Li Yunxiang's family in Yiwu. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

Born and raised in Mudanjiang in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, Li Yunxiang, in her forties, has been residing in Yiwu in East China's Zhejiang province for more than 20 years.

Li currently manages an online hat and scarf shop earning 10 million yuan ($1.58 million) per year based in the prosperous Jiangbei Xiazhu village, which is home to merely 1,300 permanent residents yet as many as 4,500 market entities engaged in e-commerce. She recently recounted her entrepreneurship experiences in an interview with local media reporters.

In 2000, Li was a cashier at a supermarket in Beijing and was offered a job by her aunt running a foreign trade business in Yiwu. Attracted by the abundant business opportunities available in the city's thriving wholesale market, Li did not hesitate to accept the offer and embarked on a 30-hour train journey.

Li recalled that Yiwu was then replete with ambitious young people like her from across the country and beyond. She often heard dialects from Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Anhui, as well as foreign languages, in the crowded wholesale market.

Several years later, Li's boyfriend Wang Guangtao resigned from a stable job in Heilongjiang and reunited with Li in Yiwu. They opened a hat and scarf factory, for which they rented a 900-square-meter space and hired five workers.

In 2013, Li and Wang got married and gave birth to a daughter. Their parents soon moved to Yiwu as well.

Li's story is a reflection of Yiwu's tolerant culture and its consistent attractiveness to entrepreneurs nationwide.

The city's population grew from 1.23 million in 2010 to 1.86 million in 2020.