Photographs by Adam Dean and Susetta Bozzi
China is reclaiming its place as the world's megabazaar, with the city of Yiwu as its one-stop shop for traders from the Muslim world.
The megamall is bustling with shoppers at noon when two Pakistani men -- dark-skinned with black beards, wearing white skullcaps and the traditional salwar kameez of the subcontinent -- drop their bags near a third-floor sporting-goods shop. They remove their leather sandals, place their safari vests on the floor, and prostrate themselves toward Mecca, thousands of miles away.
"Allahu Akbar," they murmur. "Ashadu an la ilaha ill Allah ..."
The devout Pakistanis are facing west, not east. In fact, they're in the Far East -- in Yiwu, a boomtown of 2.2 million in China's Zhejiang Province, 200 miles southwest of Shanghai.
Hanging from skylights above them are two banners emblazoned with propaganda meant to inspire the masses: Face The World, Serve The...
China is reclaiming its place as the world's megabazaar, with the city of Yiwu as its one-stop shop for traders from the Muslim world.
The megamall is bustling with shoppers at noon when two Pakistani men -- dark-skinned with black beards, wearing white skullcaps and the traditional salwar kameez of the subcontinent -- drop their bags near a third-floor sporting-goods shop. They remove their leather sandals, place their safari vests on the floor, and prostrate themselves toward Mecca, thousands of miles away.
"Allahu Akbar," they murmur. "Ashadu an la ilaha ill Allah ..."
The devout Pakistanis are facing west, not east. In fact, they're in the Far East -- in Yiwu, a boomtown of 2.2 million in China's Zhejiang Province, 200 miles southwest of Shanghai.
Hanging from skylights above them are two banners emblazoned with propaganda meant to inspire the masses: Face The World, Serve The...
- 7/10/2011
- by Dan Levin
- Fast Company
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