Bishan county in Chongqing city was named West China’s shoe city” by the China Light Industry Federation (CLIF) at a ceremony held on February 26 in the People’s Congress Hall, Beijing.

Bishan is one of the two most important shoe production bases in western China and houses thousands of small and medium shoe-making factories. Wuhou district in Chengdu city, the other main production base in the region—well known for the production of ladies’ footwear—was recently named "China’s city of ladies’ shoes”.

"The conferring of this title indicates the government’s wish to develop the shoe industry in western China and these two bases can now attract shoe enterprises from outside the region, especially those in Zhejiang province, in order to make the market more competitive,” said a spokesperson from CLIF.

Footwear group Aokang has played an important role in the construction of the Bishan shoe production zone and it opened a new production facility inside the zone last year where brand name shoes such as Geox are already being produced.