Yiwu selected as host site for Spring Festival Gala branch

Organizers of the 2026 Spring Festival Gala have named Yiwu, the "world's small commodity capital" in Zhejiang province, for the first time as one of its branch venues.

A poster for Yiwu branch for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala. [Image courtesy of China Media Group]

China Media Group's Spring Festival Gala is the world's most-watched broadcast, and this year it is time for the small city of Yiwu to shine. Emerging in 1982 from a modest local commodities market, Yiwu has grown into a "world supermarket" and is now "digitally connecting the globe." It stands as a market miracle, a model of county-level economic resilience, and a hallmark of China's reform and opening-up. This year, Yiwu aims to use the Spring Festival Gala stage to present to the world a defining "Yiwu moment" shaped by its entrepreneurial spirit and dynamic growth.

The year 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the "Yiwu Development Experience," and the city is ready to showcase its development to the world on the Spring Festival Gala stage.

Ye Bangrui, member of the standing committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Jinhua Municipal Committee and secretary of the Yiwu Municipal Committee of the CPC, stated Yiwu's development secret lies in its profound historical and cultural heritage. As a major international trade window for "China to see the world and the world to see China," Yiwu was introduced as a key intersection of the land and maritime Silk Roads in the new era. It participates in the joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative, serving as a pivotal city in China's domestic and international dual circulation. Its sixth-generation market, the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center, is leading a new trend in global trade.

For Chinese across the planet, purchasing New Year goods is important as it symbolizes good luck and abundance for the coming year. As global demand rises, Yiwu stands as the global hub of Chinese New Year goods, producing an estimated 80% of the world's festival products. From the enduring popularity of traditional red lanterns, Chinese knots, Spring Festival couplets to the rising fame of trendy new Chinese-style products like New Year blind boxes, these items carry the nostalgia of overseas Chinese, while also serving as cultural links to other nations.

Businessmen from Kuwait select festival product samples at the Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, Dec. 17, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Yiwu is not only a modern commercial hub and convergence point for multiple trade networks, but also home to a resident foreign population from over 100 countries. It is a place where Chinese and foreign cultures blend together. Through the Yiwu-Xinjiang-Europe freight train and global trade, Yiwu embodies the Belt and Road Initiative in the daily livelihoods of international merchants, serving as the most direct manifestation of win-win cooperation.

In the entire year of 2025, Yiwu's import and export scale exceeded 800 billion yuan for the first time, with a total value of 836.5 billion yuan, according to Yiwu Customs. Within the broader picture of foreign trade, Yiwu serves as a vital engine not only for Zhejiang province, but for the entire country. Currently, the total number of market entities in Yiwu has surpassed 1.2 million, accounting for one-tenth of Zhejiang's total and 0.6% of the national total.

The other three branch venue cities for this year's Spring Festival Gala are Harbin in Heilongjiang province, Hefei in Anhui province, and Yibin in Sichuan province. The gala will be broadcast live worldwide on the eve of the Chinese New Year, Feb. 16.

China Media Group leadership and local leaders announce branch venues for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala in Beijing, Dec. 28, 2025. [Photo courtesy of China Media Group]

In recent years, branch venues of Spring Festival Gala have become important windows showcasing the unique image, cultural characteristics, and local customs of different cities, driving a surge in local cultural tourism.