Source: Yiwu sourcing agent Author: Helan Date: 2008-02-28
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.
Thousands of factory representatives carry out a fiercely competitive trade in the specialist markets of Yiwu,300 kilometers 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 cuntomers 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.
Zoran Spaseski,a young Macedonian buyer on his third visit,said:"The good thing about Yiwu is that 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.
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.
"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.
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 whho arrived eight months ago.
"It's great here,they've got everything I need.I mainly buy cosmetics and hardware,"siad a Duabai-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 said.
Luo Liping, a 22-year-old Chinese entrepreneur,said Yiwu's development had really taken off in the last two years.
"Thanks to modern machinery,I produce 1.5 million pairs of shoes a year with only 30-40 workers,"said Luo,who set up her business using money from her father,who runs a transport company.
"The world is pretty unstable but I'm full of confidence in China's futrre,"she said.
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