Wenzhou businessmen have diversified their investment into property, coal mines and other sectors. Zheng Peng / for China Daily

Nantong's private economy takes up about 60 percent of the city's GDP, up about 2 percent compared to that in 2009. The city also attracted about 53.6 billion yuan of investment in the private sector from outside the city.

The textile industry has always been a pillar of Nantong's economy. In 2010, the industry recorded an output of more than 169 billion yuan, up about 16.7 percent compared to that in 2009.

The World Intellectual Property Organization held up Nantong's two home textile production centers as models. About 70 home textile brands have been singled out as well-known labels in the province in 2010 and another 40 have been selected as well-known brands nationwide.

On the other hand, the ostentation of cities in neighboring Zhejiang might stem from the province being one of the earliest areas where private business began in the country.

The local government offers guidance and services as part of efforts to boost the private economy. Currently, 90 percent of Zhejiang's local companies are in the private sector.

Businessmen from Zheiiang's Wenzhou city are known for flaunting their business successes.

Wenzhou has been known for its significant number of foreign businesses. The dumping of foreign commodities accompanied by cultural imports have stimulated the development of the city's commodity economy and created an impact on its people.

The more enterprising residents picked up the idea of industrialization from the foreign businesses and quickly transformed their own cottage industries into large-scale production powerhouses. At the latest count, Wenzhou had 240,000 privately owned commercial and industrial units and 130,000 enterprises ranked as conglomerates, industry figures show.

Signs of wealth abound in this city of more than 1.7 million people over a total area of 1,082 square kilometers. Expensive cars ply the newly constructed boulevards and old alleys in the inner city districts. New shopping malls and luxury high-rise apartments stand out among old tenement blocks waiting for the wreckers' ball.

There are more than 600,000 Wenzhou merchants who own businesses in 131 countries and regions, excluding 1.75 million Wenzhou businessmen who expanded their enterprises in more than 190 cities by launching the Wenzhou chambers of commerce, local government figures show.

Among Wenzhou's enterprises, four have made it to China's top 500 enterprises.

Similarly, 36 of all Wenzhou enterprises are ranked among the top 500 Chinese enterprises in the private sector.

But with the rising cost of labor and materials, creative Wenzhou merchants have started to focus on investment in other fields.

"Every household in Wenzhou owns an average of 1.2 properties in Shanghai," says Gao Lei, who runs Wenzhou Computer Market Development, a company with about 100 staff. He owns 30 properties nationwide, including five in Shanghai.

"It is a way of managing my wealth," he says.

Gao normally flies to different cities within China every month with other property investors to look for better investment opportunities in the market.

"I have also invested in equities, which offers promising profits and, probably will be higher than the earnings from buying and selling properties," Gao says.

Villagers in the city's Pingyang county alone owned more than 200 coal mines in Shanxi province, amounting to a total investment of 30 billion yuan, local government statistics for 2009 show.