Mark Leong and writer Peter Hessler traveled among China’s booming new factory towns for months on assignment for National Geographic. Pictures and field notes from those trips are on the Geographic’s website. There’s also a slideshow of the Yiwu Mall, where 30,000 vendors ply their wares. Everything from flip-flops to Buddhas and belts is for sale there. “If you spend one minute at each shop, eight hours a day,” says author Peter Hessler, “you’ll leave two months later.” This story appears in the June 2007 issue.