Every visitor would be impressed by the plant of Chancee Toy Co. Ltd., located in the development zone of Yunhe county, Lishui city, occupying 17,000 square meters and manufacturing toys worth more than a hundred million yuan each year. The buildings in the plant are spacious and full of vitality, with over 200 employees working around efficiently at the mean time. The quality inspector Sebastian Schmidt, a young man from Germany, moving back and forth between the test facilities busily, is particularly eye-catching among the employees.

Schmidt came to China in 2017 at the invitation of a friend in Beijing and spent much time visiting different places, including Yunhe in Lishui city. “I was astonished by the mountains, rivers and most importantly the clean air in Yunhe,” Schmidt recalled. “This place was quiet and really great to live. So I decided to settle down here and join Chancee.” Indeed, Yunhe has long been recognized as one of the most livable cities not only Zhejiang province, but across China. At that time, Chancee was still a very small company. According to Schmidt, it was the background and business concept of Chen Hua, chairman of the company, that attracted him to the company.

Growing up in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, Chen Hua started his career in a well-known German wooden toy company after graduation in Germany. Due to his good performance, he was assigned back to China to set up a new company. With their business quickly expanding in the Chinese market, Chen Hua was promoted from the China office manager to global production director and then global general manager. Their toys became much more and more popular under his management.

Later Chen Hua resigned and took a half-year hiatus in Ningbo in 2013. Then he came to Yunhe and tried to start his own business. He had visited Yunhe several times before and knew that 40% of the global toy supply chain gathered here, which made it a perfect place for him to set up a local toy company. In 2014, Chancee Toy Co. Ltd. was officially established. It didn’t take long for the company to grow up from a few staff members to a team of over 200 with a revenue of eight million US dollars.

Over the years, Chen Hua and his company have been well known for their high product quality, continuous investment on product innovation and humane approach of staff management, which Schmidt has personally experienced. “There is no hierarchy here,” according to Schmidt. “Instead, communication and cooperation among the team are very proactive.”

As a sports fan, Chen Hua specially set aside a staff entertainment area on the top floor of the plant, with all kinds of sports facilities like gym, tennis and basketball courts, and even mini golf course. On each floor, a “Birthday Wall” can be found, displaying the birthday wishes of the employees. “Wish my kid be enrolled in the ideal primary school,” one of the wishes read. “At least, we have helped achieve this wish with the support of the local government,” Chen smiled. Besides, all workshops are equipped with small kitchens to provide breakfast and snacks for the workers. To Schmidt, all of these are very “German” and have drawn more and more outstanding people to Chancee.

The Germans are generally believed to be among the most rigorous and disciplined. Schmidt is no exception. “Craftsmanship is extremely important for the wooden toy industry,” Chen said. “After Schmidt came on board, he has improved the team very positively.”

Apart from Yunhe’s beautiful landscape, Chinese food is another favorite of Schmidt’s. More interestingly, it was also the Chinese food that gave him a chance to meet her girlfriend who works in the catering industry; this has become another attachment to Yunhe. “If possible, I’d love to live in Yunhe and work in Chancee forever!” Schmidt declared.

Chancee is also a local leader in implementing smart technology and automation industrial upgrading. It is a benchmark for the future development of Yunhe and even China’s wooden toy enterprises. For the past few years, Chen Hua has reinvested all the profits to improve industrial upgrading. The whole production process has almost realized full automation. And Chen Hua always knows that the development of enterprises is inseparable from the support of local government, for which he remains grateful and would constantly fulfill the social responsibility to repay the society.

Chancee is an epitome of the development of Yunhe wooden toy industry. Over the years, in order to promote the development of the wooden toy industry, Yunhe has accelerated the implementation of the “10-billion-yuan project” by focusing on brand building, technological innovation and cultural creativity, and made efforts to realize the transformation and upgrading of the wooden toy industry. In 2020, the county invested more than 60 million yuan in automation, over 100 enterprises completed technological transformation, and the output value of Yunhe’s wooden toy industry reached 8.02 billion yuan. Currently, there are 1,095 wooden toy enterprises in the county with more than 30,000 employees, supplying tens of thousands of varieties products to 76 countries and regions in the world, accounting for 55.6% of the nation’s total, and the export value accounting for 65% of the nation’s total, the largest production and export base of wooden toys in China.

Looking into the future, Yunhe was ambitious and determined to develop its wooden toy industry. They had taken a solid step from “selling wood” to “selling culture” by combining wooden toys with education and animation, among others. And another important plan is to develop local tourism through the wooden toys. Several projects have already been completed and become the highlights of Yunhe tourism.