A silky smooth move

Rise in land and labor costs on eastern seaboard drives silk industry west

GUIYANG－In a factory belonging to Hengsheng Silk, swarms of silkworms wriggle over mulberry leaves placed inside large plastic containers.

Hengsheng Silk in Jichang, Guizhou province, specializes in cocoon processing and silk making and has two factories in the township. In addition, the company also owns fields of mulberry trees in the village of Linpan, which is under the jurisdiction of the township.

"We built cocoon processing and silk production factories here with an investment of about 90 million yuan ($12.7 million)," said Wang Yanghai, general manager of Hengsheng Silk.

Silk, in addition to fine china, was a pillar of foreign trade in ancient China.

For more than 4,000 years, the Chinese people have bred silkworms for their fine silk, which was considered a symbol of status and luxury in the past.

However, as the country's urbanization drive goes into full gear and pushes up land and labor costs on the eastern seaboard, the traditional silk-making industry is shifting further inland, with many companies, like Wang's, setting up factories in the western part of China.