Chocolate town in Zhejiang serves up sweet life

Colorful windmills slowly rotating on the lawn, castle-like factory buildings amid a sea of flowers and the aroma of sweet chocolate permeating the air … Visitors might well think they've arrived at Charlie's chocolate factory.

They've actually reached Aficion Chocolate Town in Jiashan county,Zhejiang province. With an investment of some 900 million yuan($132.92 million), the 29-hectare resort town is one of the largest of its kind in Asia, featuring everything chocolate since 2014.

Couples can host chocolate-themed wedding ceremonies, children can learn how to design with chocolate and tourists can learn all about the process of chocolate production,along with the history and culture of the confection, in a 156-meter glass passageway that provides a view of the town's world-class production line in operation.

They can even get a taste of the tropics in a small forest in which tropical cocoa trees and coffee beans are grown in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.

"I have been in love with chocolate since I was very little," said Mo Xuefeng, founder of the chocolate town."My father gave me my first chocolate when I was in kindergarten, and the feeling was simply indescribable."

As Mo grew up, his passion for chocolate intensified. In 2010, he enrolled at Boston University and was pursuing a master's degree in finance when the idea of setting up a chocolate-themed tourist town took root.

"While abroad, I became more interested in the chocolate culture of other countries, as well as its history and effects," Mo said.

At the time, he visited all the chocolate factories and theme parks in the United States, as well as major chocolate museums in Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany,and cocoa plantations in Mexico.

"Increasingly, I found that chocolate is not only just a kind of food but also a way of life," he said. To him,chocolate as both treat and tourist attraction is more an embodiment of people's yearning for a better life. He hoped to bring the sweetness of life to more Chinese people.

Born in Miujia village in Dayun township, where the chocolate town is located, Mo, 37, was supposed to take over his father's business when he finished his graduate studies in Boston.

"Naturally, he expected me to join him and continue what he had worked very hard to achieve," Mo said.

A successful businessman running a leading company in the new materials industry, Mo's father didn't shoot down the chocolaty idea when Mo first broached it. Instead, he encouraged Mo to improve the business proposal and personally went on a field trip to more than a dozen chocolate factories in the United States and Europe before giving the nod.

Importing some of the world's most advanced production equipment from Switzerland, Mo eventually chose his hometown as the place to build his chocolate dream.

In October 2014, Aficion Chocolate Town officially opened to public.Since then, it has become a major tourist complex that can manufacture 20,000 tons of chocolate annually. It receives more than 2 million visitors a year, with revenues from chocolate sales and other spending hitting 2 billion yuan.

"Aficion is a Latin word that means affection or love. The reason it was chosen for the town's name is that I hope to share a chocolate-centered happy and healthy lifestyle with more people," Mo said.

Mo's father now serves proudly as the chairman. "Without his understanding and guidance, the Aficion Chocolate Town would have never materialized," Mo said.

In the process, the local government has provided invaluable support, he said, helping him secure a land lease and handing out tax credits worth tens of millions in the early stages. In more recent years, Mo has partnered with others to develop regular study trips and educational tours for children.

At present, Aficion chocolate products are sold in stores across China,especially in the Yangtze River Delta region. They have also been well received in Southeast Asia. In addition, like many other businesses that have seized upon China's booming e-commerce, Mo and his marketing team have opened online stores on popular platforms such as Taobao, JD and Pinduoduo.

In roughly a decade, Mo's chocolates have sent sweetness not only to his customers, but to local residents.

"More than 200 jobs have been created for local villagers," he said. More than 60 percent of his employees are from nearby communities.

Entrepreneurial platforms have also been set up in the town for villagers and university graduates to start their own businesses and explore better ways to boost rural development,Mo added.

Thanks to the chocolate town, agritainment businesses in surrounding areas have also flourished. Tourists from cities such as Shanghai and Hangzhou, only about 100 kilometers distant, are often drawn to local orchards to pick their own fruit -mostly strawberries and blueberries.They stay in B&B hotels to get a taste of pastoral life.

Until 1994, Miujia village was one of 31 poverty-stricken villages in Jiashan county, with the income of its collective economy standing at less than 50,000 yuan and per capita annual income lower than 1,000 yuan. By 2021, the village's collective economic income had jumped to 14.2 million yuan, and per capita annual disposable income had grown to 53,000 yuan.

As China downgraded its COVID-19 restrictions in early January, Aficion Chocolate Town - which experienced disruptions over the past three years because of the pandemic - will introduce a variety of new products and welcome more people who seek a sweeter life through chocolate.