A shopping paradise comes true

Goods and people can travel internationally by rail since the Yi-Xin-Ou train made its maiden voyage from Yiwu to Madrid in 2014. Trains from Yiwu now cross nine international routes to over 30 countries.

And the city's cross-border e-commerce companies are grasping the opportunities brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative.

"We used to transport goods to Hangzhou or Shanghai and then export them," Dayue Internet Technology manager Yue Xian explains.

"But, now, the Yi-Xin-Ou train enables us to transport goods directly from Yiwu to countries along the rail route."

Importantly, the increased connectivity links Yiwu with Zhejiang's provincial capital, Hangzhou, where the country's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba, is headquartered.

Alibaba's service platform Tmall Global has become the country's biggest cross-border e-commerce player since it was founded five years ago.

"We are actually helping many, many global brands come into China," the company's vice-president, Wei Chen, told me at Alibaba's headquarters.

Today, Tmall Global deals with over 18,000 brands from 74 countries, he says.

"A lot of the younger generation, they always come to Tmall Global to find the new stuff. So, I think, for a lot of foreign brands, China is the golden opportunity. And this is just the beginning."

Indeed, four decades after the three-century-old local "feather-for-sugar" platform was set free to fly into the future, Zhejiang province is soaring into the tomorrow of global trade.