The Yiwu Model of China’s Exhibition Economy

China’s exhibition industry has developed in tandem with the country’s reform and opening-up. Since the 1990s, the exhibition industry has flourished in large and mid-sized cities across the country and become an essential component of the domestic tertiary industry. Despite a rather late start, China’s exhibition industry has developed rapidly with the following features: (i) Constant growth of the number of exhibitions, exceeding 4,000 in 2007 (ii) Saturation of exhibition themes, with all themes presented around the world featured at the Chinese exhibition market (iii) Presence of the world’s top 10 exhibition companies, including those from Germany and the United States, at the Chinese market in different forms and with different levels of participation. According to the latest statistics, the world’s top 20 exhibitions (150,000 square meters) have entered China with nearly 10 exhibition themes (iv) China’s climb from the world’s fifth in 2001 to the second in terms of the number of exhibition venues. By 2006, there were 170 exhibition venues i