Yiwu International Trade City
Yiwu International Trade City, also known as the Yiwu Market, is the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities, located in Yiwu, Zhejiang, China. The market serves as a vital node in global supply chains.
History
In the early 1890s, Yiwu was an impoverished rural county historically known for its small traders, who mostly bartered sugar for chicken feathers during the Qing dynasty. However, the Chinese Communist Party banned the practice as "capitalist activity" after taking power in 1949. Although the Chinese government initiated the reform and opening policy in 1978, selling things for profit by private citizens was still banned in practice.In April 1982, Xie Gaohua was appointed Party Secretary of Yiwu. A month after his arrival, a street vendor named Feng Aiqian complained to him that her goods were repeatedly confiscated by county authorities and questioned why she was not allowed to sell goods to support her poor family. After their conversation, Xie travelled to Wenzhou, the first Chinese city to allow private enterprises, to conduct research, and decided that building a free market was compatible with national policies.
In September 1982, Xie announced the establishment of Huqingmen Market in Yiwu under the guideline of "four permissions": permissions for farmers to enter the city, to conduct business, to engage in long-haul trading, and to compete with both state enterprises and private individuals. This was the first time in the People's Republic of China that a local government legalized a free market for farmers.
When the market was opened in November 1982, it merely consisted of a few hundred sheds and stalls, but proved highly popular and grew quickly. In 1983, the county government spent 580,000 yuan to build a new market consisting of booths. By the end of that year, there were more than 1,000 vendors selling over 3,000 products, most of them from outside of Yiwu.
In October 1984, Xie proposed a new development strategy for Yiwu, with market trading as its pillar industry. Although he was transferred out of the county soon afterwards, the Yiwu Market continued its rapid growth and was rebuilt and expanded multiple times. The number of market booths exceeded 10,000 in 1991. In 2005, the World Bank called it "the world's largest small commodities market", and by 2013, it attracted more than 20,000 customers daily from all over the world and sold US$11 billion of goods annually.