Dinah, a Philippine businessman, purchased a batch of Yiwu-made kitchen utensils within half an hour at a Yiwu overseas warehouse in Manila on Dec 3.

The warehouse displays more than 10,000 small commodity items made in Yiwu, and customers can browse, select products, and place orders right at their doorsteps, said Liu Pingjuan, the founder of Yiwu Chuangyi Kitchenware Co.

As of Nov 1, Yiwu had established 210 overseas warehouses in 100 cities in 50 countries including Kenya, Brazil, Spain, and the United States.

Yiwu overseas warehouses mainly function as venues for trade exhibitions, cross-border e-commerce services, and logistics distribution. The warehouses are mainly located in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as in South America, Africa, and other regions.

Yiwu overseas warehouses are also constantly exploring new models, such as "market procurement + cross-border e-commerce + overseas warehouses", "overseas warehouses + imports", and "overseas warehouses + service trade", to expand their functions.

An overseas warehouse in Uganda, located in the local free trade zone, integrates warehousing, logistics, transit, bonded exhibition, and foreign exchange payment.

Yiwu's exports and imports with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative in the first three quarters of this year amounted to 264.99 billion yuan ($37.18 billion), a year-on-year increase of 24.8 percent, largely due to the overseas warehouses.