A rust-belt city in Liaoning has found a second life for its idle steel infrastructure: Anshan signed the first batch of tenant companies into a pet town built on former Ansteel factory land on October 11, a project that plans for pet food manufacturer companies, breeders, film studios and insurers to share one campus with a RMB 1 billion revenue target.
Executive summary. The Qianshan District project, known as the pet town, converts the former Ansteel Tanggangzi factory lands into ten planned industry bases covering breeding, trading, pet big data, supply-chain finance, cultural-creative production, insurance, food and supplies manufacturing, and exhibitions. Phase 1 construction is complete. The project company projects 300,000 annual visitors and more than RMB 1 billion in yearly revenue at full build-out.
- Signing date
- October 11, 2026 — first batch of tenant enterprises, Qianshan District, Anshan, Liaoning
- Site
- Former Ansteel Tanggangzi factory lands, repurposed without new land acquisition
- Scope
- Ten industry bases including breeding, trading, big data, supply-chain finance, film, insurance, food and supplies manufacturing, exhibitions
- Facilities
- Cat breeding and trading center; dog cafe and human-pet restaurant; three film studios converted from production workshops; behavior training base
- Targets
- 300,000 visitors/year; RMB 1 billion+ annual revenue at full build-out
What Happened
On October 11, several tenant companies completed electronic signing ceremonies for the first batch of spaces in the pet town, marking the formal start of its industrial cluster build-out. District officials and the project company presented the plan to reporters from Chongyejia, a Chinese pet trade publication.
The project’s scale is deliberately broader than a pet theme park. Wang Xu, head of the Qianshan District economic cooperation bureau, said the district evaluated multiple sites before selecting the Tanggangzi lands, citing spacious factory buildings that suit breeding, exhibitions, film warehousing and storage, fast renovation timelines, and land available for long-term development next to the Qianshan scenic area and Tanggangzi hot springs.
Background: Industrial Land Meets the Pet Economy
Anshan is a steel city whose core industry has been restructuring for years. The pet town is an example of what Chinese planners call urban renewal through industrial heritage: instead of demolishing the workshops, the project converts them. Wu Lizhong, chairman of the project company, stressed that the site is not primarily a petting zoo. The ten planned bases cover the full pet economy chain, from breeding and trading through pet big data, supply-chain finance, insurance, food and supplies production, and trade exhibitions.
The concrete facilities are a mix of commerce and tourism. A cat breeding center doubles as a trading venue and a visitor attraction with a cat cafe; a dog cafe and human-pet restaurant sit alongside a pet behavior training demonstration base. Three large production workshops are being converted into professional film studios for cats, dogs and exotic pets, built to host television drama and short-form video production on a regular schedule, alongside pet beauty contests and pet sports events.
Industry Context: Regional Pet Industry Clusters
China’s pet manufacturing has historically concentrated in a handful of coastal clusters — Shandong for food, Zhejiang and Jiangsu for supplies, Guangdong for export. Anshan’s project is a northeast attempt to enter that map from a different angle: not as a low-cost manufacturing base, but as an integrated cluster where breeding, services, media production and data sit next to light manufacturing. Phase 1, now complete, includes the film base, exhibition halls for ten dog breeds, and a cultural-creative center that merges Ansteel’s steel-industry IP into pet-themed merchandise — a detail that signals the project’s tourism ambitions as much as its industrial ones.
For pet food manufacturer companies and supplies brands, the cluster pitch is co-location: breeding and trading operations generate demand for food and products on site, film production generates media exposure, and the exhibition base generates a recurring trade-calendar presence in a region far from the coastal fairs.
Market and Business Impact
The revenue target — RMB 1 billion a year at full build-out, with 300,000 annual visitors — is a projection, not a result, and should be read as the project company’s plan rather than an established market. What is established is the model: secondary Chinese cities are bidding for a share of the pet economy using idle industrial assets, on the theory that the sector’s growth can absorb converted capacity that traditional manufacturing no longer needs.
For suppliers and investors, the near-term opportunities are tenancy, event participation and film-service contracts, not consumer demand in Anshan itself. The project’s viability depends on whether the exhibition and film calendars fill — the same short-cycle demand dynamics that drive Yiwu’s merchandise trade, applied to a fixed campus.
Companies and Brands Involved
The project company is Anshan Qianshan Pet Town Industrial Development Co., chaired by Wu Lizhong. The Qianshan District economic cooperation bureau, led by Wang Xu, drove site selection and tenant recruitment. The first batch of tenant enterprises signed on October 11; the site sits on former Ansteel Tanggangzi factory lands under the dual-Anshan integration program.
Data and Evidence
All project details — the October 11 signing, the ten industry bases, the three film studios, the phase 1 completion status, and the 300,000-visitor and RMB 1 billion targets — come from Chongyejia’s October 11 report carried by Sohu, based on statements from the project company and district officials. The financial targets are projections stated by the project company and have not been independently verified.
What This Means
Pet economy investment in China has so far followed demand — factories near ports, brands near consumers. Anshan’s project bets the opposite way: that a purpose-built cluster can attract demand to a city with no pet industry history. The ten-base design, with data services, supply-chain finance and insurance alongside breeding and manufacturing, is the most complete version of that bet to date. If the film studios and exhibition calendar fill, the project gives northeast China its first serious pet industry anchor; if they do not, it becomes a cautionary example of industrial conversion outrunning real demand. Watch the tenant count and the event calendar over the next twelve months — those two numbers will settle the question before the RMB 1 billion target ever gets tested.
Key Takeaways
- Anshan’s pet town signed its first tenant batch on October 11 on former Ansteel Tanggangzi factory land.
- Ten industry bases span breeding, trading, big data, supply-chain finance, film, insurance, manufacturing and exhibitions.
- Three production workshops are being converted into cat, dog and exotic-pet film studios.
- Phase 1 is complete: film base, ten-breed dog halls and a cultural-creative center.
- Targets are projections: 300,000 visitors and RMB 1 billion+ revenue a year at full build-out.
FAQ
What is the Anshan pet town?
A purpose-built pet industry cluster in Qianshan District, Anshan, Liaoning, developed on former Ansteel Tanggangzi factory lands, combining breeding, trading, manufacturing, film production, insurance, data services and tourism across ten planned industry bases.
Why build a pet industry hub on a steel plant site?
The site offered large, well-built workshops on idle industrial land, convertible without new land acquisition. The big-span buildings suit breeding, exhibition, warehousing and film production uses.
What is the economic target?
At full build-out, 300,000 visitors a year and annual revenue exceeding RMB 1 billion, per the project company and district officials cited by Chongyejia. These are projections.
What is already operating?
Phase 1 is complete: a pet film and television base, exhibition halls for ten dog breeds, and a cultural-creative center merging Ansteel’s industrial IP with pet-themed merchandise.
Sources
- Primary — Chongyejia (Pet Industry News) via Sohu, “Anshan pet town first-batch tenant signing ceremony”, https://www.sohu.com/a/1086804807_99982343, 2026-10-11
