State Grid technicians inspect charging piles at a station in Yantai, Shandong province. TANG KE/FOR CHINA DAILY

In recent years, the photonic and electronic intersection field has witnessed rapid growth in the optoelectronics industry. By 2022, the market size of China's optoelectronics industry is expected to reach around 300 billion yuan ($40.99 billion), and by 2025, it is projected to reach 350 billion yuan. The optoelectronics industry in different regions of Shandong province is also leveraging this trend.

Industries such as information optoelectronics, laser processing, holography, and photonic sensing are booming in many cities in Shandong and are accelerating the construction of industrial parks to promote the high-quality development of the industry through clustering efforts.

On Oct 27, at the construction site of the third phase of the Zhiguang Communication Industry Park, which is being built by the Orient Sunshine Group in Zaozhuang city, the factory buildings stood densely in the autumn sunlight and shined brightly. Inside the production workshop, workers were busy debugging production equipment.

"We expect to start production by the end of the year," said Wang Qiang, general manager of the production base. The Zhiguang Communication Industry Park project, with a total investment of 3 billion yuan, is divided into three phases of construction. The third phase will mainly produce special optical cables and optical fiber rods used for intelligent optical networks.

"After the completion of the industrial park, Orient Sunshine Group will become a whole industrial chain enterprise integrating the research, development and production of optical fiber prefabricated rods, optical fibers, optical cables and related products," said Zhang Kun, chairman of Orient Sunshine Group, adding that the special optical cable products that will be produced in the third phase of the project are tailor-made for 5G and are widely used in communication, aerospace, chemicals, petroleum and other fields.