World's Largest Wholesale Market Now a Ghost Town – Shocking Scenes from Yiwu

It's all covered in today's China Truths. Please stop crushing Yiwu's private businesses. Countless Yiwu bosses are drowning under pressure, forced to just lie down and give up. Honestly, though the barrier to start a private business in Yiwu isn't high, growing it big and strong is nearly impossible. Most private business owners here are buried in crushing debt, trapped in the endless cycle of loan repayments. Just look at the loan data from major Yiwu banks. The debt numbers are staggering. They wake up early, work late, sweat blood and tears, yet their rewards are pitifully small. This is the harsh, brutal reality staring us in the face. When I first came last year, the streets were packed beyond belief, impossible to squeeze through. Now, look at the crowds. They've thinned out dramatically. I clearly remember May and June last year it was shoulder to shoulder. Today, the streets are almost deserted. Yiwu, Zhejiang, once a bustling internet city famous for its world supermarket, thanks to quality products, is dying. Over the past decades, Yiwu's foreign trade boomed with a flood of overseas investors. But now, under the crushing Sino-US trade war and ongoing economic slump, what's left of this world-renowned Yiwu of the world? Let's hear from the locals. It's hard to believe, but this is the grim truth. Shops are empty and up for rent everywhere, posters plastered on every corner. In this second-tier city with fifth-tier incomes, only a tiny few truly make money. The hardest working, carrying mortgages on their backs are the most miserable. The moment they get paid, it all goes straight to debt. Eight or nine out of ten young people are just patching holes. When credit cards max out, they borrow online. When mortgages come due, they turn to Huabei. Don't think pressure is lighter here. Big companies slash salaries and lay off workers. Small firms are worse. Bosses can't even break even. Many honest office workers live on overdrafts. After six years in Yiwu, I've never seen anything like this. People talk about consumption downgrade. The truth is, wallets are empty, no money to spend. How can anyone survive like this? Last month it was packed, but not even a full month has passed. Where did everyone go? Where is Sister Chen now? She's still in Yiwu, Zhejiang, wandering the streets trying to get a sense of things. I once thought Yiwu was booming, buzzing with business everywhere. But today, I'll show you the truth. It's ghost town level deserted. Only Sister Chen and a handful of others wander the streets. Huge roads are empty. Shops sit vacant or are up for transfer. If they're open, they're run solo. No hiring. Coffee is overpriced and bad. KFC still has a few customers, holding on barely. Look around, hardly anyone. The massive supermarket, empty. No one's selling phones, no customers, dead silence. I'm telling you the harsh truth about Yiwu. You might not believe it. On the surface, long lines and traffic jams. But in a city of 5,000 plus population, many pay over 10,000 yuan in monthly loan repayments. Big firms slash wages, layoff staff. Small companies teeter on the brink of collapse. Physical store owners are worse off. Some don't even cover rent utilities each month. Only one or two shops actually make money. Yiwu is the world's largest small commodity hub, city of entrepreneurship. But now a local loan broker joke sums it up. Everyone is crying in Yiwu. Anyone with ambition ends up losing everything. What happened in Yiwu this year? I have a client who used to earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a year just from renting out stalls in the market. But now the market is deserted. Where did everyone go? There's no foreign trade. Nightclubs are empty. Restaurants have four transfer signs hanging on every corner. And secondhand landlords are struggling to find tenants. I've been working in the loan business for many years. And this year, more than ever, everyone is saying the same thing. Business is brutally difficult. So tell me, what went wrong? Family members, where have all the people in Yiwu gone? This city used to be overflowing with life, a hub of non-stop commerce. Now it's like someone pulled the plug and drained it empty. This afternoon, I went to the mall to buy shoes. And what I saw was shocking. It was so quiet inside. It felt like a scene from an abandoned movie set. There were more shopping assistants than actual customers. Everyone looked tired, disinterested, just going through the motions. The vibrant crowds, the noise, the energy, all gone. I've lived in Yiwu for five years. I've seen the traffic jams, the endless queues. But this is the first time I've ever stepped into a mall and found it completely empty. The owner of the shoe store sighed deeply and said business was getting worse day by day. He couldn't even afford to pay the rent anymore. Yiwu, once known as the world's capital of small commodities, has never lacked for people or energy. But now, it feels hollow. Has consumer spending collapsed? Or has everyone simply moved online? Friends in Yiwu, have you noticed this silence, this strange emptiness, when you go out shopping recently? According to official data, Yiwu still has a population of 1.91 million. But take a walk through the international trade city, or visit the night market on a weekend. It's as empty as 3 a.m. Advertisements for shop transfers are plastered across main streets. Taxi drivers complain that after a full day of driving, they barely make enough to cover gas. Just last year, the crowds were so dense that mobile phones would lose signal. Now, half the live-streaming booths in the influencer bases are dark and silent. Warehouses are slashing prices. Landlords are cutting rent and still can't find tenants. One foreign trade boss told me, it's like all the orders were swallowed by a black hole. But the most heartbreaking scene? Mealtime. I used to go to the workers' new village and wait in line at fast food stalls. Now the stall owners just sit on plastic stools, scrolling Douyin, waiting for customers that never come. It's not that the people have disappeared, it's that the money has. So I ask you, do you dare to speak out in the comments? Has the business district in your hometown also started to vanish into thin air? Abnormalities after Mr. Xi's return from Russia visit. Xi Jinping was picked up by the military and taken directly to the hospital. Mrs. Peng Liwan waited at home for many hours, but did not see Mr. Xi return. Mrs. Peng Liwan waited for several hours at home, but Xi did not return. She felt it was very abnormal, because every time she did not accompany him on a visit, Xi would go directly home from the airport, drink a few glasses of maotai, have a good sleep, and basically recover his mental state after a day of rest. Professor Peng had to call the General Office of the CPC Central Committee. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee transferred the message to Xi's office, and Xi's office replied, There is an emergency. Please wait for notification at home. As soon as Xi's special plane returning from Russia landed at Nanyuan Military Airport, Zhang Yuxia had already sent troops to control the scene. The Central Security Bureau was advised to wait in the lounge. Mr. Xi was escorted off the plane by plain-clothed special female soldiers, doctors, and nurses, and went directly into the chief medical car, which drove to the Shishan Medical Center. People familiar with the matter revealed that Xi experienced health issues during the flight, including signs of mental fatigue and unusual sensory reactions such as irritability and These symptoms raised concerns about Xi's overall health. It appears that the Moscow trip did not go as planned. The chief's special medical car drove quickly to Shishan, with green lights all the way, and the relevant areas were under martial law. A pedestrian took a photo of the scene and posted it online, saying that something big had happened in Beijing, but it was deleted within seconds. In September 2018, Ding Wenwu, then General Manager of China's Big Fund, and Liu Jun, President of Huaxin Investment, visited Tsinghua Unigroup. The six men in the now-infamous photo once wielded power over trillions of RMB and chip capital, but now they have all fallen. Feng Xun of Apollo.com reported that in September 2018, Ding Wenwu, General Manager of the China National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Big Fund, and Liu Jun, President of Huaxin Investment, visited Tsinghua Unigroup. A group photo captured six chip industry titans, Zhao Weiguo, Chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, Ding Wenwu, Liu Jun, Diao Shijing, Co-President of Tsinghua Unigroup, Zhang Yidong, President, and Qi Lian, Co-President. These men once steered national-level semiconductor projects and controlled unprecedented capital. Today, they are either jailed, vanished, or ruined. Online users dubbed it the death photo, sparking an uproar over the deep rot in China's chip dream. Tsinghua Unigroup was once a poster child of China's chip ambitions, turbocharged by state backing and relentless acquisitions. Zhao Weiguo, its chairman, made headlines across the Taiwan Strait for boldly claiming he would But in 2020, Tsinghua defaulted on its debt. By 2021, it went bankrupt, crashing hard. In July 2022, Zhao was placed under investigation for corruption. On May 14, 2025, the Jilin Intermediate People's Court sentenced Zhao to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption and channeling illicit profits to friends and relatives. He was stripped of all political rights and had all his assets confiscated. The others in the photo met equally harsh ends. Ding Wenwu, the founding GM of the big fund, was taken down by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on July 30, 2022, for serious violations. Liu Jun, former president of Huaxin and ex-director at SMIC, was arrested on July 14, 2022, for bribery. Diao Shijing, a former Tsinghua exec and deputy director at the Ministry of Industry, was also investigated in 2022. Zhang Yidong, who became Tsinghua's president in 2016, stepped down in 2018 and recently quit as chairman of Greentown China in 2025. Though not charged with corruption, his career has clearly derailed. Qi Lian quietly resigned after Tsinghua's 2022 restructuring. While not implicated, he appears to have been swept aside. The big fund was created in 2014 to turbocharge China's semiconductor push. Backed by massive funding, it soon turned chaotic, rife with corruption, failed projects, and waste. Xi Jinping was reportedly furious and launched a sweeping anti-graft crackdown, pulling down top officials. The viral death photo has since become a powerful symbol of systemic failure, exposing how public funds were squandered and oversight collapsed. Tsinghua's implosion and the collapse of its leadership shattered confidence in the aggressive expansion strategy and sent shockwaves through the chip industry. The fallout is profound. Zhao's bold threats once put TSMC and MEDIATECH on alert. His downfall may offer brief relief to Taiwan's firms, but it also underscores China's deep tech and management bottlenecks. The anti-corruption campaign may rattle the industry in the short run, but could pave the way for cleaner governance in the future. Netizens are still buzzing about the death photo, lamenting how once-mighty empire builders were reduced to casualties of a failed tech dream.