“Yiwu’s GDP grows at an average rate of 24%, 15% higher than the average level of the country. Yiwu is a most profitable place in China, a place earning the money of the world as well as a place where the world earns money.” This was the comment of the writer He Jianming on Yiwu after it had been ranked among China’s nine fastest-growing star cities. This year will see the hosting of the Shanghai World Expo. To meet the World Expo and demonstrate the demeanor of Chinese star cities to the world at the Expo, He Jianming, incumbent secretary of the Secretariat of Chinese Writers Association, Party secretary of Chinese Writers Publishing Group and president of The Writers Publishing House headed a galaxy of famous domestic writers to name nine fastest-growing Chinese star cities-Suzhou, Kunshan, Chongqing, Sanya, Dongguan, Yiwu, Zhangjiagang, Zhongshan and Changshu and grandly and smoothly explore how these cities that stood out in the reform and opening up seized preemptive opportunities to take off. He thought that the international competition in the 21st century was the competition among distinctive urban circles rather than that among enterprises or countries in a sense. Without the formation and rise of urban circles, the backing of developed large cities, the agglomeration of population and industries and the high civilization of cities, it will undoubtedly be hard for a country to gain a competitive edge in the world. Among the nine star cities, Yiwu is described as the “‘Manhattan’ rising above the ridge”. The rural businessmen who shook rattle and exchanged sweets for chicken feather started stall business quietly, which have changed into the largest indoor commodities markets and the largest malls of the world. Yiwu, which started with farmers’ commodities business, is an incredibly wealthy land. This city interpreted a world-shaking legend through the live market. In only two decades, Yiwu has grown from a poor small agricultural county into a famous international trading city affecting the world commodities market and achieved the grand goal of “going global”.
