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China's Yiwu sets sights on becoming world marketplace

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.
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