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Service workers tighten belts, but still optimistic

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-18 07:53

A shopkeeper has become idle after the toy factory Smart Union opposite to the grocery went bankrupt and laid off 7,000 migrant workers. [China Daily]

It's not just the 6 million factory workers in Dongguan who are suffering from their companies' sharp order declines of late. Shopkeepers, restaurant owners and even taxi drivers are showing careworn faces as migrants have tightened their belts.

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For the past 10 years, Wang Qing, 40, has earned a living for his family by selling cheap clothes for migrants in the Zhangmutou town, famous for toy manufacturing among Dongguan's 33 star towns.

But since the middle of this year, fewer migrant shoppers are visiting his stall in the town's shopping center. His business has started to recover a little bit since October.

"At least some migrants want to buy clothes as gifts for their loved ones before heading home," Wang said in the shopping center where about 1,000 bustling stalls sell various commodities for migrant workers from across the country.

Selling clothes mainly priced less than 200 yuan, Wang said the recovery may last one more month and extend to the Spring Festival in late January. But compared with the previous years, Wang said: "Business is not as usual and it is still bleak."

On average, Wang could sell about 40 articles of clothes per day in the winter. Now, he's luckily to sell about 10 at reduced prices, and during the period from July to October, he saw "no business" on some days.

What makes Wang frown is what might happen after the Spring Festival. "Some stall owners in the center have quit because they fear more migrants will not return to work in Dongguan next year," he said.

"If I follow them, where shall I start the business?" Wang, a native of Hunan province, asked himself. His wife and 13-year-old daughter were staying with him living on the earnings from the stall for years.

Nicknamed "Tiny Hong Kong," the Zhangmutou town where Wang is located used to boast of brisk business and entertaining life. But as some export-led and low-end factories have threatened to close, shopkeepers have tried hard to sell their commodities.

There are about 8 million people in Dongguan, but only about one in four is allowed a residence permit. Dongguan is not alone and most migrants in the export-led cities are not given registered household permits despite the fact that they have worked there for years.

"If floods of them move out, our business will be greatly affected," said Wang.

Every year in the furniture manufacturing center of Dalingshan, shiploads of beds, wardrobes and tables are sent to European and American markets. Thousands of factory owners and managers have long made the furniture-selling business a brisk one.

"For them, the life should be decent both at home and in the office," said Zhao Xingfang, a furniture sales manager in the town's Donghua Furniture Exhibition Center.

However, with fewer factories expanding production, fewer companies setting up offices in Dongguan, and the income of the management team contracted, Zhao said: "It's hard to sell a set of fine furniture now."

Another town, Houjie, took advantage of shoemaking; hundreds of shoe companies are located there. But Houjie is also facing stagnant retail business.

In the town's center, a shopkeeper has put up a notice saying: "Try every means possible to sell out." Inside the 40-sq-m shop, all the items have been clearly signed at largely reduced prices. On a recent day, no customers visit the shop; three bored salesgirls sit at the entrance.

Opposite the shop is the town's shoe material center building. It's a five-floor business center where about 1,000 worldwide companies related to shoe manufacturing have opened representative offices to do business with the shoe town's factories.

On every floor, only a few representative offices have opened their doors and are waiting for business. "Maybe my company is an extreme example," said Ding Qing, representing a leather factory in Hunan province.

Ding said his company is newly established and just set up an office in this shoe town at the beginning of the year. "I failed to get a single order this year," he said.

But his boss asked him to stay in the town, as many shoe material suppliers have started to quit. "My boss told me: Houjie is still a shoe town and in foreseeable years, no other town in the world can replace it."

Ding cited his boss as saying: "When others quit, business opportunities come to you."