The early-morning sun crests the mountains, pulling pink clouds across a lemon sky. In a new riverbank park, there's not a soul to be seen. Outside a nearby hotel, however, day labourers throng the pavement, pushing bicycles that have paint rollers, shovels or sledgehammers strapped to the frames as crude advertisements of their trade. Fingering his faux-jade pipe stem, a Chinese beggar in a blue Mao Zedong jacket appeals to passers-by for small change.
This could be any small non-descript city in rural China, but it's not. In the rural heart of Zhejiang province, 300km southwest of Shanghai, Yiwu has become the epicentre of China's trade with the Muslim world. The city's small commodities market draws traders from all Muslim nations, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, into a flurry of commerce and a unique blend of pan-Islamic life.
In this mecca of trade, the Futian International Trade City - the enormous market that is the epicentre of buying and selling in Yiwu - explodes from the earth like a steel Atlantis. Attractive women, wrapped in furs, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, drive BMWs up and down the dusty streets, while purple taxis flash their white racing stripes as they purr down the main drag. Downtown, Arabic script replaces Chinese, splashed upon hotels, restaurants and businesses.
Muslim men indulge in the comforts of home by smoking shisha and drinking silver pots of red tea on cafe patios. Arabian music fills the air, while baskets of hummus, falafel, salad and pita bread are eagerly consumed.
'Going to Yiwu is like going on a trade pilgrimage,' says 30-year-old Uygur restaurateur Azziz Idris. 'Everybody comes here, from all over the world.
I met so many people the last time I went. It's the business haj.'
With little or no manufacturing in their home countries, Muslims have been flocking to Yiwu since the mid-1990s, lured by its cheap prices and location. Yiwu is in the middle of Zhejiang's manufacturing zone, straddling major railroads and highways with direct links to container ports in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo. And because the traders have companies registered either in their homelands or in Dubai, it is relatively easy for them to be granted visas to stay.