Published : 21/08/2026
This series delves into the formidable industrial output rooted in these small towns, pulling back the curtain on China's unsung manufacturing empires.
The toothbrush you use every day very likely comes from a small town that you have almost never heard of: Hangji, and it's in China's Jiangsu Province.
Every year, Hangji produces 7.5 billion toothbrushes, not only meeting our daily needs but also occupying a 40% share of the global market.
In other words, one in every three toothbrushes in the world is "Made in Hangji". How did this small toothbrush push a small town onto the world stage?
Hangji Town: China's toothbrush capital
Hangji Town (杭集鎮), located in Guangling District, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, is a typical water town in the Yangtze River Delta, with a total area of about 40 square kilometres and a permanent population of about 35,000.
However, in this small area, there are over 4,000 toothbrush-related enterprises, forming an unparalleled industrial cluster.
In Hangji Town, over 7.5 billion toothbrushes are produced annually. Its market position is significant, with its products accounting for about 85% of the Chinese market share and being exported to more than 80 countries and regions worldwide.
An industry saying vividly sums it up: "One in every three toothbrushes in the world comes from Hangji."
This small town, by its own efforts, has propped up half of China's oral care products industry, with its annual gross industrial output value long exceeding 100 billion RMB, making it the veritable "World Capital of Toothbrushes".
The past and present of Hangji Town's toothbrushes
Hangji Town's connection with toothbrushes can be traced back to the Daoguang era (1820-1850 AD) of the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, a farmer named Liu Wanxing (劉萬興) used cow bones for handles and horse tails for bristles to create Hangji's first toothbrush. This craft has since taken root, and sporadic family workshops began to appear in the town.
After China started Reform and Opening-up in 1978, the state actively supported the development of handicrafts.
The people of Hangji quickly seized the opportunity of the times, turning the craft of making toothbrushes, which they had learned from their ancestors since childhood, into a business opportunity, and toothbrush factories emerged one after another.
Amid the entrepreneurial boom in 1989, Han Guoping (韓國平), a Hangji native who had been running a toothbrush factory elsewhere for many years, returned to his hometown, founded the "Sanxiao" (三笑牌) toothbrush, and achieved great success.
Leveraging its price advantage and success in establishing a nationwide sales network (such as the Yiwu Small Commodity Market), Sanxiao quickly captured the national market.
The rise of the "Sanxiao Toothbrush" led to the gradual scaling-up of the toothbrush industry in Hangji Town.
By 1995, there were over 200 toothbrush enterprises in Hangji Town, with toothbrush production accounting for about 80% of the national total, marking Hangji Town's core position in China's toothbrush industry.
As the domestic market became increasingly saturated and competition intensified, from 2000 onwards, Hangji's enterprises astutely turned their attention overseas, successfully selling their toothbrush products to more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, including Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia.
This wave of international expansion not only opened up a larger market for Hangji Town but also attracted renowned domestic and international brands such as Colgate, Crest, and LMZ to invest and set up factories here.
In this way, Hangji Town gradually became the world's largest toothbrush production base.
Why Hangji Town? How did the "toothbrush capital" succeed?
With so many towns in China, why was it Hangji Town that stood out to become the "Toothbrush Capital"? Beyond nearly 200 years of toothbrush-making heritage, its prime geographical location played a crucial role.
Hangji is situated in the Yangtze River Delta, one of China's most concentrated markets for luxury hotels. With the headquarters of numerous major hotel chains based in nearby Shanghai, demand for toothbrushes is both vast and steady.
Manufacturing in Hangji allows suppliers to meet these commercial requirements with maximum efficiency.
Then comes the power of a concentrated supply chain.
Virtually every key raw material needed for Hangji's output is available within 300 kilometres: plastic pellets are sourced from petrochemical plants in Nanjing and Shanghai, brush filaments arrive from Wuxi, and the town itself boasts a fully fledged local ecosystem for automated production machinery.
Such hyper-concentrated, highly efficient collaboration offers a textbook illustration of regional industrial integration and cluster growth across the Yangtze River Delta.
These advantages eventually transformed Hangji Town from a "cluster of workshops" into an irreplaceable "toothbrush kingdom".
How is Hangji Town "brushing" its way to a new future?
Today, although Hangji Town has reached the pinnacle of the industry, it is not content to rest on its laurels.
Facing new market trends, the local toothbrush industry is constantly making breakthroughs, actively promoting intelligent transformation, and moving from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing".
In terms of production, traditional labour-intensive workshops are gradually being replaced by "dark factories" (fully automated).
Taking a leading enterprise as an example, its fully automated production lines utilise robotic arms to complete the entire process: from injection moulding and bristle tufting through to packaging.
Daily production capacity can reach several million toothbrushes, delivering a dramatic boost in both precision and efficiency.
In terms of products, enterprises are actively developing environmentally friendly materials, for example, using sugarcane straw extract to make biodegradable toothbrush handles, or using renewable resources like bamboo.
In line with the global trend of reducing plastic, they have successfully expanded into high-end markets such as Europe and the United States.
At the same time, many businesses are also transforming towards "one-stop oral health solutions", extending their product lines to other oral care products, and with the help of digital technology, they have developed smart toothbrushes that can provide visual checks and personalised recommendations, continuously consolidating their leading position in the global market.
Traced back to the painstaking work of artisan workshops, the humble toothbrush has evolved through centuries of handed-down craft, steady adaptation, and fearless innovation to claim its place in the global spotlight.
Whilst a modest object of everyday life, it offers a striking snapshot of China's manufacturing journey from antiquity to today's drive for high-quality growth.
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