China's manufacturing sector has witnessed accelerated transformation and upgrading in recent years, as indicated by the boom in intelligent robots, 3D printing and high-precision equipment manufacturing.

Shenzhen epitomizes China's manufacturing development over the past decades, with its evolution into a leading center for business startups and innovation and its continuing and fruitful transformation from original equipment manufacturer to original design manufacturer and even original brand manufacturer. Shenzhen has developed into a Chinese "Silicon Valley".

China's manufacturing has for a long time been at the low end of the global value chain and its confinement to assembling and processing has resulted in paying a heavy price in terms of its resources and environment. However, some domestic enterprises in the Pearl River Delta have shifted to a technology-intensive manufacturing model and the region is no longer synonymous with the omnipresent cheap, sometimes low-quality Chinese products associated with "made in China".

More and more foreigners who have visited manufacturing bases in southern China now marvel at their development and believe their technological progress will be of great significance to China's pursuit of new drivers for a sustainable economic growth.

Shenzhen, which kick-started China's reform and opening-up and became an epitome of its industrial development, is now heralding the start of a new manufacturing era.

The government's "Made in China 2025" and "Internet Plus" strategies offer a new path for the rejuvenation of its manufacturing.