Aubervilliers, a town on the northern edge of Paris has generations of Chinese settlers. Traders recently opened the continent’s biggest garment centre where a vast range of clothing is on offer. Hundreds of wholesalers offer endless choices of textiles, colors and patterns in this vast district.

The center aims to draw buyers from across Europe and make the textile import-export trade more efficient by consolidating business in one location. The project is being seen as beneficial for the French economy. The fashion center is now Europe’s biggest wholesale textile market with 310 shops in 55,000 sq. mt. in the heart of Aubervilliers. The town has become one of the most important places for business and exchange with China in all of Europe.

In the maze of alleys and dead ends, almost all family businesses are run by people from Wenzhou region of Chian, a town in southeast of the country where emigration is a deep-rooted tradition. With the city today counting about 1,200 Chinese traders – not including laborers and other employees – Aubervilliers has become the main commercial junction between France and China.

There is a new generation of businessmen who have arrived, who are French of Chinese origin and who speak French.