Given the favorable investment environment in China's eastern coastal areas, it is hard for a small inland county to attract leading companies such as Coca-Cola Co and Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd to boost its economic growth. But Gaocheng, a county-level city in North China's Hebei province, about 30 kilometers from the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang, has successfully done so.

The city is aiming to expand its economic zone's annual production value to more than 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) this year.

Gaocheng became the province's first national-level economic zone that is located in a county since October 2012. Before that, it was a provincial-level industrial park.