Fengjie develops into a major eyewear manufacturing hub

Fengjie, a small county in the eastern part of Chongqing, has in recent years emerged as the largest eyewear manufacturing hub in western China, thanks to its good location, rich human resources and relatively cheap production costs.

"The county is constructing a modern, high-end eyewear industry and creating an industry cluster worth 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion)," said Zhang Guo, Party secretary of Fengjie county. "For every 20 pairs of glasses manufactured across China, one pair is made in Fengjie."

In Fengjie Ecological Industrial Park, there are 59 eyewear companies producing 143 million pairs of glasses, 220 million pairs of lenses and 37 million sets of eye health products annually that are being sold to over 30 countries and regions every year. The total output value reached 2.3 billion yuan last year, according to local authorities.

Boasting a strategic location, manufacturing strength and low production costs, Chongqing has attracted many companies to shift their factories from coastal provinces.

Fengjie, located in the heart of the Three Gorges Reservoir area on the Yangtze River, was once heavily reliant on coal mining. However, with the closure of the coal mines due to environmental concerns a few years ago, the local government decided to focus on the labor-intensive eyewear industry which was quite well developed in coastal areas, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.

China is a major eyewear manufacturing and export powerhouse, as well as one of the world's largest consumer markets of such products. The 2024 report by US research firm Frost & Sullivan shows that in recent years, with the improvement of people's living standards and the increasing demand for vision correction, China' demand for various types of eyewear products has been growing steadily.

Since 2015, the local government has allocated over 333 hectares of land for the development of the eyewear industry and invested 3 billion yuan to build eyewear factories and supporting facilities, said Li Bo, director of Fengjie Ecological Industrial Park, where the local eyewear industry is primarily located.

Statistics show that construction costs in the area are notably lower than in coastal regions, with reduced land costs, factory rental prices and resource expenses.

In addition, Fengjie county has 400,000 general workers and over 100,000 skilled eyewear workers from nearby regions within a two-hour drive, so labor costs are 25 percent lower than those on the east coast, Li added.

With an enhanced business environment, the county started to attract manufacturers from Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces. In 2015, the first eyewear manufacturing enterprise — Chongqing Ya Mei Ou Optical Co — settled in the park.

"We immediately decided to invest in Fengjie after a business visit and our sound development here over the years has proved that we had made the right decision," said Feng Yuanshou, general manager of Chongqing Ya Mei Ou.

Due to its establishment of a comprehensive eyewear industry chain encompassing R&D, production and sales, Fengjie now does OEM production for multiple top brands like Calvin Klein, BOSS and Puma.