Humen: Costume Empire Built On Small Stalls

160 years ago, Lin Zexu's Humen cigarette sales made Humen's Pearl River mouth a world of fame.

Nowadays, the ancient lock of iron lock copper pass has been replaced by the fashionable Chinese ladies' famous town.

30 years ago, only two tailoring shops made clothes for the people in Humen, which had nothing to do with fashion.

In the 30 years since the reform and opening up, Humen's clothing industry has developed from a spontaneous market to a homeopathic factory.

At present, Hongkong, the fashion capital of the world, has released a new fashion fashion (costumes). Humen can be informed on that day that it will be able to finish the design, production and sale on the next day.

In the late 70s and early 80s of the last century, Liang Shuzai wore 10 pairs of trousers. Humen was a young man who made money all day in 1982.

That year he spent $16 thousand on a ship with his friends, selling vegetables such as wax gourd to Hongkong.

When he returned to Humen, he had to hide dozens of nylon cloth on his ship and go back to Humen with fear.

On the day of 1980, the Soviet Union boss who made clothes in Humen first bought hundreds of clothes at Sha Tau Kok in Shenzhen and then at the friendship mall.

He was afraid to leave so many goods in the daytime. He hired a walking tractor in the evening, dressed under the carriage, covered with feeds, and secretly pulled clothes back to Humen in the evening.

Zhang Yongtong, an old Guancheng man, came to work in Humen in 1950s.

He loves photography. He used cameras to record the development of Humen in more than half a century.

He has an old photograph: an empty old street with many people gathered on both sides of the street.

This photo taken before and after 1979 is a street next to the Zhixin Park in Humen.

In those years, the clothes and cloth secretly brought back by Liang Shu and Su boss will often appear on the stalls in the photos, and they are very popular.

Selling a shirt and pants can earn at least a few dollars.

The two bosses, who are now in great wealth, recall the situation of "training" in the past. They said: "in those days, many people in Humen, Houjie, Changan and so on were brave enough to join in the tide of commodity economy in the initial stage of reform and opening up.

We go back and forth between Shenzhen, Sha Tau Kok, Hongkong and Humen at different times, bringing back foreign goods which are scarce in mainland China in various ways, including more than once wearing 10 pairs of trousers from Shenzhen Sha Tau Kok to return to Humen to evade inspection.

It is precisely because of the courage and hardship of this generation that before 1979, there was "foreign goods Street" under the lens of Zhang Yongtong's old man.

The street was soon known, attracting more and more businessmen from the Pearl River Delta and the mainland.

There are thousands of people there every day when people are prosperous.

In the past 1978 years, the Humen people who had successfully fled Hong Kong returned home to visit relatives, and brought back some items such as clothes, hats, socks, electronic watches and so on.

In the early days of reform and opening up, people wore clothes which were "gray", "yellow" and "blue". These "foreign goods" made the people of Humen open their eyes.

A piece of clothing can be sold for several yuan to tens of dollars, which was a great asset at that time.

At that time, the spring breeze of reform and opening up had just blown up, and the Humen people with a strong commercial spirit would not waste their opportunities.

The traffic between Humen and Hongkong is very convenient, at that time it only takes a few hours (now it only takes more than 1 hours).

They will be like Liang Shu and Su boss, go to Hongkong or close to Hongkong, Shenzhen Sha Tau Kok (that is, Sino British street) sell fish and vegetables, and then directly "smuggle" some clothes, cloth back to Humen "training booth".

Tan Zhiqiang is the director of Humen economic and trade office.

When he was young in 1980, he often went to "foreign goods Street" because there were many beautiful things there.

"People used to check in those days, including the provincial departments of Commerce and industry.

As soon as they arrived, all the vendors strolled away.

The boss said that they were all "ghosts" in those days.

The industry and commerce departments often come to "encircle and suppress", seize everything and confiscate everything.

In order to avoid "encirclement and suppression", they sometimes choose to set up stalls at noon or at night. Sometimes they only take a small part of clothing and sell them home.

Liang Shu said they were always afraid when they took the goods back to the stalls.

But they need money, and that kind of enthusiasm for getting rich is hard to get rid of by "encirclement and suppression".

In the early 80s (from the mid 80s to early 90s), a management committee was set up to set up a clothing market. If the Humen town government voted to build Humen's first large-scale professional clothing wholesale market, Fu Min fashion city in 1993, it was the most conscious guide to the construction of the professional market for clothing in Yunnan Province. In 1981, the "Management Committee for industrial and commercial individual workers", established in Humen, was the unintended support of the government at that time for the garment market that Humen had not yet formed.

This "support" accelerated the formation of the prototype of Humen's clothing market.

The "management committee" newly established in 1981 is still a very poor unit. It can only rely on loans and self financing to set up a simple market for the stalls in the street. The market has concentrated on the original mess and unified management.

In those days, the "management committee" had worked for ten staff members. Their work was to ride a broken bike every day and go to the street to collect market management fees.

In the early days, a clothing stall was charged 5 pieces a month, and fruit stalls ranged from 1 to 2 yuan a month.

The boss of Humen who first engaged in clothing business got his business license in 1982 or 1983.

He recalled that at that time, the government had launched two bridges (now opposite the old people's Hospital of Humen) and the old rich people and many other bazaars. The early clothing stalls and the other small commodities stalls at that time were all simple and big stalls. By the end of the 80s, there were hundreds of merchants specializing in clothing business in Humen.

It is very common that the boss said that the clothing market in Humen began to boom in 1988.

The clothing market in the mainland is also gradually awakening.

At that time, there were already quite a lot of clothing trade in Humen, and customers began to involve in the mainland and even abroad.

At that time he came back from a car in Zhongshan and was soon robbed by wholesalers.

At that time, he had a shop in the old hundred shopping malls. He ordered directly from a jacket factory in South Korea and sent it to Hongkong and shipped it to Humen by truck at night.

Many wholesalers in Wenzhou, Zhejiang and other places waited for him at night before they arrived.

"Wholesale" 300 to 400 yuan per piece, on average, I can earn 50 yuan per piece.

It's no problem to make a profit of 10 thousand yuan per day, if goods earn more. "

Sue boss said.

At the end of 1980, Tan Zhiqiang, director of the Humen economic and Trade Office, has been doing some clothing business for several years.

At that time, the garments in Zhongshan and Guangzhou were more developed than in Humen.

It's very good to sell in Humen. You can earn one thousand or two thousand yuan every month.

At that time, people's wages were two hundred or three hundred yuan per month, compared with his income.

"At that time, there were seven hundred or eight hundred clothing stalls in Humen, and everyone could earn a lot of money.

But those who earn 10 thousand per day are few and far between.

However, let bosses, Tan Zhiqiang, and hundreds of clothing dealers in Humen never dreamed that only a few years later, those who made clothes in Humen earned 10 thousand yuan a day.

Ten years of gold (the last 10 years of twentieth Century), the family clothing workshop became popular in the 1970 era, and there was a sewing machine in Humen Taiping girl Chen Yuling's family.

Her sister would usually make some clothes for the people in need.

In 1982 years or so, "like clothing from childhood" Chen Yuling to the state Taiping clothing factory to work, the monthly salary of 36 yuan.

At that time, the stall market in Humen had already formed a scale, and the "ghosts" such as Su boss could earn 36 yuan in one or two days.

In 1984, Chen Yuling listened to his mother's advice, came out of the factory, took the unemployment certificate, changed his individual business license, and joined the stall.

The cost of going out to get the goods is much higher than that of Chen Yuling himself, and the sewing machine of the Chen Yuling's family has increased to three or four.

She found an assistant and knew every day she made clothes and sold them to the market.

"At that time, families like me have been in Humen a lot, and it seems that they have become a fashion."

In 1986, the "management committee" built a large market with more than 300 stalls on Tai Sha Road, that is, the old and prosperous market.

One of them is Chen Yuling's.

Chen Yuling said that in those years after 1986, most of the old rich people could earn more than ten thousand yuan a year.

How can a small booth support such a large turnover?

Chen Yuling said at that time, wholesale from other places was not their main channel of purchase.

The endless sewing machine sounds of every household in Humen's Taiping City seem to explain everything.

Chen Yuling, a hardworking clothing businessman of his generation, himself did not realize that they had created a unique development mode of Humen clothing industry, namely, "the former shop and the back factory".

Although their workshops were not yet called factories, they had formed the embryonic form of this unique pattern.

It is difficult to meet business opportunities in the 500 years after the shop. "Some people say that these 10 years from 1990 to 2000 will not be easy for 500 years in Humen."

This statement from the public is an interpretation of the popularity of Humen's clothing market in the last 10 years of twentieth Century.

The Humen town government's evaluation of the Fu Min fashion city which was put into operation in 1993 is that "one son is settled and the whole is alive."

In October 5th 1992, the "management committee" registered the establishment of Humen Fumin service company, raising about 70000000 yuan in loans and buying 9988 square meters of land to build Fumin commercial building (Fumin fashion city).

At that time, as many as more than 1200 shops, vertical elevators, escalators, sightseeing elevators and other supporting facilities, the ten storey building in Humen attracted too many people's attention.

Jiang Huazhou, introduced by Fu Fu Min company, on November 21, 1993, the temperature dropped from 5 degrees centigrade to 18 degrees centigrade, and more than 1000 newly opened shops in Fumin mansion sold all the clothes in an instant.

Some of the shop owners are ready to buy clothes for garbage disposal.

In the dark, it seems to indicate the "myth" created after this building.

At that time, Chen Yuling had 3 berths in Fu Min fashion city.

After many years, she recalls that from 1993 to 1996, it was only the beginning of the prosperity of the clothing industry in Humen.

1996 years later, Chen Yuling described the daily life of people in the city of Fu Min in a crowded way.

"At 7:30 in the morning, I pulled a load of clothes.

Sometimes, goods do not need to enter shops at all. At the front of the fashion city, wholesalers even porters themselves act as a vehicle and buy them directly.

I can't ask Chen Yuling how much profit he made every month since then.

This can only be imagined by the rent and price increase of the shops in fuming fashion city.

In 1993, fuming fashion city opened, and a berth was paid to several thousand to 30 thousand yuan deposit.

The monthly rent ranges from hundreds to thousands, which can be said to increase month by month.

In 2002, Chen Yuling sold his berth, and a 9 square meter shop sold for 3 million yuan.

Now 5 million of the shop owners are definitely reluctant to sell.

The rent of a shop also surged to seventy thousand or eighty thousand yuan a month, with a maximum of more than 100 thousand.

A few years ago, peddlers in alleys and their own businesses in Fumin fashion city, it was very easy to earn 10 thousand yuan a day.

People can only use "myth" to describe this phenomenon, and can only use "500 years hard to meet" to evaluate this market situation.

Academics believe that after more than 10 years of reform and opening up, the country's economic prosperity, people from poverty to food and clothing, and began to concentrate on the pursuit of quality of life performance.

The Humen clothing people and the Humen town government consciously or unconsciously used the development mode of "former shop and factory" to seize the opportunity of "500 years hard to meet".

Like the old rich people's market ten years ago, the support of the "mythical" trading volume of the Fuxing fashion city is the more than 1000 garment factories behind the more than 1000 berths, which are all like Chen Yuling's Fubon international with hundreds of employees.

The brand development (last 90s to now) has become a famous brand in Humen in the first half of 1996. In the late 1980s, Tan Zhiqiang, who had been wearing clothes for two years in the past two years, often had to pack a business trip with his colleagues. The bag was full of small advertisements for Humen clothing, and several clothes changing clothes.

Tan Zhiqiang is a business trip for a week.

Cities such as Harbin, Beijing, Wuhan and Chengdu should go through the cities with clothing market.

"Go to a place and advertise door to door in every clothing store.

Tell business people that Humen will hold a fashion fair and hope they can enjoy their faces. "

Tan Zhiqiang said that after he went out in 1996, he knew that other places did not know that there were clothes in Humen.

Therefore, he realized that after the leadership of the Humen town government went to Dalian to participate in the "Dalian international clothing festival" in 1995, it was right to return to Humen to make a fashion show.

At that time, Humen had no experience of holding exhibitions, and even did not know how to write an invitation.

At that time, Humen's Hong Kong clothing enterprises also "did not want to play with the government".

They ran around Humen again.