There are still 3 months to go before the Paris Olympics, and Yiwu is already filled with an Olympic atmosphere.
Olympic peripherals such as table tennis balls from the Paris Olympics, medals and trophies with elements of the French flag, and silicone bracelets with "PARIS 2024" printed on them were put on display early.
Yiwu businesses welcomed the Olympic Games earlier. In October last year, a Yiwu merchant received an official order for the Paris Olympics to produce 1 million Olympic bracelets, and the millions of orders only increased his annual sales by 30%.
People are once again amazed by Yiwu's status as a "world supermarket".
Who still remembers that the world-famous Yiwu is actually just a county-level city under Jinhua in Zhejiang? Last year, Yiwu's GDP exceeded 200 billion yuan, supporting one-third of Jinhua's GDP by itself.
Equally shocking is another county seat - Cao County, the "center of the universe".
After a lapse of 3 years, Cao County is once again out of the circle, this time it is no longer the Internet stalk carnival, relying on the real industry - Cao County horse skirt is extremely popular, only the first two months of sales were close to 550 million yuan, and last year's Hanfu sales were more than 7 billion yuan.
At first, Cao County came into people's field of vision in a slightly playful way, such as "Cao Cao in Beijing" and "I would rather have a bed in Cao County than a suite in Shanghai".
When people focused on Cao County with curiosity, they found that Cao County's hidden economic strength, whether it is the coffin foreign trade industry, which occupies 90% of the Japanese coffin market, or the thriving Hanfu industry, all of which allow people to re-examine Cao County, dispel the meaning of playing stalks, and have more heartfelt admiration.
The vigorous development of Yiwu and Cao counties has made people clearly perceive the economic potential of a county, and at the same time, it has also made other small counties that have been neglected for a long time re-visible.
As early as more than 10 years ago, economist Zhang Wuchang asserted: "Inter-regional competition, represented by inter-county competition, is the fundamental reason for China's rapid economic development since the reform and opening up." ”
Today, China's county towns are ahead of the curve. More than 1,800 counties in China account for 40% of the country's total economy, of which the top 100 counties in economic strength account for 10% of the country's GDP.
In 2023, the number of 100 billion counties in the country will reach 54. Among them, Kunshan, which ranked first, has become the first county-level city in the country to exceed 500 billion yuan, surpassing the GDP of Qinghai and Tibet in one county.
Where you can't see, the rise of China's county towns has never stopped.
The ubiquitous county industry
In the vast land of China, more than 1,800 small county towns are scattered in various places, and the industries of the county towns have also penetrated into every corner of our lives silently, and even affect the lives of people on the other side of the ocean.
From clothing, food, housing and transportation to leisure and entertainment, the county's industries are everywhere.
The clothes you are wearing may be made in Changshu, Jiangsu, and the socks you are wearing on your feet are most likely socks from Zhuji, Zhejiang, shoes from Jinjiang, Fujian, and the swimsuits you bought online for a trip to the beach may be from Xingcheng, Liaoning.
Source: CCTV News
Looking around at home, the four-piece set on the bed is made in Haimen, Jiangsu, the household appliances are from Shunde, Foshan, the crystal lamp on the top of the head is from Zhongshan Ancient Town, and the lighter placed on the table at will is from Shaodong, Hunan.
When I went out to visit the mall, a row of crane machines placed on the side of the road was transported from Panyu, Guangzhou, and most of the fitness equipment in the gym came from Ningjin, Shandong.
The various fruits we eat throughout the year have their own belongings, the sugar oranges in winter are from Lipu, Guangxi, the dragon fruit in summer is from Longan, Guangxi, and the kiwi fruits eaten in autumn are from Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, and the apples that can be eaten in all seasons are likely to come from Luochuan, Shaanxi.
The small county town with huge energy is also influencing the lives of people around the world.
Liuyang, the "fireworks capital of the world", not only contracted the fireworks for the opening ceremonies of major events such as the Beijing Double Olympic Games and the Hangzhou Asian Games, but also made its presence felt at international large-scale events such as the London Olympic Games, the Rio Olympic Games, and the World Cup in Russia.
During the Qatar World Cup, there was a sentence circulating on the Internet that "China did not go except for the football team, everyone else went", among which the high-profile "Made in Yiwu" produced 70% of the peripheral products for the World Cup, and thousands of footballs, flags, jerseys, badges, stickers and other products were successively shipped to the other side of the ocean.
Source: Xinhuanet
In 2022, the Nord Stream pipeline explosion and leakage triggered an energy crisis in Europe, causing natural gas prices in European countries to soar.
Cixi City, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, is one of the mainland's heater production bases, and the peak season for the production of heaters for export ended around mid-September.
With the magic prompt sound of "please pay attention to reversing" that sounded on the streets of foreign countries one after another, the domestic "three jumpers" became popular in the European and American markets, and the overseas price was as high as more than 10,000 US dollars. Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng and Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying also couldn't help but promote the domestic "Three Jumpers" to foreign netizens on foreign social platforms.
The reason was that the blogger "Bobo in the United States" bought an electric tricycle for her American father-in-law in China, which aroused the curiosity of her American neighbors, and she posted it on the short video platform, which immediately caused heated discussions.
The electric tricycle in the video is produced in Xishan, Jiangsu, the "hometown of China's electric vehicles", as early as 2006, Xishan has carried out electric vehicle export business, and now Xishan electric vehicle export enterprises brand stores, throughout more than 140 countries and regions around the world.
Don't think that the county's industry only stays in low-end manufacturing, and high-end manufacturing should not be underestimated.
From automobile manufacturing to ship manufacturing, to aerospace and nuclear industries, from the sky to the underground sea, there are county industries everywhere.
Kunshan, "China's first county", is not only Kunqu Opera and Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, but also has 12 industrial clusters of 10 billion yuan, involving special equipment manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, rubber and plastic products industry.
Jiangyin City is spread the myth of "the village is richer than the town, the town is richer than the county", there are 9 enterprises in the top 500 companies in the country to settle here, in addition to new energy, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, biomedicine and other high-tech emerging industries.
Jiangsu Jingjiang's shipbuilding industry is the mainland's largest private shipbuilding base, China's shipbuilding industry international market share for 13 consecutive years ranked first in the world, Jiangsu Jingjiang has made great contributions, here, the fastest more than 40 days can leave a ship, shipbuilding strength crushed Japan.
"The first county in Northeast China" Wafangdian is China's largest bearing production base, the bearings produced here are as small as railways, trucks, large to the nuclear industry, tanks, aircraft carriers, wherever you need to rotate you can see the figure of ZWZ.
In 2019, at the Sino-German summit, German management scientist Hermann Simon specifically mentioned that although China's "hidden champion" enterprises are still in their infancy, they have developed very rapidly in recent years, especially in terms of R&D investment. The "hidden champion" here refers to the small and medium-sized enterprises that are in an absolute leading position in a certain segment, with annual sales of no more than 5 billion US dollars and hidden from the public eye.
Under the industrial segment, more and more unseen counties are quietly becoming world-class "hidden champions".
The road to a breakout of the county
In places where the spotlight does not shine, China's county towns are seeking a way out of the difficulties, step by step out of backwardness, and reborn from the cocoon. It was a long and arduous metamorphosis.
The development of China's county industry is, to a certain extent, also the epitome of Made in China, with more emphasis on mass production in the early stage, and the attention slowly shifted to innovation and technology in the later stage.
Today's Cao County is known as the "original Hanfu capital", but it has also been infamous as a "cottage" for a long time.
In the early days, Cao County merchants had almost no copyright awareness, and often copied other brands roughly, which was criticized a lot, and the comment area of the live broadcast was scolded, "plagiarism", "poor quality" and "piracy....... Criticism is endless, and many merchants dare not admit that they are from Cao County, claiming to be from Hangzhou and Chengdu.
And when they received the court summons, they realized, "It turns out that this thing is copyrighted." ”
The development of mass production to the next step, inevitably evolved into a price war, merchants in order to increase the price reduction space will then compress product quality, bad money to drive out good money, it can be expected that the industry will soon go into a dead end.
The fitness equipment industry in Ningjin, Shandong Province has suffered from it. Twenty years ago, Zhou Yueming, who went south to work as a fitness coach, introduced the fitness equipment industry to his hometown of Ningjin, when the domestic fitness industry was just emerging, the market was not large, and he couldn't make much money. It wasn't until 2013 that the fitness industry ushered in a big explosion, and the locals followed Zhou Yueming's example to change careers to make fitness equipment.
There are more people doing it, and the problem comes. Most people rely on imitation and OEM to enter the industry, the homogenization of products is serious, and the entire industry soon falls into the vicious competition of price war and stagnates.
Whether it is Caoxian Hanfu, which is mired in plagiarism controversy, or Ningjin fitness equipment industry, which is trapped in vicious competition, if you want to break the situation, there is only one way to go in front of you - innovation.
It is especially difficult to develop at the point where the reputation is seriously damaged, and every step forward of Cao County Hanfu, consumers will take a magnifying glass to examine every change, and Cao County merchants take every step carefully. If the Hanfu does not meet the specifications, find information, carefully study the shape requirements of the Hanfu of various dynasties, recruit talented designers if there is no originality, or cooperate with foreign designers.
The Cao County Government also rushed to help, and joined forces with major business institutions to provide loans and free venues for businesses, and improve infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and networks. In order to encourage enterprises to be original, the government has also set up a special intellectual property rights protection center, which has shortened the processing time of patent applications from 180 days to 10 days.
With the joint efforts of the people of Cao County, Cao County Hanfu took off the label of "cottage" and won the recognition of consumers, at present, there are 2,282 Hanfu enterprises in Cao County, and the original Hanfu processing enterprises account for more than 90%.
In order to jump out of the vicious circle of price war, Ningjin people turned their attention to research and development, and obtained patents in appearance, material, use, etc.; in order to avoid homogenization, they developed aerobics, strength, Pilates and other fitness categories; and some companies found another way to enter the medical care and health industry, aiming at the increasingly serious aging problem in China.
Ningjin's fitness equipment industry has gradually developed into a fitness equipment production base in China, and its influence has expanded to the world, with export products accounting for 70%-80%, which are exported to South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, America, North Africa and other countries.
On the other hand, there are many large agricultural counties in China's county seats, and the big problem they face lies in the simplification of the agricultural industry, and the magistrate of Luochuan County in Shaanxi Province once said frankly: "Agricultural products must be turned into commodities, and their added value can be increased through processing into commodities, so that this industry can continue to grow. ”
This is also the secret of Shaanxi Luochuan Apple's development into a big IP with a brand valuation of 68.7 billion yuan.
"Ordinary apples are sold by the catty, Luochuan apples are sold by a lot", behind this proud achievement is the support of 36 intelligent fruit selection lines, each apple is like taking a CT to shoot 120 pictures, the sugar content, gram weight, mildew, flaws, red and red on the display screen are clear at a glance, which is convenient to grade according to quality.
In addition, Luochuan also has advanced nitrogen preservation and storage technology, so that apples can not only be sold all year round, but also maintain the taste of "pick and eat".
With the improvement of the reputation of Luochuan apples, many additional industries have emerged, and storage enterprises, processing enterprises, and organic fertilizer factories have been built one after another, and apple crisps, fruit wine, fruit vinegar and other commodities have been extended through deep processing of apples.
Gansu Jingning apples extend the industrial chain to the limit. From seedling research and development, large-scale planting, to storage marketing, processing and upgrading, to packaging support, e-commerce logistics, Xiaoxiao Apple has strung together 161 enterprises in the industrial chain.
In 2022, 100 boxes of "Jingning Apples" arrived in Antarctica with the 39th Chinese Antarctic Expedition as supplies, making "Jingning Apples" the first Chinese apple to reach Antarctica.
In addition to extending the industrial chain, some large agricultural counties also use the power of science and technology to achieve the ultimate integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
Shandong Lanling's vegetable greenhouse can be called a "super factory", from a seed to fresh lettuce, the whole process is unmanaged, only relying on the Internet of Things control and assembly line operation, the temperature is low and there is heating, the humidity is low and there is spray, the light is weak to open the skylight, thirsty, hungry water and fertilizer directly to the roots, planting 56 acres of land only 4 workers, just one day can produce 20,000 vegetables, the annual output is as high as 5 million tons, enough for 45 million people to eat for a year.
Not only that, Lanling has upgraded its growing vegetables to making prefabricated dishes, with more than 200 prefabricated dishes covering 12 categories such as meat, eggs, milk, and vegetables.
Lanling will also build the vegetable greenhouse into a national 4A-level scenic spot, receiving about 1.3 million tourists a year, tourists can not only see the big pumpkin, facility vegetables, plant protection machine, but also experience the green course of research.
The black technology of China's county industry has developed to an unimaginable level.
In the tea garden in Anxi, Fujian Province, not only a climate station has been set up, but also a Tieguanyin satellite has been launched into space to digitally manage the tea garden through aerospace big data, including tea growth, terrain slope, pollutants, diseases and pests. "In the past, tea farmers used to eat by watching the sky, but now they can eat by watching the stars. ”
If any industry wants to be sustainable, it cannot ignore environmental protection, and China's counties are well aware of this.
As the largest distribution center of waste goods in the south of the Yangtze River, Jiangxi Fengcheng brings together broken copper and iron from all over the country.
In the past, Fengcheng people's "collection of rags" is a handicraft workshop model, the treatment of waste materials is relatively simple, the efficiency is low, and more seriously, there is no park at that time, waste products are piled up randomly, garbage is a mountain, and the smell is unpleasant...... Residents around the scrap market are miserable.
Today, Fengcheng has built a circular economy industrial park to turn batches of waste items into treasure.
Scrap dismantling, production of wheels, packing, three production lines continue to run, while eating the waste, while spitting out the wheels, the monthly production of 150,000 pieces of motorcycle wheels, 250,000 pieces of electric vehicle wheels, products are exported to Southeast Asia. In order to avoid environmental pollution, the park has also established real-time monitoring of pollutants such as wastewater discharge and flue gas.
Over the mountains and through the mud, each county has found its own way.
Behind the rise of the county
Behind the rise of each county is the result of the joint efforts of many parties.
On the list of China's top 100 counties, Jiangsu and Zhejiang counties are on the list all year round, largely because of the local government's investment in talents regardless of cost.
There is a dream town in Yuhang, Zhejiang, which attracts many young people to start a business here. Station B UP main film and television hurricane is one of them, the "nanny-style" service provided here retains him, and the government staff will take the initiative to find him to explain various subsidy policies, "about rent, talents, settlement and other subsidies will tell you, and even say twice, urging you to land these things", these policies directly help the follow-up development of his company.
Taicang, Jiangsu Province has also invested nearly 200 million yuan in talents every year. A semiconductor company received funding from Taicang's "leading talents", with a total amount of more than one million, and they were even more surprised by the speed of project implementation.
The government's policies help enterprises to get rich, and the enterprises give back to the villagers with a strong sense of social responsibility.
When Guizhou Zheng'an guitar enterprises recruit workers, poor households can directly enter the field for employment. In one company, 35 percent of the employees are left-behind women, who take care of the elderly and children at home while working in factories to make money, "maybe more than her husband's money." ”
In Yueqing, Zhejiang, a special economic --- is popular, which means that Yueqing merchants are distributed in various parts of the world like sweet potato vines, and they will return to their hometown after absorbing enough nutrients to develop and grow.
In Xiashantou Village, Yueqing City, there is China's largest yo-yo (slide) theme park "Tieding Yo-yo Park", "Tieding" contains the love of the music merchant Fang Yuyou for his hometown, which means that he is determined to contribute to his hometown, and the operating income of the park is fed back to the villagers in different forms - leasing fields, taking land as shares, and employment remuneration, which directly drives the villagers to increase their annual per capita income by more than 5,000 yuan, and truly realizes common wealth.
Of course, the most powerful force behind the rise of the county town still comes from thousands of workers.
When a post-90s entrepreneurial team came to Hongmiao Village in Anji County to open a café, no one was optimistic about them, and even the local village party secretary said, "This is a crazy move." ”
There's a team in mind. The café was located next to a dark blue heart-shaped lake, which blended the scene and coffee in line with the current popular check-in culture, for which the team also built a 475-meter-long Internet celebrity wall and a 300-square-meter observation deck for people to take photos and check in.
At first, they expected that twenty or thirty people would be enough to come every day, but they did not expect that after the coffee shop opened, it quickly became popular on the Internet, receiving nearly 300,000 people and earning nearly 10 million yuan in less than a year.
This move directly changed the fate of this small county town. Subsequently, there are more and more coffee shops with different models such as "coffee + music" and "coffee + culture", and more than 300 coffee shops have emerged in this county with a population of less than 600,000, and the "coffee density" is higher than that of first-tier cities.
The geography of the county town does not limit the hearts of these workers, but allows them to have a more lofty ideal.
The process of developing Danyang, Jiangsu Province into the "World Glasses Capital" is full of hardships and tears.
In the past, the raw materials of high-end plastic lenses were once monopolized by Japan, and Danyang manufacturers could only re-export and purchase from South Korea in order to introduce mature foreign technology to win a glimmer of life.
When the development of the industry has improved, and encounters the prevailing domestic and foreign customs, everyone hears that it is domestic, and does not want two identical lenses, consumers will spend an extra 2,000 yuan because of the word "import". This creates a sad scene, where the people who make glasses, sell glasses, and buy glasses are all Chinese, but it is foreign brands that determine the price.
Now that a new generation has entered the eyewear industry, they are looking more long-term, hoping to create their own national brand, "I am not representing my own factory, but made in China." ”
"China's bearing capital" Wafangdian is known as "the first county in Northeast China", and years of development have proved that Wafangdian lives up to its reputation.
If the machine is regarded as a person, the bearing is the "joint", anything that needs to rotate is inseparable from it, including aviation, aerospace, aircraft carriers, nuclear industry, tanks and other high-precision equipment, therefore, "the level of development of bearings, but also determines the transformation of China from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power." ”
In the past, the delegation of Wafangdian Bearing Factory wanted to learn a little more technology from the world's bearing ace, but was stopped at the door of their factory, "not allowed to enter", at that time, the domestic industrial base was weak, foreign technology blockade monopoly, ZWZ people were hell mode.
Without advanced machinery and equipment, ZWZ people rely on their hands to make it little by little, with this "shaft" strength, ZWZ people have successively made China's first set of industrial bearings, China's first set of nuclear industry bearings, the first set of tank induction wheel bearings, the first generation of aircraft carrier arresting cable bearings......
A small county town can also support the backbone of the country.
The county is governed by the county, and the world is safe. The county is rich and the country is strong.
County, as a basic administrative unit, has never been submerged by the tide of history, from the Qin Dynasty county system, has been used for more than 2,000 years, so some people say that the county seat is the background color of China, understand China's county, read China's county, read China.
Take a look at these obscure little counties. There are entrepreneurs full of social responsibility, dedicated grassroots government workers, and hard-working, simple, hard-working and energetic workers. Today's county town is no longer lifeless, and the land from which people were so eager to escape is exuding a steady stream of hope and vitality.
Taicang, Jiangsu Province has been rated as "China's Happiest City" for eight consecutive years
Some references:
1. CCTV News ""County" is Departure"
2. CCTV News "Yiwu Small Commodities Have Exploded Again, Merchants Have Received a Large Number of Orders Related to the Paris Olympic Games"
3. Xinhuanet "Germany Holds Sino-German "Hidden Champion" Summit
4. Red Star News ""Three Jumpers" became popular in Europe and the United States, selling for up to $12,000, and the manufacturer said that "Please pay attention to reversing" will push the English version"