Cao County, Shandong: Industry Overview

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Cao County is a populous county in Shandong. Its economy has developed rapidly in recent years, especially in the Internet and new economy. Cao County is the largest Hanfu production base in China. Cao County Hanfu is well-known throughout the country. Cao County also has a major industry - wood product processing. 80% of Japanese coffins come from Cao County. Cao County also ranks second in the country with 17 Taobao towns and 151 Taobao villages, and together with Yiwu, Zhejiang, it has become a "super-large Taobao village cluster". In history, Cao County, located in the Central Plains, was built as early as 1700 BC by Shang Tang, and was called "the first capital of China".

1. Cao County is called "the first capital of China":

According to archaeological discoveries, the tombs of Shang Tang and Yi Yin were excavated in Cao County. Shang Tang was the founding monarch of the Shang Dynasty. With the assistance of Yi Yin and others, he finally defeated Xia Jie and established the Shang Dynasty (about 1600 BC-about 1046 BC). According to the official website of the Cao County government, Cao County belonged to the Dongyi land before the Xia Dynasty. There are many Dawenkou, Longshan, and Yueshi cultural relics in the territory. Many celebrities in history have left relics or been buried here.

2. China's largest Hanfu production base：

Nowadays, Hanfu has become a favorite clothing for many young people, and wearing Hanfu for travel has even become a fashion trend. Since the beginning of this year, as the impact of the epidemic on domestic travel has been greatly reduced, the demand for Hanfu by many scenic spots and Hanfu enthusiasts has increased significantly. Cao County, Shandong, has more than 2,000 merchants in the Hanfu industry chain, and the sales of original Hanfu account for one-third of the national market of the same type. In order to cope with the surge in demand, many local Hanfu factories work overtime to produce, but they are still in short supply.

One-third of the affordable and gorgeous Hanfu that are popular online come from Cao County, Heze City. In the Hanfu industry, Cao County, an inconspicuous county in southwest Shandong, is competing with super cities such as Hangzhou and Chengdu for the Hanfu market. The "2019 Hanfu Industry Report" shows that among all Hanfu consumers, the proportion of users who choose the price range of 100-300 yuan is the highest, reaching 41.78%. Most of the Hanfu at this price range comes from Cao County.

On March 19 last year, the "Online Broadcast of Industrial Belt Reopening" series of activities entered Shandong. More than 180 leading enterprises and merchants in Cao County, the origin of Hanfu, introduced nearly 5,000 Hanfu and peripheral products to consumers through online live broadcast. That night, Liang Huimin, deputy secretary of the Cao County Party Committee and county magistrate, also personally "went into battle" to push the entire event to a climax. 3,000 Hanfu were sold in half an hour of live broadcast, and the charm of Cao County Hanfu can be seen.

3. Become a "super-large Taobao village cluster" together with Yiwu, Zhejiang：

A place called Daji Town in Cao County relies on the development of e-commerce to make a fortune. The town has 18,000 online stores, attracting hundreds of thousands of college students and migrant workers to return to their hometowns for employment. As early as the early 1990s, some villagers in Dinglou Village, Daji Town, Cao County were already engaged in clothing trade business. At that time, they mainly processed clothing for photo studios, opera troupes, etc. After the rise of e-commerce, villagers began to sell their products online. As the business got better and better, the benefits became bigger and bigger, and every household in Daji Town opened an online store.

In the "List of Top 100 Taobao Counties in 2020" released by Alibaba, Cao County also ranked second in the country with 17 Taobao towns and 151 Taobao villages, and together with Yiwu, Zhejiang, it became a "super-large Taobao village cluster". As of 2020, Cao County has 4,000 e-commerce companies, 60,000 online stores, and 300,000 people engaged in e-commerce. Last year, online sales exceeded 19.8 billion yuan. If calculated based on the population of Cao County of 1.75 million, almost one in every five people in Cao County is engaged in e-commerce, and nearly half of the county's GDP comes from e-commerce.

4. Cao County is China's "Wood Art Capital"：

Cao County is actually China's "Wood Art Capital", with a long history of wood carving and a wide variety of craft styles. It has become an intangible cultural heritage of Shandong Province. Zhuangzhai Town in Cao County is the largest wood product processing site in the country, producing coffin products. In Cao County, there are almost 300,000 people engaged in the wood processing industry. In Zhuangzhai Town alone, there are 2,569 wood processing companies and more than 5,000 self-employed households, with an annual output value of 50 billion yuan, which is almost equivalent to the economic volume of a county town in the central region. The wood processed by this town every year, if stacked up in an area as large as a football field, is as high as the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai.

Every year, millions of coffins are sold from Cao County to Japan to accompany the deceased on their last journey. The earliest manufacturer in Cao County that started to specialize in coffin production sends 20,000 coffins to Japan every month, with annual sales of more than 100 million yuan. Domestic media are relatively "modest", saying that at least 60% of the Japanese market is occupied by Cao County's products. According to Japanese media reports, the number is 90%. In order to find out the truth of this matter, Tokyo TV even went to Zhuangzhai Town to record a program.