Waterproof and breathable clothes, shiny running shoes, Qipao that can change 
color according to temperature... These things, which look like they're only 
available in a science museum, come from a fabric lab of an old silk town. 
These high-tech fabrics were also presented at the Suzhou Creative & Design 
Cultural Industry Expo held in Suzhou on April 19.

Shengze, the southernmost part of Jiangsu, is in the core area of the Yangtze 
River Delta, a silk textile town with a long history. According to the 
Management Committee of Eastern Silk Market, on April 18, a group of well-known 
foreign photographers entered Shengze and captured the new changes in this 
ancient silk town with their cameras. Through the development of new technology 
fabrics such as "science and technology, ecology, environmental protection", 
Shengze is constantly broadening its influence in the world.

In China, Shengze used to be well-known for its developed silk weaving and 
prosperous silk trade as early as the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The ancient silk 
town, together with Suzhou, Hangzhou and Huzhou, were called China's four major 
silk capitals. According to Wu Jinkuan, the Assistant General Manager of 
Shengze Oriental Textile City, after years of development, with only 2% of the 
population of Beijing, this town owns over 2,500 textile enterprises of various 
types nowadays, with 3.25 million tons of spinning capacity, 12 billion meters 
of weaving capacity and 3 billion meters of finishing capacity. It has 
initially formed a complete industrial chain from silk reeling, chemical fibre 
spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, fabric deep processing to garment 
products.

In order to continuously enhance its innovative vitality, the town has 17 
state-level postdoctoral workstations, accounting for one third of the total 
number of postdoctoral workstations in the region, with many "world top 500" 
enterprises and well-known enterprises in China, such as SAINTJOY, a brand that 
was born in 1889 and now works successfully with designers of FENDI and COACH. 
The Oriental Textile City actively helps enterprises to open domestic and 
foreign markets by expanding the upstream and downstream circulation channels 
of the industrial chain. Through holding the China-ASEAN Textile Purchasing 
Festival, more than 120 textile and apparel purchasing enterprises from nine 
ASEAN countries were attracted, and a textile industry cooperation base was 
established. A series of multi-stage material purchasing docking meetings were 
held in Dandong, Liaoning, Changshu, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, to build an 
interactive platform for domestic and foreign trade. To achieve face-to-face 
exchanges between purchasers and enterprises in the textile market, Shengze's 
original silk textiles has now won great reputation, and gradually become 
world-renowned.

At present, Shengze has become the main production & export base of silk 
textiles in China and is striding forward to becoming the largest and 
world-famous silk textile production base.

Source: The Management Committee of Eastern Silk Market