The town, which won the official title of Zhejiang's Characteristic Town in September 2018, is home to more than 200 geographic information companies the expertise of which spans sensors, drones, data storage and remote sensing satellite data applications.

With a planned core area of 1.31 square kilometers, it aims to emerge as an international geographic information industrial cluster. It has introduced many platforms and institutes such as the Deqing Branch of Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Deqing technology transfer center of Wuhan University and the remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) innovation center of Zhejiang University.

The geographic information town has 46 industrial buildings and a talent apartment block with nearly 2,000 apartments. It also has China's first geographic information town exhibition hall. An International Convention Center was also built there for the first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress held on Nov 19 to 21, 2018.

Night view of the Deqing International Convention Center, site of the first United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress (UNWGIC) [Photo/xinhuanet.com]