Small City, Big Ambition

If China is indeed the factory of the world, then Yiwu, a small city in eastern Zhejiang Province, would be its headquarters. A small commodity trade center established in this rural area in early 1980s as a test field to spearhead local economic development has grown fast to become what is now the world’s largest market for small commodities.

Yiwu’s fame far outsizes its status of a county-level city. By the early 1990s, Yiwu had its own airport—a luxury that many prefecture-level cities in China still don’t enjoy today. Through its exploration of new models of development, the city has blazed