Episode Details

Yiwu in Zhejiang province has been dubbed "the world's supermarket" for the overwhelming array of goods available there. And this is a part of the magic of this bustling business hub in eastern China.


That magic in Yiwu also means that people there dare to dream big, building business empires step by step even from the smallest and seemingly most insignificant commodities such as buttons.


So it was for Nie Ziqin, a businesswoman at the Yiwu International Trade Market, who came to the city from Henan province with her father in 2003 at the age of 16, with the dream of becoming her own boss.


From peddling handmade masks door to door, to renting a 4.5-square-meter stall devoted exclusively to Halloween products, and later building her own factory and buying commercial property, Nie has fulfilled that dream and become one of the leading merchants in this vast market.


"In Yiwu, as long as you are not afraid of hardship and hard work, you can achieve anything," she said.


Located in central Zhejiang province, Yiwu is neither on the border nor on the coast. Once a county-level city hindered by poor transportation links and scarce resources, it 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, the Yiwu market 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.


"In Yiwu, there are no products you cannot buy — only products you have not thought of," Nie said.


In an instruction published on Thursday, President Xi Jinping called for efforts to further review and make better use of the "Yiwu development experience".


Yiwu's small commodities have broken into a vast market and developed into a major industry, forming the "Yiwu development experience", Xi said, adding that this represents a successful example for developing county economies in line with local conditions.


Efforts should be made to further review and apply the experience by integrating it into the Party-wide study campaign for establishing and practicing a correct understanding of governance performance, Xi said.


It is imperative to guide all regions to leverage their own resource endowments and explore high-quality development paths suited to their respective local conditions, he said.


Xi's ties with Yiwu go back many years. In December 2002, shortly after taking office as Party secretary of Zhejiang province, he visited the Yiwu International Trade Market for an inspection.


From 2002 to 2007, Xi made more than 10 fact-finding trips to Yiwu, pressing for reforms to remove institutional bottlenecks holding back its fast-growing private economy. He once likened Yiwu to "a fast-growing child wearing unsuitable clothes", a vivid metaphor for the constraints on the city's development needs.


In November 2005, Xi called for efforts to remove institutional bottlenecks ranging from financing to registration for foreign trade enterprises and tax policies. A year later, Zhe­jiang issued guidelines on piloting local government administration reforms, delegating Yiwu a total of 131 economic and social management powers — the first county-level city in the country to enjoy such broad authorization.


According to previous reports, Zhou Yongnan, then a