I. The Hardest Thing to See About This Industry in Anhui Is Its Fragmentation

To study Anhui's cultural, educational, arts, sports and entertainment goods manufacturing, one must first accept a foundational fact: this industry does not form a unified whole in Anhui, but is stitched together from several structurally different clusters.

Xuancheng is the core production zone for the Four Treasures of the Study — xuan paper, xuan brush, hui ink and xuan inkstone all have meaningful production bases there. Huangshan's She County is the origin of she inkstone and hui ink, protected by geographical indication status. Wuhu is home to tie painting (tiehua), a craft that blurs the line between non-heritage metalwork and industrial manufacturing. Sports goods, toys, and modern office supplies, by contrast, have never formed a high-concentration industrial belt in Anhui comparable to Yiwu in Zhejiang or Chenghai in Guangdong.

The value of this industry in Anhui lies not in scale but in two ongoing transitions: the centuries-old Four Treasures manufacturing sector is attempting a genuine shift from craft preservation to commercialized production; and Huizhou's artistic crafts are using geographical indication protection and intangible heritage policy to move from artisan workshops toward standardized output. Understanding these two transitions is the key to understanding Anhui in this sector.

II. Xuancheng: The Only "City of China's Four Treasures," Reaching for 10 Billion RMB

Xuancheng was designated by the China Four Treasures of the Study Association as the "City of China's Four Treasures of the Study" — the only city in the country to receive this title. This is not merely a cultural honor; it points to a real industrial cluster: xuan paper and painting paper production centered on Jing County, xuan brush production spread across Xuanzhou and Jing County, and inkstone and stationery manufacturing scattered across various counties.

As of 2023–2024, Xuancheng's Four Treasures sector comprised more than 500 enterprises, with direct and indirect employment approaching 50,000 people, and annual revenues of approximately 2 billion RMB (including painting paper).

Xuan Paper: Domestically Unique, ~400 Tons Per Year

Xuan paper is the most recognizable product in this cluster. Production is almost entirely concentrated in Jing County, with only four above-scale enterprises, though sixteen hold the geographical indication label for xuan paper origin. Annual output is approximately 400 tons, with a near-100% share of the domestic market. This concentration reflects the paper's strict dependency on raw materials and water: green sandalwood bark, sandy-field straw, and Jing County's spring water are all non-substitutable inputs. This geographical binding caps scalable expansion; revenue growth must come from price increases rather than volume.

Painting paper is xuan paper's affordable counterpart. Jing County hosts approximately 242 painting paper enterprises, producing around 20,000 tons per year and capturing roughly 60% of the domestic market. In 2023, Jing County's online sales of xuan paper and Four Treasures products exceeded 1 billion RMB, with xuan paper "Wannian Hong" spring couplets alone approaching 300 million RMB in annual sales and holding roughly 70% of the national market share — a clear case of dominating a single product category rather than competing on volume.

Xuan Brush: 3.3 Million Units, ~50 Million RMB Output

Jing County is also the main production hub for xuan brushes. 2022 figures show annual output of approximately 3.3 million brushes, with a production value of roughly 50 million RMB. Xuan brush has its own craft tradition and is listed as a national intangible heritage. The sector faces structural pressure as the population practicing traditional calligraphy contracts; cultural gifting and creative products represent the most viable pivot.

Xuan Inkstone: A Small Industry Exploring Its Revenue Ceiling

Jingde County is the primary production base for xuan inkstone. In the first eight months of 2023, Jingde's xuan inkstone industry recorded a production value of 18.6 million RMB and sales of 14.32 million RMB. This is a modest-scale but geographically distinctive industry, slowly expanding through study-tour and cultural tourism consumption.

Cultural Scenarization: The Industrial Upgrade Experiment

Xuancheng's municipal government launched the "Four Treasures Industrial Revitalization Action Plan 2024–2027," targeting production-zone revenues of 7.5 billion RMB within five years, with an overall industry goal of exceeding 10 billion RMB. To move from 2 billion to 10 billion on the strength of paper and brush alone would be impossible through organic growth; the pathway is scenarization and creative product development. Xuan paper placemats, menus, graduation certificates, and admission letters, along with cultural tourism experiences at the Four Treasures township, are among the experiments underway. The township now receives nearly 100,000 student study-tour visitors annually.

III. Huangshan She County: Hui Ink and She Inkstone Finding Industrial Footing

If Xuancheng's approach is "breakout product + creative expansion," Huangshan's She County is following a different logic: using geographical indication standards to build an industry moat, enabling traditional craft to shift from oral transmission to reproducible, standardized production.

She Inkstone: 730,000 Pieces Per Year, Supported by Cultural Industry Data

She County is the origin of she inkstone, and more than 2,000 people still work in its production. 2022 figures show annual output of approximately 730,000 pieces, with sales of roughly 125 million RMB. The sector is constrained by the limited supply of longwei stone, the geological raw material native to She County — a natural production ceiling that simultaneously protects brand positioning.

From She County's broader cultural industry picture, 2024 data shows 20 above-scale cultural enterprises, of which 10 are in cultural manufacturing, with revenues of 940 million RMB, up 15.4% year-on-year. This growth rate suggests a genuine recovery cycle rather than stagnation.

Standardization: Setting Benchmarks for Two Intangible Heritage Crafts

In April 2026, Anhui Province's market supervision authority officially issued provincial local standards for "Geographical Indication Product Quality Requirements — Hui Ink" and "Geographical Indication Product Quality Requirements — She Inkstone." For traditional craft products, standardization is not primarily about quality gatekeeping — it is about creating the credibility infrastructure needed to enter broader sales channels: chain stationery retailers, museum cultural goods, cross-border e-commerce. Without standards, brand-building has no foundation.

Wuhu Tie Painting: Where Craft Meets Industrial Metalwork

Wuhu tie painting was listed in the first batch of China's national intangible cultural heritage in 2006. Created through forging, welding, and shaping iron using fire, tie painting spans landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, and has developed into more than 200 product variants across five categories: table screens, murals, calligraphy, decorative pieces, and cultural gifts. Its manufacturing process is closer to industrial metalwork than to most decorative crafts, giving it a distinct position within Anhui's cultural goods industry — sitting at the intersection of artistic craft and metal fabrication.

IV. Industrial Structure and Transition Challenges

The upstream of this industry is heavily geography-dependent: xuan paper requires green sandalwood bark and mountain spring water, painting paper requires rice straw, she inkstone requires longwei stone, and hui ink requires high-grade pine soot or oil soot. These material dependencies are simultaneously the protective moat and the production ceiling.

On the distribution side, e-commerce has fundamentally reshaped how Four Treasures products reach buyers. Annual online sales from Jing County exceeding 1 billion RMB confirms that digital channels have become primary. But counterfeit products — low-cost painting paper marketed as genuine xuan paper — remain a persistent problem. Building effective origin traceability and enforcement is a prerequisite for genuine brand development.

On the talent side, skill transmission gaps are universal across this cluster. Xuan paper, xuan brush, and she inkstone all depend on accumulated craft experience, and the willingness of younger people to enter traditional crafts is declining. Xuancheng Vocational and Technical College has begun building industry-education integration programs with Four Treasures enterprises, and the China Four Treasures Industry College is pursuing school-enterprise cooperation.

On the sports goods side, Anhui has not formed a provincial-scale industrial cluster. Anqing Yongda Sports Equipment Co., Ltd. has been recognized as a national "specialized, refined, and distinctive" enterprise, but Anhui's sports goods manufacturing remains structurally fragmented compared to Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong in terms of concentration and brand influence.

V. A Judgment That Does Not Avoid the Gaps

Anhui's core assets in this industry are the cultural production heritage accumulated in Xuancheng and Huangshan. Xuancheng's 10-billion-RMB target, if achievable, depends not on volume expansion but on converting the "City of China's Four Treasures" cultural IP into sustainable consumer scenarios. Huangshan's path is to make geographical indication protection into a verifiable quality credential that carries she inkstone and hui ink beyond local cultural tourism. Sports goods and toys — the more industrialized categories — show no clear signals of systematic cluster development in Anhui. That is a gap this industry must honestly acknowledge.

Sales teams supplying upstream goods to factories in this sector can use Tianxia Gongchang to filter factory directories and decision-maker contacts by Anhui Province and cultural/sports goods manufacturing, targeting producers of xuan paper, xuan brush, crafts, and tie painting products.

Data Sources

  • Tianxia Gongchang (Anhui cultural & sports goods factory directory and industry data)
  • China National Radio Anhui, "Xuancheng: Four Treasures of the Study, a Thread of Chinese Cultural Soul" (June 2024)
  • Xinhua News Agency Anhui, "Jing County Xuan Paper: Innovation as the Brush Writing New Chapters" (March 2024)
  • China National Radio, "Jing County Works to Develop the Xuan Paper Industry" (August 2023)
  • People's Daily, "She County: Ink Grinding Huizhou Inkstone Shines" (April 2023)
  • Anhui Provincial Government Information Office, "Xuancheng: The Cross-Sector Rebirth of the Four Treasures Industry" (February 2026)
  • She County Statistical Communiqué (2024) — above-scale cultural manufacturing revenues
  • Anhui Provincial Market Supervision Administration, "Geographical Indication Product Quality Standards for Hui Ink and She Inkstone" (April 2026)
  • General Administration of Sport of China, "National-Level Specialized, Refined and Distinctive Enterprises in the Sports Sector" (2023)