01.27.07

Shenzhen electronics market

Posted in Asia at 1:59 pm by hansr

If you’re ever in Shenzhen, I would highly a recommend a visit to the electronics market. There are thousands of people and millions of cell phones, mp3 players, etc… being sold there - it felt like what I think the New York stock exchange must feel like. Business on, game on, all the time. I made a few contacts for OEM parts and PCB fab, and also found a micro SD card and USB adapter for my phone, so I now have access to pictures on the road. The 1GB SD card cost 80 RmB ($10 USD) and the USB SD reader cost 10 RmB ($1.20 USD).

Before I set out, I got some local fare and learned the word for potatoes - tu3 dou4.

I figured I should get some cash before I left, so went to the Bank of China to change some NT into RmB. There, I learned two things: 1) that the bank of China does not change Taiwan dollars 2) that Bank of China tellers’ job performance is represented by LEDs (like a star rating system) on a counter-top interactive sign on which customers can vote (my teller had a rating of one out of five - ouch)

So, I had to find and ATM… On the way to the market, I was pleased to note that bikes are still part of supply chain in China.

The electronics market was… how should I say… very crowded. Let me put it this way - I could find my way out of the buildings by heading towards the fresher air. All of the elevators were full, all of the escalators were full, all of the stairways were full, and there was a line of people waiting to get in. Some of the trading excitement was amplified by vendors tearing cellophane wrapping, cardboard boxes, etc… off of product and dashing it to the floor outside of their booth when selling something to a customer. To keep up with the fountain of refuse, each floor had a few little old ladies running around with a broom and long handled dustpan. Because it was so crowded and because they had a box tethered to their waste that they dragged behind them, they had adapted a kind of straight ahead, head down, charging type of motion. They kept the place walkable, and people got out of their way.

It is a good thing Widows Vista was just released last week - now you can get it (or something that looks very very similar) for very cheap on the streets outside the market. Its too bad SanDisk is getting out of the industrial grade CompactFlash card business - the Shenzhen electronics market hasn’t gotten the news yet I guess - pic below is no-name CF cards being dressed up exactly like industrial SanDisk cards. I was actually really impressed with the counterfeit goods being manufactured there - they really looked _exactly_ like the real thing. From SanDisk CompactFlash cards to Motorola batteries - I would easily have bought them as the real deal.

Anyways - for some reason, all the buying/selling etc… kind of tired me out so I went back to the hotel and crashed.

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