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Descendants of China's First Merchants Still Trading
Legend has it that it was the people of the Shang tribe living on the plain in today's Henan Province some 5,000 years ago who were China's first merchants. Moreover, the Chinese word for merchant is "Shang Ren", meaning people from the Shang tribe.
Today, descendants of the Shang tribe have set up a huge symbolic sculpture for their city, Shangqiu, in the east of the central China province. The sculpture is in the shape of the Chinese character "Shang" built of simulated bones and shells.
"We used to be poor, but now with the improvement of the local infrastructure and the liberation of our thinking, we are making rapid progress in social and economic development," said Liu Xinmin, secretary of the Communist Party of China Shangqiu City Committee.
"Shangqiu is in a golden location, where two of China's major railways intersect, and trading has come to be a trump card for us, " Liu said, adding that Shangqiu has become the largest distribution center in the border area of Henan, Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui provinces.
According to an official plan, Shangqiu will build ten big markets, six of which have been completed.
The Shangqiu Wholesale Market of Agricultural Products, with a yearly trade volume of more than 180 million U.S. dollars and occupying a total land area of 46 hectares, has been listed as one of the biggest of its kind in China.
Another market, the Shangqiu Bicycle Market, sold nearly two million bicycles, or one third of the country's total bicycle sales, last year, it said.
However, maybe the best example showing their commercial talent is that they changed such small things as lighters and tape measures into money-makers.
According to the latest statistics, there are some 1,000 household lighter factories in Shangqiu, producing 520 million lighters a year and occupying four-fifths of the domestic lighter market.
Shangqiu also produces the majority of China's tape measures, which are sold not only in most cities in China but also in many African countries.
According to the source, for every eight people in Shangqiu there will be one who is doing business in other parts of China or even abroad.
"We have introduced computer science and English education in primary schools, as we hope that even larger mercantile miracles will be created by the younger generation," said a local official.
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