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[Detour]: Yiwu

Detour is a new, irregular column highlighting offbeat travel spots. It assumes at least a vague familiarity with traveling in China and how to get around, and is more of a spotlight on an interes...
Last updated: 2015-11-09


Detour is a new, irregular column highlighting offbeat travel spots. It assumes at least a vague familiarity with traveling in China and how to get around, and is more of a spotlight on an interesting or unusual place or way to travel than a detailed guide. Probably get a slideshow in there, too.

Yiwu is the Guangzhou of eastern China. It's a trading city, nestled between the mountains of central Zhejiang province, a few hours south of Shanghai, and it's the conduit for the world's small commodities -- umbrellas, wrenches, inflatable boats, textiles, toys... stuff. There are malls packed with wholesalers -- the biggest in the world -- as large as a Shanghai city district. If you're not getting rich importing containers-full of socks to Yemen, or wind-up toys to Mauritania, or sourcing car tires to ship to Iraq and smuggle through the Kurdish mountains into Iran (import taxes), the malls are real boring.

But all that money making has made something else as well -- a legit Muslim quarter populated by a diverse mix of the world's traders. It's not Xi'an. It's broader than that, a big swathe of the Middle East -- Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan -- and a cut of the Islamic African nations, plus a sprinkling of other chancers. Traders from Mali and Sri Lankan businessmen bump down the street, next to groups of Lebanese guys playing backgammon and drinking sweet tea at sidewalk tables. There are Arab barbershops tucked into office buildings, a head-scarved workforce almost exclusively pulled from Xinjiang and Gansu, and a community of Iraqis. Arabic-speaking Chinese sell SIM cards on the street, but after dark, they're the only Chinese around. It's a legit enclave in the middle of Zhejiang and it's fascinating. A new Kurdish restaurant opened last month, Restorante Kerkuk, and it's just one several Iraqi-owned and run joints.

The food isn't always great, but the atmosphere is, and, still, it has its moments. At the Baghdad Cafe, I ate a lovely braised lamb shank with a paltry cucumber salad and white beans swimming in unadulterated, tinned tomato sauce. My late-afternoon company of stern traders was glued to a TV set to Al-Jazeera, alternately broadcasting the Arab world's reaction to last month's riots out west and the weather forecast for the Gulf States. In Restaurant Alazaem, it was a table of the owner's friends, a soundtrack of classical Arabic music, and excellent biryani studded with golden raisins and perfumed with cardamom. By my third lunch of the day, at Restorante Kerkuk, the plain stewed chicken was a lot less interesting than the bootlegging anecdotes coming from the Iranian Kurd I sat next to.

It was tough for me to discern the deeper stories at the Iraqi places. None of the owners spoke very much English or Chinese -- just Arabic. But a lot of the traders do, and talking with them, the story seemed to be that the restaurants were the offspring of a longer trading career. Family member number one came to China to trade, opened an Yiwu office, and brought the rest of the family over one by one. Eventually, there were more family members than trading jobs, so they spun off a restaurant. The Kurdish place is a bit different, I think -- the owner seemed completely and utterly lost -- but that's just a guess. I'm not sure how your average Iraqi guy would wind up in central Zhejiang, dishing up chicken, rice, and flatbread, without some kind of connection. But there he is, doing it.

Click here to view the slideshow.



On the bullet train, Yiwu is just over two hours away from Shanghai South Railway Station, and there are plenty of trains in the morning. The catch is the way back. The last bullet train leaves Yiwu around 12.30pm. There are other, slower trains during the afternoon but they're regular trains, not bullet trains. Otherwise, your option is the bus. There are buses every hour from Yiwu's Binwang bus station to Shanghai -- 112rmb; four hours -- but only until 6.30pm. After that, you're stuck. Yiwu's sidewalk seating comes alive at night though, once the traders are done with their business and it's a great time to sit outside, smoke a shisha, and people-watch. Really, it's the only thing to do. The rest of Yiwu isn't so interesting. There's plenty of business hotels, ranging from the perfectly adequate hard-bed 100rmb a night numbers to comfortable knock-offs with names like Wei Si Ting (Westin) and Su Fei Te (Sofitel), and a genuine Best Western. They see a lot of travelers. Remember to bring your passport if you're staying the night.

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