Walking out of Danyang Railway Station that is just 25 minutes by high-speed train out of Nanjing, in Zhenjiang of our very own Jiangsu, the sign reading “China Danyang Glasses City” across the street is particularly eye-catching.
At the entrance to the optics market which is ground zero for the production of lenses for eyewear, a local resident surnamed Zhang proudly introduced, “We are the world’s glasses capital and Danyang Glasses City is also a national AAA tourist attraction”.
Why did a city renown for spectacles become a national scenic spot? And just how did half the world’s lenses for spectacles come to be made here of all places?
All in, eyewear totalling some US$661 million was exported out of Danyang in 2022, stated the Danyang Commercial Chamber of Eyewear to the Global Times. In a time rife with COVID, it represented a staggeringly impressive growth rate of 18.61 percent on 2021.
Danyang today boasts more than 1,600 glasses-related companies and over 50,000 eyewear practitioners. It’s made the City a top draw for people from far and wide to buy glasses for their whole family and friends.
Coming in from Yangzhou especially for this purpose, a Mr. Zhang bought 9 pairs of glasses in one go. With the exception of a pair of sunglasses requiring customisation, the remainder for his family and friends were all packed and taken away on the spot.
“When they heard that I was coming to Danyang, they asked me to bring a pair of glasses”, Zhang told People’s Daily Online after he had just finished an eye test. “This place [Glasses City] is close to the train station; it is also convenient to go back and forth on weekends.”
It’s such eyewear tourism that has earned Danyang its status as a national scenic spot. The sheer size of the spectacle business has also brought Danyang the China Glasses Museum, the largest of its kind in the country; and a 400-square-metre movie screen that is the biggest in East China.
Then there are the associated business exhibitions, tourism-related shopping, food logistics and financial services; even a commercial pedestrian street. And the local slogan; “Wear Danyang glasses and see beautiful China”.
As for this city with a population of less than one million becoming the world’s largest lens production base and Asia’s largest distribution centre for eyewear, that’s down to it forming a full industrial chain integrating design, R&D and production.
Going back 10-20 years, when consumers went shopping for glasses, they would invariably first be offered expensive lenses from Germany or Japan which were undeniably superior. Only bargain hunters would settle for Chinese made.
Today however, Danyang lenses are gaining more favour from consumers, while the City’s glasses manufacturing has also shifted from traditional, but inefficient small workshops, toward being more brand-driven and technology led, embracing research and development.
“In the past, the domestic-glasses industry was mainly based on OEM and low-price competition, and the independent property rights of lens processing equipment were basically a blank page”, said Wang Xueping, vice president of Mingyue Lenses.
But now, in terms of raw materials, R&D and industrialisation, China’s glasses industry has gradually caught up with international standards. This has been achieved in Danyang by perfecting the complex processes required for lens production, especially the final stage that is the coating for the lenses, something which previously needed expensive foreign equipment.
It’s these continuous improvements to product competitiveness in technological innovation, brand building and marketing innovation that has led to Danyang now laying claim to over 1,000 retail outlets for eyewear, each of them constantly polishing Danyang glasses, the city’s business card.
