A worker carries musical instrument parts in a manufacturing workshop in Caigongzhuang town, Tianjin, in August. WEI XIAOHAO/CHINA DAILY
Not that it would ever blow its own trumpet, but the small town of Caigongzhuang, in Tianjin's Jinghai district, produces more than half of the world's brass and woodwind instruments.
Blissfully unaware, musicians around the globe play their saxophones, trumpets, flutes, piccolos and clarinets crafted in Caigongzhuang's family-run workshops and sprawling factories.
"In recent years, we've been getting high-end custom orders from Germany, Spain, Singapore and other countries," said Liu Xuehong, manager of Tianjin Shengyue Music Instrument, a decades-long veteran of the trade.
One of his latest projects was a custom saxophone for Jay Metcalf, a renowned saxophonist behind the BetterSax educational platform.