Can China's poorest province achieve its dream of becoming the next big data hub?
Mountainous Guizhou builds data centres but struggles to attract talent
An old Chinese saying sums up the natural challenges faced by Guizhou, the country’s poorest province: “Never three sunny days in a row; not one metre of road that isn’t bumpy.”
But those disadvantages have not stopped the mountainous inland region in southwest China from having big dreams about becoming the country’s big data hub.
Hu Yao, the 35-year-old co-founder of a data collecting and processing company in the provincial capital, Guiyang, remembers arriving in the city 12 years ago to study computer science at Guizhou University.
Arriving in Guiyang after a 12-hour train journey from his home village in neighbouring Hunan province, he found a city centre packed with narrow lanes and shabby buildings.
The Guanshan Lake District, now the city’s central business district and home to luxury hotels, banks’ regional headquarters and new office buildings, “was a barren hill, with only one muddy road connecting it to the downtown”, Hu said. His company is based in one of the office buildings.
Among the 45 postgraduate students in his class, Hu was one of eight who chose to work in Guiyang after graduation in 2009, and the only one to start his own business. The other seven found teaching jobs at the university.