From a wood shavings factory in a small town in northern Jiangsu Province, here are some hidden specialties of the Yangtze River Delta|This musical instrument is learned by young people
The ukulele is a plucked instrument invented in Portugal and popular in Hawaii. At the beginning of the 20th century, the ukulele gained attention across the United States and gradually spread internationally. Today, ukulele is also very popular among young people in China.
However, what you may not expect is that this small instrument with cheerful tones has become more and more closely associated with a village in northern Jiangsu in the past two years.
![From a wood shavings factory in a small town in northern Jiangsu Province, here are some hidden specialties of the Yangtze River Delta|This musical instrument is learned by young people](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/b2b99829a8756393a75fc690bcf13eb9.webp)
Sangxu Town in Shuyang County, Suqian City originally started by selling wood. But today, walking on the streets of Sangxu Town, you can see musical instrument companies one after another within a few minutes. Using poplar trees common in rural areas of northern Jiangsu, factories in Sangxu Town produced ukuleles and sold them overseas.
Shuyang Botong Musical Instrument Co., Ltd., which settled in Liuzhai Industrial Park, Sangxu Town in June 2020, was originally a little-known wood shavings factory. After transformation and development in June 2021, it has built 13,000 square meters and 10,500 square meters. It has a modern factory building and introduced advanced and high-end production equipment. The musical instruments currently produced have created jobs for more than 500 people nearby.
![From a wood shavings factory in a small town in northern Jiangsu Province, here are some hidden specialties of the Yangtze River Delta|This musical instrument is learned by young people](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/496040566ebf9b9f1583c80bbf502f17.webp)
Barrel production, polishing, priming, coloring, assembly... The ukulele production process is complicated and requires more than 30 processes. But compared with the traditional wood processing industry, the production and export of ukuleles obviously have higher added value.
Sun Taiqi, the production director of Shuyang Botong Musical Instrument Co., Ltd. pointed out that the company's current annual output value is about 200 million yuan, and the next step is to build Sangxu Town into the largest ukulele production base at home and abroad.
![From a wood shavings factory in a small town in northern Jiangsu Province, here are some hidden specialties of the Yangtze River Delta|This musical instrument is learned by young people](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/b83b061757be0d686cfbb3049003d4ed.webp)
In 2022, more than 60 piano-making and related companies were opened in Shuyang County, where Sangxu Town is located, creating more than 5,000 jobs. The mid-to-high-end ukuleles produced are exported to European and American countries, with an annual output value of 5 billion yuan.
Behind the little ukulele, the story of the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries represented by Sangxu Town and Shuyang County is playing a new chapter.