How powerful can a town be?

One out of every six mobile phones in the world is made here, where two brands are ranked among the world's top five in terms of mobile shipment.

Chang'an Town, with an area of less than 100 square kilometers, has seen its gross domestic product exceed 60 billion yuan (about 8.71 billion U.S. dollars).

Located at the Pearl River Delta, Chang'an is a town administered by the city of Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province. It has been on the frontier of electronic information development as China's reform and opening up goes deeper.

For years, it has been a major foreign trade player. Despite increasing uncertainties in the global market, Chang'an still registered about 19 percent growth in foreign trade in the first half of this year.

TWIN STARS

OPPO and Vivo, two Chinese mobile smartphone brands, were born in Chang'an in 2004 and 2009, respectively, marking the beginning of the rise of the twin stars.

According to the data of the international research firm IDC, OPPO and Vivo are co-ranked the fifth in terms of mobile shipment and the two brands hold 15 percent of the global market share.

In the Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Workshop of OPPO, there is only one worker on a production line.

"The intelligent factory makes us more efficient. With 10 million units produced per month, every link has to race against the clock," said a factory worker who asked to stay anonymous.

The prosperity of the twin stars has also driven the development of other enterprises in the town.

Huamao Electronics Group, which started as a hardware gadget maker, has grown into a manufacturer producing 6 million middle frame parts for cellphones every month, with its revenue expected to hit 2.7 billion yuan this year.

"We are extending and expanding our industrial chain, pursuing diverse development in areas such as intelligent wear, medical devices and auto parts," said Quan Fei, supplies supervisor with the group.

Chang'an is now home to more than 1,000 enterprises related to smartphone manufacturing, with more than 200,000 workers.