The city of Haining and the meaning of 'chao'

Photo shows the China Leather City in Haining on Aug 27, 2014. [Photo/ Zhao Naicheng]

The city of "chao" – fashionable leather city The Chinese letter chao (潮) not only denotes the river tide, but can also mean fashion, which leads to another keyword in Haining, leather.

Haining is home to the country’s largest leather industry. According to statistics in 2013, Haining’s China Leather City, a modern building group covering 1 million square meters, accommodates more than 4,500 merchants and receives 6 million customers annually. The annul transaction deal amounts to around 10 billion yuan ($1.63 billion). What’s more, China Leather City in Haining has become a national 4A scenic spot.

Leather products cannot be separated with the fashion world. The industry in Haining is growing towards the integration of design, production and marketing, combining shopping and tourism. The city has established a professional industrial design center. A fashion week show is held every June, bringing in creative designs as well as marketing Haining’s original designs to other parts of the world.