Yiwu: The Creation of a Global Market Town in China

Hundreds of thousands of African, Arab and Asian traders travel to the world’s largest wholesale market in small commodities in Yiwu (China). This town, both an industrial district and a cosmopolitan urban space, is very far from the model of a global city. Nevertheless, it is world renown. This article analyzes the development of this trading city in light of institutional decisions and transnational connections, its place in trade networks in the Arab world, particularly Algeria and Egypt, and the emblematic Exotic Street neighborhood to better understand the creation of marketplaces and grassroots globalization.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Articulo – Journal of Urban Research

• Publication date

  2014-11-11

• Fields of study

  Geography, Business, Sociology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.4000/ARTICULO.2863
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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