A textiles exhibition.	City scenario.	International trade zone.

Shaoxing County in Zhejiang Province is famous for its China Light Textile Industrial City (CLTIC), which has become a key part of China’s 21st century "silk road." For thousands of years, Shaoxing people have lived off their rich experience in weaving, printing, dyeing and clothes manufacturing, as well as planting mulberry trees, raising silkworms and reeling silk.

China Light and Textile Industrial City

Dubbed the “county built on cloth,” Shaoxing’s involvement in textiles can be traced back to the Neolithic Age of 7,000 years ago. In around 474 BC, when Shaoxing was a small vassal state named Yue, silk textiles became the central pillar of its economy. During the heyday of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Shaoxing was well-known for spinning and weaving, as reflected in these lines from a poem of that era: “Looms sound day and night, silks come out stretching hundreds of miles.”

In recent times Shaoxing has carried out a series of measures to update its key industry. Keqiao Light Textile Industrial Market appeared in 1985 in response to the demands of prosperous local businesses. It is now a 2.2 million square meter market that goes under the name of China Light Textile Industrial City. “The county seat, Keqiao, relies on CLTIC as the basis of its economy,” says Xu Huanming, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Shaoxing County Committee and member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Shaoxing Municipal Committee.

China Light Textile Industrial City’s 12,000 tenants receive 100,000 customers a day with more than 30,000 varieties of fabrics. CLTIC has 340 foreign agencies and 2,500 purchasing agents from around the world, and its products are sold in 187 countries and regions. In 2006, the transaction value of Keqiao's fabric sales surpassed RMB 30.1 billion. Along with the RMB 19.7 billion business of the nearby Qianqing Light Textile Industrial Raw Material Market, CLTIC has allowed Shaoxing to take a leading role in Asia’s textile market. “CLTIC is the heart of Shaoxing. Without it the county would be lifeless,” commented County Magistrate Feng Jianrong.

With its booming textiles business, Shaoxing has been designated one of China's top 10 counties for five years running, with GDP hitting RMB 45.117 billion in 2006, representing a per capita GDP of US $8,047. Government fiscal revenue reached RMB 5.21 billion the same year, while the annual net income of rural inhabitants reached RMB 10,438. Shaoxing is also home to nine listed companies, eight famous brands and eight famous trademarks. In addition, there are 218 enterprises in the county whose annual profits surpass RMB 100 million.

Updating the International Textile City

The steady flow of capital brought to Shaoxing by the fast developing textile industry has facilitated improvements to Keqiao’s environment and infrastructure. In addition to its unique culture, Keqiao boasts beautiful natural scenery, with rivers criss-crossing the county. To protect these waterways, a sewage collection system and treatment plant have been built, where about 600,000 tons of sewage is treated daily. Some local lakes and rivers have been dredged and redirected into a new river that helps prevent and control flooding. The river is also used for recreational purposes. More than 2 million square meters of public green land has been created in the past five years, and Keyan Scenic Area is now a well-known and popular sightseeing destination.

The local government has played an important role in balancing the development of industry and the textiles market with broader societal needs, such as environmental improvements and public facilities. Plans are in place to upgrade Keqiao’s traditional bazaar located in the county’s south, boost the international market in the center, improve support facilities for a new market in the north, and develop Qianqing Light Textile Industrial Raw Material Market in the west. In the future, great emphasis will be placed on market research and planning, as well as the building of a high profile brand.

The “611” project also kicked off this year, which will see 100 buildings, each of at least 15 storeys, constructed in the downtown area by 2013, to be used as the headquarters of enterprises, hotels and offices. The project will increase tertiary industry’s contribution to local GDP by one percent annually.

All these efforts have brought Keqiao into the global textiles economy. New building complexes have mushroomed, such as Time Square, Wonder Plaza and Metropolitan Spring. Shaoxing’s economic success has seen the area once again displaying the energy and vigor of youth.