In the middle 19th century, Chinese craftsmen were still using traditional method of filing by hand to make needles, while the British needle-making industry’s procedures of manufacturing needles had most achieved mechanization. The traditional means of hand production was meant to be beaten by advanced mechanization.

       After the Opium War broke out in 1840, the gate of China was forced opened and a large number of foreign needles were emptied into the Chinese market. According to statistics, there were 200 million needles in 1876. As of 1894, the number of foreign needles had reached 2.4 billion. On average, each Chinese had 6 foreign needles.

       Under the shock of foreign needles, the Chinese traditional needle-making industry was gradually declining. The traditional needle-making industry in Dayang Town, Shanxi Province had flourished for nearly 300 years. However, the industry there had almost disappeared around 1870. Besides Dayang, other important towns of needle-making also suffered the same shock.

       Faced with the situation that foreign needles were occupying the Chinese market, some men with insight expressed their worries. After entering the 20th century, Chinese began to try to establish needle-manufacturing factories in the contemporary era. In the 34th year when Emperor Guangxv ruled (1908), the Qing government’s official Zhang Zhidong and other persons used the idle plants to establish the needle-manufacturing factory within the Hanyang Arsenal. Due to poor old-fashioned operation and management, they all failed. This was the start for China to establish the contemporary mechanic manufacturing industry.