As one of his miniature fighter jets soars by our heads, Hu Tianqiang declares, “We don’t care about sales to the United States.”
The buzzing toy airplanes and tiny drones that surround him and compete for purchasers’ attention create a nearly rhythmic background that makes it difficult to hear him over them.
In the little Chinese city of Yiwu, Hu’s booth, Zhongxiang Toys, is located inside the largest wholesale market in the world.
Customers visit this enormous showroom with over 75,000 stores looking for anything from umbrellas and massagers to kitchenware and sparkling Christmas lights. Because each department has an airport hangar’s worth of merchandise, it can take the most of the day to navigate just one department.
