Workers are busy producing guitars this summer in the workshop of a musical instrument company in Zheng'an county, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou Province. Outside the workshop, thousands of packaged guitars are loaded onto trucks for delivery to Germany and Brazil.

Zheng'an produces more than 2.5 million guitars annually, accounting for one in every seven guitars sold on the international market. In 2025, the county's guitar industry recorded foreign trade exports of 248 million yuan ($36.5 million), with products sold to more than 40 countries and regions.

This photo taken on June 9, 2026 shows the automatic guitar painting production line in Zunyi Shenqu Musical Instrument Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Zheng'an county, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou Province. (Photo: Xinhua/Xu Hongyan)

Zheng'an was once a major source of migrant labor, with nearly one-third of its population working outside the county at its peak, many in the guitar industry, among them Zheng Chuanjiu.

In 1995, Zheng moved to south China's Guangdong Province, where he started as an apprentice in a guitar factory and gradually became one of the factory's leading technicians. In 2007, he founded his own guitar factory in Guangdong.

In 2013, Zheng'an launched an initiative aimed at creating a favorable environment to attract investment and talent. Zheng was among the first to respond, relocating his factory from Guangdong back to Zheng'an.

The start was difficult. "At that time, Zheng'an had no complete industrial chain. Even screws and springs had to be sourced from outside," he recalled.

However, the county's balanced climate and humidity offered natural advantages for wooden instrument manufacturing. With local policy support and the growth of related enterprises, more skilled workers and entrepreneurs returned, and more guitar companies gradually settled in the county.

In 2021, Zheng'an and the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin launched a pairing assistance program. The Hengqin-Zheng'an International Guitar Industrial Park, which officially began operations in April 2025, now features neatly arranged modern factory buildings. It has attracted 144 guitar manufacturers and supporting enterprises, cultivated 87 independent brands, and secured 288 patents.

An artist plays the guitar in Zheng'an county, Zunyi city, southwest China's Guizhou Province, June 9, 2026. (Photo: Xinhua/Xu Hongyan)

"Through Hengqin's trade platform, we now connect directly with overseas clients, and our independent brands are entering international markets," said Wei Linfei, an administrative manager at a local guitar manufacturer.

In the smart workshop of Wei's company, a guitar panel can be demolded in just 154 seconds. "It used to take two months," said Li Xinghai, head of the technical department. With intelligent upgrades, the production time for a guitar has been reduced to less than one day.

Zheng'an's guitar industry has directly created over 5,000 jobs and supported around 15,000 more in related sectors. Beyond industry, guitar culture has also taken root in Zheng'an. Today, nearly 60,000 people in the county are learning to play the guitar.

Guitar courses are widely offered in primary and secondary schools across the county, while guitar-themed squares, sculptures and museums have become new urban landmarks. Guitar music festivals have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and generated hundreds of millions of yuan in consumption.