Surrounded by enormous industrial zones and hundreds of factories, the eastern Chinese city of Yiwu is hardly a favorite with tourists.
However, the manufacturing city is one of the country's most popular destinations for foreign visitors -- businessmen making bulk buys of toys, clothes, trinkets and hardware to sell all over the world.
Competitive
Thousands of factory representatives carry out a fiercely competitive trade in the hundreds of specialist markets of Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province.
The brand-new China Commodity City has 27,000 stalls already and has designs on becoming "the biggest [market] in the world."
"Ninety-five percent of our product goes abroad," said Wu Yajing, one of hundreds of tradesmen selling bracelets, headbands and other hair accessories.
"Our customers are Germans, Japanese, Italians, Americans or from the Middle East. Everything is done by barter, there's no fixed price," said one female stall-holder.
Variety
Zoran Spaseski, a young Macedonian buyer on his third visit, said: "The good thing about Yiwu is it has great variety and you can buy in small quantities, unlike other places in China where you have to fill a whole container with the same product."
"I'm setting up a chain of shops called Chinese Bazaar, where all the goods come from China," said the management graduate, who is also planning a southern Balkans distribution center for Chinese products in Macedonia.
"It's better for us to handle the trade rather than have the Chinese selling directly in Europe," he said, noting European job losses to cheaper Chinese manufacturing.
Some of the visitors are old hands in the Asian market, such as Lebanese businessman Ali Jawfar, who 25 years ago used to buy in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea.
"I've been coming here six or seven times a year for the last four years. I buy mostly for my two sons in Gabon. I make the orders and arrange to send the products there," he said.
Middle east
"These things are for the Middle East," he added, pointing to a stand selling boards of Koranic verses in calligraphy.
Nearby, images of the Virgin Mary, Father Christmas and the Buddha are available in all different sizes, as well as erotic figurines inspired by Japanese Manga cartoons.
The roaring trade has led a growing number of businessmen from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia to open offices in Yiwu.
"For Romania, I usually buy low-quality stuff, but I'm opening a shop in Sweden soon so I'll need very good quality," said one Jordanian who arrived eight months ago.
"It's great here, they've got everything I need. I mainly buy cosmetics and hardware," said a Dubai-based Moroccan, puffing on a water-pipe in one of Yiwu's dry Muslim restaurants.
"I come six or seven times a year, filling two or three containers each time. That makes an order of about US$100,000," he added.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a