The Yangtze River Delta (Pinghu) Flower E-commerce Industrial Park in Jiudai village, Xindai town, Pinghu, a county-level city in Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang province, has rapidly grown into a key hub for floral commerce and tourism since its opening in September 2024.

An aerial shot of the Yangtze River Delta (Pinghu) Flower E-commerce Industrial Park in Jiaxing. [Photo provided by Xindai Town]

The park now attracts major municipal floral suppliers and horticultural leaders from the Yangtze River Delta region, including Shanghai and Hangzhou. This industrial transformation, rooted in a once pig-farming village, reached new visibility amid a surge in flower-related tourism linked to the opening of Legoland Shanghai Resort in July.

Employees work at the Yangtze River Delta (Pinghu) Flower E-commerce Industrial Park. [Photo provided by Xindai Town]

In 2014, as local authorities implemented water management reforms, villagers dismantled pigsties and leased farmland. 

Faced with idle land and economic uncertainty, Li Guoqiang, the newly appointed village Party secretary, envisioned potential in flowers. After exploring Shanghai's flower industry, he invited a prominent flower grower, Zhu Zhonglin, to relocate. Zhu launched Senhong Agricultural Technology in 2017 with a 38 million yuan ($5.28 million) investment.

Following Senhong's success, 19 other flower-related enterprises, including seedling, substrate, and soil specialists, joined the cluster. The village now supports over 5,500 e-commerce practitioners, hosts nearly 500 online flower shops, and continues to develop with a second-phase 6 billion yuan investment in new agri-tourism and digital commerce infrastructure.

An employee sells flowers through livestreaming at the Yangtze River Delta (Pinghu) Flower E-commerce Industrial Park. [Photo provided by Xindai Town]

Jiudai's transformation from rural outskirts to a regional floral powerhouse reflects how one industry reshaped an entire town through bold planning, layered cooperation, and a scent of opportunity.