Visitors who bought fridge magnets at Times Square or other tourist hotspots around New York in recent years most likely were purchasing the work of Du Jing or one of her fellow exporters in a small Chinese city that supplies the U.S. and the world with tons of small commodities.
Du and her husband run Yiwu Xianchuang Handicraft Manufacturing in the eastern city of Yiwu, home to the world’s largest wholesale market. Products from here -– ranging from plushies to glass vases and portable toolboxes -– are sold in stores and on online platforms around the world, including to U.S. consumers on Amazon.
