The Burgeoning Chinese Industrial District: A Study of Baigou

While high technology, a skilled workforce and system-wide social networks are widely accepted as important bases for successful industrial districts including the Third Italy and Silicon Valley, this article reveals a miraculous Chinese industrial district that is founded on low technology, non-skilled workers and fragmented social networks. The success of Baigou industrial district has been achieved through a special type of flexibility rooted in rural familial household production. Baigou's merchant culture, unconstrained expansion and contraction of household factories, and the smooth interchangeability in different niche markets have contributed to the distinctive flexibility and prosperity of its Industrial District.