A September 16 in-depth report by The Paper and Eastday revisited Yiwu, a county-level city in central Zhejiang with no coast, border, minerals or heavy industry—yet in 2025 its export value ranked first among all Chinese counties (cities, districts). Its 2025 e-commerce turnover hit 553.779 billion yuan and cross-border e-commerce exceeded 168 billion yuan.
Yiwu is home to over 1.26 million business entities, more than 2.1 million product varieties, nearly 300,000 daily visitors, and trade covering over 230 countries and regions. Its International Trade City—the world's largest small-commodity wholesale market—uses a "by-industry zoning" system across eight major zones and sixteen category areas, with over 80,000 booths (walking the whole market at three minutes per booth would take over a year).
Local manufacturing accounts for about 30% of goods, with the rest from across Zhejiang, other provinces and imports; the market's foreign-trade share is about 70%, and toys alone represent 25% of global output. In 2025 Yiwu's parcel volume approached 14 billion, ranking first among Chinese counties, while e-commerce business entities reached about 800,000—roughly a third of Zhejiang's total. The year 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the "Yiwu development experience."
Source: The Paper / Eastday
