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Yiwu is a city in Zhejiang province of China  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiwu which apparantely has the biggest market for small goods in china, asia, the world, the universe (not quite sure about that… but quite sure that it is BIG!)

Small goods range from christmas decorations, to packaging items, clothes, buttons, toys, clothes:  actually, I can’t remember most of it,  ‘cos I went there looking for craft supplies for cardmaking and scrapbooks.

I travelled from Bangkok, Thailand to Shanghai, China. It was my first trip to China, and coming in from the ultra modern airport, we took the Maglev train, and reached a speed of 410 km/h on land on the short run into Pudong station. It was quite exhilarating!

I was travelling with my brother in law, and we had booked some cheap hotel on the internet for that night, which meant that we travelled not only in space but in time that day: after 410ks on the maglev, we took a clapped out bus to some hotel in the sticks, pleasant enough, but definitely in quite a different world and time  to the center of Shanghai.

Next day, we set of for Yiwu, which is about 4 hours south-west of Shanghai by train. Being a bit of a cheapskate, and ex-overlander I had opted for the 2nd class seats, thinking that 4 hours would pass easily with a good book and good company.

The moment I entered the carriage, and looked at the wood seats, the 90 degree angle of the backrest, and the 12″ inches of bench that my backside was destined to share with my fellow travellers for the next 4 hours, I hurriedly begged the guard for an upgrade to first class, which cost around double: and by the way, it was one of the best investments I ever made!

So we sheepishly shuffled along to the first class carriage, where we had a compartment to ourselves with a clean bed. Soon the bar trolley came along, we got a couple of beers, reclined, and enjoyed the scenic view as the train sped towards Yiwu.

Yiwu is a big city, with around 2 million inhabitants. It is not a beautiful place by any means, more of an industrial sprawl, a balloon of productive capacity that has not yet popped.  We checked into the economical hotel I had booked online ( wi-fi in every room!) and went out for some great food. Of course we ordered far too much, but it was delicious!

Next day we went to Yiwu market to look for craft supplies. It was not far from our hotel, and at the market visitor center we asked for a chinese language guide, which is more or less a necessity for non mandarin speakers. Quickly done, we set of around the wholesale market in Yiwu, which is HUGE! I mean massive: I would say it is a mile and a half  long, half a mile wide, on  7 floors.  Being a bit of a perfectionist, I was determined to cover every aisle, and see every shop in yiwu market selling craft supplies for cardmaking and scrapbooks. It took us 2 full days!

We found that yiwu market is great for mass produced craft supplies, and some items that we like, but not really the place for handmade craft supplies. We did make an arrangement with a buying agency there, but found that the items bought from Yiwu market are a bit unpredictable, and the minimum quantities quite large. We do still source craft supplies from Yiwu market for things like glitter and confetti, but it is not as easy as we had hoped.

Anyway, we headed back to Shanghai, (1st class, without question) and spent a wonderful day walking around Shanghai, which is a really impressive city, and well worth visiting. We got back at dawn to Bangkok from our craft supplies sourcing trip with blisters on our feet, after a 6 hour delay at Shanghai airport.