I. Henan Furniture: A New Region Raised on Timber

When we discuss the map of Chinese furniture, attention usually lands on a few veteran regions: Guangdong's custom home furnishing, Zhejiang's chairs and upholstery, Shandong's board. The industrial roots of these places often reach back decades or even centuries. Henan is not on that old map.

Yet over the past decade, Henan has quietly grown two new furniture towns — Lankao in Kaifeng and Qingfeng in Puyang. What they share is unusual: neither started from traditional furniture craft. They began with timber, then board, and only at the end grew finished furniture. In other words, Henan furniture is an industry that "climbed downstream from raw material" — the opposite path to those veteran regions that started with craft and then sourced material.

This report does not try to force Henan into a "furniture powerhouse" ranking by scale. The real interest of Henan furniture is how, within roughly a decade, it turned one of the most unremarkable timbers into two industry chains worth tens of billions of yuan a year, and how it became one of the first places able to catch and keep coastal furniture capacity as it relocated inland. To understand Henan furniture, one must first go back to a tree.

II. Starting from a Paulownia: The Timber Base of Lankao Furniture

The starting point of Lankao furniture is not in any factory, but in the paulownia trees of the fields.

In the 1960s, Jiao Yulu, then Party secretary of Lankao County, led the large-scale planting of paulownia to control the sandstorms and saline-alkali soil along the old course of the Yellow River. Decades later, the economic value of that windbreak forest was gradually uncovered. Paulownia is loose-grained, sound-transmitting, and highly resonant; first it was made into soundboards for ethnic musical instruments — today more than 95% of China's ethnic-instrument soundboards come from Lankao, the county hosts nearly 300 instrument and supporting enterprises, produces hundreds of thousands of guzheng, guqin, pipa, and other instruments a year, and this specialty sector already has an annual output of more than RMB 3 billion.

Beyond instruments, the larger destination of paulownia is board. Lankao moved from selling raw logs, to processing board, to making finished home products — climbing downstream step by step. According to public reports, by the early 2000s Lankao already had more than 4,000 household operators processing paulownia board and more than 8,000 processing decorative strips. It was precisely this dense base of timber processing that laid the foundation for later absorbing integrated home-furnishing capacity — when coastal furniture enterprises looked for an inland production base, Lankao already had ready board supply and skilled workers. This is the most distinctive stroke of Henan furniture: its industrial starting point is not furniture but timber; not craft but a windbreak forest.

III. Lankao: Turning Industrial Relocation into a Modern Home City

With a timber base in place, Lankao's true leap came in absorbing relocating capacity.

Over the past decade, using its economic development zone as the carrier, Lankao set aside a dedicated modern home industry park to concentrate the inbound transfer of home-manufacturing capacity from the Yangtze and Pearl River deltas. According to public data, the output value of Lankao's modern home industry chain grew from about RMB 38 billion in 2022 to top RMB 42.3 billion in 2023. Gathered within it are more than 40 leading enterprises anchored by six listed companies — Sofia, Sleemon, Jiangshan Oupai, Qumei Home, Piano, and Henglin — plus board-supply partners such as Dingfeng Wood and Wanhua Hexiang, gradually forming a relatively complete green-home system built on formaldehyde-free adhesives, eco-board, and environmentally friendly coatings.

The way this chain is organized also has a local character: leading and listed enterprises in the development zone form the "head," more than 2,000 enterprises across six townships such as Guyang and Dongbatou form the "body," and more than 2,000 woodworking processing points scattered across villages form the "tail." One end connects to scaled-up brand manufacturing, the other to family workshops and processing households spread across townships, laying the different links of the chain within a single county. The home-industry chain employs roughly one-tenth of the county's population — a genuine livelihood industry.

Lankao's logic is clear: it does not win on original design or brand premium, but uses timber cost, land space, and labor supply to firmly catch the capacity the coast wants to relocate. This is a business of "absorption," whose moat lies in the completeness of upstream raw material and supporting supply, rather than in the scarcity of the furniture itself.

IV. Qingfeng: Another New Furniture City Built on Relocation

If Lankao's furniture grew out of timber, then Qingfeng's furniture in Puyang looks more like something planned out from a blank sheet, by policy and park investment promotion.

Qingfeng lies in northern Henan and was not originally a furniture region. In recent years it has made green home its leading industry, planning a home industry park of nearly ten square kilometers, building several themed parks to absorb relocating home industry, and concentrating the introduction of brand enterprises such as Quanyou and Yumujiang. According to public data, as of 2023 Qingfeng had 295 home enterprises countywide, producing more than 2 million home-furnishing units a year, with output of about RMB 31 billion and more than 60,000 people employed.

Qingfeng's feature is its very broad range of categories. Its home industry is not confined to a single category but simultaneously makes solid wood, upholstered, office, hotel, teaching, age-friendly, and custom furniture, covering needs from households to institutions. Around these finished goods, the park has also brought in supporting supply of raw timber, board, coatings, leather and fabric, hardware, woodworking machinery, and spraying and environmental equipment, striving to gather the chain's upstream and downstream within one park. In November 2023, Henan held a conference on high-quality development of the modern home industry in Qingfeng and released the Action Plan for Cultivating and Strengthening Henan's Modern Home Industry Chain (2023–2025), listing modern home as one of the province's key 100-billion-yuan-class industry chains to cultivate, while Qingfeng set a goal of building its home cluster output to RMB 60 billion within three to five years.

Qingfeng and Lankao are not far apart, with similar paths and different emphases: Lankao's strength lies in timber and an existing processing ecosystem, Qingfeng's in park planning and full-category absorption. The two new towns, one to the east and one to the north, together hold up the base of Henan furniture.

V. The Upstream Supply Chain: Procurement in an Absorption-Type Region

Henan furniture's character — "climbing downstream from raw material, growing by absorbing relocation" — gives its upstream procurement a structure different from veteran regions: local raw-material supply is fairly strong, but there is large room for external purchase of supporting materials and equipment:

  • Board and substrate: Lankao has a local base in paulownia and board processing, but as custom and panel furniture ramp up, demand for particleboard, MDF, plywood, and eco-board keeps expanding, requiring much external substrate beyond local capacity
  • Eco-adhesives and coatings: formaldehyde-free adhesive and environmental paint are the repeatedly emphasized "green home" selling points of both Henan towns; adhesives and water-based coatings are consumed in proportion to output — a stable, high-frequency procurement item
  • Hardware: hinges, slides, connectors, and handles are essentials for custom and panel furniture; local supporting supply is relatively weak, and reliance on external purchase is clear
  • Foam and upholstery filling: Qingfeng's upholstered, hotel, and age-friendly furniture consumes foam, fabric, and leather — a sizable and stable external-procurement item
  • Woodworking machinery and spraying/environmental equipment: from panel saws and edge-banders to automatic spray lines and environmental treatment equipment, factories absorbing relocation have concentrated, strong equipment demand during capacity expansion
  • Instrument-supporting materials: Lankao's ethnic-instrument industry also needs large volumes of soundboards, parts, and specialized materials — a niche procurement segment that does not overlap with mainstream furniture hardware

Among these, Henan can self-supply part of its board and local raw material, but adhesives, coatings, hardware, upholstery filling, and woodworking equipment mostly need to be filled by external suppliers. For upstream sellers, the feature of an absorption-type region is "concentrated factories, fast expansion, and clear supporting gaps" — precisely the kind of customer base worth focused development.

Tianxia Gongchang has compiled enterprise records for furniture-manufacturing factories across Henan, covering factory directories and decision-maker contacts in segments such as modern integrated home furnishing, custom and panel furniture, upholstered and office furniture, and ethnic instruments and woodworking. Sales teams supplying upstream to these furniture makers can filter for potential factory customers of board, adhesives, coatings, hardware, upholstery filling, and woodworking equipment by Henan × furniture manufacturing on Tianxia Gongchang, turning door-to-door inquiry across Lankao and Qingfeng into targeted outreach.

VI. The Institute's Assessment

Looking at Henan furniture's two new towns together, one sees a path entirely different from the veteran regions: not historic fame, not original design, but timber base, land space, and park investment promotion, turning the absorption of relocating industry into scale within roughly a decade. Lankao started from a paulownia tree and worked timber all the way to finished home products; Qingfeng started from a blank sheet and packed full-category home furnishing into one park. One has the root of raw material, the other the momentum of planning — and they complement each other.

The variables of this path are also clear. The ceiling of an absorption-type region depends on whether it can upgrade from "catching capacity" to "keeping value" — whether it stays at contract manufacturing for brand enterprises, or gradually sediments design, brand, and channel locally as well. The window for coastal capacity to relocate will not stay open forever, and central provinces are all competing for this slice; whether Henan can hold the leading enterprises and supporting supply it has gathered is the key for the next few years.

The Institute's assessment is this: the value of Henan furniture lies not in how long its history is, but in proving one thing — an inland agricultural county with no furniture tradition can, on the timber of a windbreak forest and a playbook for absorbing relocation, grow industry chains worth tens of billions within a decade. This kind of "something from nothing" growth rests not on scarce resources, but on assembling several ordinary things — raw material, land, parks, and capacity — in the right order. For upstream suppliers, recognizing that Henan furniture is "two new towns still growing up" rather than "a mature veteran region" is precisely the precondition for efficiently developing Henan's furniture-factory customers.

Data Sources

  • Tianxia Gongchang (directory and industry data for Henan furniture-manufacturing factories)
  • Lankao Economic Development Zone: A Modern Home Base Built on Listed and Leading Enterprises — Dahe Cailifang (Lankao's modern home industry chain topped RMB 42.3 billion in 2023; more than 40 leading enterprises anchored by six listed companies — Sofia, Sleemon, Jiangshan Oupai, Qumei Home, Piano, Henglin; board partners Dingfeng Wood and Wanhua Hexiang; the head-body-tail industrial organization)
  • Kaifeng Lankao: How the Paulownia Jiao Yulu Planted Grew a RMB 38 Billion Modern Home Industry — Dahe Cailifang (Lankao's 2022 modern home output of RMB 38 billion; the origin of paulownia from Jiao Yulu's sand control to board and home industry)
  • The Paulownia Jiao Yulu Led the Planting of Now Makes 30% of China's Instruments — The Paper (more than 95% of China's ethnic-instrument soundboards come from Lankao; nearly 300 instrument and supporting enterprises; instrument-sector annual output over RMB 3 billion; by the early 2000s, more than 4,000 paulownia-board processing households and over 8,000 decorative-strip processing households)
  • Henan Qingfeng: A Main Force in High-Quality Development of the Modern Home Industry — Chinanews Henan (Qingfeng's 295 home enterprises countywide; more than 2 million home units a year; output of RMB 31 billion; more than 60,000 employed; home industry park of nearly 10 square kilometers; brands such as Quanyou and Yumujiang; full categories of solid wood, upholstered, office, hotel, teaching, age-friendly, custom; the November 2023 provincial modern-home action plan released in Qingfeng; the goal of a RMB 60 billion home cluster within three to five years)
  • Reports on the Action Plan for Cultivating and Strengthening Henan's Modern Home Industry Chain (2023–2025) — National Development and Reform Commission (modern home industry chain listed among Henan's key 100-billion-yuan-class modern industry chains)