Not only home to the must-see tourism spot of Italian street town in Tianjin, Hebei district is -- as an old industrial base -- the birthplace of television in China and the home to other national firsts.

Last year, regional GDP rose 5.9 year-on-year to 48.8 billion yuan ($6.8 billion). Fixed assets investment was 102.1 billion yuan, according to a local government economic report issued on Aug 28.

The district has also enjoyed 21.6 percent year-on-year growth of newly settled companies.

In the first half of this year, the total number of businesses in the region exceeded 51,000, with  registered capital of 116.9 billion yuan,

Leading companies performed extremely well in the half, especially in four major areas: business, intelligent technology, the design industry and finance.

High-quality development in the district has led to the recent construction of 28 buildings, whose annual tax revenues yield the district 100 million yuan, as well as the creation of 11 urban parks.

Deeply integrated into the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region over the past five years, some 153 projects with an investment of 20.08 billion yuan located in the district which greatly advanced the development of a new model economy there, according to officials.

Embracing the internet, mature business sectors including electronics, medicine and the railways have undergone a substantial transformation, they added.

To become an innovation-driven district, 209 national science and technology-oriented SMEs and 68 state-level high-tech enterprises have been introduced to the region in the period. Officials said that 14,134 patent applications were filed and 8,024 have been granted.

In addition, the district has held Tianjin International Design Week for five consecutive sessions, featuring 10,000 exhibits and drawing 200,000 visitors from China and other countries.

At the same time, the district has invested 300 million yuan each year for improving the environment. The green coverage area of the entire district has reached 40 percent.

More than 80 percent of the funds went to improving the people's lives including providing better housing, education resources, medical care and sports infrastructure.