With Easter just around the corner, stores and shops are filling up with Easter trinkets — bunnies, baskets, and all manner of spring-themed items. And of course, they mostly come from China; in fact, the mostly come from one city in China — the city of Yiwu. Last month the Los Angeles Times did a story about the city, and specifically the International Trade Market where most of the trinkets are sold:
Chances are, if you’ve experienced Easter in any form — a gift basket, a storefront display — you’ve seen a product that, at some point, passed through the International Trade City in Yiwu, a city of 1.5 million people about 160 miles south of Shanghai. It’s the largest wholesale market in the world — five stadium-sized malls, home to tens of thousands of tiny stalls arranged in a labyrinth of florescent lights and beige linoleum.
Yang, like other Easter wholesalers, professed to know little about the holiday’s traditions. Easter, for her, is simply business.
“I think Easter is for Jesus, like how Christmas is for Santa,” she said. “Right?”
Well, not exactly….
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