Yiwu

Yiwu, the world-renowned World Capital of Small Commodities, is a benchmark city for China's private economy and a pivotal business hub deeply connecting the global market. This inland county-level city, with no coastal or border advantages, grew from the folk commercial origin of "bartering chicken feathers for sugar". Rooted in commerce and thriving through opening-up, after decades of in-depth development and iteration, it has evolved into the core of the global small commodity supply chain. It has ranked first among national professional markets for 32 consecutive years, and is recognized by authoritative institutions including the United Nations and the World Bank as the world's largest small commodity wholesale market, writing a legendary chapter of China's county-level economy going global.

As the core carrier of Yiwu's commerce, China Yiwu International Trade Mart is located along Chouzhou North Road, Futian Subdistrict, Yiwu City. It is a landmark of Yiwu's fifth-generation small commodity market and the core destination for global buyers coming to Yiwu. The entire market cluster has a total operating area of over 6.4 million square meters, housing 75,000 business booths, covering 26 major categories and more than 2.1 million types of products. It is linked to 2.1 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and 32 million industrial workers nationwide, forming a unique pattern of "small commodities, big market, full industrial chain, and globalization". The market is systematically divided into 5 core districts (District 1 to District 5) with refined layout of full product categories: District 1 focuses on jewelry, toys, handicrafts and other categories, serving as the core procurement hub for global cultural and creative trendy products; District 2 specializes in luggage, hardware tools, small home appliances and other products, undertaking global bulk wholesale orders; District 3 centers on stationery and office supplies, cosmetics, garment accessories, among which the sales volume of stationery accounts for 18% of the national total, with products covering more than 100 countries and regions around the world; District 4 gathers daily knitwear such as socks, underwear and footwear, and is one of the world's largest spot trading centers for socks; District 5 focuses on the Imported Commodities Hall, bringing together nearly 100,000 imported products from more than 100 countries and regions around the world, serving as both an important window for overseas brands to enter the Chinese market and a one-stop platform for domestic buyers to "buy globally". Today, more than 90% of the booths in the International Trade Mart can directly undertake foreign trade business, with an average daily passenger flow of over 200,000 person-times, including an average of more than 5,000 overseas buyers visiting every day. It has truly become a "never-ending international business expo".

With its strong commercial strength and ultimate industrial ecosystem, Yiwu has become the first choice for global foreign merchants to come to China for procurement, entrepreneurship and settlement, making the city a veritable "international business community". As of 2026, the total number of foreign-funded business entities in Yiwu has exceeded 10,000, making it the first county-level city in China with over 10,000 foreign-funded business entities, with investment sources covering 165 countries and regions around the world, more than 80% of which are from countries and regions jointly building the "Belt and Road Initiative". More than 30,000 foreign merchants are permanently based in Yiwu all year round, with the average daily number of foreign merchants in Yiwu remaining above 30,000 since the beginning of 2026, and nearly 600,000 overseas buyers coming to Yiwu for procurement every year. Global merchants come across mountains and seas, rooted in Yiwu's irreplaceable core commercial advantages:

Ultra-efficient full-category supply chain system

Yiwu has built a closed-loop full industrial chain covering product design, mold opening, production, warehousing and logistics, which can quickly respond to the fragmented and customized procurement needs of the global market. From a tiny button or pendant to complete sets of home furnishings and industrial accessories, more than half of the world's daily-use small commodity procurement needs can be met in one stop here. It truly realizes the industry saying: "In Yiwu, there is no commodity you can't buy, only the one you can't imagine".

Nationally leading innovative trade system advantages

Yiwu pioneered the market procurement trade mode, which solved the customs clearance problem of "LCL export, small batch and multi-frequency" for more than 2 million types of small commodities in one fell swoop, and greatly lowered the threshold for MSMEs to go global. This mode has been replicated and promoted nationwide. At the same time, Yiwu continues to deepen the reform of the commercial system, realizing "one-day completion, on-site completion of simple items" for foreign-funded registration. It has become the first county-level city in China approved with the registration authority for permanent representative offices of foreign enterprises, providing full-process convenient services for foreign merchants to settle in.

Global three-dimensional logistics network

Yiwu has built a five-in-one logistics system integrating "sea, land, air, railway and mail". The Yixinou China Railway Express (Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe) has opened 26 international routes, covering more than 50 countries and regions and over 160 cities in Eurasia. Relying on the Yiwu-Ningbo-Zhoushan Open Great Channel to realize "sea access through borrowed ports", an average of more than 3,000 TEUs of goods are sent from Yiwu to more than 230 countries and regions around the world every day. At the same time, it has deployed 210 overseas warehouses in 54 countries around the world, providing stable, efficient and low-cost cross-border logistics guarantees for foreign merchants.

Full-chain international business and living supporting facilities

In terms of business services, the market is equipped with full-chain services including multilingual translation, international trade agency, cross-border financial settlement, customs declaration, intellectual property protection, etc. Even foreign merchants who do not understand Chinese and have no foreign trade experience can easily complete the whole procurement process. In terms of living facilities, Yiwu has built a life service system adapted to merchants from all over the world, with a full range of exotic restaurants, foreign merchant service centers, international schools and foreign-related clinics, forming a mature international living community, allowing global merchants to do business well and settle down in Yiwu with peace of mind.

Continuously iterative new advantages in digital trade

Yiwu vigorously develops new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and live-streaming e-commerce, builds the official digital trade platform Chinagoods, and promotes AI technology to empower market merchants. The cross-border order volume maintained explosive growth in the first quarter of 2026, allowing global merchants to complete the whole process of product selection, order placement and logistics without leaving home, breaking the time and space constraints of business exchanges.

The 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala once again spread the hard-core strength of this commercial city to the whole country and the world through the national high-profile stage. In this year's Gala, the co-performed show by international kung fu superstar Jackie Chan, internet influencer Lai Qi, and world-famous singing group Westlife became a top-tier cultural IP throughout the year, sparking heated discussions across the entire internet immediately after it was broadcast. Behind this national feast, the hard-core strength of "Made in Yiwu" and "Yiwu Speed" is fully demonstrated everywhere. From customized stage props and performance accessories for the show, to the same style of clothing, peripherals and cultural and creative products of the artists, Yiwu's supply chain system completed the full chain layout from design, mold opening, production to shelf launch immediately after the show was broadcast. Within 48 hours, the relevant hit products were fully covered in online and offline channels, and simultaneously sent to buyers around the world. In the consumption boom after the Spring Festival Gala, Yiwu perfectly took over the traffic dividend of the top-tier IP, converted the cultural popularity of the Gala into tangible commercial momentum, and achieved explosive growth in cross-border orders of related categories. This once again confirmed the industry consensus that "where there is traffic, there is Made in Yiwu", and also let the business card of the "World Capital of Small Commodities" be delivered to a broader international market through the global broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala.

Beyond the surging commercial vitality, Yiwu also has a thousand-year-long cultural heritage. As the birthplace of commercial culture in central Zhejiang, the bluestone roads of Fotang Ancient Town retain the ancient charm of the thousand-year commercial port, and the intangible cultural heritage techniques of Wuzhou Kiln inherit the cultural context of the Jiangnan region. These scattered cultural imprints have deposited the commercial background of "upholding both righteousness and benefits, operating with integrity" for this forging-ahead commercial city, and also become the foundation for the inheritance of Yiwu's business spirit from generation to generation.

Today, Yiwu is far more than a city in a geographical sense. It is a weather vane of global commerce and a synonym for the vitality of China's pri、vate economy. It takes small commodities as a link to build a bridge between China and the world, and takes innovation and opening-up as the background to continue to make breakthroughs in the wave of global trade. In the first quarter of 2026, it achieved a total foreign trade import and export value of 209.37 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25%, hitting a new high for the same period in history, and continuing to write a new legendary chapter belonging to China's private economy.