An Essential Guide to the Largest Electronics Wholesale Market in China

Speaking of tech towns there’re plenty across the world, but Shenzhen outperforms above them all as a global capital and the largest electronics wholesale market in China.

The development of Shenzhen into an electronics hub is something of an urban legend. Stretching along Shen’nan middle road to Huaqiang road lies the epicenter of global electronics, where you can find presence of basically any China wholesale electronics like iPhones, phone parts, phone cases, power banks, drones, security products, to name a few.

It’s where ideas are turnt into reality, and electronics are pumped out by the billions. Whether you’re looking for the latest 3D printers, drones or virtual reality glasses, the possibilities are endless as there’re hundreds even thousands of stores in Huaqiangbei dedicated to electronics of all kinds, easily approached from Huaqiangbei metro station.

Street fully lined of electronics wholesale building

Adjacent to Hongkong with a few metro stops from Luohu (the Chinese boarder), there’s nothing fancy about Huaqiangbei at first glance. Wholesale buildings fully loaded with tiny electronics stalls along Huaqiang road. Dawn at street level on the main road lies a myriad of phone shops dedicated to iPhone, Huawei, Xiaomei, SamSung, Meizu, etc.

It’s not just about phones in Huaqiangbei. Drones skillfully piloting in the sky, and box upon box of drones are packed in the shop, while on the center of the road, pop-up shops where potential buyers are happily joining the game with virtual reality glasses. Inside SEG electronics plaza, the scene is more contemplative.

Tiny booths less than six feet are crawling along alleyways stretching into the distance, fully packed with phones, VR glasses, drones, external drives, LED bulbs, and virtually any kind of consumer electronics or electronics parts that you can think of. Upon entering the electronic market in Shenzhen, the buzzing, exciting scene with colorful lights flashing everywhere is simply mind-blowing. There’re also other buildings in a lane parallel to Huaqiangbei dedicated to security, surveillance electronics.

Huaqiangbei VS Akihabara in Tokyo

For those who have also been to Akihabara market in Tokyo, it’s tempting to associate the two together as both are dedicated to electronics. While it comes to global electronics, though Japan is in fast retreat, it may lack cult appeal, while Huaqiangbei has a more dominant global presence.

In terms of scale, Huaqiangbei is around twenty times bigger than Akihabara. A random stroll around Huaqiangbei, sometimes you might come across Japanese makers, tech entrepreneurs looking for new ideas around the shops. Hax, a hardware accelerator from Silicone Valley, has chosen Huaqiangbei as its base of a 111-day programme since the ecosystem allows faster and cheaper prototyping as well as easier scaling from one to small batch to mass production, giving startups a kick on kickstarter.

Skilled Workers

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook once explained the reason why iPhone was made in China was because of the large pool of skillful workers available, rather than cheap labor costs. With rising of labor costs in China, apparently there’re plenty of other countries with less wages like Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Bangladesh, etc. Watching thousands of people buying parts from Huaqiangbei’s giant component markets, assembling them from scratch or fix phones, it’s hard to challenge Cook’s reasoning.

Maker’s Paradise
While back in Huaqiangbei it’s easy to see why it’s home to an army of makers across the world. On the ground floor of SEG digital market, cartons and cartons of components are fully packed in the tiny stalls, from printer cartridges, motherboards, capacitors to valves, screws or even card stickers to unlock contract iPhones. It definitely lives up to its fame as the Maker’s Paradise.