Considered one of my favourite locations to go to in China is Shenzhen. Established in 1979, the small fishing village north of Hong Kong has changed into the beating coronary heart of China’s know-how scene, and nowhere is that this extra epitomized than in Huaqiangbei.
A district in Shenzhen, Huaqiangbei, has turn out to be the go-to vacation spot for exploring the most recent know-how. Nonetheless, it’s way more than this: it’s additionally the place you’ll discover the craziest and wildest vary of know-how units, equipment, and parts.
Need an inexpensive pair of AirPods Professional? It has you lined. An Apple Watch working Android? Additionally lined. A brand new display at a fraction of the worth your native telephone restore store prices? That is the place to be.
As a part of my journey to China, I simply returned to Huaqiangbei for the primary time in six years. I purchased a variety of merchandise, together with each cheap and official objects, in addition to others. Right here’s a better take a look at the craziest tech market on the planet.
A melting pot of the perfect firms
It’s notable that each main smartphone firm, in addition to many non-smartphone firms, has a big presence in Huaqiangbei. Most of the former have a number of presences, as they every intention to outdo each other and promote their wares to each buyer passing by.
Take Huawei, for instance. There’s a flagship Huawei retailer on the nook by a big mall, and a number of other doorways down in both route, there are different official shops. Or Xiaomi, which has not less than 4 shops that I might rely inside a 5-minute stroll. This solely accounts for 2 blocks of Huaqiang Highway North, however the road extends for much longer.
Then there’s DJI, which has not less than three shops that I might see in the identical radius. The identical applies to Oppo and Vivo, though the previous has much less presence than the latter. Conspicuous in that it solely has one retailer of notice? Samsung, and its retailer is a regular-sized retailer, with Samsung much less centered on this market than its competitors.
What about Apple? There’s not less than one official retailer, in addition to a large number of smaller retailers that promote themselves as official resellers. This doesn’t account for the markets and stalls as nicely.
The third-party retailers
As soon as you progress previous the official shops, you’ll discover a host of third-party retailers and resellers with shops going through straight onto the road. As an alternative of smaller, considerably kosher retailers tucked away within the malls, these resellers are extra akin to your neighborhood telephone retailer than a market stall.
Right here, you’ll discover most telephone manufacturers underneath one roof, together with some nice bargains. Whereas the official shops have mounted costs – though they’ll nonetheless have offers and you may often snag a reduction – these resellers will check your bargaining energy, not less than inside cause. In the event you’re in search of 30 %+ off the most recent telephone, you gained’t discover it right here, however for those who’re in search of a small low cost on the latest gear or an even bigger low cost on older tech, that is the place you must go.
Most of those resellers gained’t have the most recent telephones inside days, however fairly inside a month or two. Costs are negotiable, however until you communicate Mandarin, it’s advisable to have a translation app useful in your telephone. You’ll additionally need to know the precise worth and retail value of a gadget, particularly as a few of them will deliberately begin at the next value, and your buy might not be the discount you assume it’s.
By far the most important presence in Huaqiangbei is the shops and markets. That is the place you’ll discover the gems and the duds that make this road and space the craziest market on the planet.
The Huaqiangbei malls are a tech lover’s dream
In the event you’re like me and love devices, you’ll both want a large pockets or sturdy willpower. Failing both of these, you’ll find yourself shopping for excess of you anticipate, particularly if it’s your first time in Huaqiangbei.
Stroll into one of many many markets on Huaqiang Highway North and also you’ll discover lots of, if not hundreds, of small stall house owners with tens of millions of merchandise so far as the attention can see. That is the place your used telephones find yourself, and whereas there are lots of pretend merchandise – a few of that are utterly outrageous – a lot of them are real.
Nearly all of stalls are heavy with Apple merchandise, and nearly each stall with cellular merchandise has AirPods on show to tempt you to half along with your cash. Past Apple, foldable telephones are additionally aplenty, and whilst you gained’t discover the very finest folding telephones, you’ll discover many which might be one or two generations previous. These will be bought at a significantly lower cost than in a conventional retail retailer, and in contrast to different shops, negotiation is a part of the expertise.
Each stall has a calculator, and that is the way you’ll talk and agree on a value. By no means settle for the primary value, however don’t anticipate to knock 50% off their value both. Some merchandise are priced pretty low, so there’s little margin, however something as much as 15% may very well be thought-about affordable and has a powerful risk of the seller agreeing to a deal. There are some newest units – each new and used – and also you’ll save as much as 20% off the retail value. For instance, a number of stalls will fortunately promote you a brand new iPhone 16 Professional Max 256GB for between $950 and $1,100, whereas it prices $1,300 from Apple.
When you agree on a value, you’ll need Alipay or WeChat Pay able to go; each apps are key to paying and accessing providers in China, and each additionally settle for international playing cards. There are transaction limits, and so they’re safe; in actual fact, they’re so secure that my Alipay account was blocked after I tried to buy a Xiaomi 15 Extremely in an official retailer, and I needed to undergo a number of attraction steps to have the ability to cost something with Alipay.
These markets are a tech lover’s dream, however surprisingly, Huaqiangbei is extra than simply units.
Wanting past units
Many of those stalls supply a variety of merchandise, from hairdryers to cables, and every thing in between. Then there are whole markets devoted to drones, devices, and different tech objects that any tech fanatic will possible fawn over. A few of these merchandise are far too tempting, and it takes sturdy willpower to stroll away.
These aren’t identify manufacturers, however they provide the same expertise; for instance, a number of drones had been almost an identical in look and performance to these made by DJI, and these had been listed for underneath 25% of the worth of DJI-branded merchandise.
China is a rustic that consumes a big quantity and a market the place each firm desires to ascertain a presence, not simply tech firms. Reverse a string of outlets promoting tech, you’ll discover shops for Gucci and different luxurious retailers, and proper subsequent to them is a menswear store that sells every thing from t-shirts to fits.
There are additionally big malls with 5 to 10 flooring devoted to promoting parts for each machine. In the event you’ve ever wished to accumulate all of the elements and construct a telephone, that is the place you’ll discover them. In the event you’re in search of a provider in your devices, that is the place yow will discover them.
Huaqiangbei is huge, so that you’ll possible by no means see all of it. Throughout two visits spanning greater than ten hours, I barely scratched the floor. Not solely will it eat a big quantity of your time, however it’s also possible to rapidly spend a considerable amount of cash. So far as tech markets go, it’s one of many craziest, wildest, and most various locations I’ve ever seen. Each alley additionally has a lot of stalls, and a small doorfront can lead you to massive malls hidden behind buildings. If you discover a product you need at a value that you simply like, you should purchase it; in any other case, you’ll spend numerous hours looking for the identical vendor.
The number of stalls and merchandise is a testomony to the general affect of Shenzhen on the know-how market. Now, for those who’ll excuse me, I would like to purchase some extra devices to take house with me.