Yiwu: Christmas city

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're in Santa’s grotto – sort of - a Chinese city that some call the Christmas capital of the world.

With 75,000 traders, across 50,000 stores, Yiwu offers the world’s largest wholesale market across a labyrinth of arcades.

But at a time of growing trade tensions with the US, who’s actually buying the tinsel this year?

If you'd like to send us an email, our address is businessdaily@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Ed Butler Producer: David Cann Additional production: Victoriya Holland

(Picture: Crowds of people walking through Yiwu wholesale market. Credit: BBC/Wang Xiqing)

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:08.5	Hello there, I'm Ed Butler.
0:10.3	Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.
0:13.6	Today, as the spirit of Christmas, the lights and the baubles become ever larger in our field of vision,
0:20.7	perhaps it's time to ask, where does all this stuff come from?
0:24.9	Ywu is the world's capital of small commodities,
0:28.4	the Christmas capital of the world.
0:30.9	We do toys, we do small commodities,
0:33.8	we do Christmas decorations, Christmas balls.
0:36.7	They are able to assemble a Christmas ball
0:38.7	in about two seconds. But this Santa's grotto, for every type of Christmas ornament, is in China
0:44.9	and nowhere else compares with it. With rising tariffs, did Christmas decor just get rather
0:51.3	more expensive, especially for Americans.
0:58.7	Across all U.S. retailers, Christmas tree prices are up 10 to 20%. At the same time, if you have a child, it's really hard to tell them
1:03.1	that you're not getting a Christmas tree this year.
1:05.1	It just makes it more expensive to enjoy and celebrate the holiday together.
1:10.1	Tariffs, trade, and decking the holly.
1:13.0	That's Business Daily from the BBC.
1:18.4	Aliyo.
1:20.6	Alihia.
1:22.7	The sound of traders in the town of Yiwu in central eastern China, attempting to master Spanish.
1:33.4	Language skills like these are important because Yiwu is a major international trading hub,
	...

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