A visit to Xitan Village, a cultural festival in the village

The village of Xitan in Ruian, Zhejiang Province is the hometown of traditional culture and art in Huling Town. As a “Chinese craft gift production base”, the village mainly consists of four categories of Christmas gifts, wooden photo frames, glass bottles, and intellectual toys, involving 1500 varieties. The products are exported to over a dozen countries in North America, Western Europe, etc. Production value of nearly 500 million yuan gift craft industry chain. A few days ago, the author walked into Xitan Village, known as the "Christmas Gift Village," and saw the prosperity of the production of gifts and gifts in the depths of the mountains.

At the moment of the Cultural Festival in the village, the production of craft gifts in the village of Xitan has already passed its peak. However, it can still be seen that the villagers are busy with their orders.

Under the leadership of Wang Lianming, the director of the village committee of Xitan Village, the author came to visit a craft gift production company Ruian Shunda Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. in the village. Only a few workers were skilled in the sample workshop. In less than two minutes, a golden ball pendant was born.

"Recently, we have been busy 'proofing' according to the requirements of the customers during the festival. Samples are sent to customers. When they are satisfied, we can produce in batches," said Chen Youfu, general manager of the company.

The author has learned that the cultural festival held by the manager Chen is the first Christmas Crafts Gift Culture Festival organized by Xitan Village in order to further open the market, through gift shows, event exchanges, and party performances.

On the opening day of the festival, more than 500 buyers from the city’s citizens and neighboring provinces and cities were attracted, and even a few foreign merchants came from miles to come. “At the cultural festival, many merchants showed an intention of cooperation. Our company has already signed orders with 15 customers and the total amount is about 2 million yuan.” Manager Chen said with a smile.

The villagers embarked on the rich road In addition to the production of craft gifts such as Shunda Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd., the author also saw many large and small craft gifts on both sides of the village road to produce family workshops. “In our village, although we cannot say that households do arts and crafts factories, it is certainly related to arts and crafts. There are more than 2,000 of the 2860 population in the village engaged in this industry.” Wang Lianming said that behind the annual output value of 500 million craft gifts in Xitan Village. It is a large-scale craft gift industry chain. At present, there are more than 40 gift production enterprises in Xitan Village and more than 200 family workshops.

A hospitable family workshop boss Liu Sister took us to the five-storey floor-to-ceiling room of her home and talked to us about the richness of craft gift processing. Eight years ago, she and her husband set up craft gifts and workshops in their house. At the beginning, when there are few orders, they can only send orders together when the big companies in the village are too busy. In recent years, under the leadership of the party branch of the village, driven by the radiation produced by the craft and gift companies in the village, the reputation of the craft gifts in Xitan Village has grown. Many merchants have come to the village to initiate orders. Sister Liu and her husband took advantage of this opportunity. Her husband was responsible for taking orders and was responsible for the production. The production scale of family workshops expanded day by day and the processing orders became more and more stable.

The author looks around at the residence of Liu Sister, the living room has just been renovated, home appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and computers are readily available, and a brand new Dongfeng Peugeot sedan is still on the door. “We can live a good day today and it is a good time for us to catch up with the economic development in the village!” said Big Sister Liu.

Liu Sister's family workshop is just a microcosm of the production of Xitang Village gifts. Under the drive of the gift and gift production chain, the annual household income of the Xitan Village family workshop can reach more than 80,000 yuan. At the same time, it also attracts migrant workers 2000. Many people.

Innovation and opening up new markets “At present, our village craft gifts are mostly foundry-type. We are at the low end of the industrial chain and have low value-added products. Finding new growth points for profit is a question we have been thinking about.” The dilemma of transformation and upgrading. In the process of transforming production, several large craft gift manufacturers in the village have successfully taken the first step and tasted the sweetness.

Xitang Village Dingfeng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. has more than 10 years of professional experience in the production process of gift pendants, products are exported to the United States, Japan, Europe and more than 10 countries. In the past, foreigners generally started purchasing orders for the year in March and April of the second year. This year, the company received the first order as early as the end of last year. Behind this favorable signal is the result of the company's innovative production.

It is understood that Dingfeng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. pays attention to the appearance of new products and materials. Each year, it invests funds to research and develop new products, and guarantees that more than 30 new products will be put on the market in the same year. After innovation, the price of craft gifts has increased by 10%, but the variety of products, creativity, attractiveness remains unabated. In 2011, under the background of artificial and raw material costs rising and the appreciation of ***, especially the purchasing power of European and American customers, Dingfeng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd. not only maintained orders, but also achieved higher profits.

"According to preliminary statistics, our village enterprises have invested about one million yuan each year to develop products and introduce nearly 200 new-style technology products," said Wang Lianming.

Nowadays, there are many vocational school students who come to practice in Xitan Village to make craft gifts every year. The village is planning to cooperate with the school to build a summer labor skill training base for students to further increase the popularity of the craft gifts.