DANYANG, a small Yangtze River Delta city vaguely known as a historical footnote in the period of the Qi and Liang cultures (479-557 AD), has the eyes of the world upon it today.

Known as "the hometown of glasses," the city is the world's largest manufacturing center for lenses and Asia's biggest optical market.

Every year, its factories turn out 120 million frames, and about 250 million glass and resin lenses, accounting for up to 70 percent of the domestic market and 45 percent of the world market.

The city boasts more than 720 glasses factories, employing over 50,000 workers. Annual sales volume of 7 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) is expected to double by the end of 2015.

"The story began in the 1960s, when old Danyang glasses workers in Shanghai and Suzhou returned home to farm," said Tang Longbao, who was among the first batch of apprentices among the returning workers.

Tang was then a 16-year-old lens polisher in a village-run factory. Today, at age 58, he is chairman of Wanxin Optical and a well-known industrial tycoon.

His company produces a variety of resin lenses, including SV stock lens, Rx SV lens, regular progressive lens, free-form lens and polarized and transition lenses.

Each year Wanxin turns out 28 million resin lenses, 40 percent of them sold in China, and 3 million frames, 95 percent of them exported to Southeast Asia, Africa, the United States and Europe.

A story of ups and downs

The road to success was not always easy.

"What we've experienced during the past decades mirrors what China's optical industry has been going through," said Tang, who wears gold-rimmed spectacles, which he takes off now and then to rub his temples. "It's a story of ups and downs, twists and turns. Many times, the industry was close to death."

In 1988, China's optical glasses industry took its first severe hit. Frames made in Japan and South Korea with fashionable designs began flooding the international market. Within four years, big lens factories such as Shanghai Glasses, Beijing No. 1 Glasses and Suzhou No. 2 Glasses were all shuttered.

Wanxin was also struggling.

"I had to admit that China's glasses at that time were not as good as the imported ones, not to say our designs obsolete," Tang said.

His factory cut its workforce to about 100 from 800, and production value shrank to 1 million yuan from 18 million yuan.

"I didn't sleep well every night," Tang said. "I was thinking all the time about how to find a way out. I knew that quality, design, brand and marketing are the keystones of business success."

He worked with the East China Chemical and Engineering College (Shanghai) to develop the CR-39 resin lens, the first one in China to shift from traditional glass to resin, a material already widely used in foreign optical companies.

In a companion move, Tang switched the focus of the company overseas and away from the saturated domestic market.

He attended every international optics fair, though he was often the only Chinese in the crowd. In 1992 at the Hong Kong Optics Exhibition, Wanxin won its first overseas order, paving a route into Southeast Asia markets.

One year later the export volume increased to 120,000 pairs of glasses, earning the company 3.6 million yuan. The factory began to see a future again. Wanxin expanded by leaps and bounds.

But just when everyone thought the worst was over, the Asian currency crisis struck in 1997. About 1.2 billion yuan in optical orders from Asian buyers disappeared overnight. "It was like dropping from heaven into hell again," Tang said.

But Tang kept his nerve and his canny market insights. He switched the company's focus to Europe, which was relatively unscathed by the crisis. His factory began producing glasses for designer brands.

"That year was a challenge but also an opportunity for us," Tang said.

Seeing Wanxin's success, more Danyang glasses makers followed suit and started producing for the export market.

Danyang developed a supply chain that ranged from production of materials for optical products to the packaging of the finished products.

In 2008, Danyang was designated a "China Glasses Export Base" by the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Light Industrial Products and Art Crafts. Wanxin and another company, Jiangsu East Optics, won awards as leading glasses exporters.

In 2006, the National Inspecting and Testing Center for Ophthalmic Optics Products set up in Danyang.

The Danyang Glasses Market, located near the Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed rail station and Shanghai-Nanjing expressway, has grown into Asia's largest trading market.

More than 520 optics boutique shops operate there, selling thousands of frames, lenses, sunglasses, parts and fittings, and offering services like repair glasses and computerized optometry. The market's annual trade volume is about 3 billion yuan.

Next step: Developing own brands

Every weekend the market is crowded with visitors seeking to buy glasses. Many come from Shanghai, and purchases of four or five pairs at a time are not uncommon. Reasonable prices and good quality are the biggest attractions.

A pair of spectacles that would cost about 1,000 yuan in Shanghai sells in Danyang for between 200 yuan and 300 yuan

"China is emerging as the world's biggest maker of glasses," Tang said. "Made-in-China is the trend."

Still, Tang is restless to go one step further.

"Each time I attend an international fair, I can't help but feel sorrow that we haven't developed our own brands to compete with foreigners," he said. "It's a shame that we only do manufacturing for other brands."

He is working to change that and build a globally recognized domestic brand.

As chairman of the Danyang Optical Glasses Chamber of Commerce, Tang is dedicated to promoting the industry. He pushed the Danyang government to apply for designation as a "China Glasses Manufacturing Base," which was approved last year. He has also organized forums and seminars in Beijing to discuss how to unite the industry to pose a stronger challenge to luxury brands from Europe and the US.

"We can make quality glasses, but now we need to elevate out profile with status brands that tell the world we are international players," Tang said.