Yiwu market

Yiwu International Trade Market
Yiwu Market
Location within China
Alternative names	• Yiwu Futian market • Chinese Yiwu International Business and Trade Mall • Yiwu China International Trade Town Shopping and Touring Area
General information
Type	Shopping mall
Location	Yiwu, Zhejiang, China
Coordinates	29°20′23″N 120°06′40″E / 29.33972°N 120.11111°E / 29.33972; 120.11111Coordinates: 29°20′23″N 120°06′40″E / 29.33972°N 120.11111°E / 29.33972; 120.11111
Inaugurated	22 October 2002
Owner	Yiwu Municipal Government
Technical details
Floor count	5
Floor area	5,500,000 m2 (59,000,000 sq ft)
Other information
Number of stores	75,000+

Yiwu market or China Commodity City is predominantly made up of three large wholesale market complexes based in Yiwu, a city in Zhejiang Province, China. China Commodity City was honoured by the UN, the World Bank and Morgan Stanley amongst other world authorities in 2005 as the "largest small commodity wholesale market in the world". China Commodity City has three market clusters of International Trade Mart, Huangyuan Market and Binwang Market.

As of 2017 around seventy percent of the world's Christmas decorations came from Yiwu market.

Yiwu is a hilly region originally inhabited by farmers. Poverty-ridden land left peasants with no option but trade for a living. As early as the 1600s, trading flowered in Yiwu.

It was in the 1600s that Yiwu peasants started trading in chicken feathers, as they were used as a natural crop fertilizer. Using these feathers, they also made some other household articles that were attractive on the market and even started exportation: during periods in which farming did not require substantial work, they traveled across villages, selling sewing needles, threads, candies and other small articles. These men were also named the equivalent of "Feather-for-Candy-Men" in some rural areas. Soon, they grew in number and many wholesale markets came into existence to cater them. It was only until 1949 that Planned Economy was set up there.

Planned Economy vs. Roaster Feather for Candy

Earlier, the trade system was considered as capitalism by the government of the People's Republic of China and hence officially suppressed. However, in practice there was not much change in the mountainous Yiwu. People had no option but to rely on business to survive and the commerce was carried on secretly. If a trader were caught, his belongings were confiscated by the authorities.

When Xie Gaohua, a former Yiwu mayor, carried out an investigation in the city, he found that the secret wholesalers had in fact better living conditions than peasants. He consequently decided to let it go underground (not officially), in favour of higher living standards of its inhabitants. Eventually, as the economic reform started in China, the three free markets came into existence.

The First Free-Marketplace in China's History