Recently, we had a trip to Yiwu, a city renowned for its light industry commodity trade and dynamic market and as a regional tourist destination.

With excitement and anticipation, we boarded our bus early in the morning, eager to begin our exploration of one of China's most prominent trade cities. The trip took a few hours, during which we discussed our expectations and objectives for the visit to what is known globally as an international business and trade hub.

The first place we visited was Qingyanliu, an e-commerce district. It is also known as the "e-commerce village", where a great number of enterprises are flourishing through the use of online business. It is the live example of digitalization of the technology that converts the traditional business into the modern business.

We visited one kitchen utensil shop, where the shop owner gave us a very detailed introduction on how they run their business. He showed us how this storefront in a physical shop balanced with powerful e-commerce support created 30,000-yuan revenue per month with a big percentage of online sales. This visit taught me the importance of adapting to the new retail methods and e-commerce support in traditional retail to create competitive advantages and maximize benefits.

This international trade city clearly deserves to be there because every nook and corner there is filled with traders and buyers from every single country, bringing business practices and opportunities to light. Our exploration of Yiwu's business landscape involved interacting with various entrepreneurs and business owners who shared their experiences and strategies.

We visited many of the other shops and business enterprises operating in the area, noting their natures of operation and debating business models with the owners. We got quite a comprehendible view of how different people had approached business success in Yiwu, ranging from the small family businesses to the large, very successful enterprises.

The final visit was to the famous Futian Market, colloquially known as Yiwu International Trade Market. The market is located in the Futian district and "Futian" in Chinese means "land of happiness".

It is the biggest hub in China for all sorts of small products, and probably, also the biggest in the world. This huge market complex is divided into five districts and each district has various sections. More than 50,000 people visit the market every day, and the goods from this market are sold to over 140 countries.

This is how one felt when navigating through the Futian Market. Separation is well done to serve both local and international customers, with its market well-comparted in different sections that enable easy access to a wider area of products. The busy environment, with vendors in active dealings with customers and pushing up deals, provided a snapshot of the dynamics of trade in Yiwu.

It was quite fascinating to see how the logisticians and managers organize and arrange such huge transactions to make everything go so smoothly for buyers.

I bought a small souvenir for my trip. This well-made key ring symbolized that wonderful moment and brilliant experiences and knowledge learned during the visit.

I feel particularly grateful to have had a chance to visit Yiwu and witness how intricate things run in a business environment. All the varied aspects of trade along the value chain, from traditional retailing to modern e-commerce, were exposed to me in detail, which added to my appreciation for the complexities and manifold opportunities in business.

Author: Aya Assel, Morroco 

The author is an international student in Zhejiang