Guizhou’s Jinping County has emerged as a major manufacturing hub, producing roughly one out of every ten shuttlecocks worldwide, according to Liu Jun, deputy director of the Jinping Economic Development Zone Enterprise Service Center. Situated in the Miao and Dong heartland of southeastern Guizhou, the mountainous county has shifted its economic foundation from traditional forestry to sports equipment manufacturing, altering local employment patterns and global supply chains alike.
Strategic Pivot from Forestry to Sports Manufacturing
For decades, Jinping’s local economy relied heavily on the timber industry, with forest coverage consistently remaining above 70 percent. However, as natural forest protection projects were implemented, the region faced a critical economic turning point. Local officials sought alternative industries that could absorb an abundant local workforce without compromising environmental standards.
County officials identified labor-intensive shuttlecock production as a viable path forward. Capitalizing on local goose farming foundations and a ready labor pool, leadership engaged major industry players. Following outreach supported by central pairing-assistance program cadres, Jinping officials coordinated eight visits to meet with the leading enterprise Yashilong in Nanjing, according to local government accounts.
Overcoming Manufacturing and Supply Chain Hurdles
The formal agreement was signed in April 2017, leading to the establishment of Guizhou Yashilong Company that August. Yet, setting up factory floors in a region without an established sports goods supply chain presented immediate hurdles. Production manager Hu Bing initially operated only a handful of test machines, preparing to withdraw if local conditions proved unviable.
Scaling up output required robust solutions for workforce retention and raw material logistics. When factory expansions drove staffing requirements higher, local human resources bureaus established on-site training programs and coordinated local recruitment drives. To solve commuting challenges for factory workers, the county level launched dedicated “industrial park buses” connecting residential areas directly to the industrial park.
Supply chain costs posed another hurdle, as essential items like shuttlecock tubes and packaging materials initially required shipping from distant provinces. To reduce transit overhead, the county government launched targeted business attraction initiatives, successfully drawing more than ten upstream and downstream suppliers to the industrial zone to handle packaging, printing, and related equipment production locally.
Local Economic Impact and Production Scale
Local raw material stability was further secured by designating goose farming as a “one county, one industry” pillar across 15 townships. Regional agricultural stations reported that by 2025, commercial goose production surpassed one million birds, directly strengthening the supply chain for core feather materials.
Economic indicators reflect the rapid industrial transformation. In the first half of 2026, Jinping’s designated-size sports equipment manufacturing output reached 9.26亿元 yuan, marking a 50.8 percent year-over-year increase. The Yashilong Jinping facility alone recorded peak monthly production exceeding 80万打 shuttlecocks, accounting for more than half of the company’s total group output.
The manufacturing expansion has simultaneously transformed local livelihoods, providing stable employment options for residents who previously had to seek migrant work far from home. Local workers report steady monthly incomes and improved work-family balance, while agricultural households participating in the regional goose farming network have expanded their operations to meet growing industrial demand.
