Yiwu City Overview
A county-level city in Zhejiang Province that turned a tradition of door-to-door bartering into the world's largest wholesale market for small commodities.
- 222 BCFounded as Wushang City; renamed Yiwu County in AD 624.
- Pre-1978Poor soil and hilly terrain pushed residents toward trade — including the famous "sugar-for-chicken-feathers" barter tradition.
- 1978–1982Market reforms allowed informal trading to resume; the local government formalized the market in 1982.
- 1988Yiwu is incorporated as a city.
- 2001China joins the WTO — Yiwu's export trade accelerates sharply.
- 2002Yiwu International Trade City (today's market complex) is inaugurated.
- 2011Yiwu is named a national international trade pilot city; District 5 of the market opens.
- 2015+E-commerce trade (via platforms like Yiwugo.com) grows to rival physical market transactions.
- 2023+Yiwu promotes international RMB settlement, including a China-Africa Cross-Border RMB Settlement Center.
Getting There
By air: Yiwu Airport offers direct flights to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu.
By rail: Yiwu Station sits on the Hangzhou–Changsha high-speed line (part of the Shanghai–Kunming corridor), connecting to Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanchang and Changsha.
By road: Linked via the Hangzhou–Jinhua–Quzhou and Jinhua–Yiwu–Dongyang expressways.
Climate
Humid subtropical climate. Average daily temperature around 18°C year-round.
Summer (July): averages ~30°C. Winter (January): averages ~6°C.
About 1,420mm of rain annually across ~148 rainy days — pack a light rain jacket if visiting between spring and summer.
Freight & Logistics
Yiwu is the eastern terminus of the Yiwu–Madrid railway — at over 13,000km, the longest freight rail line in the world, part of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Administration
A county-level city administered under Jinhua, with 7 subdistricts and 6 towns. Jinhua Rail Transit (metro) began limited service to Yiwu in 2022.