The Trip to Yiwu
Nonewithstanding the fact that I have come back from Yiwu three days, the chaotic appearance of the city still left me with a strong impression. It is a city build upon commence mainly, and one that has the most comprehensive accommodation
and dining services, given the size of the city, that I have ever been to.
I went on the train with my friend early in the morning on the 15th of October.
Believe it or not, it was the only trip that I enjoyed more on the way than after getting to the destination. The seats of our soft seat compartment were coved
with light yellow velvet, which created a relaxing and peaceful autumn atmosphere. The ceiling of the compartments was quite lofty. And you could easily open the window to fully enjoy the feeling of autumn to your satisfaction: the fresh smell of outskirts fields, the sentimentalizing fragrance of flowers at roadsides
when the train slowed down; and surely the warm and gentle touch from the morning sun.
Because we failed to get a map at the railway station, we directly took the bus
to the bustling commercial market. Both my friend and I got amazed after we got
off the bus. The market was huge; the adjoining roads were scarily chaotic; and
the area was excessively populated. All this immediately reminded me of a novel
I read ages ago (I wish I could still remember its name.).
In the novel the writer intended to criticize how badly materialism and ruthlesscapitalism turned people and their life around with casualness and indifference
. He delineated a massive shopping mall which destroyed all its surrounding business and viciously sucked into it as many innocent but blind people as it could
manage. Well, that was near how I felt when I stood at the middle of nowhere with my friend, waiting to cross the hectic roads, and in the meantime been afraid
of getting run over.
The whole market is divided into eight sections, every of which comprised more than five thousand booths. For every single day, there are literally ten thousands people coming to the market. Here you may order everything you want ranging from clothing& handbags, tools & electronic products, stationary & calendar, to artificial flowers & décor accessories, antique & curios, and toys ( electronic and non-electronic) & dolls. But the strangest thing was that unless you place a
large quantity order there was no way that you could get any products that you wanted. The sellers just couldn’t be bothered.
We stayed in a hotel opposite the market for two nights. But despite that, everytime when we walked around the area, soon afterwards my friend and I would get
lost. I doubt you could find any city that could be as hectic and disorderly as
Yiwu. Every building was as if randomly been build up; every shop at the same block sold exactly the same type of commodity; and the people in the shop looked exactly the same and did exactly the same thing. The life there was in my opinionone without pleasure, and full of hassle and deprived of any possible mental enjoyment.
I remember the last evening before we came back when my friend and I walked around the city, both of us got shocked by the ugliness and chaos of the city. The hectic look that we thought only appeared around the market was actually available everywhere. The ghastly construction projects driven mainly by the market could be seen all over the city. At one point we saw a literally one-hundred-long-and-wide hole right beside the road. It was hair-raisingly deep and massive. And acrane was right stuck in the middle of the hole. Because right beside it dozensof trucks, cars, bicycles, and pedestrians came to and fro, I was honestly scared.
I had no idea how people there put up with it. What I treasured such as peace ofmind seemed pointless and trashy, since it wouldn’t bring back any tangible profit. Everywhere you went was commercialized. Everyone you came across wore a either busy or blank expression. And conflicts were seen most of the time: Expressive Italian restaurants with courteous foreign waitress stood right beside shabby retailing shops; and numerous grand hotels were neighboured with drab-looking shops selling items with lower-than-average quality. You would have an unreal
feeling most of the time. And it wouldn’t stop bothering you until you get out
of the city. Personally I am not sure if I will go back to the city in near future. But one thing is sure: It is definitely not a trip that I look forward to.
