Xinhua News Agency Hangzhou/Los Angeles, June 27, by wire | The world's largest freshwater pearl distribution center, this town is unusual

Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yao, Weng Xinyang

In Las Vegas, USA, on the morning of June 25, Marcia Foster opened the live broadcast room of TikTok anchor Obeida and bought a string of favorite Edison pearl necklace after watching the introduction. In this online shop in China, she has purchased more than 10000 dollars of freshwater pearl jewelry.

As a loyal fan of Obeida Live Studio, Foster likes the atmosphere of the studio very much, especially watching Obeida show the freshwater pearls in the Shanxia Lake Town, Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, China with high-definition cameras.

This is the Yamashita Lake Town (UAV photo) taken on May 21. Photographed by Weng Xinyang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Shanxiahu Town has an area of less than 43 square kilometers and a population of less than 30000. According to the statistics of relevant departments of Zhuji Municipal Government, after more than half a century of development, the production and sales of pearls in the town have accounted for more than 80% of the country and 73% of the world. Shanxiahu Town has become the world's largest freshwater pearl distribution center and trading center.

Why can a small town stand out in the global pearl industry? The answer given by the Yamashita Lakers is: dare to try, embrace change and win opportunities.

"Our village began to cultivate pearls in the late 1960s. At that time, He Mugen took the lead in enclosing some land behind his house. In the early 1970s, he produced the first batch of pearls and sold them for 497 yuan, which caused a sensation in Zhuji." He Lixin, secretary of the Party Committee of New Changle Village, Shanxiahu Town, told reporters about the history of pearl cultivation in their village.

According to He Lixin, due to the gradual liberalization of the policy, the villagers dared to try. In the mid and late 1970s, every household in New Changle Village began to breed pearls. In the 1980s, it became the village with the most "10000 yuan households" in Zhuji. Since then, including the New Changle Village, Shanxiahu Town has started to raise clams and pearls.

However, the "sack economy", which only provides naked pearls and waits for customers at home, still encounters a bottleneck period, and the output value of pearls has failed to break the threshold of 10 billion yuan for many consecutive years. In order to seek breakthroughs, the Yamashita Lakers tried many times to expand the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, learn new technologies, and empower the pearl industry.

On May 20, in the exhibition hall of a pearl enterprise in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, the anchor introduced pearl jewelry. Photographed by Weng Xinyang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Qian Shaocong, a post-90s generation, is the "three generations of Pearl River" of Yamashita Lake. Instead of operating his own business according to the old experience passed down from his parents, he jumped out of the traditional track and took the foreign anchor to test the cross-border e-commerce live broadcast. He likes to review the preferences and payment habits of overseas customers after each live broadcast, trying to find the "traffic password". Qian Shaocong has also grown from an entrepreneurial youth returning to his hometown to the head pearl business of TikTok live studio, a short video platform.

Obeida is one of Qian Shaocong's capable foreign anchors. "My job is to show the beauty of freshwater pearls to overseas users." Obeida said that the buyers of their live studios are mainly from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, the company also has live studios for Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Qian Shaocong said that compared with domestic live broadcasting, there are not many people involved in overseas live broadcasting at present, and many Japanese and American customers like Chinese freshwater pearls. At present, there are more than 10 live broadcasts every day in multiple languages, with an average monthly sales of 200000 dollars.

On May 20, in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, people bought pearls at the World Pearl Conference booth. Photographed by Weng Xinyang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

The reporter learned that in the United States, many American audiences, including Foster, began to understand Freshwater Pearl through social media platforms such as TikTok. In recent years, due to the improvement of freshwater pearl breeding technology, some categories of freshwater pearls have the same gloss and roundness as seawater pearls, with higher cost performance, and are favored by more and more American consumers. The company where Foster focuses on Obeida Live Studio can receive about 3000 orders every month, which is rising with the increase of fans.

"I was lucky and met many opportunities." Qian Shaocong believes that the new generation of Shanxiahu pearl practitioners have a more convenient entrepreneurial environment than their parents.

While Qian Shaocong is testing cross-border e-commerce, more Shanxiahu entrepreneurs are enjoying the one-stop service of "checking in with bags". Shanxiahu Town has created a live broadcast e-commerce base of Star Plaza and East China International Jewelry City, gathered five domestic live broadcast platforms, promoted the creation of "Pearl Digital Trade Innovation and Development Zone", and integrated the functions of business selection, online celebrity incubation, design planning, integrated quality inspection, warehousing and logistics. According to the statistics of relevant departments in Zhuji City, at present, there are more than 5000 live broadcast e-commerce companies stationed in the live broadcast base, 15000 anchors, and more than 7000 live broadcasts per day.

On May 20, in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, an Algerian anchor broadcast the live broadcast of Kaibeng. Photographed by Weng Xinyang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

In addition to developing the sales side, Shanxia Lake has formed a complete industrial chain of breeding, design, processing, derivatives production, brand linkage and supporting, forming a magnetic attraction effect.

From May 20 to 22 this year, the 2024 Shanxiahu World Pearl Conference was held in Zhuji, with a passenger flow of more than 400000 people and jewelry sales of more than 1.5 billion yuan. Canadian businessman Sarkis Hajar stopped for a long time in front of the booth of a Shenzhen company to learn more about the AI pearl selection machine independently developed by the company.

On May 20, at the World Pearl Conference held in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, Canadian businessmen learned about an AI pearl selection machine independently developed by a Chinese company. Photographed by Weng Xinyang, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency

Hajar told reporters that this was the first time he saw the AI solution for pearl screening. Because China's advanced technology iterates quickly, he came here to "look here and hope it can help us".

According to official statistics of Zhuji City, the sales volume of Zhuji pearl industry will reach 45 billion yuan in 2022 and 50 billion yuan in 2023. From January to April this year, the sales of Zhuji pearl industry reached 14.3 billion yuan, up 17.5% year on year, including 7.9 billion yuan of online sales, up 16.3% year on year.

"Small pearls can also leverage large industries, and the key is whether we can embrace opportunities in the process of change." In recent years, Shanxiahu pearl industry has broken through bottlenecks to achieve rapid development, Lu Danping, vice president of Zhuji East China International Jewelry City Co., Ltd., interpreted it this way.