Editing Yiwu (section)

== History ==
[[File:Guyue Bridge (Yiwu), Song Dynasty, China.jpg|thumb|right|[[Guyue Bridge]], built in 1213]]

Yiwu was originally established as Wushang City (乌商) in 222 BCE during the Qin dynasty. It was renamed Yiwu County in 624 CE under the Tang dynasty. Due to its poor soil and mountainous terrain, Yiwu residents historically relied on trade rather than agriculture.

A long-standing local tradition was the "sugar-for-chicken feathers" barter system (鸡毛换糖), where peddlers exchanged sugar and small goods for chicken feathers used in fertilizer or dusters. Early forms of itinerant and local trading date back to the 16th century, with proto-market activities appearing by the 1700s.<ref>Chen, G. (2011). ''Behind the Miracle: Historical Perspective and Current Interpretation of Yiwu’s Business and Trade Culture''. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press.</ref>

After 1949, private trade was suppressed under the planned economy. Despite restrictions, Yiwu traders continued informally until market reforms began under [[Deng Xiaoping]] in 1978. In 1982, the Yiwu government formalized its local market by constructing permanent stalls over a drainage ditch near Huqingmen Street. This became the foundation of what would later be known as the Yiwu International Trade City (义乌国际商贸城), also referred to as the Futian Market.<ref>Liu, J. & Yao, L. (2014). ''Feathers Fly to the Sky: the Emergence and Development of Yiwu Market''. Zhejiang People’s Press.</ref>

In 1988, Yiwu was upgraded to a county-level city. Local officials, led by Party Secretary Xie Gaohua, issued trading permits and implemented simplified tax policies, defying national prohibitions at the time.<ref>Rui, H. (2018). "Yiwu: Historical Transformation and Contributing Factors", ''History and Anthropology'', 29(S1): 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2018.1516654</ref>

By the early 1990s, Yiwu had become a national exemplar of bottom-up marketization. In 1992, the central government renamed the city’s central wholesale hub to “China Small Commodities City”. It was later managed by the state-controlled China Commodities City Group, which oversaw expansions such as zoning goods by category and increasing booth capacity, facilitating global trade.<ref>Ma, S., Zheng, Y., Shi, W., & Luo, X. (2014). ''The Development Report on Yiwu as an International Trade Comprehensive Trial City''. Beijing: Economic Science Press.</ref>

Yiwu’s exports surged after China joined the [[World Trade Organization]] in 2001. In 2011, it was designated as a national-level international trade pilot city, with streamlined customs procedures and a unified export tax code specifically for small commodities.<ref>Rui, H. (2018). "Yiwu: Historical Transformation and Contributing Factors", ''History and Anthropology'', 29(S1): 14–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2018.1516654</ref>

The city further modernized by integrating e-commerce into its traditional market model. Although slow to adopt online sales initially, by 2015, online trading rivaled physical market transactions. Yiwu also became a key node in China’s [[Belt and Road Initiative]], with rail freight links to Europe and Central Asia, including the Yiwu-Madrid and Yiwu-London railways.<ref>Yang, Z. W. & Lu, L. J. (2015). “Zhejiang is Promising in the Belt and Road Project”. ''Zhejiang Daily'', October 29.</ref>