第一比分网

Yesterday, in Qingtian Overseas Chinese Import Commodity City, a dazzling array of imported goods from more than 70 countries were on display, and staff were busy packing products for customers. Not far away, at the World Red Wine Center, the Spanish Ham Experience Zone and the China-EU Geographical Indications Popular Science Center attracted merchants coming and going.

This small mountainous county, with its unique “charm of overseas Chinese”, has become a hub for gathering and circulating global resources.

Boasting a history of overseas Chinese spanning over 300 years, generations of Qingtian people have crossed the oceans to strive for success in foreign lands through hardships, forging the Qingtian Overseas Chinese Spirit of “courage to explore and strive, mutual prosperity and development, and patriotism for the motherland and hometown”.

The resources of more than 380,000 overseas Chinese have laid a solid foundation for Qingtian to build an international famous city of overseas Chinese trade. In recent years, Qingtian County has continuously intensified efforts to care for and benefit overseas Chinese, upgraded services for overseas Chinese returning to start businesses, and accelerated the flow of overseas Chinese-related factors back to the county.

From “Single Exhibition and Sales” to “Industrial Symbiosis”

Leveraging the advantages of overseas Chinese resources, Qingtian County has built a series of platforms to gather overseas Chinese and promote industrial development.

In 2015, the county constructed Qingtian Overseas Chinese Import Commodity City by virtue of its overseas Chinese resources. Today, the commodity city has assembled more than 100,000 types of imported goods, including wine, general merchandise, and coffee.

In 2018, Qingtian held the first Overseas Chinese Trade Fair (OCTF), establishing a platform for transaction and exchange among merchants at home and abroad.

Today, the OCTF has evolved into a key import exhibition and trade platform in Zhejiang Province, as well as an important platform for absorbing the spillover effects of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

The 7th Overseas Chinese Trade Fair, themed “Meeting the World through Overseas Chinese, Exhibiting a Better Life”, will be held from November 14 to 16, 2025.

This year’s fair will display and sell more than 30,000 types of high-quality imported goods, with six major exhibition areas set up. It will invite over 1,100 domestic and foreign enterprises, as well as more than 150 business associations and overseas Chinese groups. Overseas exhibitors account for 70% of the total, indicating a steady improvement in internationalization.

Zhou Yun, Deputy Magistrate of Qingtian County, stated that after seven years of development, the OCTF has taken overseas Chinese as a bridge and exhibitions as a medium. Through the precise positioning of “drawing strength from the ocean”, it has transformed geographical constraints into opening-up advantages and propelled Qingtian's open economy to a higher level.

With the OCTF as a link, exhibitors who once participated on a trial basis have accelerated their transformation into “investors”, realizing a profound evolution from “trade connection” to “industrial symbiosis”. This has helped Qingtian promote trade through overseas Chinese, develop industries through trade, and build a famous city through industries, completing the transformation from an “overseas Chinese consumption city” to an “international famous city of overseas Chinese trade”.

Through the dual circulation model of “one import and one export”, the OCTF has become a carrier for uniting the second and third generations of overseas Chinese, strengthening their sense of identity with and connection to the motherland. According to incomplete statistics, 150,000 Qingtian overseas Chinese have returned to start businesses so far, among whom the second and third generations are well-represented.

The OCTF is not only an economic and trade platform, but also a bridge for people-to-people diplomacy.

At the same time, Qingtian will host the China-EU Geographical Indications Cooperation Conference, where foreign guests from dozens of countries will gather in this small mountainous county to discuss major issues of international trade.

Two-Way Circulation: From “Global Procurement” to “Global Sales”

Qingtian not only focuses on “procuring globally and selling nationwide” but also endeavors to achieve “procuring nationwide and selling globally”.

“First imports land in Qingtian, first exports launch from Qingtian” – this is exactly Qingtian’s ambition to build two-way trade.

Focusing on the “first-launch economy”, Qingtian positions itself as a launchpad for niche high-quality European brands, forming a differentiated development pattern with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Yiwu and other cities.

In terms of exports, Qingtian has innovatively established an alliance mechanism of “overseas Chinese merchants + local enterprises”, upgrading 119 overseas warehouses of overseas Chinese into “commodity negotiation and transit hubs”.

Meanwhile, it encourages overseas Chinese supermarkets to act as marketing agents and overseas Chinese merchants and leaders to serve as on-site promoters, constructing a complete industrial and sales chain covering “suppliers – manufacturers – distributors – consumers”.

On April 3, 2025, the grand opening of the event “Meeting the Future through Overseas Chinese, Connecting Global Trade – ‘Quality Chinese Products, Exported from Qingtian’” was held.

The event gathered 25 enterprises from inside and outside the province, 36 local enterprises, and more than 60 representatives of overseas Chinese merchants from 24 countries and regions, resulting in a total of 36 intended cooperation projects.

Qingtian provides regular services, holding fixed video conferences with overseas Chinese groups every Thursday. Since May this year, it has organized more than 10 special matchmaking meetings for overseas Chinese enterprises in fields such as footwear, apparel, and agricultural specialty products.

These matchmaking meetings have successfully facilitated a series of cooperations, including the 700,000-yuan bulk purchase of leisure chairs by the Miao Group from Réunion, France, and the export of 42,000 boxes of Qingtian vermicelli by the Spanish company KOMEYA.

Qingtian has deeply engaged in the “Belt and Road” Initiative, particularly seizing development opportunities such as the “Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe” Railway, and expanding the connection channel between the “Belt and Road” Initiative and common prosperity.

Shi Yongping, an overseas Chinese businessman from Qingtian, founded China-Cambodia Logistics Co., Ltd., with an annual export volume of nearly 10,000 standard containers. Xia Yongping, President of the Qingtian Overseas Chinese Overseas Warehouse Trade Promotion Association, has established 11 overseas warehouses in 8 countries and regions including Spain and Chile, with Yiwu and Madrid as bases. The average area of each warehouse exceeds 10,000 square meters.

Driven by the overseas Chinese trade economy, Qingtian County has maintained a strong growth momentum in foreign trade.

From January to September 2025, Qingtian County’s total import and export volume reached 4.25 billion yuan, an increase of 33.5% year-on-year, ranking second in the city in terms of growth rate. Among this, exports reached 3.0 billion yuan, an increase of 32.9% year-on-year, ranking third in the city.

Dual Drive: Digital Technology and Institutional Innovation

Relying on technological innovation, this year’s OCTF will create an in-depth integrated “online + offline” exhibition experience.

Tang Hongbo, Director of Qingtian Overseas Chinese Economic and Cultural Cooperation Pilot Zone, stated that the 7th OCTF will launch “digital human” live broadcasts, where the winery culture and brewing process will be explained around the clock through large screens at the exhibition stands, with simultaneous sales in online live broadcast rooms.

In addition, an AR glasses digital exhibition hall will be set up, allowing visitors to “step into” wineries thousands of miles away, enjoy the scenery of the manors, and experience an immersive full-process interaction from grape picking to toasting.

In terms of institutional innovation, Qingtian County has issued the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of a ‘Comprehensive Overseas Chinese Affairs’ Work System”, establishing a “1+3+5” work framework.

This system breaks departmental barriers, integrates overseas Chinese affairs resources, and innovates the service system, forming a “comprehensive overseas Chinese affairs” work pattern featuring “Party committee leadership, special team coordination, departmental linkage, and social participation”.

Qingtian has also innovatively created the work brand “Doing a Good Deed for Overseas Chinese”, established service platforms such as the Overseas Chinese Merchants Comprehensive Service Center and the Overseas Chinese Young Merchants Service and Assistance Center, and institutionalized the 26th day of each month as “Overseas Chinese Service Day”. Relying on 265 grass-roots overseas Chinese federations across the county, it regularly provides services to foreign trade enterprises and overseas Chinese-invested enterprises.

Accelerating the “two-way interaction” between “overseas Chinese” and “hometown”, promoting the integrated development of overseas Chinese trade, capital, talent, and services, the “overseas Chinese power” for high-quality development is becoming increasingly strong.

Taking “overseas Chinese” as a bridge and “exhibitions” as a medium, this small mountainous county connects global resources, builds a new two-way-driven bridge, transforms geographical constraints into opening-up advantages, and converts overseas Chinese resources into trade advantages, propelling Qingtian’s open economy to a higher level.