China News Service, Nanjing, November 6, Title: Nanjing, Jiangsu: Exploring the "Key" to Construction of a Youth Development-oriented City
China News Service reporter Zhu Xiaoğun
What is the ultimate code that can attract young people to stay in a city? Perhaps young people have their own answers.
"There is technology, but also poetry"
In the Xuanwu LINK Youth Community in Nanjing, Zhang Min, the 39-year-old founder of Xuanjin Digital Technology, envisions installing an AI engine on more than 52 million items/sets of collections from cultural relics institutions across the country, allowing viewers to travel through the "past and present" of cultural relics.
This youth community brings together AI and data industry carriers such as Jiangsu International Data Port and Xuanwu Large Model Factory. It has 1,035 youth apartments and 50 "Ningqing Stations" to create a comprehensive scene of "innovation upstairs and life downstairs". Chen Xueyuan, deputy secretary of the Nanjing Xuanwu District Committee of the Communist Youth League, said that in the past two years, about 4,000 employment and entrepreneurial personnel, mainly young people, and 1,500 market registration entities have gathered here.
"I like the data ecology here very much. Young people have needs, and the youth community is actively cooperating. It is very close to the university town, and it has advantages in finding talents to 'match up' with." With more than ten years of experience in the jewelry and watch industry, Zhang Min settled in the international OPC Super Dream Factory in the community in April this year.
Unlike Zhang Min, sisters Cui Yuan and Cui Jing, the owners of Chunhetian Tea Cafe, opened their shop in Shecun, a beautiful countryside in Jiangning. In front of their small shop, rice fields stretch as far as the eye can see, and the wind blows the waves of wheat, bringing with it the fragrance of tea.
She Village has a permanent population of about 2,700 and receives more than 20,000 tourists a day during the peak season. Lu Yao, secretary of the Nanjing Jiangning District Committee of the Communist Youth League, said that two-thirds of the more than 140 new format shops in the village are run by young makers from all over the world.
The two sisters were originally accountants and wall painters. They accidentally visited Shecun three years ago. After discussion, they both resigned and opened a shop, doing every brick, tile, plant and tree by themselves. Nowadays, the customer flow is growing steadily, and the store has become an "Internet celebrity" of Xiaohongshu. An organization approached the sisters to discuss cooperation, but they were declined. They said: "It's half business and half life. This is the reason why we stay."
"There is a rush, but there is also a belonging."
Shen Yuming, who was born in 1999, once worked as an IBM full-stack development engineer. He returned to his hometown of Gaochun, Nanjing in 2024. In October this year, the entrepreneurial project signed a contract to settle in the "Chunchuang Space" of the higher vocational park.
It provides young people with up to three years of rent-free, guaranteed loans of up to 500,000 yuan for starting a business, and full-process services from industrial and commercial registration to resource docking, making it an incubation base for young people who have returned home to pursue their dreams.
Entrepreneurship carriers give young people the confidence to try, and interest communities increase their sense of belonging. Gaochun Odin Sports Club uses sports as a link to "gather people" and build multiple vertical communities such as badminton, tennis, and pickleball. In August 2026, the "Finding a Hookup" Interest Community Carnival kicked off, with 400 young people gathering, and 11 special communities opened simultaneously, becoming a landmark community for local youth to exchange, learn, and socialize.
"There is a big blueprint and granularity"
"The ancient capital of six dynasties", "the capital of world literature", "the capital of fraternity"... Nanjing has many business cards in recent years. At present, the relationship between cities and youth is moving from "functional carrying" to "two-way empowerment." Nanjing has set the goal of exceeding 35% of the population under the age of 35 by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and has taken multiple measures to ensure that young people can enter, stay, live safely, and succeed in their careers.
A "99 Bread Canteen" with no signboard and only handwritten cards is an "Internet celebrity" shop in Shecun, Jiangning, Nanjing. The manager, Yan Ying, was born in 1999 and is a native of Hangzhou. His store features natural yeast, no additives, and limited supply, and is favored by young people. The picture shows customers "checking in" and buying bread in the store. Photo by Li Wei
According to the relevant person in charge of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Youth League Municipal Committee provides 30,000 internship opportunities every year, holds no less than 10 activities such as "Lime Campus Day", "Ningqing Station" serves 20,000 youths, recruits no less than 50 "youth stores", and creates a "youth store test site" and a hub "Youth Home" first-stop service center to attract more young people to know Nanjing, come to Nanjing, fall in love with Nanjing, and stay in Nanjing.
From schooling, employment and entrepreneurship policies, settlement policies to children's enrollment policies, Nanjing has formed a full-chain policy system covering "job hunting, employment, settlement, and entrepreneurship", making the big blueprint of "retaining people" more granular. In the first nine months of this year, the "Millions of Youth Gathering in Jinling" campaign has gathered 269,000 young talents.
Looking forward to 2035, Nanjing will be fully built into the country's leading youth development city, form a more mature and stereotyped youth development system, smooth the development channels for young people to grow into talents, live and work in peace and contentment, and make achievements, and become a 'city of youth and a city of dreams' that best understands young people.
