Located in east China's Zhejiang Province, Yiwu is neither on the border, nor on the coast. Once hindered by poor transportation links and scarce resources, the county-level city has written a remarkable chapter in China's county-level economic development over the past four decades, since the opening of its first-generation small commodities market in 1982.

Forging what has become known as the "Yiwu development experience," marked by a spirit of innovation and the ability to "create something from nothing," the city has grown into the world-renowned "capital of small commodities."

Today, Yiwu is home to more than 1.26 million business entities and maintains trade links with more than 230 countries and regions. In 2025, its export value ranked first among all county-level regions in China.

Yiwu built a "world's supermarket" from scratch, a transformation powered by decades of market-oriented reforms and a dense ecosystem of small commodity producers that connect Chinese factories with buyers across the globe.

Over the past four decades, the market relocated six times, expanded 13 times and underwent five rounds of upgrading. Its form kept evolving, now extending to a global digital trade hub, but the guiding principle remained unchanged: to develop the market is to drive development.