Yiwu: Where 'Made in China' All Begins | This is China?! Ep. 5

“Made in China” doesn’t just live in factories — it lives here: Yiwu International Trade Market. Six districts. Over 70,000 shops. The biggest wholesale market you’ve probably never heard of, yet its fingerprints are everywhere around us.

Souvenir magnets from Europe’s old towns; glittering tinsel dressing up Christmas trees; lantern strings glowing through Ramadan nights. Tiny objects passing through countless hands, rarely noticed, almost never celebrated.

I arrived curious — and deeply sceptical — ready for cheap mass-production and absolute chaos: ¥10 labubus overflowing from makeshift stalls, durians being pushed from stall to stall on vendor carts. Counterfeit-but-alarmingly-close Jellycats — the exact same price as the original… if you simply swapped £ for ¥.

Yet woven through the frenzy was also deep-rooted pragmatism, relentless speed, and a talent for forecasting outcomes, from election merch to World Cup winners. The world’s biggest backstage, where new products are dreamed up fast, shipped out faster, but copied fastest.

Join me as I wander deeper into District 1: a maze where the starting point of so many global stories hides in plain sight, yet almost none ever trace their way back home.

This is Episode 5 of This is China?! — a series where I rediscover my own country after years abroad, with all the surprises, contradictions, and double takes that come with it.


⸻


China Travel | China Travel Vlog | Travel Series China | Yiwu | 义乌 | Yiwu Market | 义乌小商品市场 | Made in China | Global Supply Chain | Small Commodities Market | This is China?! | Offbeat China | China Hidden Gems | Unseen China | Zhejiang | China Economy | Chinese Manufacturing | China Globalisation

#chinatravel #Yiwu #MadeInChina #ThisIsChina #ChinaVlog #chinafactory #YiwuMarket