No. 16 South Station Road: Guangzhou Story In A Clothing City

A beautiful young girl stripped off her jacket and left her black bra. When she looked for the gap between her new clothes in the clothes pile, the middle-aged man who was several meters away looked at her. This scene is staged every day in this market. Shops are also inclined to hire attractive girls who can wear "print". They are shopping guides, but also fitting models.
In the atrium square, there are posters of "making red nets for red net merchants", and some shops are displaying "A4 paper" notices that are "welcome to live". The forefront of China's electricity business is quietly running in the oldest market.
Here is the white horse clothing market, 16 South Guangzhou Railway Station Road (hereinafter referred to as the white horse market).
A lot of clothing brands such as brother, Gloria, and bryin are coming out from here. Here is an important component of the Guangzhou Liuhua business circle (Liuhua Lake Park), which is the window of reform and opening up, the "City reception hall" and the nuggets of diffusing wealth dreams.
Yi Zhongtian believes that Guangzhou, like Shanghai, is a "city" rather than a "city". The white horse market has become a microcosm of Guangzhou in the past 30 years.
This is the story of Guangzhou, and even the story of China.
1 Baima Mountain in western suburbs
"Next stop, Guangzhou Railway Station... Go to Guangzhou Railway Station... Passengers in the white horse clothing market, please be prepared! " When the subway line 2 will arrive at Guangzhou Railway Station (hereinafter referred to as Guangzhou Railway Station), the subway will be reminded in Mandarin, English and Cantonese. The subway station is connected to Guangzhou Railway Station by multiple outlets, and G exports to the white horse market.
In 1958, the Guangzhou Railway Station construction plan proposed that the location of the western suburbs of the city should be shelved for historical reasons. In 1971, Guangzhou Railway Station was launched and officially opened in April 1974.
Guangzhou Railway Station is the first stop for many outsiders to set foot in Guangzhou.
Less known is that Guangzhou Railway Station is a special "foreign trade project". The resumption of work is mainly to meet the needs of passenger transport in Guangzhou Fair.
Since 1957, the Canton Fair has started the Liuhua Road in Guangzhou, and has been easily accessible since the Spring Festival. In the spring of 1974, it returned to Liuhua Road and opened the new Liuhua exhibition hall.
Canton Fair is the engine of Liuhua business circle. Around the Canton Fair Exhibition Hall, business facilities such as friendship theatre, Orient Guest House, China World Hotel and Liuhua hotel have been improved, and politicians and businessmen gathered at home and abroad. The Liuhua business circle, with its aura of "flowing flowers and jade", is the "City reception hall" of Guangzhou and the window of China's reform and opening up.
By 80s, Hongkong clothing was popular in the mainland, and Guangzhou Railway Station became a "distribution area" for reselling Hongkong fashion. In 1993, the white horse market opened, and the first indoor shopping malls wholesale market in mainland China led the fashion trade to enter the room and opened a new trend.
Today, many people know the white horse market and do not know "Baima Mountain". At that time, Guangzhou urban construction and Development Corporation (now Yuexiu group) won the Baima mountain massif in the west suburb village opposite Guangzhou Railway Station. There is only a small farmer's market on Baima Mountain.
In 1989, the construction of the Baima Mountain project started two years later, and the 6 storey building was built. Unlike the existing commercial buildings, there are different opinions about the use of the building. Some people suggest selling local specialties or making comprehensive shopping malls. Guangzhou city construction always listened to the suggestion of wholesale market, because at that time, "from Hong Kong and Macao moved to Guangzhou many manufacturers, here has the advantage of close to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the people of the whole country get to Guangzhou to get goods".
In January 8, 1993, one year after the reform and opening up of the chief designer, the white horse market with a total area of 60 thousand square meters and 2000 shops opened to visitors.
1993 opening site of the white horse market (photo source: textile and clothing weekly, November 2008)
From the Canton Fair to Guangzhou Railway Station and then to the white horse market, politics and capital will join hands to make waves.
In the era of tight clothing in Guangzhou, Baima Mountain became Jinshan. "Woolen sweater has been robbed before arriving at the shop. As long as you have sleeves, clothes make clothes, no matter what type of work you have made, you can sell them well. A clothing operator once recalled the magnificent scenery more than 20 years ago.
It is believed that 1995-1996 years later, some people took the mayor's approval to queue up for the white horse. Guangzhou business circles also spread a saying: the most expensive property in Guangzhou is not luxury, hotels or Citic Tower, but a specialized wholesale market.
2 the age of "horse riding"
The national clothing looks at Guangzhou, Guangzhou clothing looks at Liuhua, Liuhua clothing looks at the white horse.
As the first modern wholesale market in Guangzhou, the white horse market is the first to lead. In the market, the most advanced central air conditioning, generating sets and infrared monitoring systems in Guangzhou were installed at that time.
Maintaining the sensitivity and adaptability to the times is a "self cultivation" in the clothing market.
In the face of constantly changing market, Baima market is like "Transformers", which constantly reinvent itself. In 1995, the supply of shops was in short supply, and the white horse market was covered by seventh floors. Two years later, we spent a lot of money to build a fashionable atrium fashion show square that opened the market at that time. In the market, T's models were different. Since then, many facades and floors have been reconstructed. These actions are aimed at strengthening brand display, original design or enhancing business sense and weakening wholesale characteristics.
"First a white horse jumps, and then a horse rushing." In 2001, Hu Tieshan, general manager of Baima market property company, said.
Hu Tieshan's "horse riding Pentium" refers to dozens of large and small clothing wholesale markets springing up in the Liuhua business circle. Liuhua business circle has become the largest clothing distribution center in China. It is also the largest professional market in Guangzhou. Its annual volume accounts for 1/3 of the national garment industry.
After the white horse market, the clothing wholesale market of Liuhua business circle opened.
Wang Yuan, a white horse market insider familiar with the situation, said that since the Baima market, Guangzhou has formed 3 flower business circles, Liuhua, Shahe and thirteen lines. Among them, Shahe is now the main network of batches, the thirteen line is mainly fast fashion type, Liuhua business district to older mature clothing dominated. Behind the 3 clothing trade circles are Guangzhou Baiyun, Xintang, Panyu, Dongguan, Zhongshan and other garment industrial belts.
If the line of sight is lengthened again, "horse riding Pentium" has another meaning -- excellent students play an exemplary role in underachievers.
In the years after the opening of the white horse market, business leaders from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan and Shenyang came to the white horse market. For a time, there were many "horse" clothing market in all parts of the country.
As a manufacturing and foreign trade province, Guangdong faced greater pressure in the 2008 financial crisis. The following year, Guangdong put forward the idea of "going north" and "going west". Since the spring of 2010, the Baima market has held the brand exhibition and supply and demand joint meeting in Zhengzhou, Beijing, Urumqi, Shuyang and Zhuzhou, at the same time promoting brand export.
"White horse" has evolved into a fashion wholesale industry. In 2013, the day and white horse clothing market, which was built by the white horse market partners, opened in the Beijing zoo clothing trade circle. It became the largest and best decorated middle and high-end clothing mall in the business circle, with an area of 40 thousand square meters, with 1039 shops and more than 3000 practitioners.
Guangzhou white horse is called the "dark horse" in the clothing industry.
3 the Canton Fair "moved" again.
The white horse market and Liuhua business circle do not sing all the way.
In 2003, "SARS" broke out, Guangzhou became a "epidemic area", and Liuhua business circle fell into a low speed development period.
By coincidence, 1 employees of Ali became one of the 4 SARS patients in Hangzhou. He was infected when he went to Guangzhou to attend the ninety-third Canton Fair. After the employee was diagnosed with SARS, the office block of Ali was blocked and the staff were quarantined at home for telecommuting. After the difficult period of SARS, it was designated as "Ali day" in May 10th every year since 2003, or the day of Taobao online.
"SARS" also let Ali notice that people who fear the epidemic and do not go out try to buy online.
The fight against SARS is regarded as one of the two milestones in 2003 (source: Ali official website).
In 2003, it was also the beginning of the rapid development of manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta and the manufacturing industry in the mainland. Cheng Jiuzhou, general manager of Baima market, admitted: "Liuhua business circle is the market place of origin type, the manufacturing industry is migrating, and the Liuhua business circle has lost the advantage of origin."
In the manufacturing industry, the clothing market in the mainland is everywhere, which makes Guangzhou's clothing market face competition. In the meantime, there was another incident which gave the Liuhua business circle a great deal of pressure.
The "China first exhibition" Canton Fair is the opening symbol of Guangzhou. In 1957, the first Sino Foreign Friendship Building of Liuhua Road, which had just completed two years' site selection, was moved to Guangzhou city next year, but the site size was limited. In 1970s, the new Canton Fair's new hall was put on the agenda to re locate the Liuhua Road, the venue of the first Canton Fair. There are lots of land in the suburbs, and Guangzhou Railway Station can also solve long distance travel problems.
In 1974, the Canton Fair returned to Liuhua Road and opened the new exhibition hall. The Liuhua exhibition hall opened the golden age of the prosperity of Liuhua business circle.
Every spring and autumn two season, the Orient Guest House separates every corner of the hotel into an outdoor trading stall or even a partner on the grass. On the Canton Fair, there is a clothing exhibition area, which brings business opportunities to the clothing market such as the white horse market and the Liuhua business circle.
The vitality brought by the Guangzhou Fair to Liuhua business circle lasted until September 2008. The 104th Canton Fair once again left Liuhua business circle and moved to east city Pazhou.
Because of the Guangzhou Trade Fair, the construction of Guangzhou Railway Station resumed construction. Because of transportation, land and popularity, the white horse market and the surrounding dozens of garment markets gathered. The move of the Canton Fair has left the Liuhua business community at a loss. Business in the hotel and clothing market is affected.
Canton Fair is the engine of Liuhua business circle.
Data show that in the first half of 2009, by the relocation of Guangzhou Trade Fair, Orient Guest House exhibition revenue decreased by 43.83% compared with the same period last year, and the income of guest rooms and restaurants decreased correspondingly, resulting in a 88% drop in net profit. Although the wholesale clothing group is relatively stable, the days of getting mad at the shops, subleasing the white horse market, and making a monthly profit of ten thousand or twenty thousand can never go back. "Shops continue to sell prices and sell at night for a year or even less than three hundred thousand."
Liuhua pavilion has been looking for its "location". After the relocation of the Canton Fair, the exhibition hall transformed the professional clothing wholesale market. In 2018, it was renamed the Guangzhou Liuhua exhibition and trade center and transformed into a complex.
As soon as the Canton Fair passed, the "half backbone" of Liuhua business circle was removed, and the function of "City reception hall" and "window" in the business circle were weakened and returned to the role of a nugget.
4 "we retail too".
"500 yuan for a single piece, 6 yuan for each item (360 yuan per item), and can be delivered." On the first floor of the white horse market, a shop assistant introduced a long creamy women's down jacket. A similar down jacket may cost 1000 yuan in the mall.
A wholesale shop that refused to retail because of its small volume and limited profit.
Compared with the comprehensive shopping mall, the retail price of the white horse market has certain advantages.
The media described the white horse market "not retail" before: before 2000, merchants basically did not have any retail concept. They either refused to sell them individually or at least 3-4 times the wholesale price.
For wholesale clothing market, retail is another business, and they have an irrelevant attitude towards retailing. But once the environment changes, the white horse market gradually accepts retail or even encourages retail sales. 7-9 months of the year and 1-2 months before the Spring Festival are the peak season for clothing sales, and also the wholesale off-season. Retailers are promoting retail sales to clean up their stock. The Baima market even has a unified retail area.
In September 2016, Cheng Jiuzhou revealed such a group of figures: 10 years ago, the retail sales of the white horse wholesale market accounted for nearly 0, and now it has reached 20%-30%.
It is worth noting that whether retail or retail is also closely related to customer groups. In the early years, white horse's retail customers were mainly migrant workers, but now they are mostly urban white-collar workers. With the change of consumer brand concept, the superstition of big brands has been resolved, and the high performance price goods in the professional clothing market have been more acceptable.
However, while the professional clothing market is newly recognized by consumers, it is facing new pressure of "changing cage and changing birds". Guangzhou's more than 1200 large and small wholesale markets, with the tide of reform and opening up, have created a miracle of Commerce. However, they have become a "backward" industry that needs urgent transformation and upgrading due to "dirty and messy" and obstructing traffic.
At 18 o'clock in December 15, 2013, a fire broke out in Jianye Building, Yuexiu District uprising road. There were many warehouses inside the building, which contained a large number of shoes, cloth and glue products. The 25 storey building was burned overnight by Tongxin.
Two months later, Guangzhou issued a proposal that, in order to alleviate the traffic congestion in the urban area and the outstanding problems that the warehouse is likely to cause serious fires, it announced that the new wholesale market would be banned in the central city and closed or relocated to the low-end professional market such as "three now" transactions (cash, spot, spot). In April 2019, Yuexiu District announced that the transformation of 40 specialized wholesale markets should be promoted in the past 3 years.
In Beijing, the Beijing sky and white horse market, which was mentioned earlier, opened for business only after more than four years and closed at 18 on November 12, 2017. Beijing Xicheng District plan, the wholesale market of zoo business circle will be closed to the market. The space of Teng exit will be introduced according to the development concept of "Technology Finance + environmental services".
Now speaking of the "white horse" clothing market across the country, Wang Yuan, an insider of the Guangzhou white horse market, believes that there is not much connection between them. "You can even understand the relationship between the US" Jordan "and the Chinese" Jordan ".
5 the Internet is coming.
In 1994, China's Internet was born. Four years later, the white horse market with a keen sense of smell pioneered the Internet portal "white horse windows", introducing the white horse market and promoting products.
"At that time, its click through rate was the highest in the national professional market, and many overseas Chinese knew about the Chinese clothing market." Cheng Jiuzhou, general manager of Baima market, said.
The starting point of the white horse market is undoubtedly ahead. By 2006, the website of Baima market has 3 languages, namely, simple, complex and English.
The network marketing situation of China's top 10 apparel professional market in 2006, only Hangzhou Sijiqing realized online trading function.
In the direction, Baima market tries to build its own vertical e-commerce platform -- "replicating" the success of the Pacific computer network.
Cheng Jiuzhou said he had led a tour of Hangzhou to Ali, but eventually the Pacific computer network gave them great inspiration. The development of the Pacific computer network is similar to that of the white horse market. It originated from a computer professional market and later became a computer website. Finally, Hong Kong shares were listed.
In November 2008, after the launch of the white horse clothing network, it tried to transform the online retail website, but it was not very hot. After that, the white horse market has changed its B2C operation ideas, and plans to implement B2B mode to help Merchants join in the business. But by 2011, the website still does not support users to place orders and pay online. The revenue comes mainly from home page advertising fees and membership fees. In 2012, the white horse market launched its own online shopping mall, the white horse city.
2B or 2C, self built platform or access to large platform is the general entanglement of professional wholesale market in the Internet era.
In 2010, organized by the Guangzhou professional market association, Ali extended an olive branch to the professional market, including the white horse market. "E-commerce is just a tool and will not eat." the focus of future development of the professional market is "non transaction function".
In the 90s of last century, Guangzhou and Hangzhou were the two main garment wholesale markets in China, which were backed by the two major garment bases in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta.
Compared with the white horse market, Hangzhou Four Seasons Green platform for the platform type of electricity supplier, the mentality appears to be more open.
It is one of the earliest garment professional markets in China to launch online transactions. In 2002, Sijiqing worked with Germany's Bertelsmann group, uvette China, to launch the Sijiqing apparel network B2B information platform (SJQ.CN), to promote the "Sijiqing transaction through" service. In 2008, Sijiqing worked with Ali to set up Sijiqing Network Technology Co., Ltd. In February 2009, Sijiqing officially entered the Alibaba Chinese station and became the first Alibaba professional market user.
There are mainly two ways for professional market to get involved in electricity suppliers: the first is to set up self trading e-commerce platform, such as the Guangzhou white horse market, the self built e-commerce platform of Yide Road, dry goods market and so on. The other is to use the third party trading platform, such as Taobao network and clothing networking.
The limitation of self built platform is obvious, it is difficult to form the scale advantage and become the "isolated island" on the Internet. In the era of "searching for electricity providers", the large and full scale platform is king of scale effect, but the self built e-commerce website of professional market is just like a drop in the ocean.
In 2014, Wang Xianqing, President of the Guangdong Institute of business economics, pointed out that there are many large scale specialized market self built electronic business platforms in China. These markets have more than 10 branches and tens of thousands of shops, but there are no successful cases.
After exploring the electricity supplier for many years alone, the Baima market gradually abandoned hesitation.
In 2018, when the white horse market signed a contract with ALI, the 1688 electricity supplier service center, Guangzhou White Horse Station officially landed, and a senior executive of the white horse market said frankly: networking development is the general trend and irreversible.
6 what is the white horse market?
In January 8, 2020, the white horse market is on its way to its 27 birthday. At the age of 27, it is still searching for its most comfortable posture.
Faced with the surging tide of the times, such comfortable posture may not exist at all.
In December 2018, the white horse market and Taobao jointly launched the "boss's mother's arrival" net red live broadcast activity, a total of 20 live webcast red ginseng and. The white horse market chose 20 brands to participate in the live test, including some independent designer brands. According to the information of Baima market, the sales volume of single style is nearly 1000.
In May 2019, the white horse market held the white horse net red live business conference, announced that it will cultivate 100 net red brands and 1000 anchors in the coming year.
Anchor advertising for underground garage in Baima Market
Wang Yuan, a white horse market insider who is familiar with the situation, said that although the live broadcast of the white horse market has made some progress, it is also under pressure, especially in comparison with Hangzhou and Shenzhen. He believes that Hangzhou's electricity supplier and clothing industry are well developed, both from the origin, or the degree of perfection of the live industry, all have great advantages, and Shenzhen is also closely related to the trend of European and American clothing, and the clothing format is ahead.
Wang Yuan analysis, to the white horse market and the entire Guangzhou clothing industry, "is not lack of head net red," Wei Ya is in Guangzhou thirteen rows of fire up. Our weakness is that the waist web is too small. Just like what he said, not everyone can afford to get Li Jiaqi and Wah.
In the white horse market, there are still some shops adhere to the original wholesale, original business, "we do not make Taobao, it is too messy, the new version of the second days, there are imitators." Similarly, a photo may leak the version. When customers want to take pictures of their clothes and help their friends to pick them, the watchful salesmen will suggest video links or a small video to avoid "plagiarism".
There is still a contradictory River between the diffusion of clothing information and the protection of original designs. This river appears deeper in the highly developed mobile Internet era.
In addition, some original brands have chosen a relatively closed and controllable social selling mode.
A customer in the white horse market five floor "Half Step" (white horse market and the original designer brand launched by partners, in 2016 to enter the white horse) bought a down jacket, the clerk added customers WeChat and pulled her into a group of hundreds of people, known as "white horse five building * welfare number" WeChat group. After a period of time, the shop assistants will publish a series of pictures, "spike" and "cabbage prices" in the group to attract group members to place orders.
"Baima market is not a comprehensive shopping mall, not selling low price logo's outlets, nor is it a low price Taobao, nor is it a wholesale market where goods are sold. A female customer who has repeatedly "washed" clothes in the white horse market thinks.
What is the white horse market?
The white horse market, which was born in Guangzhou, is also like Guangzhou. They also have deep accumulation, and have been the opener and leader role. Now they are faced with some conservative questions, such as backward development and unclear development.
What is the white horse market and what is Guangzhou? These two questions may have the same answer.