Zhili town of Huzhou city in Zhejiang province is the largest children's clothing industry cluster in China, where around 14,000 children's clothing enterprises are gathered.

Facing complicated and changing economic situations, practitioners at the children's clothing industry in Zhili started to enhance skills on independent design, transform business models and open up to overseas markets, striving to add values for their products.

Moreover, the local government has built bridges for enterprises to "go global" including establishing a national-level comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone and organizing the local enterprises to frequently participate in overseas exhibitions.

Yang Mei comes from Chongqing and has worked in Zhili since 2007. After arriving there, she married her husband Wei Shanqi and they had a child, becoming residents of Zhili.

Yang is currently capable of performing all sewing processes in the workshop. Compared with before, the sewing machines have been upgraded by several generations and the firm has introduced an intelligent production management system to improve efficiency.

Ye Zhiqiang graduated with a design major in 2010 before coming to Zhili. In 2015, he began to work as head of the design department in the self-owned brand "Qirui Deze". Currently, Ye leads a design team to contribute over 2,000 original designs of children's wear to the brand.

With more than ten years of experience in the industry, he has witnessed the development process of children's wear styles in Zhili from simple imitation to design leadership."The improvement of consumers' aesthetic standards and the demand for personalized products are driving our progress," Ye said. Now, in the town, he can learn from various fashion weeks and expositions, and with the government-driven trend of "children's wear going global", the increasing international exchanges make him confident about the future.

Henry is an Egyptian entrepreneur based in China for nearly 10 years. In 2023, he came to Zhili and opened his own trading company. Last May, Henry's company began exporting children's clothing and opened markets in more than 50 countries and regions in the Middle East, Latin America and other regions, with sales reaching hundreds of millions of yuan.

"The new designs, new fabrics - my customers love the products here very much," Henry said.

Chen Shuilong, 47-year-old, describes himself as an "old entrepreneur" in the children's clothing industry in the town. He entered the industry in 2003 and established a one-stop shopping store for children's life collection around 2020, which integrates children's wear, toys, small accessories, and cultural and creative products.

By the end of 2023, he has opened more than 130 stores nationwide. "If you see the right path, you should always fight for it. At my age, it's the biggest mistake to live on my past achievements," Chen said.