Merchants from Yiwu shed tears before a portrait of Xie Gaohua in Quzhou on Oct 24. [Photo/zgyww.cn]

Xie Gaohua, a respected civil servant who created Yiwu's small commodity market, has died at the age of 88, local media reported on Oct 23.

Born in Quzhou, Zhejiang province in November 1931, Xie joined the Communist Party of China in 1953 and worked as the Party secretary of Yiwu from 1982 to 1984.

By 1982, it had already been four years since China announced its reform and opening-up, but few dared to openly endorse free market practices which had previously been condemned as "capitalistic activities."

However, Xie took the advice of street vendors and assigned a piece of vacant land near the downtown area for them to hawk their wares.

His support for the new marketplace proved game-changing: The market boomed after several rounds of expansions and became the epitome of "Made in China."

The first generation of Yiwu small commodities market in 1982 (left) and the market in February 2018 (right). [Photo/China.org.cn]

Today, the Yiwu International Trade Market, with 75,000 booths in a business area of 5.5 million square meters, is the center of the world's largest trading hub for small commodities, and it attracts hundreds of thousands of sellers and buyers every day.