Foreign mediators make life easier for traders in the 'world's supermarket'

Raj Kumar Khadka has spent the past nine years handling imports and exports as a foreign trader in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, and now spends two days a month as a volunteer mediator, helping to resolve commercial disputes in the trading hub for small commodities that's been dubbed the world's supermarket.

Khadka, who is from Nepal, wears a blue uniform with a badge showing two hands forming the shape of a heart when he works at the office of the People's Mediation Committee for Foreign-related Disputes in Yiwu.

While it has lost some of its former bustle due to travel restrictions brought in to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, Yiwu remains an important trading center with a sizable population of foreigners.