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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 customers 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 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 who arrived eight
months ago.
"It's great here, they've got everything I need.
I mainly buy cosmetics and hardware," said a Dubai-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 future," she said.
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