FAIRLY TRADING WHOLESALE GIFTS SINCE 1995

logo
Trending Item Hunt / China
Mon Mar 18 2024 10:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Greetings from Yiwu, China

Hope you are well and your gift trading is prospering!
I'm so happy to see we have a good number of trending gift lines right now, join us to get a jump on those trends.. see below.

Last week I was telling you about our time in Nepal hunting for the next trending products from there. We said goodbye (for now) to Toni and took a few days R&R in Pokhara, where we got high... you if you missed it you can catch up here. 

From Pokhara, we took a Yeti Airlines flight back to Kathmandu, 30 minutes only. One of the world's most dangerous airlines... but we made it.


So we just arrived in China - Coco and I caught the midnight flight out of Kathmandu to Guangzhou. China Southern, a very old plane - seats tighter than Ryanair and fully booked with excited Nepalese workers heading to jobs in China. Outside the airport in Kathmandu we were surprised to see large crowds of people waving off relatives, it seemed like whole villages had come to see off the lucky family members heading off with ceremonial scarves and heads dotted red for good luck. They gave us the very back seats, next to the toilets.. squeezed in like sardines with no space at all for our hand luggage as everyone had brought far too many carry-on bags. I tried to blag us an upgrade to one of the four business class seats at the front, but they wanted big money so we suffered the 5 hour flight sandwiched. Ironically Coco's hand luggage ended up being stashed on the business class seats at the front, I pointed out that the luggage got an upgrade for free, but the air hostess didn't seem amused by my observation.
 
From Guangzhou we had one of those super short connection times for the flight to Yiwu - they gave us an escort to speed us through the airport, jumping the immigration queue and security and running to the gate. We made it. And surprisingly our luggage also. Which was good because we had lots of presents for the grandchildren from Nepal. 

Right now as I write this, Tomas is on his way to China. Coco organised a car to pick him up from Hangzhou airport and drive him to Yiwu.. we should see him, later today.

I spent most of the morning trying to hack my way past the firewalls here so I can work and do business here. It's ridiculous and paranoid that they control connectivity and yet want us to trade. 
It's hard work, but at least we can trade with the small family businesses that we prefer. Here in and around Yiwu, we have many suppliers. Last time I was here we managed to create the Gemstone Enchantment Lights. My idea (he says modestly) and one of our old suppliers said they could do it. Boxes designed by our designer in Bali; Bondhan, Coco negotiating, mountains of compliance paperwork later we managed to import them and they have become one of our top trending products. We just received another shipment just recently... We will be visiting them soon to see what else we can make happen... I have seen a cute irresistible light-up gemstone tortoise, which could be your next big seller... 

Anyway, lots to do... we need to go to the warehouse and sort out some issues. Our landlord has gone bankrupt, and they want to move warehouse  - and forfeit 6 months rent, It's a bit of a wild west here at the moment. Coco is trying to fix the problem  I'll update you on what happens next week.

Meanwhile back in the EU.. lots of new stock, and heaps of trending products.. check out the links below... 

We also have an amazing collection of trending items for Easter this year... Best ever I think.. 

Take care and happy trading.
David

Share:

Share your feedback and Get €10 Voucher