abstract

The development of industrial clusters at Wenzhou has attracted many studies in the past. This paper deals with an aspect of Wenzhou's industry, evident to any visitor, but which has rarely been discussed or analyzed in the literature: its diversity of industrial clusters. Wenzhou industrial clusters range from leather shoes to electric parts, buttons, apparel, automobile parts, valves, cigarette lighters, and many others. The purpose of this study is to examine the diversity of Wenzhou's industries and to grasp the reason why so many industrial clusters have emerged there. Based on a thorough survey of corporations at Wenzhou, this paper shows a comprehensive map of Wenzhou's industrial clusters and reveals that there were 153 industrial clusters beyond a certain size in 2001. The paper describes the development process of some industries, such as leather, shoes, valves and pumps.