Import trade

In 2014, Zhou and his partners organized a street fair to sell products brought back by overseas Chinese, which received an overwhelmingly positive response from locals and visitors. This success convinced them of the viability of the imported commodities business.

Zhou believes that overseas Chinese have a competitive advantage in industries that need to draw on both overseas and domestic resources.

"They have lived abroad for long periods and understand foreign cultures, which helps them to introduce foreign products to Chinese customers. They have a closer connection with foreign suppliers, which helps them secure firsthand sources of goods," he said.

Thanks to over 100,000 Qingtian natives living in Spain, the county has become an important import hub for Spanish ham, or jamon.

"In 2018 when China allowed the import of jamon in its domestic market, I imported the first leg of jamon to China," Ruan Aigao, a Qingtianese living in Spain, said in an interview with Qingtian Media Group.

Sun Chengyan, director of the development center for the overseas Chinese economic and cultural cooperation experimental zone, said: "The jamon import market in Qingtian represents more than 80 percent of the entire national market share in China, with almost all of the country's imported jamon flowing through Qingtian."

In 2023, jamon ranked as the second biggest import product in Qingtian after red wine, with sales reaching approximately 200 million yuan ($28 million), data from Qingtian Imported Commodity City showed.

The commodity center, which was founded in 2015, hosts 277 enterprises, offering over 100,000 types of imported goods from more than 70 countries and regions.

Cumulative sales exceed 17 billion yuan, earning it the nickname the "World Supermarket".

Attracting talents

Jia Xiaoyue, 45, established her business in the commodity center after venturing to Italy when she was 16 and returning to China in 2015 following local government calls for overseas Chinese to come home.

"The government probably felt that Qingtian's economic development needed some young blood, people who can sometimes think outside the box and bring creativity.

"When I started my business here, I introduced Italian jewelry brands that were not available in China," she explained.

Jia now runs an Italian restaurant and an import company and hopes to introduce imported products through the restaurant. She recruited Luigi Dellarena, an experienced Italian chef, to head the kitchen.

"At first, Luigi did not want to come, as he thought working in China wouldn't be as easy as in Italy. But I told him that in Italy people with skills such as his are common, but in China he could play a more valuable role. Gradually, I persuaded him and we managed to get him a residence permit here," she said.

Jia believes Qingtian has advantages in attracting foreign merchants and talents. "First, with over 300,000 Qingtian overseas Chinese living abroad, foreign merchants don't have to worry about being deceived by us. Second, foreigners like Italians and Spaniards normally find it easier to adapt to life in Qingtian," she said.

Jia said although Qingtian's market is small, it is an ideal first stop for expanding into the Chinese market. "Recently a close friend of mine, Maria, an Italian jewelry designer decided to start a business here."

In addition to engaging in the import-export trade, many overseas Chinese are choosing to bring new business models back home to contribute to the development of their hometowns.

Among them is Yang Xiaoai, 56, who returned to China in 2019 after being involved in restaurants and international trade in Germany and Ecuador.

Yang invested 20 million yuan to establish an agritourism base themed on the indigenous rice-fish system in Fangshan township, Qingtian. The method was listed as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2005. The base includes an agritourism hotel, experimental farmlands, and an agricultural park, to revitalize the region's unique agricultural heritage.

Yang's agritourism base has been thriving, especially after the World Conference on Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems held in Qingtian in 2022.