How Does Shishi Create A Fashionable City?

160 square kilometers, 300 thousand people - Shishi, this area is only twice as big as the island, and the population is not as big as the "pocket city" of the whole 1/20 of Hongkong. Every day, it is shuttling with one hundred thousand people.

The leisure clothing industry in Shishi, Fujian province is famous both at home and abroad, and the mainland has the "North Dalian, the south stone lion" in the mainland.

It is said that half of China's textile and clothing exports come from Fujian, while half of Fujian's textile and clothing exports are concentrated in Shishi and its surrounding areas.

The local clothing industry has already covered the complete industrial chain of textile, bleaching and dyeing, garment processing, accessories, marketing and so on, and has formed 8 industrial clusters, including synthetic fiber, leisure men's clothing, new fabrics, hardware accessories, trousers, children's clothing, dyeing and finishing.

At present, there are more than 7000 garment enterprises in Shishi and surrounding areas, more than 800 weaving enterprises, more than 200 dyeing and finishing enterprises, and more than 1000 garment accessories enterprises.

What is even more surprising is that this tiny place "has gathered" a large number of Hong Kong and Taiwan stars. Jordan Chan, Teresa Mak, Wang Chieh, Felix Wong, Simon Yam, Adam Cheng, Alec Su and other artists have all been used as the brand spokesmen of Shishi clothing.

Every year there will be a number of authoritative fashion conferences, each with "stars sparkling."

　　海外包裹帶動小鎮繁榮

People who have been to Shishi often wonder: how does this "border town" without cotton production and pportation become a "famous Chinese leisure clothing city"?

Scholars are studying the magic of the barren land. Only in 20 short years have they created the "fashion capital" with absolute voice in the Chinese industry.

The small workshop gradually grew stronger.

Tracing back to the source of Shishi garment industry, we must start from Hongkong.

As early as 1960s, the Shishi, who was born with a business sense, began to use the clothes and other consumer goods sent by overseas Chinese and Hong Kong and Macao residents to set up shop for business. From the beginning of the reform and opening up to the mainland, a famous "free market" has been formed. Less than 2 square kilometers of town are full of all kinds of "little foreign goods" that the mainland people have never heard of: cassette player, perfume, necktie, suit, lighter, electric razor and so on.

According to customs data, in the middle of 70s, the parcel luggage from Hongkong and overseas sent to Shishi reached about 1000000 kilograms per year, with more than ten million remittances, of which Hongkong was the most.

Shishi found that according to the foreign exchange rate at that time, 100 Hong Kong dollars could only be exchanged for 27 yuan, but if the exchange of Hong Kong dollars into foreign goods into the mainland sales, it can achieve 1 Yuan Hong Kong dollars for 1 yuan of "value-added gains".

So they commissioned Hong Kong and Macao to buy large quantities of goods and sell them in the local market.

In this way, the Shishi people completed their first primitive accumulation and opened the prosper of "little Hongkong".

Some businessmen in Shishi saw business opportunities in the hot sale of "foreign goods", such as old garments, and began to build small workshops to imitate the sale of "foreign goods".

The clothing technology content is low, the imitation difficulty is small, and the market demand is big, gradually becomes the small workshop production main variety.

It is said that only a week after Hongkong's popularity of a new fabric and new style, lion people will be able to imitate the listing in large quantities in less than a week.

The price of its products is lower than that of foreign goods, and similar to foreign goods, which caters to the needs of domestic consumer groups.

Since then, the stone lions in Hongkong have returned home with funds, information and market experience. They have set up factories with villagers to undertake "three to one" business, such as garment processing, sample processing and incoming assembly.

In the process, small workshop gradually grew into an industrial enterprise, and the rapid rise of an industry.

By the beginning of 1988, Shishi had more than 10 thousand commercial stalls and more than 1300 industrial enterprises, of which clothing accounted for 70%, and gradually became the well-known clothing wholesale market.

"There is no business anywhere in the street, and all over the world" is the true portrayal of Shishi.

　　產業一條龍漸成閩派服飾核心

"You don't need to bring anything to a garment factory at Shishi, just bring the money."

This is an interesting quote from Shishi economic and trade officials to foreign investors.

Five major villages and towns awarded by the state

"Shishi clothing industry chain is very complete. In Shishi clothing factory, it is very convenient to import accessories and fabrics, such as zippers, trademarks, interlining, buttons, sewing thread, computer embroidery, ribbon and so on. It can be easily bought at any time in Shishi."

The owner of a garment factory said.