Yiwu first became a county in 222 BC and was renamed Yiwu County in 624 AD. Trade has been historically important in Yiwu. Yiwu is the terminus for a number of long-distance international container trains. At 8,111 miles, the Yiwu-Madrid container train route is a long goods railway line. Shipping containers are transported along this route from China to Spain via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany and France. In 2016, a similar route was inaugurated connecting Yiwu to Tehran, Iran.

From Yiwu, there are direct flights to the following major ports:

Seoul, Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Sanya, Xiamen, Kunming, Xian, Haikou, Shenyang and Nanjing.