"Wholesale markets have already become a main part of the country's circulation industry, and are playing an important role in providing a variety of goods and developing local economies and offering job opportunities," said Zhou.

Having conducted a thorough investigation, Zhou said there are now more than 90,000 different wholesale markets around China, accounting for one-third of the country's annual retail sales.

In Yiwu, a city well-known for its flourishing wholesale markets, there are 1 million people working in wholesale markets, Zhou said. They are relatively well-off, but also badly in need of guidance from sound government management and legal protection.

Now president of a privately owned company producing ornaments with total assets of more than 200 million yuan (US$24 million), Zhou worked in wholesale markets for more than 17 years. "I know all the strengths and weaknesses of them," she said.

"Having no particular laws for running wholesale markets, problems like inefficient administrative management controls and the lack of overall development plans have all seriously affected the growth of the markets."

Zhou will propose to the NPC legislative body that a survey of wholesale markets in China is conducted, and related regulations and tax policies devised.

The growth of wholesale markets is only one of Zhou's many concerns as a new NPC deputy. She also wishes to call for improved efficiency of handling cross-provincial crimes, and the conservation of the limited arable land.

"All these problems are typical in areas that are already quite prosperous like Yiwu," she said. "If they are solved, even quicker developments can be made in these areas.

"From the day that I was elected an NPC deputy, I feel this heavy burden on me to report the problems and issues arising from our daily life to the congress.

"It is no longer things about my own company any more, but more about the society around me."

Zhou said her own experience provided the best evidence of the great changes felt by Zhejiang people.

Born in a remote mountain area in a poor village beside Yiwu, Zhou had to travel long distances with her mother to earn money. In 1978, 16-year-old Zhou started her business life. She had to make ends meet as the oldest child in a family of six daughters and a son.

Despite her tender age, Zhou traveled from village to village and market to market, selling embroidery needles for 0.20 yuan (2.4 US cents) each.

The first few years were hard. But things improved gradually. The quick growth of the wholesale markets in Yiwu enabled her commercial business to develop fast.

In 1985, Zhou married in Yiwu. Her goal was to earn 50,000 yuan (US$6,000) by selling Shanghai-made ornaments. But she had earned more than the expected figure at the end of that year.

"We saw the great potential in running an ornament business, owing to the fast increase in people's living standards. People are now relatively wealthy and want to make themselves more beautiful," she said.

In 1995, Zhou and her family established their own ornament company with an investment of 7 million yuan (US$840,000). There were only 100 workers at first, said Zhou.

Now her company has 2,600 employees, producing more than 100,000 different types of ornaments with an annual sales volume of more than 100 million yuan (US$12 million). Their products have been sold to the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Russia.

In Yiwu, the success story of Zhou's company has led to a number of ornament businesses being established. There are currently more than 1,800 ornament-making enterprises with more than 100,000 workers in the city, making almost 70 percent of the whole country's ornaments.

"I believe it is only when we make progress that we are able to help other underdeveloped areas," she said.

"Now that I am a NPC deputy, I have bigger responsibilities."

(China Daily March 5, 2003)