BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- From fragrant jasmine fields and colorful ceramics workshops to the bustling aisles of a global commodities market, a growing number of Taiwan entrepreneurs are finding promising opportunities not only in major cities, but also in unassuming towns across the Chinese mainland.
In Hengzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Taiwan entrepreneur Wu Yu-ming has built a business around jasmine, turning the traditional agricultural product into essential oils, fragrances, cultural products and rural tourism.
In Liling, Hunan Province, Taiwan artist Kwan Lan has drawn on decades of painting experience to blend artistic creativity with the city's nearly 2,000-year-old ceramic tradition.
And in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, Taiwan businessman Kuo Yu has taken over his family's glassware business, using e-commerce and cross-border trade to connect a small shop in the world's largest small-commodity market with customers in more than 30 countries and regions.
Their stories differ, but share a common thread: smaller towns, some once viewed as economic hinterlands, are emerging as fertile ground for entrepreneurship, innovation and cultural creativity for people from China's Taiwan.
BEYOND BIG CITIES
For Wu Yu-ming, who studied in Europe, settling in Hengzhou was unexpected. Four years ago, Wu's father invested in a project combining fragrance extraction, smart plant cultivation and rural tourism. Wu later joined him, leaving his overseas career behind to take over the project's operations and development.
"I used to think entrepreneurship meant making it in cities such as Taipei or Shanghai," said the Taiwan-born entrepreneur. "I never expected that in a county-level city in Guangxi, I could apply what I had learned about fragrance chemistry to use while also learning from local people's experience in growing and harvesting flowers."
Hengzhou produces more than 60 percent of the world's jasmine flowers and jasmine tea. Its jasmine industry has an annual output value exceeding 19 billion yuan (about 2.8 billion U.S. dollars) and supports about 340,000 flower farmers.
Rather than simply selling flowers, Wu immersed himself in the local industry, learning cultivation techniques from farmers and studying market demand before exploring essential-oil extraction, fragrance production, cultural products and educational tourism.
He also turned social media into a business tool, using short videos to introduce jasmine cultivation, fragrance-making and rural life from the perspective of a Taiwan youth.
These efforts have helped turn the jasmine project into a popular rural tourism attraction. Since opening, it has received about 500,000 visitors and helped boost nearby restaurants, homestays and flower-picking activities.
"Small towns can harbor big businesses," he said.
REDISCOVERING TRADITION
Kwan Lan's connection with Liling began with a single piece of porcelain. When she first visited her husband's ancestral hometown in Hunan in 2012, she was captivated by Liling's underglaze polychrome porcelain, a craft with a long tradition.
"I had to go to its place of origin and see it for myself," she recalled.
That curiosity eventually brought her to settle in Liling, a major ceramics hub with a complete industry chain covering daily-use, art and industrial ceramics. Home to more than 4,000 ceramic varieties, Liling exports its products to over 150 countries and regions, with the industry's total output value reaching about 80 billion yuan.
With a background in painting and years of promoting art exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, Kwan began transferring her artistic knowledge from paper to porcelain.
She studied the origins of ceramics, raw materials, techniques and cultural significance before developing her own style, marked by brighter colors, distinctive textures and contemporary visual language.
Her experiment has proved commercially successful. "The last time I took my works to an exhibition, I received orders that I still haven't finished," she said.
Her husband later joined her after retiring in Taipei, and the couple has now spent more than a decade in Liling.
"I am a new Liling native," Kwan said, calling it a place of "good mountains, good water, good life, good porcelain, good colors and good opportunities for creation."
TAKING BUSINESS GLOBAL
Kuo Yu's story began not with a new business, but with a family venture that grew with Yiwu.
He first arrived in Yiwu in 2000 with his father, who was drawn by the county-level city's sprawling small-commodities market. His father established a factory and gradually expanded the business.
In 2006, when Yiwu introduced a trial policy allowing Taiwan residents to register as individual business operators, Kuo's father became one of the first Taiwan businesspeople in Zhejiang to obtain such a license. Since then, Yiwu has become home to a growing community of Taiwan entrepreneurs. Local figures show that more than 400 Taiwan-invested market operators and over 700 Taiwan businesspeople are now based in the city.
"For us, that was when we stopped being passers-by and became part of the local community," Kuo said.
In 2010, Kuo took over the family business and began looking for new ways to grow it. His father was initially skeptical of his ideas, until Kuo opened two online stores that brought in more than 100,000 yuan in sales in their first month.
The success convinced the family to shift from relying on offline customers and large orders to online sales, long-tail markets, and new customers.
Today, the company sells its products to more than 30 countries and regions, with online sales accounting for more than half of its revenue.
For Kuo, Yiwu has become more than a place to do business. He has spent 26 years there, where he married, raised three daughters and built a life of his own.
NEW MAP OF OPPORTUNITY
The stories of Wu, Kwan and Kuo point to a different map of Taiwan entrepreneurship on the Chinese mainland.
For decades, many Taiwan entrepreneurs have sought opportunities in major cities and manufacturing hubs in coastal provinces such as Jiangsu, Guangdong and Fujian. Today, smaller cities and towns with distinctive industries and increasingly sophisticated business ecosystems are opening up new possibilities.
Hengzhou has jasmine. Liling has porcelain. Yiwu has a global commodities network. For entrepreneurs like Wu, Kwan and Kuo, these local strengths provide starting points for creating something of their own and unlocking new value in local economies.
Their stories also show that cross-Strait entrepreneurship is becoming about more than business. Wu has found reasons to stay in Hengzhou in its jasmine fields, local food and rural life. Kwan hopes to spend the rest of her life in Liling, while Kuo's connection to Yiwu extends from his company to his family and everyday life.
Such stories illustrate how economic ties can develop into social integration, as entrepreneurs become employers, neighbors and members of the local community.
"Taiwan compatriots are not guests here," a local resident in Hengzhou said of Wu and others. "They are neighbors and good helpers."
Young people in Taiwan often ask Kuo whether it is "too late" to come to the mainland. His answer is unequivocal: "Of course not!"
"Young people from Taiwan need to come out and see for themselves, and bravely take the first step," Kuo said. ■
