Yiwu is located in the central area of Zhejiang province with a total land area of 1,105 square kilometers. The whole City governs 8 Towns and 5 Subdistricts, has a population of 670,000 registered as local domiciliary and 600,000 as external temporary. Yiwu has a long History. It was in the 25th of Ying Zheng of Qin Dynasty (B.C. 222), was in Wushang County, in the 7th of Wu De of Tang Dynasty (A.D. 624), and was changed as Yiwu, in 1998, when it was established as a City. From old times, Yiwu has gained the honor of being the Home of : Culture, Luo Binwang – one of the Four Outstanding Persons in Early Tang Dynasty, Zong Ze – the famous Anti-Jin General of Song Dynasty, and Zhu Danxi – one of the four famous doctors of Yuan Dynasty. In modern times, Yiwu has produced educationist Chen Wangdao, literature theorist Feng Xuefeng and historian Wu Han, among others.

Since the reform and opening policy, Yiwu has resolved to execute the development strategy of Building the City by Prospering Commerce unswervingly, using the commodity industry as a leader to drive regional economy, and become a large market City and strong economy City from a traditional agricultural small County. In 2002, the whole City realized a domestic gross value of production of RMB15.6 billion Yuan and a total financial revenue of RMB1.66 billon Yuan. In 2001, the Yiwu general economic index was 19th of all Counties (Cities) of the whole Country. Furthermore, in recent years, Yiwu has been listed as one of the Counties (Cities) of leading the modernization in Zhejiang, one of the key regions of boosting urbanization in Zhejiang, and one of the first groups of strong Counties (Cities) of the expanding economic management authority. Yiwu have successively gained such honors as being the National Technical Project Advanced City, National Sports Work Advanced City, National Culture Work Advanced City, Zhejiang Civilized City, Zhejiang Educational Strong City, etc.. Furthermore, it has been awarded the National Double Support Model Cities Award four consecutive times.

Today, Yiwu appears a prosperous scene with a flourishing market, developing economy and steady society. The commodity industry has been leading industry in the regional economy. Currently, the Yiwu commodity market possesses an area of 1.5 million sq.m. and has 40,000 stores, collects 28 categories and about 200,000 varieties of daily goods. Throughput is nearly 10,000 tons, market business volume is on top of the nationwide large special markets for 12 successive years, and has been granted the unique market title of being one that “Pays attention to quality”, and “Keeps promises” by the State Quality Supervisory Inspection and Quarantine General Bureau. Furthermore, the Yiwu market has been an international commodity distribution center and the important base for foreign merchants to purchase commodity.