The global financial crisis has started to weave its way into Yiwu, the world's largest wholesale market for small consumer goods, but the city in east China still nurtures ejgiansionplahs.

With a population of just under two million people, Yiwu's business revolves around a huge building of 62,000 stalls containing umbrellas, socks, toys, electronics, zips and other goods -- all spread out over four

million square metres (43 million square feet).

"If you allocated three minutes per supplier during eight hours of daily business, you would need over a year to make your way round it (the market)," said Li Xuhang, vice mayor of Yiwu city, at the heart of Zhejiang province.

But despite a successful model of making products that are always in high demand, Yiwu is suffering, with business slowing "since the end of the first semester

in 2008," according to Li.

The vice mayor puts this down to a 12 or 13 percent rise in labour costs, the appreciation of the yuan and an increase in the price of raw materials — problems exacerbated by the global downturn.

As a result, the city's GDP grew 12 percent in 2008, higher than the nine percent growth figure for the whole country, but still lower than the 15 percent or more increase Yiwu has achieved in recent years.