Is it really that there is nothing money can not buy in Yiwu

Abstract : In 1982, the Yiwu government provided the first legal open-air market with 700 booths. That was the embryo of what is now the Yiwu small commodities city that has expanded to more than 20 markets with 65,000 booths. Yiwu market is No. 1 wholesale market in the world, with 2, 600, 000 m2 showrooms, 320,000 kinds of commodities in over 1502 categories of 34 industries. With 65,000 booths in 20 different classified markets, if you drop by a booth for three minutes it takes a year to look around all the booths in Yiwu. People say there is nothing money can't buy in Yiwu. Even supermarket giant Carrefour and the United Nations are Yiwu's customers. The main markets offer more than 400,000 items classified under 1,700 categories, from arts and crafts, candles, gardening equipment, umbrellas, to watches, toys, and jewelry. yiwu is also a paradise for traders from all over the world, with up to 200,000 visitors per day on average and 6,000 foreign residents. Tens of thousands of traders and businessmen from all over the world crowd in Yiwu every day to look for cheap products to sell in their home markets, transforming this small city into a prosperous trading center. Palestinian businessman Hazem Shyoukhi, 30, was one of the first foreigners to source cheap products in Yiwu eight years ago. Back then, the city was just beginning to position itself as a hub for trading small commodities in the country. "In 2000, there were not many foreigners here. Yiwu was a small city with grubby roads. Now it is a big and clean city with lots of foreigners because of business here," Shyoukhi says. Now there are 25,000 manufacturers representing 20 industries. More than 50 percent of zipper and 70 percent of jewelry production in China comes from Yiwu and 40 percent of the electric clocks in the world are also from the area. Nearly 95 percent of the entrepreneurs in Yiwu are ex-vendors, according to International Business Daily. They traded in the commodities market and shifted to manufacturing. However, because Yiwu started the manufacturing business late in the game, the county found it was at a disadvantage. And the recent tightened macroeconomic policies have made it more difficult for enterprises to find land. "Coming into Yiwu small commodities market is like attending the China Import and Export Fair – Canton fair. You can attend the "Canton Fair" everyday here. Yiwu should become a window and base for small and medium-sized enterprises. "