An elliptical trainer on which consumers can use their Apple products, made by Xiamen-based fitness equipment manufacturer K-power. [Photo/China Daily] |
If you are exercising on a machine to improve your physique while reading this, the chances are it was probably made in Xiamen.
Many people know Xiamen for its exotic foods, great architecture and mild climate. In the past decade, it has been ranked as China's "most suitable" city to live in and as its most romantic. But under this relaxed, leisurely charm on the surface beats a strong industrial pulse, pumping its way to economic success.
The manufacture of fitness equipment is Xiamen's forte. The city is a global power in the field, with one in every three treadmills in the world made in the East China coastal city, and shows no sign of running out of steam, if Xiamen city government data are anything to go by.
Xiamen, the second-largest city in Fujian province, was one of the original four Special Economic Zones set up on the Chinese mainland during the early 1980s, and received heavy investment initially from Taiwan and Hong Kong entrepreneurs.
China produces up to 60 percent of the world's fitness equipment, most of it from Xiamen, home to more than 80 fitness equipment enterprises and 500 sporting goods-related factories.
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