Thursday, December 24, 2009

Newsworthy: Christmastime in China


Many of the Christmas decorations that adorn American homes, shopping centers, and public places are actually made in China (where Christmas exists primarily as a commercial holiday).

A major wholesale market for Christmas goods is located in the city of Yiwu, in Zhejiang Province. The brief article below introduces you to some of the vendors in the Christmas market in Yiwu:

http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/shop/yiwu-twoandahalf-hours-christmas-889738

This video tour takes you around the market and introduces some of the buyers, who come not only from the U.S. but from around the world to buy Christmas goods for resale in their home countries:

http://tinyurl.com/ybkj3rp

Meanwhile, the manufacturing city of Dongguan in Guangdong Province has seen an upsurge in the demand for Christmas goods which in turn has created a shortage of workers:

http://157.166.224.109/video/news/2009/12/23/n_china_labor_crunch_xmas.cnnmoney/

The situation this year is a far cry from the economic downturn in 2008 which caused massive layoffs in the toy factories of Dongguan:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1862717,00.html

Happy Holidays and see you back here in 2010!