BEIJING: Yiwu in Zhejiang province has been dubbed “the world’s supermarket” for the overwhelming array of goods available there. And this is a part of the magic of this bustling business hub in eastern China.
That magic in Yiwu also means that people there dare to dream big, building business empires step by step even from the smallest and seemingly most insignificant commodities such as buttons.
So it was for Nie Ziqin, a businesswoman at the Yiwu International Trade Market, who came to the city from Henan province with her father in 2003 at the age of 16, with the dream of becoming her own boss.
From peddling handmade masks door to door, to renting a 4.5-square-meter stall devoted exclusively to Halloween products, and later building her own factory and buying commercial property, Nie has fulfilled that dream and become one of the leading merchants in this vast market.
“In Yiwu, as long as you are not afraid of hardship and hard work, you can achieve anything,” she said.
Located in central Zhejiang province, Yiwu is neither on the border nor on the coast. Once a county-level city hindered by poor transportation links and scarce resources, it has written a remarkable chapter in China’s county-level economic development over the past four decades, since the opening of its first-generation small commodities market in 1982.
Forging what has become known as the “Yiwu development experience”, marked by a spirit of innovation and the ability to “create something from nothing”, the city has grown into the world-renowned “capital of small commodities”.
Today, the Yiwu market is home to more than 1.26 million business entities and maintains trade links with more than 230 countries and regions. In 2025, its export value ranked first among all county-level regions in China. “In Yiwu, there are no products you cannot buy — only products you have not thought of,” Nie said.
In an instruction published on Thursday, President Xi Jinping called for efforts to further review and make better use of the “Yiwu development experience”.
Yiwu’s small commodities have broken into a vast market and developed into a major industry, forming the “Yiwu development experience”, Xi said, adding that this represents a successful example for developing county economies in line with local conditions.
Efforts should be made to further review and apply the experience by integrating it into the Party-wide study campaign for establishing and practicing a correct understanding of governance performance, Xi said.
It is imperative to guide all regions to leverage their own resource endowments and explore high-quality development paths suited to their respective local conditions, he said.
Xi’s ties with Yiwu go back many years. In December 2002, shortly after taking office as Party secretary of Zhejiang province, he visited the Yiwu International Trade Market for an inspection.
From 2002 to 2007, Xi made more than 10 fact-finding trips to Yiwu, pressing for reforms to remove institutional bottlenecks holding back its fast-growing private economy. He once likened Yiwu to “a fast-growing child wearing unsuitable clothes”, a vivid metaphor for the constraints on the city’s development needs.
In November 2005, Xi called for efforts to remove institutional bottlenecks ranging from financing to registration for foreign trade enterprises and tax policies. A year later, Zhejiang issued guidelines on piloting local government administration reforms, delegating Yiwu a total of 131 economic and social management powers — the first county-level city in the country to enjoy such broad authorization.
According to previous reports, Zhou Yongnan, then a reporter with Zhejiang Daily, later recalled that when local media and officials sought to sum up Yiwu’s path as the “Yiwu model”, Xi advised against the term “model”, saying that it implied something fixed and unchanging, whereas reform and innovation are endless.
“He said it should be called the ‘Yiwu experience’ instead,” Zhou recalled.
With Xi’s support and Yiwu’s influence as an exemplar of reform, many regions across Zhejiang began receiving expanded administrative powers, and the “Yiwu experience” was later promoted nationwide.
In September 2023, Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, revisited the Yiwu International Trade Market during an inspection tour of Jinhua, Zhejiang province.
Speaking with merchants and representatives of small business owners, he urged the trade market to make fresh achievements and contribute further to expanding both domestic and international markets and smoothing dual circulation of domestic and international trade.
That call for Yiwu to scale new heights has since been reflected not only in the city’s trade figures, but also in its growing international pull.
With Pakistani businessman Ali Kamran obtaining his own business license on July 31, 2025, the total number of foreign-invested business entities in Yiwu reached 10,000, making Yiwu the first county-level city in China to surpass that mark.
Today, investors from more than 160 countries and regions have put down roots in Yiwu.
In 2025, Yiwu’s total imports and exports exceeded 800 billion yuan ($117.2 billion) for the first time, reaching 836.5 billion yuan. Meanwhile, total retail sales of consumer goods reached 215.38 billion yuan, up 5.2 percent year-on-year, also the highest among all county-level regions in the province. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
