Yiwu Information

Yiwu City (simplified Chinese: 义乌; pinyin: yìwū) is a city of about 1,000,000 people in central Zhejiang Province in the Peoples Republic of China. It is located 100 km south of the city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. The nearest city to Yiwu is Dongyang. The area, as in most of the Province of Zhejiang, is in a mountainous region. Yiwu is technically part of the greater Municipal region of Jinhua, although it has a distinct urban core. It has under its jurisdiction 15 towns and 8 villages, which covers 1102.8 square kilometers, 15 square kilometers of which are urban area of 650,000 people (2005 estimate). 

Yiwu is famous in China as a commodities center. People from all over the world come to Yiwu City to buy commodities for resale in other parts of China or abroad. Yiwus China Small-Commodity Market has for 6 consecutive years topped Chinas 100 top open markets and was for successive years listed as Chinas civilized open market. It has been named as the banner of Chinas market economy and with a large variety of quality but cheaper commodities, the market has become a shopping paradise for tourists.

Yiwu boasts an Olympic quality stadium and a large Christian Church. Many events associated with trade take place in Yiwu City. Yiwu also has a sizable Korean and Middle Eastern population, mostly working in the import and export businesses. Yiwu is also known as the "sock town" as it produces over three billion pairs of socks for Wal-Mart, Pringle and Disney annually. Yiwu is also known as Chinas number one producer of fashion jewelry.

Its 4C-grade airport has opened over a dozen of air routes to such cities as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shantou, Weifang and Shenzhen. The Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and Hangzhou-Jinhua Expressway pass through the city, making Yiwu an important local transportation hub. Express trains from Shanghai South Railway Station take less than three hours.