Weifang

Weifang is the World Capital of Kites — the city invented them 2,400 years ago, hosts the International Kite Festival since 1984, and headquarters the International Kite Federation. None of which explains how a prefecture of 9.4 million people generates ¥820 billion ($113 billion) in annual GDP.

The kite brand is a masterclass in costly signaling that obscures the real economy. Weifang's kite industry employs 80,000 people across 600 companies and generates ¥2 billion in annual sales — which sounds impressive until you calculate that kites represent less than 0.3% of the city's economic output. Weifang is actually China's largest salt chemical producer, with over six million tonnes of annual capacity. It is a designated national base for high-end equipment manufacturing along the Bohai Bay. Its petrochemical, pharmaceutical, automobile, and electronics sectors each dwarf the kite business by orders of magnitude.

The misdirection is strategically brilliant. The kite brand positions Weifang as culturally distinctive in a province — Shandong — where every prefecture-level city competes for investment, tourism, and talent. Weifang ranks fourth in Shandong's GDP tables, behind Qingdao, Jinan, and Yantai, but it is the only one with instant global name recognition through a single cultural product. The kite festival draws international buyers who then discover the industrial infrastructure. Cultural heritage becomes a customer acquisition channel.

The economic architecture reveals a different biological pattern: niche construction. Weifang did not merely inherit its industrial base — it engineered the conditions for it. The city's 158-kilometre coastline provides the salt deposits that feed the chemical industry. The chemical industry provides feedstock for plastics, fertilisers, and pharmaceuticals. The equipment manufacturing sector supplies the extraction and processing infrastructure. Each layer creates the niche for the next.

Weifang's population of over nine million — larger than most European capitals — reflects a self-reinforcing cycle. Heavy industry demands labour. Labour demands services. Services demand housing. Housing demands construction. Construction demands equipment manufacturing. The city ranked fourth among Shandong's prefectures in 2024 with 5.9% GDP growth, driven by 8.5% industrial output growth — numbers that suggest the feedback loop is accelerating, not stabilising.

The kite, ironically, is the perfect symbol. It appears to fly freely, but it is tethered to something much heavier on the ground. Weifang's global brand floats on cultural charm while the real economy stays firmly rooted in salt, steel, and chemicals.