A foreign merchant scans a QR code at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu city, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/IC]

With the world's largest small-commodities supermarket, Yiwu, a county-level city in Zhejiang, is striving to lead the high-quality development of counties in China.

A China-Europe freight train loaded with daily necessities, hardware tools and other commodities departed on June 5 from the West Railway Station of Yiwu, Zhejiang province, bound for Madrid, Spain.

Yiwu has seen over 2,800 such China-Europe freight trains carrying small commodities leave for foreign countries.

In 2021, Yiwu's foreign trade amounted to 390.305 billion yuan ($58.54 billion), a year-on-year increase of 24.7 percent. The per capita annual disposable income of urban permanent residents in the city reached 86,628 yuan, higher than both Beijing and Shanghai.

Sheng Qiuping, vice-minister of commerce, said that in the past 10 years, Yiwu's exports have increased by a factor of 5.4, imports have increased by a factor of 10, and e-commerce transactions have increased by a factor of 6.1, showing that the city has become a shopping paradise for both Chinese and foreigners alike.

With the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement on Jan 1, enterprises and people in Yiwu are expected to see more development opportunities in trade.

Yiwu issued the province's first local RCEP action plan stating that by 2025, the city hopes to see 40 billion yuan in imports from related countries and realize an intermediary trade volume of 10 billion yuan. Cross-border e-commerce exports to related countries are expected to exceed 10 billion yuan.

The city will focus on building a cross-border e-commerce model innovation center, two-way investment promotion center, China-Japan-South Korea free trade center, imported goods distribution center, and an important regional logistics hub and economic and trade exchange platform.

Merchants select goods at the Yiwu International Trade Market in Yiwu city, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/IC]

The Yiwu-Madrid freight train departs from Yiwu West Station on March 10. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]