Yiwu

“Adventures are all very well in their place, but there's a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.”

― Neil Gaiman, Stardust

This past weekend I went on a trip to Yiwu with a group of people. Located to the south of Shanghai, Yiwu is a city of around 1.2 million people that takes roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes to travel to by train. My friends and I were invited by our Chinese friend named ZhuJing. While Yiwu is primarily known for commodity trade, it's also ZhuJing's hometown - our primary reason for visiting.

The train ride to Yiwu was rather uneventful (the highlight was probably the cost - only 14.50 USD). We left at 2:10 pm and arrived right at rush hour. Perfect timing! We got in line for a cab and looked in shock at the massive crowd before us. Earlier, ZhuJing had told us that Yiwu was a small town, and compared to Shanghai it sure is, but compared to anywhere else in the world it certainly is not. The traffic when we arrived  ranks up there with the worst traffic I have ever witnessed, and their blatant disregard for lanes, turn signals, and all other rules of driving made it that much more terrifying (it wasn't uncommon to see people driving on the wrong side of the road). After what felt like a very long time, we arrived safely at the hotel and checked into our rooms for a modest 12 USD per night per person.

The interesting thing about Yiwu is its large Arabic population drawn in by the amount of export and import trade in the city. I think it would be safe to say that we say nearly as many people of Arabic descent as we saw people of Chinese descent. Our first night there we went to a middle-eastern restaurant, which were everywhere, before heading over to the major night market. The night market had generally the same fare as the fake markets of Shanghai, but it was overall a more vibrant scene. Rather than residing in a dingy warehouse setting, the night market was a mishmash of open air stalls strung with lights and speckled with an assortment of food vendors crying out their offerings. While I was content with looking and didn't buy anything, I don't doubt there were (and are) many great deals available at the Yiwu night market.

The next day we dedicated to visiting the Yiwu commodities market. After having lunch at an excellent noodle shop, we hired some bikes to take us to the commodity market. We tried to have our drivers race the others, but were ultimately unsuccessful due to our lack of Chinese vocabulary.

Noodles with pork!

Snagging pictures from the bike

Once we got to the commodity market we chose to begin from the main entrance (a distinction I make to help you understand how massive this place really is). We were greeted by a giant electronic board noting the changes in prices of a few commodities, much like you would picture at a Wall street firm. We began wandering through a maze of small shops advertising their wares. The first building had sections for toys, plastic flowers, crafts, jewelry, and, amazingly, rows and rows dedicated to hair pins/bows/ties. Every building was the same, with hundreds of incredibly specialized shops.

We asked ZhuJing how much it costs to purchase a shop front in this market, as they were generally fairly small and seemed to be selling very cheap products, similar to what you would find in a dollar store back in the US. He seemed amused by our question and asked us to guess. We assumed it to be about 30 to 50 thousand Euros. The answer? Half a million Euros, according to our friend. He explained that the store fronts are merely a way for the owners to advertise their wares before selling them in bulk and shipping them around the world. We then asked him how many of these stores there were inside this commodity market. He told us that would be difficult to pinpoint an exact number, but his guess was between 20 and 30 thousand. In 5 hours of wandering, we couldn't have made it more than 30% of the way through the complex.

A portion of the commodity market from above, courtesy of Google
Each building you see has 4 floors

The central plaza in the first building. Tried to capture all 4 floors

Group of kids entertaining themselves while their parents man the shop

From the toy section of the market. I thought the eyes were creepy

That night ZhuJing invited us to have a Chinese barbecue with him and a few of his friends. We loaded up in a couple of their cars and headed over to the store to pick up some meat and vegetables. Chinese barbecue is very different from the BBQ we know and love in the US. The general idea is meat and vegetables stuck onto some sticks, drowned in a mix of spices and cooked over a coal fired grill. After picking out our ingredients, we hopped back into the car and made our way to a secluded spot in the mountains outside Yiwu. Sadly, I have no pictures of this area as it was dark by the time we arrived. It would have been the perfect place to snap a long exposure shot, but nobody had a tripod with them. We spent the night building and rebuilding a fire while enjoying chicken, beef and a smorgasbord of vegetables.

Our final day in Yiwu was spent outside of Yiwu. While it's a wonderful town for trade, it really isn't a tourist destination and there's only so much to see, so we made our way to Hengdian World Studios: the largest film studio in the world, also known as the Hollywood of China. Many movies and Chinese dramas are filmed at Hengdian, which houses several large parks built to imitate different times and places throughout China's history. The park we visited was called Qing Ming Shang He Tu (This directly translates to "Along the River During the Qingming Festival," and is apparently the name of a famous painting created around the 12th century during the Song dynasty).

A few members of our group decided to pay 100 yuan to dress up in traditional Chinese garb. Perhaps it was this decision, or merely the fact that we were the only westerners there, but our visit didn't quite go as planned. We were hoping to see a some Chinese actors (we were told there was at least one movie being filmed while we were there), take some pictures and generally have a pleasant walk around the park. It was not meant to be. Everywhere we went we were surrounded by hordes of Chinese tourists asking to take pictures with us or of us; we were definitely the main attraction.

A crowd of people waiting for a chance to get a picture

When we weren't surrounded by gaggles of onlookers, we had the chance to get some really great pictures of our own, watch a short skit, and try our hand at archery. While the park was very cool, I think it would have been even more exciting if I knew any Chinese movies well enough to recognize the scenery before me.

My favorite photo from the park.
Click the 'photos' button at the top of the page to see the rest!

After escaping the crowds

Two fearsome warriors

We ended our trip to Yiwu the way we arrived: with plenty of traffic. So much, in fact, that we arrived at the train station 6 minutes before our train was supposed to depart! Luckily, we had picked up both our arrival and return tickets when we left Shanghai, but we still had to run to the platform to make it in time (only to find out that our train was about 10 minutes late). It was almost like a movie scene and it certainly earned us plenty of strange looks from those waiting in the terminal. We arrived back at school at about 10:30 that Friday night, happy to be back in our own rooms after our short but satisfying trip.