Hohhot city – capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – is to develop a smart dairy cow breeding demonstration park and the groundbreaking ceremony for it was held on June 9.

The park, to be developed by Hohhot-based dairy giant Yili Group, will cost 8 billion yuan ($1.19 billion) and after completion the annual milk output will be over 1 million metric tons.

The ceremony also witnessed the launch of eight new major dairy production facilities.

Large-scale operations like these ones are seen as being the foundation for the future development of the dairy industry in the region.

Hohhot is said to be making great strides in expanding its dairy sector and to do so it is promoting the development of two key dairy industry projects, the Yili Modern Smart Health Valley and the Mengniu Dairy Industrial Park.

The metropolis plans to develop 24 more big dairy production farms, with 14 already in use and two currently under construction.

After the completion of eight of them, whose construction began during the groundbreaking ceremony, the number of major dairy farms in Hohhot will stand at 168, helping the city develop as China's dairy capital.