Small town transforms itself into largest children’s wear manufacturing center

A livestreamer advertises children’s wear during a livestreaming session. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

The small town of Zhili in Huzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province, has developed a children’s clothing industry cluster and made it the largest in the country over the past 40-plus years, according to a local official.

Children’s clothing has now grown into a pillar industry of Zhili, said Yang Zhi, the town’s Party chief, adding that it is stepping up efforts to promote common prosperity by developing the industry.

Statistics indicate that the town is now home to more than 14,000 children's wear enterprises and over 8,000 e-commerce companies, and is able to produce 1.45 billion pieces of children’s garments a year. The annual sales revenue exceeds 65 billion yuan (about $10 billion), accounting for two-thirds of China’s children’s clothing market.

Wu Jianlin, 50, is president of a children’s wear company in Zhili. Wu was one of the first entrepreneurs in the industry, starting his children’s wear business in 1989 and producing clothes with household sewing machines. Six years later, he replaced them with electric sewing machines. In 2010, Wu used computers to monitor all his production lines.

Wu has turned his family’s workshop into an e-commerce enterprise that designs, produces and sells children’s garments, with an annual sales volume exceeding 100 million yuan.

Wu’s company is a living example of the transformation of the town’s children’s clothing industry, which has helped it move steadily toward common prosperity.

Liang Lei, who has worked as an operational staff member at a local clothing company’s online store for six years, is one of those to have benefited from the industry.

Liang now secures an annual income of more than 500,000 yuan, a dramatic increase from less than 100,000 yuan in the first year when he worked there.

“I bought my second apartment in Huzhou,” Liang said, adding that he lives a happy life.