标签： Asia

A century-old heritage skincare brand rooted in Tianjin, China, has cemented its remarkable market comeback with the groundbreaking of a cutting-edge new industrial park, marking one of the most successful revitalization stories for China’s time-honored local consumer brands in recent years.

Wanzi Qianhong, the 115-year-old skincare label, launched construction on the integrated facility in Tianjin’s Xiqing District this month. The milestone comes on the heels of three straight years of 100% annual online sales growth, a staggering expansion that has pulled the once-forgotten brand back into the national spotlight.

Designed to integrate multiple core functions under one roof, the new industrial park will house scaled production lines, dedicated livestreaming e-commerce hubs, and public cultural exhibition spaces. Beyond its operational role, the site will also be added as an official stop on Tianjin’s developing industrial tourism route, offering visitors a chance to explore the brand’s long history and modern manufacturing processes.

The brand’s dramatic resurgence is no accident: it stems from a customer-centric innovation strategy that company leaders call “listening-style research and development.” Rather than relying solely on in-house design, Wanzi Qianhong has centered its product updates on the evolving preferences of young Chinese consumers, the largest demographic driving today’s domestic skincare market. When widespread customer feedback noted the brand’s classic cream felt too heavy for daily use, the development team quickly rolled out a lighter, non-greasy formulation. When shoppers asked for more travel-friendly packaging, the brand launched a convenient portable pouch version. As consumer demand for diversified facial care routines grew, the label expanded its catalog to include entirely new product lines tailored to modern needs.

“Our fans share their wishes, and we work to make them come true,” explained Kuang Huaqin, Wanzi Qianhong’s deputy general manager, in outlining the brand’s core philosophy.

Founded in 1911, Wanzi Qianhong rose to become a household name across northern China for its trusted, affordable skincare products, but gradually faded from public view amid rising competition from international and domestic new brands in the 1990s. The turning point for its comeback came in 2023, when a viral livestream appearance led to the entire available inventory selling out in just a few hours, catapulting the brand back into mainstream consciousness.

Today, the beloved “Great-Grandma brand,” as it is affectionately called by Chinese consumers, is setting its sights beyond China’s borders. Company leaders are preparing to expand into North American and European markets, bringing a century of Chinese skincare heritage to global consumers.

The success story of Wanzi Qianhong offers a compelling case study for how legacy consumer brands can remain relevant and thrive in the modern market: by embracing evolution and aligning product development with changing customer needs, heritage does not have to mean outdated. For this iconic century-old label, growth is just getting started.

Macau International Airport (MIA) has announced solid performance gains for the first quarter of 2026, with double-digit growth in both passenger volumes and aircraft operations, driven largely by strong travel demand across Greater China. In an official press statement released Wednesday, the airport authority reported that total passenger throughput reached 2,117,427 between January and March, marking a roughly 15% increase compared to the same period last year. Aircraft takeoffs and landings, a key metric of airport operational activity, also climbed 10% year-on-year to hit 15,952 movements for the quarter. Breaking down passenger demographics, travelers from mainland China made up the largest single segment, accounting for 41% of all Q1 passengers, while visitors from Taiwan region represented 19% of total traffic. International travel continues its steady recovery as well: the airport recorded 224,000 international passenger arrivals and departures in the first two months of 2026, representing an 11% year-on-year uptick. The robust growth trend held steady during the recent back-to-back Easter and Qingming Festival holiday travel window, which ran from last Friday through Tuesday. Over the five-day holiday period, MIA handled 115,000 total passengers and 856 aircraft movements, representing year-on-year increases of 2.6% and 9.1% respectively. Looking ahead to the peak summer travel season, MIA says it is actively accelerating efforts to broaden its regional and international route network. Airport officials confirmed they are working closely with partner airline carriers to launch new scheduled services connecting Macau to additional destinations across mainland China and Northeast Asia, positioning the hub to capture further growth in travel demand in the coming months.

The ongoing Middle East conflict, centered on tensions that led to the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has triggered an unprecedented jet fuel supply crunch across Asia, forcing regional carriers to slash flight schedules, adopt costly fuel-carrying workarounds, and raise ticket prices to weather the unfolding crisis.

According to trade data platform Kpler, Iran’s closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s seaborne jet fuel transits daily — removed nearly one-fifth of global seaborne jet fuel supply from the market. While Iran, the United States, and Israel announced a tentative two-week ceasefire on Wednesday, uncertainties about the durability of the truce and the reopening of the strait persist. Iran has maintained it will assert full control over waterway access, impose transit fees on passing vessels, and continue its uranium enrichment program, leaving global energy markets on edge.

Unlike past oil market shocks that primarily drove up commodity prices, this crisis has created both pricing spikes and acute physical supply shortages, pushing governments, airport operators and airlines to contingency planning that includes fuel rationing. Aviation industry analysts note that Asia is far more vulnerable to the supply squeeze than other regions due to its thinner strategic fuel reserves and heavier reliance on energy exports that pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Within Asia, lower-income nations that depend almost entirely on jet fuel imports, such as Vietnam, Myanmar, and Pakistan, have seen the worst disruptions so far.

Carriers have already deployed a range of emergency measures to manage limited fuel access. One of the most common workarounds is “tankering” — the practice of loading up on extra fuel at an airline’s home airport before flying to destinations with restricted fuel supplies. AirAsia X CEO Bo Lingam confirmed that the long-haul budget carrier now carries extra fuel from Malaysia for all flights to Vietnamese airports, as local fuel providers cap the volume they sell to foreign carriers. Air India has also added a mandatory refueling stop in Kolkata on its Yangon-to-Delhi route, due to persistent fuel shortages at Myanmar’s main Yangon International Airport. While tankering resolves supply uncertainty, it is an expensive solution: carrying extra weight increases the jet fuel an aircraft burns in flight, eroding carrier profit margins.

For prolonged shortages, deep capacity cuts have become the go-to response for many airlines. Vietnam’s national aviation authority confirmed that Vietnam Airlines has cut 23 domestic flights every week to conserve limited fuel stocks. Myanmar’s transport ministry reported that local carriers suspended multiple domestic services for much of March amid total fuel shortfalls, and aviation data provider Cirium shows several Myanmar airlines have continued trimming capacity through April. Batik Air Malaysia, one of the region’s largest budget carriers, has gone even further, slashing 36% of its domestic capacity to mitigate risk. CEO Chandran Rama Muthy framed the cuts as a necessary proactive step, noting that continuing full operations would expose the airline to unacceptable operational and financial volatility amid the “crisis-mode” market environment.

Industry insiders warn that the uncertainty stretching far beyond the current two-week ceasefire is adding to already crippling pressure on an industry that has not fully recovered from post-pandemic demand shifts. “In my conversations with airlines, they are very concerned about what the future looks like, because we do not know when the war will end and we don’t know when the supply chain, the feedstock, will come from the Gulf area,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

Brendan Sobie, an independent aviation analyst based in Singapore, explained that fuel access restrictions have a cascading effect across the region. “Some countries are in better shape than others. Some may be limiting (fuel for) foreign airlines, which then leads to tankering. This could be proactive as some countries fear they could run out,” he said.

European carriers are now bracing for similar disruptions, as the supply crunch spreads beyond Asian markets. Since the conflict began, jet fuel prices have more than doubled, prompting airlines that have not cut capacity to raise ticket fares and add new fuel surcharges to pass higher costs on to consumers. While the ceasefire has offered a brief reprieve for markets, the unresolved standoff over the Strait of Hormuz means widespread volatility in jet fuel supply and pricing is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.