From Roadside Stalls to the “World’s Supermarket”: The Enduring Wisdom of Yiwu’s Development
From roadside stalls to the “world’s supermarket,” from bartering chicken feathers for sugar to “buying from and selling to the globe,” Yiwu, Zhejiang, has spent more than four decades crafting an entrepreneurial saga defined by the unexpected, the imaginative, and the transformative.
As China embarks on the 15th Five-Year Plan period, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued an important directive, emphasizing the need to “further summarize and apply the ‘Yiwu development experience’” in conjunction with educational initiatives on fostering and practicing a sound philosophy of performance. This endorsement not only affirms Yiwu’s achievements but also charts a course for regions across China to explore high-quality development pathways tailored to their own resource endowments and local realities.
Rooted in local conditions and adapted to specific contexts—this is the defining hallmark of the “Yiwu development experience” and a core principle for advancing high-quality growth. With vastly different resource endowments and starting points, regions must resist the temptation to simply copy others’ industrial playbooks or breakthrough strategies. Rather than submitting to a “resource determinism,” Yiwu broke free from conventional thinking. It seized opportunities inherent in its tradition of “bartering chicken feathers for sugar,” identified small-commodity circulation as its breakthrough point, and crafted targeted solutions based on a clear-eyed assessment of its realities. By avoiding blind adherence to existing conditions or innate advantages, and by adapting to both local circumstances and evolving times, Yiwu played to its strengths, addressed its weaknesses, and reinforced its foundations. The result is a differentiated development path rooted in local identity and driven by distinctive competitive edges—setting a benchmark for county-level economies nationwide.
To truly understand the “Yiwu development experience,” one must appreciate its down-to-earth strategic resolve. Landlocked and lacking mineral resources or heavy industry, Yiwu nevertheless achieved the seemingly impossible by steadfastly pursuing its “prosper through commerce, build through markets” strategy. This resolve meant resisting the lure of short-term trendy industries and refusing to arbitrarily shift development priorities. Instead, Yiwu respected grassroots ingenuity and the pioneering spirit of its people, committing to a specialized track over the long haul and honing its differentiating edge into a truly irreplaceable core competitiveness.
To understand this experience, one must also grasp Yiwu’s bold reform drive. Confronted with trade bottlenecks, it pioneered the market procurement trade system, turning “consolidated container exports” into an international norm. To overcome its inland limitations, it launched China–Europe Railway Express services to open vital logistics arteries. Facing the tide of digital transformation, it harnessed artificial intelligence and big data to build cloud-based channels. Through reform, Yiwu resolved the “growing pains” of development; through opening up, it expanded its horizons. This demonstrates that consistency in execution does not mean clinging to old ways—it means continuously renewing strategies in step with the times to discover new pathways amid change.
Furthermore, understanding Yiwu requires deepening our grasp of the socialist market economy—particularly the relationship between government and market. Yiwu offers a vivid lesson: governments must fully respect market principles, shifting from manager to service provider. By clarifying boundaries, strengthening infrastructure, optimizing the business environment, and standardizing trade order—neither overreaching nor underperforming—governments can better coordinate an efficient market with a proactive government, thereby unlocking broader economic vitality and driving innovation across society.
One flower does not herald spring; a hundred flowers in bloom fill the garden with life. The “Yiwu development experience” is not a one-size-fits-all template, but a model of precision problem-solving grounded in local realities. By staying true to local conditions, upholding fundamental principles while breaking new ground, maintaining the composure to remain unshaken amid chaos, and summoning the courage to press forward despite hardships, regions across China will chart more vibrant and dynamic paths toward high-quality development—better serving and integrating into the nation’s broader development landscape.
(Liaowang New Era）