Where your Christmas "Crap" Comes From

[Randy W]

Yiwu's 'red factories': Where the world's Christmas decorations are made

 

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“Maybe it’s the [Chinese] New Year for foreigners,” a 19-year-old Yiwu factory worker surnamed Wei tells Sina News when discussing the holiday. Wei says he knows that Christmas is a festival, but doesn't really know what it's about.

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[tsap seui]

Now, now....I have found that if you are giving your loved ones metal watering cans so they can water flowers and plants....you can find them at Lowes....and they have stamped on them....MADE IN AMERICA. And, if you want to give them bed sheets and pillowcases, they will most likely be made in Vietnam.

 

I have a metal watering can that was made in America, proudly sitting on my mantel. I am thinking about getting it bronzed, like folks used to do for baby shoes.

 

IT is only a matter of time before our Christmas crap is made in Africa, and many other places. One day our kids and their kids will be putting items "Made in CHina" on their mantels. ​ The more things change, the more they stay the same. Thank you CEO's of Wal-Fart and other such companies. How cool it is to buy goods made in exotic locals.

 

The small Sunbeam humidifier I bought for Wenyan...from WAL-FART....well, the first one worked for 2 hours. Took it back and bought another one, it worked for 2 days (almost). I'm taking it back and buying another one this morning. I expect the same early death for it also, but....I figure if I keep taking the dead ones back and getting new ones to kill, in less than two weeks I will have their stock of this model depleted. What a fun game this is...but my wife thinks I am crazy. "No", I tell her, "I am helping mankind get rid of this defective product." I will happily stand in the return line with a smile on my face. We must all do our part, I figger.

 

tsap seui

[Randy W]

from the NatGeo on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/natgeo/posts/10155768671598951

Inside the World's Largest Wholesale Market

https://www.facebook.com/natgeo/posts/10155768671598951

 

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China's Yiwu Markets are the largest of their kind in the world. This observational documentary offers a glimpse of what life is like for the vendors who sell clocks, Christmas lights, and everything in between. “The markets have their own routines and rhythms, where the space—sprawling across five miles—operates according to the fluctuating demands of the global economy” says filmmaker Jessica Kingdon.

This coverage is better - from the iPhone guy - http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/48071-serpentza-and-other-vloggers/?p=638928

Edited February 6, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

more on Yiwu from the Sixth Tone

https://www.facebook.com/1570821646570023/posts/2873335406318634/

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Cosmopolitanism is usually associated with the elite. But in the eastern e-commerce hub of Yiwu, migrants are living transnational lives due to economic pressure, forging their own globalized society.

 

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Business owners and interpreters in the city are capable of switching smoothly between languages as varied as Arabic, English, and Chinese — a necessity, given their frequent interactions with international merchants — and they’re constantly on the lookout for new opportunities around the world. Over the past five years, Li alone has travelled to Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, and Lebanon to meet customers and explore new market opportunities.

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone  

In China’s Export Hubs, a Crackdown on Shady Banks Is Causing Chaos
Chinese traders have long relied on creative financial practices to serve buyers in the developing world. But these informal channels are now being choked off.


A vendor checks her phone at a booth inside Yiwu International Trade City, the wholesale market in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, March 14, 2021. Wu Peiyue for Sixth Tone

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A few days previously, the 35-year-old trader had discovered her bank account containing over 3 million yuan ($460,000) had been frozen by police in Zhangjiajie — a city over 1,000 kilometers from her home in Yiwu, eastern China.
When she contacted the police station, she was told a payment she’d received from a client in Bangladesh had been linked to an illegal online gambling ring. Hu should immediately travel to Zhangjiajie, bringing her business documents with her, to assist with the investigation, the officers said.
Hu was stunned by the news. A specialist in exporting zippers, she had been working with buyers across South Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe for over a decade, and had never encountered such an issue.

“I’d never thought a small loophole in my business practices could be taken advantage of by criminals,” Hu tells Sixth Tone.
Many of Hu’s competitors have run into the same problem. In recent months, thousands of traders in Yiwu — China’s export hub for bargain-basement wholesale goods — have had their accounts frozen by Chinese authorities, plunging their businesses into chaos.

 . . .

Like Hu, thousands of traders have been forced to travel across China — to regions as far-flung as Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang — to hand over their business documents to local public security officials. Police in less developed areas tend to implement the campaign particularly vigorously, traders told Sixth Tone.