A customer selects goods at the Yiwu commodities market, which receives about 160,000 visitors a day. Zhang Jiancheng / for China Daily

Investments have also been made in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, as well as in Gansu and Guizhou provinces, all of which are rich in nonferrous metal reserves.

Chen Jiyan, who spent 15 million yuan on a coalmine in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's Aksu prefecture in 2004, says his assets have since risen to more than 400 million yuan.

"We never act too ambitiously and feel satisfied with enough profits made from our projects, " Chen says.

Chen says the majority of Wenzhou businessmen will not miss any chance to make money even if they have to take certain risks, which also turns out to be the "key reason" why they are richer than most of others in Zhejiang.

Shoe giant Aokang, based in Wenzhou, also survived a challenging time for the industry in the past several years.

"At the moment, Aokang has up to 4,000 stores all over the country. It is moving to the next stage of designing its own branded shoes with higher quality," says Wang Hailong, the company's public relations manager.

Aokang also bought the rights to Italian shoemaker's Valleverde brand in China in 2008. The partnership includes the establishment of joint research and procurement centers in Italy and China.

Since the acquisition, the Chinese shoemaker has expanded the number of Valleverde stores in China to 200 and it is keen on positioning Valleverde products in the high-end market.

"The company is determined to work with other top branded shoe makers and will focus on innovating the design of its products," Wang says.

"The orders from GEOX, one of Aokang's largest trading partners in Europe, increased by about 60 percent in the first quarter of 2011, which is expected to rise gradually this year," Wang says.

Yiwu, another prosperous city in Zhejiang, also boasts wealthy businessmen driving luxury cars on its roads.

Back in the 1980's, Yiwu was an area with no geographical advantage and few natural resources. It was just one of the hundreds of nameless, poverty-stricken towns largely living on farming.

"The local government helped me out at the beginning with my business and created a promising economic environment for merchants to trade small commodities," says Zhou Xiaoguang, CEO of China Xinguang Group, a jewelry maker with total assets of 12.5 billion yuan.

With the country's economic development following its opening-up, Yiwu's main commodities market now has 100,000 varieties of small products in 28 primary categories. The number of daily visitors to the marketplace has hit 160,000, including more than 2,000 foreign purchasers.

The city holds the world's largest enterprises for the zipper, sock and jewelry industries.

The market also enables non-State-owned industries to grow and this, in turn, has boosted the local economy and created 500,000 jobs, with annual tax revenue exceeding 600 million yuan.

"The development model in Yiwu was led by the launch of the commodity market, the upgrading of logistic services and more international trading for local businesses," Zhou says.

The increasing demand for daily commodities also stimulated the expansion of Yiwu's development, Zhou says.

Businessmen from Yiwu and Wenzhou are both born to be merchants, but those from Yiwu work harder in one particular field more patiently, Zhou says.

Most of Yiwu's merchants prefer to run businesses in the city to welcome foreign investors, instead of expanding to other cities or even abroad, as the concept of home and family is "very essential in their way of life".

"Yiwu merchants are quite consistent with their businesses, even if they are just selling small commodities. We always have the desire and passion to learn from other businessmen," Zhou says.