Jobs, prosperity are music to ears of Zheng'an, world's largest guitar hub

Guitars have helped transform Zheng'an, an impoverished county in Guizhou province, into a national miracle in the mountainous regions of southwestern China and a go-to destination for music lovers from all over the world.

Zheng Chuanjiu is one of the unlikely heroes in Zheng'an. The tanned, stout and unassuming man is not only the general manager of Zunyi Shenqu Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co Ltd, a leading guitar maker in the city, but also someone who was closely involved with the city's transformation as a leading stringed musical instrument manufacturing center.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Zheng's company managed to grow orders by 25 percent last year and sold some 600,000 guitars, with 90 percent being exports. A middle school dropout who became a guitar workshop trainee and later the general manager of Zunyi Shenqu, Zheng has firsthand experience of the development of the guitar industry in Zheng'an.

Zheng and his brother, both natives of Zheng'an, left their hometown in the 1990s and came to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in the 1990s for better income. In those days, most of the people in the city used to make a living either by working as farmers or as migrant workers. They soon found jobs at a local guitar workshop, where they were later promoted to management positions.

In 2007, they started their own factories in Guangzhou. By 2012, nearly one-fourth of the over 200,000 Zheng'an natives working outside of the county for better income were making guitars, according to local government.

In 2012, Zheng'an authorities launched a series of supportive policies to attract guitar makers back to their home county, relocate or start businesses related to musical instruments. These measures included providing rent-free factories for the first three years, and 50 percent rent from the third year to the fifth year. The goal was to create more job opportunities for local residents, boost the local economy, and make Zheng'an a leading guitar manufacturing hub in China.

"Zheng'an natives have learned knowledge and gained wealth through working in developed areas. Some of them even became professionals and skilled workers in certain fields. Encouraging them to return home and start their own businesses, with support from the government, was the start of a pillar industry that would buoy local economic development," said Wu Qi, magistrate of the county.

Zheng and his brother were among the first batch of people that relocated their business to Zheng'an in 2013. Zheng said compared with setting up a factory in Guangzhou, moving back to his hometown was more beneficial due to the lower labor costs, rent and power charges.

Zheng's new business, Zunyi Shenqu, saw rapid development in the subsequent years. The company developed two independent brands and four production lines. It also does processing work for some top global musical instrument brands such as Japan's Ibanez and Fender from the United States. The company's products are sold in the United States, Brazil, Spain, Germany, and Japan.

Buoyed by Zheng's success, more and more Zheng'an native guitar makers are returning to their hometown after the local government's call. To date, Zheng'an is home to 89 guitar companies whose products are sold in more than 30 countries and regions across the world.

To better help local businesses grow, the local government also set up a guitar industrial park, which is an incubation platform for guitar businesses. Last year, the industrial park made a series of adjustments and optimization to improve infrastructure and business environment, such as efforts to encourage technical innovation and promoted a handmade electric guitar production line to explore new opportunities in the high-end market.

Once a poverty-stricken county, Zheng'an is now the world's largest guitar manufacturing hub. Last year, companies in Zheng'an produced over 6 million guitars with output value surpassing 6 billion yuan ($923 million). The county said guitar production and sales from Zheng'an now account for a fifth of the nation's total and a seventh of the world total.

Zhao Yandi in Guiyang contributed to this story.