The first Guzhen International Lighting Fair was held in 1999.[File photo]

Both The 22nd Guzhen International Lighting Fair and The 4th Lighting Culture Festival kicked off on October 22, making Guzhen Town “a happy ocean of human and illumination”.

On October 15, 1999, Guzhen People’s Square was decorated by flowers and green plants. Over 7,000 visitors from 28 countries and regions gathered in the town and witnessed the “new journey” of the Guzhen lighting industry. The growing small town successfully hosted the first lighting fair sponsored by China Association of Lighting Industry.

Years later, Guzhen is not what it used to be, as high-rise buildings sprung up in the town. In 2016, Guzhen was selected one of the first China Characteristic Towns featuring lighting industry. In 2018, Guzhen is among the China Top100 Towns with lighting regional economy.

Beginning with ‘road expo’

Standing inside the 305m-tall Guzhen Lihe Building, one can overlook the whole central part of the town. The area around Guzhen People’s Square was the host place of the earliest lighting fair.

“The first lighting fair was successfully held on the road. It laid the foundation of the development of Guzhen’s lighting industry in the next 20 years.” Liu Shengping, executive director of China Association of Lighting Industry, said with emotion.

“Asian Flying Man” Su Bingtian was born in Guzhen, where the fast-growing lighting fair was held in. The first Guzhen lighting fair, with the theme of “Let the world know Guzhen, let Guzhen approach the world”, was opened in 1999. It was not only the first international expo Zhongshan held in township area, but also the largest lighting expo across the country at that time.

Zhongshan Yearbook 1999 recorded that the first lighting fair, with 3 exhibition venues, had attracted over 1,000 lighting merchants from nearly 30 countries and regions including the US, France, Australia, Austria, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Over 400 thousand visitors came to the town for the 6-day event and generated 1,611 business orders.

‘Chinese Lighting Capital’ seizes 70% market share of the industry

The event helped develop awareness of “Guzhen lighting”.

According to Guzhen Chronicles, about 500 manufacturers from outside of Zhongshan poured into Guzhen for company settlements and business opportunities after the event.

By 2000, Guzhen had become the largest lighting production base in Asia and one of the four major professional lighting markets in the world.

In 2002, Guzhen declared “Chinese Lighting Capital” from China Association of Lighting Industry and China National Light Industry Council, and brought back the honorary title on October 22 of the same year.

In 2013, Guzhen seized 70% share of the domestic decorative lighting market.

Exploring innovative development

Guzhen lighting fair has been internationalizedly upgraded since 2014. The organizer, under the cooperation with Shanghai UBM Sinoexpo International Exhibition Co Ltd, started to host the event twice a year respectively in Spring and Autumn. The Spring fair focuses on domestic sales, while the Autumn fair focuses on international marketing.

During this period, a batch of commercial complexes such as Star Alliance, Huayi Lighting Square and Lihe Plaza started to spring up in the town.

In 2016, the state ministry of housing and urban-rural development announced the first batch of “Chinese Characteristic Towns”. Guzhen was the only one in Zhongshan among the list.

When looking back in 1999, Zhongshan proposed “industry-oriented development strategy”. Since then, towns and districts started to strengthen regional characteristic industries and formed the “one town one product” characteristic industrial cluster. So far, lighting, hardware, home appliance and game and amusement are still major components of the city’s industrial economy.