An African vendor sells African handicrafts at Yiwu International Expo Center in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/IC]

The 10th Expo Project Fair for International Cooperation was held in Nanjing from Aug 20 to 21, naming Yiwu a national five-star exhibition city.

The fair was attended by a number of national exhibition authorities and organizers as well as more than 1,000 representatives from across the country.

Ten cities were named 2020 Golden Five Star Excellent Exhibition Cities, with Yiwu being the only county-level city among them. The Yiwu International Expo Center was also named an excellent exhibition hall.

Yiwu has held seven exhibitions so far this year, including an auto show, a furniture show, and a picture frame show. The exhibitions have attracted a total of 216,000 professional buyers and generated 2.36 billion yuan ($343 million) in turnover.

Long at the forefront of foreign trade in China, Yiwu is home to more than 2 million small and micro-sized businesses, and sells commodities to 38 million buyers in 219 countries and regions every year. The local exhibition industry is very important to market turbulence, according to local officials.