Published : 30/10/2026
This series delves into the formidable industrial output rooted in these small towns, pulling back the curtain on China's unsung manufacturing empires.
In the Olympic Games, the badminton events are often a focus of public attention. But do you know that this feather-light shuttlecock is very likely sourced from Jinping County in Guizhou Province, China?
Currently, Jinping County's annual output of badminton shuttlecocks exceeds seven million dozen, with an export value of over 18 million USD. For every 10 badminton shuttlecocks in the world, one is produced in Jinping.
How did a small feather fly out to the world and build a badminton kingdom?
Jinping: World's largest shuttlecock factories
Jinping (錦屏) is a county in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture (黔東南苗族侗族自治州) of Guizhou Province. On this vast land, live approximately 150,000 people, yet more than a tenth of them are involved in two rather interesting industries—goose farming and badminton shuttlecock production.
A shuttlecock production base spanning nearly 60,000 square metres has been established here, with a daily output of over 200,000 shuttlecocks. These are exported to more than 60 countries and regions, including badminton powerhouses such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan.
In 2025, the export value of badminton shuttlecocks from Jinping County reached 18.83 million USD, a year-on-year increase of 38%. It is undoubtedly a coordinate that cannot be ignored on the global map of the badminton shuttlecock industry.
From a poverty-stricken county to the capital of badminton
Before developing its badminton shuttlecock industry, Jinping County in Guizhou, due to being "mountainous with little land and inconvenient transportation", had residents who were mostly engaged in traditional industries such as farming and fir tree logging, and was classified as a national-level poverty-stricken county.
In 2017, under the guidance of its supporting organisation, the Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), the Jinping County government began to think about ways to alleviate poverty.
Considering the local economic situation, the government proposed a development concept of "using geese as a chain". As shuttlecock production requires a large amount of goose feathers, they first mobilised residents to raise geese. On this basis, they gradually built up a complete industrial chain from farming to shuttlecock manufacturing.
Afterwards, Jinping County attracted investment and introduced the well-known shuttlecock brand, RSL, to set up in its economic development zone.
After RSL's arrival, it quickly became the core engine of shuttlecock production, driving the collaborative development of upstream and downstream industries. Today, Jinping has gradually grown into one of the world's largest shuttlecock production bases.
Jinping County builds industrial chain around geese
So, how many shuttlecocks can be made from one goose? The answer is zero. Why? Because one shuttlecock requires 16 flight feathers from a goose's wings, but a single goose only has 14.
Flight feathers have excellent hardness and resilience, and are highly durable. Additionally, using feathers from the same wing ensures greater consistency in curvature and shape, which is why they are chosen as the material for high-quality shuttlecocks.
Driven by the shuttlecock industry, Jinping County has built a complete shuttlecock industrial chain around "one goose".
The upstream is dominated by goose farming, with the construction of goose farms, goose egg hatcheries, and so on, stabilising the source of raw materials for shuttlecocks and increasing farmers' incomes.
The midstream involves attracting leading companies like RSL through investment promotion to manufacture shuttlecocks in the development zone. It also extends to products such as goose-down duvets and clothing, and is complemented by the manufacturing of sports equipment like rackets and shuttlecock tubes, forming a sporting goods cluster.
The downstream involves hosting competitions and training activities, developing sports tourism, and driving service industries like catering and accommodation.
This achieves an integration of three sectors: farming, manufacturing, and culture, sports, and tourism, supporting the direction of Jinping County's economic development and enabling the county to "move from poverty alleviation to rural revitalisation".
How is Jinping County forging a new path?
Today, Jinping County is not satisfied with the status quo and will continue to expand and strengthen the entire shuttlecock industrial chain, centred around its positioning as a "world-important shuttlecock production base".
On the one hand, in terms of production capacity and market share, it strives to exceed an annual output of 12 million dozen shuttlecocks by around 2030, and to stably supply about 10% of the global demand for shuttlecocks.
On the other hand, it promotes the automation and digitalisation of shuttlecock production lines, widely applying new technologies such as automatic sorting, precision feather implantation, intelligent inspection, and warehouse management, to enhance product consistency and quality traceability, build more smart factories, and significantly shorten the delivery time for international orders.
From a single feather to a fully extended goose industry supply chain, the shuttlecocks produced in Jinping County may be small, yet they play a crucial role from poverty alleviation to the revitalisation of the county's economic development, serving as a true epitome of China's national development.
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