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Students of SRS Visited Yiwu City
Yiwu is a city in the Zhejiang province that specialises in small commodities. Some students and staff of Silk Road School visited Yiwu from the 28th to 29thDecember 2019.
On the first day of the trip, the visitors visited the Yiwu International Business & Trade City, HCsemitek and Morishan Health Town.
Yiwu International Business & Trade City was developed by Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co., Ltd. It has a business area of 6.40 million square meters and was named “the world’s largest commodities wholesale market” by the United Nations. It is one of the largest export bases of commodities in China and has more than 6800 foreign investment entities in the whole city.
The City has 5 districts with each district having its own specialisation. Yiwugo.com is the business to business platform for the City which provides convenience to the buyers and sellers. District 1 to 4 specialises in exportation of goods and District 5 specialises in imported goods. Students and staff visited 2 districts, District 1 and 5.
District 1 was founded in 1982 and has an average daily passenger flow of over 80,000 people, including over 3,000 foreign businessmen. District 5 was put into use in 2011 and has a “National E-Commerce Demonstration Base” which brings together a variety of e-commerce enterprise and e-commerce service providers.
HC semitek is the leading enterprise for semiconductor technology with 5 major production bases in Wuhan, Zhangjiagang, Yiwu, Yuxi and Wuxi. It is the second largest LED chip supplier and a leading supplier of LED chips for displays in China. It acquired Yunnan Crystaland in 2015, integrating the resources of the upstream industries of LED, and acquired MEMSIC in 2018, for the double-major-business development of LED chips and MEMS sensors. The construction commencement ceremony for Yiwu Zhejiang plant was in 2016 and by 2017 the plant was officially put into operation. It is located in the Yiwu Information, Optical and High-tech industry park. The visitors visited the gallery where they learnt more about the products produced by the company and had the opportunity to witness the process of production through the windows along the production corridor.
Morishan Health Town comprises of the World Geological Silicified Wood Park, ‘A hundred Academicians forest’ ,‘Chinese Yam Valley’ and ‘Dendrobium Candidum’ resource bank in China. Silicified wood is called the “living fossil” and at the World Geological Wood Silicified Park, there are 1111 silicified wood from China and overseas. The largest silicified wood is 25.6 meters high, 2.8 meters in diameter and weighs about 96 tons. A hundred Academicians forest has evergreen trees planted by 100 academicians to carry forward and inherit the merit and virtues of the academicians. The Chinese Yam Valley showcased the science and technology of the company, Senyu Holding Group, with over 100 types of Chinese herbs, medicinal plants and flowers. Dendriobium candidum is one of the “Nine Great Chinese Herbs” and the resource bank has collected more than 100 varieties of Dendrobium in the world.
On the 2nd day, there was a seminar with Yiwu Government which provided insight on Yiwu’s overview in the recent years, the Yiwu-Xinjiang free trade, Yiwu’s participation in the BRI project and more. They mentioned that the cost of starting a business in Yiwu is low, thus they strongly welcome students of SRS to start their business in Yiwu and the Yiwu government will provide all the necessary support a start-up required.
The seminar received an overwhelming response from the students as questions on trade, culture, infrastructure, environment and concerns on starting a business in Yiwu were brought up. They spoke about the ‘Run with Yiwu-Global Youth Business Program’ run by the Yiwu Municipal People’s Government which provides an opportunity for qualified global innovative young adults to learn what it takes to be successful when launching their entrepreneurial ventures. The program includes seminars and workshops, social practice and internship, brainstorm sessions, culture trips and visit to the world’s largest wholesale market and “Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe” Freight Train railway port.
Piyush Shrestha mentioned that the visit to Yiwu give him insights to the objective of BRI. “The visit to Yiwu International Business & Trade City gave us an opportunity to observe and understand China's biggest small commodity import export business. Visit to HCsemitak and Morishan Health Town made us understand China's concern and focus on ecological growth and development and the future of high techwith environment.”
The visit to Yiwu International Business & Trade City was an eye-opening experience to Smirnova Polina. “I saw a Taobao in real life! One of the biggest whole sales market in the world opened their doors for us only for an hour. Nevertheless, I saw a world full of opportunities for doing business. Thank you for organising a visit!”
The visit to Yiwu aimed to provide students who were interested in entrepreneurship with another option for their businesses while enabling students to understand how the Belt and Road Initiative have provided opportunities for the various cities in China.
Written by: Lim Yin Ru
Edited By: Edward Kwame Tenadu
