Capital of useless things: a city in China where everything is made with the inscription Made in China

The city of Yiwu in Zhejiang is small by Chinese standards: only 1.7 million people live here. However, it is here that traders from all over the planet go. This town is called by some the world capital of useless things, while others are called the city of socks, since they produce almost all of the goods that bear the Made in China label on it. Photographer Rafael Petralla visited this center of world trade and captured his life from the inside.

The factory of this businessman sells 10 thousand soft toys per day.

Just some two or three decades ago, Yiwu was an unknown town with a population of 500-600 thousand people. Most of its inhabitants earned their living in agriculture. After the construction of the market in the 1980s, Yiwu began to grow and expand rapidly, and today it is here that one of the largest wholesale markets on the planet Futian is located.

In Yiwu, a huge number of factories and factories, and on its territory about 50 thousand trading stalls. In the city-market, about 400 thousand items of goods are sold, and 60% of toys for children are produced here. And, of course, Yiwu is Santa Claus ’favorite place, and its“ gnome-assistants ”live here, who tirelessly prepare gifts for the holidays: Yiwu factories produce up to 80% of goods for New Year and Christmas. This period is the busiest: before the holidays, from here up to 1000 containers are sent every day.

Trading in Yiwu is very specific: for example, one stall can only sell balls, and the other - only candles for cakes. You can find everything in its markets: baby dolls, scented Christmas trees for cars, toothpicks, doll clothes, belts, witches for Halloween, African statues.

Freight containers

Foreigners also live in Yiwu: many trading companies have representatives here who scour daily searches for new products and suitable products. Moreover, a railway straight from Madrid was specially made to the city, and it is about 800 kilometers longer than the Trans-Siberian Railway. But freight trains run here, part of this road passes through Russia. This made it possible to shorten the “journey” of goods to Europe: the railway container from Yiwu to Madrid travels 21 days, before the sea journey took a month and a half.