How 'Printing City' Reinvents Itself

Rows of high-end printing machines imported from Germany hummed as workers packed batches of board books and cultural creative blind boxes to be shipped all over the world. The industrial transformation of Longgang, known as the 'China Printing City,' is evident in every busy workshop.

In the production workshop of Xinzhen Printing Company, a worker is concentrating on operating the equipment and producing board books. In this "China Printing City", companies like this are undergoing a profound transformation: in the slight hum of machines, the smell of soy ink is mixed.

On December 19, 2025, a set of exciting data was announced at the general meeting of the Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association: the number of printing and packaging-related business entities in the city has reached 47,000, and the output value of the whole industry chain has exceeded 50 billion yuan.

Longgang has formed the "printing" zone with the highest concentration of printing and packaging industry chain in the country and even the world. When Longgang was withdrawn from the town and established as a city in 2019, this figure was about 20 billion yuan, doubling in five years.

01 Industrial foundation

From a small village in Qianku Town to the country's first "town to city", Longgang printing industry has become the main engine supporting the city's economic development.

Longgang's printing industry started in the 80s of the last century, and was originally just a small printing factory in the style of a family workshop. At the end of the 90s of the last century, the total number of printing enterprises was nearly 800, with 45,000 employees and a total output value of more than 3 billion yuan.

However, with the changes in the market environment, this "low and small scattered" development model is gradually facing bottlenecks.

In 2019, Longgang withdrew from the town to become the first "town to city" in the country, providing new historical opportunities for the transformation and upgrading of the printing industry. In recent years, the Longgang Municipal Government has promoted the development of the industry in the direction of high quality through a number of policy supports.

Today's Longgang printing industry has formed a complete industrial chain, with 897 licensed printing enterprises, including 213 enterprises above designated size, 124 high-tech enterprises, and 20 specialized and special new enterprises.

02 Transformation strategy

The transformation of Longgang's printing industry is multi-level and all-round, from equipment upgrades to business innovation, from technology research and development to brand building, and a systematic change plan has been built.

In the face of market challenges, Longgang printing enterprises did not stick to tradition, but actively sought transformation. Zhejiang Chenglong Printing Co., Ltd. spent more than 6,000 yuan to purchase four high-end printing equipment from Heidelberg, Germany, which can complete 9 processes such as hot stamping, UV and embossing at one time, greatly improving production efficiency.

Another typical enterprise is Xinzhen Printing Technology Co., Ltd. They have shifted from traditional medicine package printing to the production of board books, using environmentally friendly soybean ink and rounded corner process design to fill the vacancy in the off-season production from May to September every year, and achieve "the off-season is not weak, and the peak season is more prosperous".

In the field of environmentally friendly packaging, Wenzhou Baofeng Packaging Technology Co., Ltd. has developed naturally degradable disposable lunch boxes, established cooperation with well-known brands such as China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, and served nearly 300 catering brands and 20,000 chain stores across the country.

03 Innovation-driven

Technological breakthroughs and R&D investment have become key factors for Longgang printing enterprises to maintain competitiveness.

Innovation is the core driving force for the upgrading of Longgang's printing industry. Wenzhou Hauge Anti-counterfeiting Technology Co., Ltd. combines liquid crystal anti-counterfeiting technology with UV efficiency enhancement technology and has obtained 3 invention patents and 46 utility model patents.

Zhejiang Huaxu Industrial Co., Ltd. is deeply involved in the field of children's picture books, with more than 880 original and copyrighted children's picture books, and cooperated with Zhejiang Normal University to establish a children's literature practice base and research and development center.

Another important achievement of technology research and development is digital transformation. Wenzhou Jinchi Technology Co., Ltd. has realized the digital control of the whole process from order response to production delivery by introducing an industrial Internet platform, shortening the turnover time of raw materials from 45 days to 12 days, and reducing production energy consumption by more than 18%.

04 Multiple paths

Through cultural and creative IP, trendy toy economy and government support, Longgang printing enterprises have broken the boundaries of traditional manufacturing and opened up new growth space.

In addition to technological innovation, Longgang printing enterprises are also looking for new growth points through diversified development. The combination of cultural creativity and printing has become an important path to break through traditional boundaries.

Taking Zhejiang Qinggeng Yudu Industrial Co., Ltd. as an example, this company has in-depth cooperation with well-known cultural tourism IPs in the country to organically integrate design creativity with traditional production technology. They also customize unique admission notices for colleges and universities, bringing the technological advantages of Longgang printing to all parts of the country.

Seizing the outlet of the "millet economy" is another successful attempt. Riding (Longgang) Technology Development Co., Ltd. focuses on the production of two-dimensional cultural peripheral products, and has popular IP products such as "Full-time Master" and "Sauvignon Blanc". The company's design team is located in Shanghai, and more than 100 designers are responsible for the creation of original manuscripts.

05 Coordinated development

The development of Longgang's printing industry is not the result of enterprises alone, but the result of collaborative cooperation between the government, enterprises, universities and social organizations.

The Longgang Municipal Government plays a key role in promoting the development of the printing industry. At the "First Meeting of the New Year" in 2025, five Longgang industry-innovation integration "unveiling the list" project was signed on the spot, officially sounding the clarion call for tackling key core technologies.

In addition, Longgang has also reached a targeted talent training agreement with three universities including Hunan University of Technology, and has sent 50 professionals in 2025. Longgang Vocational Secondary School has set up a Department of Printing and Visual Communication, with three key majors including print media technology, and has carried out school-enterprise cooperation with many well-known enterprises.

Industry associations also play an important role. The number of member enterprises of Longgang Printing and Packaging Industry Association has increased from 606 in 2020 to 841 at present, covering backbone enterprises in all links of the industrial chain.

In terms of brand building, Longgang City is promoting the registration of the "Longgang Seal" collective trademark, which has entered the preliminary approval stage of the State Intellectual Property Office in April 2025. Through multi-dimensional publicity and brand building, the regional brand influence of "China Printing City" has been further enhanced.

06 Future prospects

In the face of new challenges, Longgang printing industry is laying out the three major development directions of digitalization, intelligence and internationalization, injecting new connotations into the golden signboard of "China Printing City".

Standing at a new starting point of 50 billion yuan in output value, Longgang's printing industry continues to develop in the direction of high-end, intelligent and green. Businesses are actively preparing to participate in the 8th China International Import Expo, focusing on digital printing and AI smart devices.

At the policy level, Longgang has introduced specific measures to support the development of cultural and creative industries. For example, for enterprises that sign internationally renowned IPs, subsidies will be given at 10% of the licensing fee, with a maximum of 300,000 yuan for a single item; For enterprises that sign well-known domestic IPs, the maximum subsidy for a single item is 100,000 yuan.

In terms of regional cooperation, Longgang will strengthen the synergy and linkage with Pingyang and Cangnan, focus on building a cooperation mechanism between the three places, jointly promote the quality and upgrading of the Printing Expo, and achieve high-quality development of the regional exhibition economy.

With the continuous emergence of new tracks and new formats, Longgang City will continue to launch a series of measures such as the reshaping plan of the printing and packaging industry to guide the main enterprises of the chain to take the lead in attacking technology, seize the market, and continuously break the bottleneck of industrial development.

In the workshop of Zhejiang Chenglong Printing Co., Ltd., the newly introduced German Heidelberg printing equipment is being debugged. Yang Jiezhan, chairman of the company, said that these equipment can complete 9 processes such as hot stamping, UV, and embossing at one time.

From an output value of about 20 billion yuan in 2019 to more than 50 billion yuan today, Longgang's printing industry has not only doubled in quantity, but also achieved a leap in quality. When the core advantages of the printing industry are deeply integrated with cultural creativity and scientific and technological innovation, this "China Printing City" is ready to welcome the glory of the next 40 years.