Opened on December 18, 1999, Hailong Electronics City was located in the Hailong Building at No. 1 Zhongguancun Street in Beijing. Following its opening, it rapidly rose to prominence as a leading IT retail hub in Zhongguancun, widely regarded as the center of China’s high-tech industry. At its peak, the mall recorded daily foot traffic exceeding 50,000 visitors, with annual visits surpassing ten million. Its yearly sales volume approached RMB 2 billion. A vice president of Microsoft once described it as “the busiest store in the world.”

The mall was organized into specialized retail zones across seven floors: 1F: Service desk and promotional display areas. 2F: Consumer digital devices and accessories (e.g., cameras, MP3/MP4 players, PDAs, storage, and peripherals). 3F: Brand-name computer retailers, including IBM, Sony, ASUS, Samsung, HP, Lenovo, and Dell. 4F: Core computer components and peripherals (e.g., CPUs, motherboards, storage, displays, input/output devices), along with a Microsoft Experience Center. 5F: Complete computer systems, components, software, and IT service center. 6F: Office equipment, gaming consoles such as PlayStation 2 and Xbox, security systems, and networking devices. 7F: Restaurants and food services.

After 17 years of operation, Hailong Electronics City officially ceased business on July 7, 2016, marking the end of an era for one of China’s most iconic IT marketplaces.

Beijing, zhongguancun, China