Wholesale Mooncakes & Reflections - Ancient Wisdom - Giftware and Aromatherapy Supplier

Greetings from Yiwu on Mooncake day.

It's Mooncake day (Or mid autumn festival) , a big holiday in China. So I kind of have a day off. Strange weather.. it's supposed to be autumn now, and when I have been here at this time of year it can be quite cool, jacket time. But today it is 33c and high humidity.. My phone tells me a record high temperature for Yiwu at this time. It's shorts and flip-flops weather.

All week beautifully packaged boxes of mooncakes have been arriving at our apartment or office. It's a thing, you do, send all your good customers a Mooncake gift.

That would be amazing - except a) we have too many to eat, b) can't easily re-gift because everyone else has too many already.. and c) I cannot eat those stogy mooncakes.. I really don't like them. But apparently they do have ancient wisdom in them.. Long ago, during the Tang Dynasty, an uprising against the ruling Mongols was being planned. To communicate their revolutionary plans, the local Chinese came up with a clever idea: they hid secret messages inside mooncakes. These messages helped them coordinate their efforts without alerting the Mongol rulers. Later the festival also came to honor the legend of Chang'e, the Moon Goddess who resides on the moon.

That's all you need to know about Mooncakes.. last week I was telling you about arriving in China and discovering that the vast wholesale market is a little placid these days.. if you missed it you can catch up here.

This week Coco and I have been super busy, buzzing around our suppliers, adding a few products to old ranges, and finding a few new ones. I was telling you how sad and depleted the market seems, but since then we have found other parts of Yiwu actually pretty busy. There is an area that specialises in jewellery components.. I have no idea what many of the shops actually do.. you go and see tiny components, used in who knows what.. and people sorting, packing, selling online sat on the floor, talking live to some distant audience.. this stuff can be shipped by air, so there are few barriers to trade. I guess they trade amongst themselves and the whole world buys its tiny little things in Yiwu.

Many showrooms have become online streaming venues, selling virtually via the Chinese version of Tiktok, resourceful as ever the small Chinese business people always find a way to trade.

Coco is a keen jewellery designer and understands this market. She is often making jewellery for friends and family. Some of those designs have found their way into AW products..

Some producers have given up their showrooms in Yiwu altogether and just sell online.. We went to see a supplier in a nearby city who makes backflow incense burners. The lady boss showed us her showroom, set up a bit like a TV studio. Interestingly prices are coming down, she re-quoted us, some keen prices which we will pass on to you as the stock arrives. I can see from past sales that the simple classic style designs sell best, so we have picked a few more like this..

A very nice lady she told us about a village in the hills nearby that is a local beauty spot.

Since the weather was so nice and we had done our jobs for the day, we decided to explore.. This village showed up on the map as a five star tourist resort, the road to it maked by multicoloured central lines.. I don't like this centrally organised tourism, where some faceless official decides what area is worthy of tourism. We found the village, a sign said Welcome to Tongyu Village. A beautiful place surrounded by mountains with a pretty pond in the centre square, but appeared abandoned almost a ghost town. There was no restaurant open, nothing much to do. An old man told us up the hill was a temple and a local restaurant. We stopped for lunch and actually it was pretty tasty food, after a while a few local customers came and it was quite jolly, we learned that nearby was a reservoir which you could climb up to..

We didn't see another soul, there was 108 steps to climb and at the top the place was absolutely peaceful and pristine, just the sound of cicadas in the trees. It's our ten year wedding anniversary and this spot found almost by accident is a prefect place to be and reflect.

OK it's almost October.. things are buzzing, so much stock has arrived our warehouses are bursting.. the plan (I believe) is coming together. If you have been following this newsletter you will know how hard we have been working to bring you the absolutely best in giftware. Not just from China, but from India, Nepal and Indonesia (and more). Plus lots of new products from our Aromatics factory in Yorkshire.. I really think this Christmas we have the best product ranges we have ever had. At the end of the day (as I keep banging on) it's 90% about the product.. If you want authentic products then AW is your best source this season and beyond..

Check our New for 2023 Christmas fragrance range. The care and love that went creating these fragrances was ledgendary.

Take care, have a lovely weekend, watch out for that full moon.

More news next week..

David