By Cheng Yuanzhou, People’s Daily
By 9 a.m., the streets and alleys of Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen’s Futian district are already bustling with activity.
SEG Electronics Market, the Electronic Technology Building, and other shopping centers open their doors one after another. Stalls overflow with a wide array of smart electronic products, while buyers and tourists from around the world navigate the crowded markets, suitcases in hand, exploring and testing the latest innovations.
Known as “China’s No. 1 Electronics Street,” Huaqiangbei is home to 35 specialized markets and more than 115,000 businesses. It supplies more than 1 million types of electronic components and consumer electronics to markets around the world, establishing itself as a major global hub for electronics and technology consumption.
According to Chen Jiongwen, Party chief of Huaqiangbei subdistrict, the area receives an average of 750,000 visitors a day, including more than 8,000 international visitors. For most merchants, foreign trade accounts for over 70 percent of sales.
Indian businessman Mall Kaoyou arrived with his suitcase and a clear goal: sourcing China’s latest smart electronics.
He stepped into the global AI hardware selection center operated by Zhipinku, a supply chain and channel service platform, located on the first floor of the Electronic Technology Building. There, a pair of AI glasses caught his eye. Staff walked him through its full suite of functions: real-time translation, high-definition shooting, lossless music, and an in-built smart assistant. Kaoyou quickly tried on the glasses to experience them firsthand.
“It’s amazing!” he remarked during the demonstration, asking about technical specifications and pricing. “These cost at least 1/3 less than comparable items on global e-commerce platforms, yet they offer more features,” Kaoyou noted.
The store also offers AI companion robots, smart headphones, misting fans, and more, carrying over 300 smart hardware products from more than 80 Chinese brands. Every product is labeled with information in both Chinese and English. As Kaoyou tried one product after another, his shopping list kept growing.
“I’ve never seen many of these products before. This place feels like a window into future technology,” he told People’s Daily.
In the past, foreign visitors to Huaqiangbei mainly came to source electronic components. Today, consumer electronics such as smart robots, AI wearables, and smart home appliances are increasingly popular. Many international visitors now come specifically to experience newly launched products at the earliest opportunity, said Meng Hangfang, co-founder of Zhipinku.
Overseas social media platforms are further expanding Huaqiangbei’s global reach. A new model combining online discovery, offline experiences, global sourcing, and cross-border sales is taking shape. More and more Huaqiangbei merchants are using platforms such as AliExpress to sell their products around the world. The latest data show that electronics from Huaqiangbei are now exported to more than 190 countries and regions.
Kaoyou first learned about Huaqiangbei through social media. “Many influencers recommend this place and call its electronic products a ‘Shenzhen specialty,'” he said. “After coming here, I found the biggest attraction isn’t just the low prices — it’s the innovation. Many products can be bought here before they appear anywhere else.”
After trying the AI glasses, Kaoyou came up with a new idea.
“If you could make AI glasses tailored to the Indian market, with multilingual translation and longer battery life for high-temperature environments, they would definitely sell well,” he said.
“No problem. We can help you work with the brand, and you could have a customized sample in as little as two days,” Meng replied immediately.
This kind of rapid customization is increasingly commonplace in Huaqiangbei. More than 90 percent of the core components needed for a smart device can be sourced within an hour. Merchants can also quickly adjust hardware functions, system languages and exterior molds according to the usage habits and needs of consumers in different countries, making it possible to combine small-batch flexible customization with large-scale production.
“In the past, sourcing a customized smart hardware product often meant working with dozens of suppliers in different locations. Just getting a prototype could take weeks or even months. Huaqiangbei is incredibly efficient,” Kaoyou said after hearing how the process works.
That efficiency is rooted in Huaqiangbei’s mature and highly integrated ecosystem for technological innovation and industrial development.
Huaqiangbei is developing a model in which a product can be designed in the morning, prototyped in the afternoon, put into mass production the next day and shipped overseas within a week. A new smart product can go from an initial concept to overseas shipment in just one week.
For smartphones and other complete devices, the fastest path from concept to mass production is about one month, while the average iteration cycle for consumer electronics has been shortened to three to six months, far faster than the global industry average, Chen said.
Kaoyou said some of his friends back in India had previously brought back small quantities of AI headphones and multilingual translators from Shenzhen. Their advanced features and high quality quickly made them sell out at retail stores in India.
“I hope Chinese AI-powered electronics can help upgrade India’s smart consumer market and make my business bigger and bigger,” he said. He is also looking forward to working with brands in Huaqiangbei on joint customization, bringing more products made with Chinese ingenuity to the South Asian market.
Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei: A global gateway for Chinese smart technology
