov.cn photo gallery, October 16, 2026.
- Energy capacity, tariffs, zero-carbon park, Token Capital plan and the Tuguiwula park: Ulanqab municipal government; China Industry News, July 3, 2026; CNR, October 6, 2026.
- RMB 500 billion investment and 140 trillion daily token calls: Tencent News, October 16, 2026, citing public reports.
