Trip to YiWu

I have a bucket list of "things to do before leaving China" and on that list was a trip to YiWu. YiWu is a city about 2 hours (by train) south of Shanghai. It is "the worlds largest small commodities market". They say that 95% of all Christmas decorations are exported from this market. So....my friend, Shelly Brammer, organized a trip to see this market. We went last week...down on the train Monday morning and back on the train Tuesday evening.


Here we are bright and early Monday morning on the train. This train is now my favorite transportation in China....minimal amount of security, you can arrive at the station about 1/2 hour before your departure, and the seats are very comfy!! Our group....left to right....Karen , Shelly, Judy, Veronica and Kathy.

And....if the train is moving too slow....you can always transport yourself in the Space Part Locker.

View out the train window on the way to YiWu....I like the tops of the houses in this area...

Looks like we got off at the right stop!!!

Taxi queue....

The market is huge!!!! In the distance you can see part of "district 3 and 4. There are soon to be 5 districts....they are so big you could actually take a taxi from one building to the other....lots and lots and lots of walking!!!

At the market....

Fun sights at the market...

Funny!!!! I have always wanted a Gu Chi bag!

In the scarf area of District 3.....I think our group bought about 90 scarfs.

I was in heaven when we got to the sewing notions area!!!

Beautiful beads!!! This was like a candy store for me. All of these beads were wrapped with thread....they are so pretty!!! We bought bags of these for "future" projects.

We had an exciting "race" to the train station from our hotel. We finished around 3 o'clock and had a leisure lunch and then coffee......we were thinking we had lots of time before our 5:25 departure because it only took us 15 minutes to get to our hotel from the station. Oops!!! We forgot it was 5 o'clock traffic and there were no taxis at the hotel...What the heck??? So....after a long wait we hired a van to take us to the station....we left the hotel at 5:00. Our driver did all the crazy things drivers do here....drive in the bike lane....drive the wrong way on the street....make a diagonal turn across a very large intersection.....AND....we were cheering him on!!! This is not good....we have lived here too long now.

We arrived at the station, grabbed our bags, prayed that the train was late, ran to the gate dragging our suitcases, turned around and ran to another gate. (we were the entertainment for the train customers that day) Each time we showed our tickets they said "KUAI, KUAI, KUAI...which means fast. We went down some steps and along the walkway.....AND....our train was 5 minutes late!!! We were soooooooo lucky!!! Ah....such an exciting ending to our trip!

Back in the train station in Shanghai....

Our wonderful drivers walking off into the sunset (oops...parking garage) with our bags...