"The number of foreigners coming to this street has dropped by more than 20 percent, and some of them did not come back to China this year," he told Beijing Review.

Liu Linghua, whose factory mainly produces middle-range and high-end headdresses and hairpins mainly for export, has seen sales fall off as well, because about 70-80 percent of his products are sold to European countries and the United States.

"Our exports to European countries and the United States have decreased 30-40 percent over the same period last year," Liu said.

Unlike in previous years, the upcoming Christmas season has added a chill to business for Wang Yuke, who manages an export-oriented Christmas ornament factory. Her factory's sales revenue has dropped by one third this year. Together with overall price increases in raw materials and the euro's depreciation against the renminbi, the factory's profits have been further squeezed. During the half hour when she was interviewed by Beijing Review, Wang received three orders, each of which was less than 1,000 yuan ($146). Before the onset of the economic crisis, most of the individual orders she received were worth at least thousands of yuan.

Some lucky birds

Whenever some businesses experience a downturn, others tend to thrive and receive more orders than usual. It has been no different for some businesspeople in Yiwu, who are faring well despite the impact of the economic crisis on the city's overall exports.

"For example, industries or companies that put equal weight on domestic sales and exports, such as scarves and shoes, or the emerging industries that own pioneer competitive advantages in the world, such as car accessories and hotel supplies, are slightly influenced," said Song Jian, Vice Director of Market Development Section of the Market and Trade Development Administration of Yiwu.

Jin Jiangying, a headdress and hairpin vendor at the International Trade City, said she has not been affected very much by the economic downturn, because she sells 70 percent of her products to the domestic market.

Other businesspeople have avoided the negative impacts of the crisis by turning from shrinking European and American markets to emerging ones such as Russia, the Middle East, India, Africa and South America. Jin Zhongmin, who runs a toy company in Yiwu that makes dolls, used to export two thirds of his products to European countries and the United States, but now the figure has shrunk to just 30 percent. By contrast, his exports to the Middle East and India have soared 50 percent, he said.

Talal Drage, a businessman from Iraq who has lived in Yiwu for one and a half years and can speak good Chinese, said that he sells most of the goods he purchases here in his home country as well as in cities such as Rome and Dubai. He added that his business has not been affected by the economic crisis.

Yuan Wenyu, who works for an Yiwu-based international trading company that mainly deals with daily commodities, said her business has not been hit by the fallout from the crisis. This is primarily because most of her clients are from Israel and the transactions are small in value, she said.

There are other lucky birds as well. Some manufacturers of lower-end goods such as daily commodities, shoes and garments have seen demand for their products rise in the last few months. Song said this is because some overseas consumers have stopped purchasing high-end foreign products and are opting for lower-priced goods.

Double-edged sword

Most businesspeople interviewed by Beijing Review said they were confident about getting through the crisis, because they have all been tested by hardship before. Ren said he is holding out with the money he has saved in past years, while Wang said she is relying on orders from long-standing clients. Most of them said they expect the situation to take a favorable turn in the second half of 2009.

Song said the crisis could be a double-edged sword for many.