China’s newest trade route is changing one of its oldest cities in ‘China’s New Silk Road’

Yiwu is one of China’s oldest trading markets; now it’s also the beginning of the longest land trade route in the world.

‘China’s New Silk Road: Yiwu To Madrid’. Source: Distributor

China is serious about a lot of things; trade is at the top of their list. Since 2013 they’ve poured billions of dollars into building and buying infrastructure to promote trade with China across Asia and Africa.

With their “Belt and Road Initiative”, China has created one of the largest investment projects in history, with some estimates suggesting the entire project now affects more than 60% of the world’s population and around 35% of the global economy. And Yiwu is now the city where a big slice of this trade happens.

China’s New Silk Road: Yiwu To Madrid looks at how this massive shift in global trade has affected a city that, until recently, was more about doing deals than shifting containers. It’s a window both onto a China that’s still in the process of modernisation, and a world of land-based global trade that an island nation like Australia rarely encounters. How exactly does a goods train make its way from Yiwu halfway across the world to Spain?

‘China’s New Silk Road: Yiwu To Madrid’. Source: Distributor

Located in the mountainous region 300 kilometres south of Shanghai, Yiwu was built on trade. The first major trading markets opened there in the 1700s. Even during the suppression of the early years of Communist rule, trading continued in secret, with the city one of the first free marketplaces to open in the People’s Republic of China.

It’s no surprise that the city we see in China’s New Silk Road seems full of people hustling in one form or another; this is a city where you make money by making deals as much as making things. (It’s also a city where you make money making fake things. In 2005 it was described as “Wall Street for the counterfeiting industry”, a place where it’s almost as easy to set up a deal for counterfeit items as it is the real thing.)

One of the side effects of all this trade we see in China’s New Silk Road is the diverse nature of Yiwu itself. After the attacks on 9/11, there was a large increase in the number of traders from the Middle East, with access to American markets now much more difficult. The city now has a strong Middle Eastern presence, with mosques and restaurants scattered throughout – and its growing ties to Europe suggest more changes are on the way.

‘China’s New Silk Road: Yiwu To Madrid’. Source: Distributor

Launched in 2014, the Yiwu–Madrid railway line runs approximately 13,000 kilometres, making it the longest rail line in the world (bumping the Trans-Siberian railway down to number two). After leaving Yiwu, the route to Madrid runs through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France before terminating at the Spanish capital. On average it takes around 21 days; to travel the same distance by ship would take around six weeks. While the travel time is slower than air freight, it’s also a lot cheaper, and creates a third as much pollution as there would be if the cargo travelled by road.

For industries and suppliers who are looking to get goods – often items like computer or vehicle parts, but increasingly a whole range of disposable consumer items – to market quickly but don’t need it overnight, this new route is an increasingly attractive option. Especially as trade between China and the European Union is currently around the US$1 trillion mark, with the EU China’s biggest trading partner.

As China’s New Silk Road shows, there are big advantages for the little guys with having a rail link to Europe on your doorstep. While we’re shown the international companies that have chosen Yiwu as their gateway to China, we also get to see the smaller entrepreneurs working locally who now have a global market for their product. Those involved in the mechanics of trade aren’t doing too badly either, as Yiwu’s bustling rail freight terminal reveals. Even an average worker there can find themselves on the way up. Rail might be one of the oldest forms of mechanised transport, but here it’s at the cutting edge.

That’s the feeling that runs throughout this documentary. The Silk Road might be a trading route a thousand years old, but in China’s New Silk Road, Yiwu is a city that looks very much like the future.

China’s New Silk Road: Yiwu To Madrid aired Tuesday 1 February on SBS VICELAND. It is now available for 4 weeks at SBS On Demand:

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