Where Are Most Factories Located in China? (Industry clusters)

In the blog on “How to buy from Alibaba“, we mentioned a concept-“industrial cluster”.

An industrial cluster refers to a group of companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, financial institutions, manufacturers in related industries, and other related institutions that have competitive and cooperative relationships and are geographically concentrated in a specific area.

Simply put, a cluster is a phenomenon where companies in the same industry gather together.

China is known as the “world factory” precisely because the Chinese government attaches great importance to the building of industrial clusters.

China’s industrial clusters have 5 characteristics with obvious professional characteristics, a certain scale, a complete supporting system, a complete industrial chain, and a standardized government service.

There are now more than 100 industrial clusters in China, of which about 80% are located in coastal areas. Most of them are located in the 4 provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong.

So what is the relationship between industrial clusters and buyers?

Every region in China has a specialty and advantage, such as obtaining raw materials, obtaining parts, cheap labor, specialized labor, or logistics.

If a buyer buys from a supplier located in the corresponding industrial cluster, these advantages will become the buyer’s competitive advantage.

What are the advantages of cooperating with suppliers in the industrial cluster?

• Industrial clusters are relatively rich in labor, and factories can save a lot of labor costs. Therefore, the production cost of the product is lower. And workers in this field are good at producing that specific product. Make product production easier. Most likely, it has also improved the quality of its products.
• In addition, there will be many manufacturers in the same industry in the same area, and there will be price competition among them, which allows you to have more choices and get more competitive quotations.
• The product infrastructure is good. Because there are many suppliers in the region that provide parts for the supplier’s final product, this helps factories to adjust their production cycles more flexibly. Usually also speeds up their production speed.
• With more advanced equipment, the industrial belt supplier’s machinery and equipment are definitely at the forefront of the industry, and can better meet your product style and process requirements.

For example, SourcingArts purchases consumer electronics products, so we will deal with various factory products, such as mobile phone cases, data cables, earphones, speakers, lights, sports cameras, game equipment, live broadcast equipment, etc.

Therefore, we know exactly all the specific regions that specialize in the production of these products, and we source from more than 11 industrial clusters.

Another thing is that you can find 2-3 industrial clusters for your products, but the difference lies in the level of quality.

For example, for safety footwear products, China has three industrial clusters: Guangdong (high quality), Wenzhou (medium) and Shandong (low quality).

It may be difficult for foreign buyers to know the specific regions where each product is produced, but you can start with the provinces and cities.

When you know the city where your product is produced, you have already surpassed 80% of buyers.

Below, SourcingArts will introduce to you the industrial belt of each category of products in China (or you can understand it as a gathering place for manufacturers).

Consumer Electronics Products

The industrial belt of China’s electronic products is located in Guangdong Province. Shenzhen is world-renowned as China’s electronic capital.

Most electronic products made in China are produced in Shenzhen or nearby cities.

90% of the factories producing electronic products in China are located in the 3 cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan, and Shenzhen is the most developed city for electronic products.

The largest electronic product distribution center is located in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen. It can be said that Huaqiangbei is the starting point of China’s electronic product exports.

From the 1890s to 2016, Shenzhen Huaqiangbei commerical area has been the most developed area in China’s electronic product trade, and is known as “China’s first electronic street”.

It can be said that 80% of the electronic products exported by China come from Huaqiangbei, and Huaqiangbei leads the trend of the world’s electronic products.

At that time, Huaqiangbei was also a place that buyers must visit when they come to China. Buyers can find the latest electronic products there, as well as cheap electronic products, such as mobile phone accessories, tablet computers, hoverboards, headsets, and surveillance equipment, etc.

There are even many professional buyers who purchase accessories from here to assemble the iPhone by themselves.

But such a prosperous Huaqiangbei has now declined with the rise of cross-border e-commerce.

This year we visited the Huaqiangbei Electronics Market and found that not only is it sparsely populated, but the products have also become very single.

Almost 95% of the products are mobile phone cases, and there are few other products.

If you know something about the Chinese market, you should know that the sellers in the Huaqiangbei consumer electronics market are middlemen.

You can buy products directly from them, but you cannot customize products.

With the rise of cross-border e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Shopee, and Alibaba, buyers can buy cheap goods produced in China without spending a lot of money and time in China.

Moreover, the COVID-19 in the past two years has also led to the decline of the Huaqiangbei wholesale market.

Most buyers now choose to purchase from B2B and B2C websites. The factories producing electronic products are mainly located in Guangdong Province.

Shenzhen is still the most developed city for exporting electronic products. However, with changes in Shenzhen’s policies and rising rents, many factories have chosen to relocate their factories to cities around Shenzhen, such as Dongguan and Guangzhou.

Therefore, the main gathering places of electronic products in China are the three cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dongguan.

For example, when we search for suppliers of power banks in Alibaba.com, most of the suppliers are from Shenzhen.

You can also obtain the detailed address of the supplier by viewing the detailed information of the supplier.

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Recommend Reading: Is Alibaba Safe/Legit? How To Buy From Alibaba Safely?

Luggage Industry Belt

Luggage is a large product category, which can be divided into many types of products according to use, material, style, etc. The corresponding industrial zone for each product is also different.

Leather bag

Guangzhou

“China’s leather goods capital”-Guangzhou City.

Guangzhou Panyu District and Huadu District are the main areas for producing leather bags.

It is worth mentioning that Guangzhou Shiling Town is a small town with leather goods as its core industry.

Shenzhen

In addition to Guangzhou, Shenzhen also has an industrial belt of leather bags.

Compared with Guangzhou, Shenzhen has higher package quality and craftsmanship. Many brands of high imitation luggage are from Shenzhen, and the market for raw and auxiliary materials is very large.

Bags of all categories

“China’s Luggage Capital”-Baigou Town, Hebei City.

Hebei’s luggage industry belt is known for its low prices and slightly lower quality. Baigou gathers leather, luggage accessories, hardware accessories and other specialty markets that serve luggage.

There are 20 categories of luggage and bags, with more than 1,000 varieties of designs and colors. 150 large-scale enterprises and more than 3,000 individual processing enterprises have formed a large-scale production capacity of 150 million bags per year in Baigou.

Suitcase

“China’s Suitcase Capital”-Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province.

Zhejiang is the second largest province producing leather bags, accounting for a quarter of China’s total output of leather bags.

The leather goods industry is one of the traditional industries in Zhejiang Province, characterized by low processing costs and fine workmanship.

Lamp Industry Belt

China’s lighting industry is highly concentrated in three areas, and its output value accounts for more than 90% of the entire industry. Guangdong Province is the region with the most lighting factories in China.

• Zhongshan is known as the lighting capital of China.  Over 80% of decorative lighting in China is made there.
• In addition, the commercial lighting and light sources in Foshan and Huizhou are also competitive.

If customers are looking for advanced lighting technologies such as digital lighting products, Shenzhen is a good place to find suppliers.

There are many competitive lighting companies in Fujian Province, mainly concentrated in Xiamen, which is famous for LED chip packaging and high-end LED bulbs.

Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai.  Many well-known international brands have OEM suppliers here. The production here is more mechanized, so the price of low-end light sources here is more competitive.

Most high-end outdoor lighting and special industrial lighting are supplied from here.

Guitar Industry Cluster

① “China’s guitar industry capital”-Huiyang, Guangdong, guitar production has accounted for 60% of China and 25% of the world, and Ukulele accounts for 80% of global sales;

② “Hometown of Chinese Guitar Manufacturing” Zunyi, Guizhou;

③ The third largest guitar production base in China-Shacheng, Zhangzhou;

④ “Guitar Town”-a county town in Weifang, Shandong.

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The output of electric guitars accounts for about one-third of the total output of the country, and more than 80% of the products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions such as South Korea, the United States and Australia.

Toy Industry Belt

So far, according to the experience of SourcingArts, importers from different countries like to import classic toys, such as balls, cars, and stuffed animals, because all these classic toys have a large and stable demand every year.

There is no need to worry about sales, because there are always customers who want them.

In addition, there are hot-selling toys in the world every year, such as the Loom Band from 2013-2014, the Kinetic Sand and Balance Scooter from 2014-2015, the Fingertip Spinner from 2017-2018, and the Finger Monkey from 2017-2018 , Silicone bubble fidget toys for 2020-2021.

If you can discover the potential of these products and import them earlier than your competitors, you have already made a lot of money when others start selling. At that time, you can start looking for the next product.

There are many categories of toys made in China, and SourcingArts has broken them down into the following categories by type and production region.

Classification of toys made in China:

Toy Category	Toys	Manufacture Areas in China
Remote control toys	RC Helicopter, Cars, Boats, Quadrocopter	Chenghai, Shenzhen
Diecasts & Toy Vehicles	Cars,Trucks, Car Models	Chenghai
Toy Figures	Lego Toys, Animation Figures	Chenghai
Doll& Stuffed Toys	Toy animals, Puppets, Mascot, Costume	Mainly in Yangzhou and Qingdao, but there are also some in Yiwu, Shenzhen and other cities
Classic Toys	Yoyo, Balloon, Balls, Kaleidospce	Chenghai, Yiwu, and other cities depending on products.
Learning & Education Toys	Toy Musical Instrument	Yunhe(Zhejiang Province) for wood made toys
Outdoor & Playground Toys	Kid’s Slide, Seesaw	Yongjia (a small town of Wenzhou), the capital of playground toys in China
Models & Building Toys	Building Blocks	Chenghai, Yiwu
Baby Toys	Baby Rattles, Baby Walker	No specified cities, but mainly in Zhejiang and Guangdong Province.
Puzzles & DIY Toys	Puzzles, Magic Cube	High quality Puzzles mainly produced in Chenghai. DIY craft toys mainly produced in Yiwu.

Recommend Reading: How To Buy Fidget Toys From China Wholesale?(2021 Ultimate Guide)

Oil Painting Industrial Belt

Shenzhen, Putian and Xiamen are the three major oil painting industry bases in the world.

At present, Xiamen Wushipu Oil Painting Village and Shenzhen Dafen Oil Painting Village are listed as the world’s largest commercial oil painting production base.

Decorative oil paintings in Dafen Village of Shenzhen once accounted for more than 70% of the global market share and was honored as the “First Village of Oil Painting in the World”.

The annual output value of the oil painting industry in Putian is more than 1.5 billion yuan, accounting for 30% of the global oil painting output, and nearly 20,000 painters and painters have been trained.

Sunglasses Industrial Clusters

When you buy sunglasses from China, pay attention to the location of the manufacturer you are dealing with.

Sunglasses vary greatly in quality and price depending on the manufacturer’s location. China sunglasses factories are mainly concentrated in Taizhou, Wenzhou, Shenzhen 3 places.

So, I suggest you look for sunglasses suppliers in these places.

Taizhou, zhejiang province

Taizhou is one of the largest sunglass manufacturing centers.

Most eyewear manufacturers are clustered in Duqiao. Most factories here focus on sunglasses, but a few optical eyewear manufacturers can also be found in Taizhou.

However, optical glasses manufacturers are not very professional, as they have only developed in recent years.

In Taizhou, more sunglass manufacturers produce plastic frames. So if you are mainly purchasing plastic framed sunglasses, you can look for a sunglasses factory in Taizhou. Sunglasses here will be cheaper and of course the quality of the glasses will be worse than those in Shenzhen/Guangzhou.

Seventy to 80 per cent of the sunglasses produced in Taizhou are exported to countries around the world. As a result, the quality of sunglasses produced here can meet the needs of most importing countries. But if you want high-end sunglasses, we suggest you explore Shenzhen.

Wenzhou, zhejiang province

Wenzhou is one of the largest eyewear manufacturers in China, mainly making lenses and frames.

Wenzhou has a lot of regular glasses factory, but sunglass manufacturer is private battalion small factory more. These small sunglasses factories make more metal-framed sunglasses than plastic-framed ones.

The glasses made in Wenzhou are of better quality. But unlike Taizhou, Wenzhou does not specialize in sunglasses.

So, the sunglass quality of wenzhou is not necessarily better than taizhou. In terms of price, Wenzhou’s price will be higher than Taizhou’s sunglasses.

We did some research and found that most of the sunglasses on the market in Yiwu were made in Taizhou.

So, if you buy a lot of sunglasses, or if you mainly want metal-framed sunglasses, you can find Wenzhou sunglasses manufacturers.

Shenzhen

Shenzhen glasses factories are mainly concentrated in Henggang Town, Longgang District.

There are 4-6 large factories with thousands of employees and a dozen factories with around 1000 people. Most of them are small and medium sized factories with 70-300 employees. Many eyewear companies from Hong Kong and abroad also process in large factories in Shenzhen.

Shenzhen produces high-end glasses, mainly optical ones, and sunglasses make up only a small portion of the total.

Of course, the price of Shenzhen glasses is the most expensive manufacturers in other places. If quality is your top priority and you need some customization, then Shenzhen would be the ideal place.

Please note that Shenzhen is a good choice for bulk purchases. But if you’re only going to buy a few sunglasses, it’s better to visit Taizhou or Wenzhou.

Glasses Industrial Clusters

China’s largest cluster of eyewear manufacturers is in Danyang, Jiangsu province.

The annual output of glasses and lenses in Danyang is more than 300 million, accounting for 40% of the global market and 70% of the domestic market, making it the largest lens production base in the world.

Other areas include Ouhai District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, Yingtan, Jiangxi, Xiamen, Fujian, and Henggang, Shenzhen.

Home Textiles and Furnishings Industry Cluster

Home furnishings also cover a wide range of products, and each product has its own unique industrial belt. SourcingArts.com lists some of the industrial clusters below.

Product Category	Manufacture Areas in China
Home textiles	Nantong, Jiangsu
Curtain	Shaoxing, Zhejiang
Carpet	Tianjin
Towel	Gaoyang
Furnishings	Zhejiang Yiwu

Mask Industrial Cluster

COVID-19 has made face masks the most popular item of 2020. Since February 2020, a large number of people have been involved in the sales of face masks.

Everyone said that they got direct factory resources. In fact, more than 99.9% of people act as middlemen, second, third or even fourth middlemen.

Few buyers are able to import masks directly from mask products because the manufacturer’s minimum order quantity is very large and usually only government departments or large enterprises can meet it.

If you only need a few thousand or tens of thousands of masks, you have to buy them from a middleman.

Not only foreign buyers, but even Chinese buyers, it is difficult to determine if they are getting masks directly from a real factory, unless you can visit the manufacturer.

Therefore, you need to determine who is the reliable middleman. My advice is that you need to buy masks from people you can trust in China.

Even if you know he is the middleman, at least you won’t be cheated and you can make sure the products you get are of high quality.

Chinese mask manufacturers are mainly located in Changyuan City of Henan Province, Xiantao City of Hubei Province, Shaoxing City of Zhejiang Province and Zibo City of Shandong Province.

Among them, Xiantao City in Hubei Province is the hometown of masks in China, accounting for 60% of the country’s production capacity.

Sports Shoe Clusters

The situation that industry cluster of Chinese shoe industry develops is very obvious. In general, there are four major industrial clusters.

• One is the Guangzhou shoe industry base represented by Guangzhou and Dongguan, which mainly produces middle and high-grade shoes.
• Second, Wenzhou, Taizhou and other places as the representative of Zhejiang shoe industry base, mainly produces low – and middle-grade shoes.
• The western shoe industry base represented by Chongqing mainly produces women’s shoes.
• Fourth, it is a shoe production base represented by Quanzhou and Jinjiang of Fujian Province, which mainly produces sports shoes.

Jinjiang Chendai is the country’s largest shoe production (output of 8.5% of the world), processing, trading base.

The products are complete, and there are super first-class production equipment and complete enterprises and a large number of famous brand enterprises cluster, the market is mature.

Jinjiang City has more than 3,000 shoe production and management enterprises, the annual output of more than 700 million pairs, annual output value of more than 20 billion yuan, products are exported to more than 80 countries and regions in the world.

Most of China’s sportswear brands were born here, such as Anta and Peak. Hongxing Erke, Xtep, etc.

Clothes Industry Clusters

The figure below is SourcingArts’s summary of China’s major industrial clusters in several major apparel categories.

When you search for apparel manufacturers on Alibaba, the following data will also help you determine whether the factory is located in the apparel cluster. Then you are more likely to choose a good one.

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Alibaba sock suppliers

Clothes category	The main industrial cluster distribution
Men’s apparel	Zengcheng; Guangzhou; Hangzhou
Women’s apparel	Guangzhou; Humen; Hangzhou
Children’s apparel	Guangzhou; Hangzhou; Changshu
Wedding Apparel	Suzhou; Xiangcheng; Jinchang
Underwear	Hangzhou; Foshan; Nanhai
Shirt	Puning; Yiwu; Shaoxing
Leather apparel	Haining; Xinji
Cowboy wear	Xintang; Changzhou; Zhongshan
Woolen sweater	Dongguan; Tongxiang
Down coat	Gaoyou; Changshu; Hangzhou
Trousers	Quanzhou; Shishi; Guangzhou
Sportswear	Shishi; Xiamen; Guangzhou
Swimsuit	Jinjiang; Xingcheng; Yiwu
Replica clothing	Guangzhou; Humen; Dongguan; Putian
Sock	Zhuji; Liaoyuan; Foshan

Children’s wear industrial belt

Three major children’s wear industry base ⸺ Zhili town Huzhou Zhejiang, Guangdong guangzhou foshan dongguan area, Qingdao Shandong。

1. Zhili Town occupies 30% of the national market share of children’s wear, and 60% or 70% of Taobao children’s wear is produced here;

2. Guangdong industry belt cowboy pretend to be good;

3. Qingdao Jimo is mainly processed from Japan and South Korea at the early stage, so the workmanship is relatively good, especially for baby clothes.

Underwear industry belt

• Guangdong Shantou Chaoyang: the largest, the most complete industrial chain, the most comprehensive types of underwear plate;
• Guangdong Nanhai Yanbu: the first segment to enter the second-tier market of bras and carry out marketization and regionalization operation;
• Guangdong Shenzhen Gongming: the earliest processing area for the world famous brands, attracting many big brands nesting plate;
• Xiaolan, Zhongshan, Guangdong: low-key development, the world’s largest underwear production base plate;
• Jinjiang, Fujian, Shenhu: dedicated to the export of underwear plate;
• Yiwu, Zhejiang: the largest seamless underwear plate of a sudden rise, overtaking;

Sexy underwear industry belt: Jiangsu Lianyungang Guanyun County ⸺ Sexy underwear accounted for more than 60% of the national online sales, contracted 80% of China’s graduation uniforms.

Swimsuit industry belt

Huludao Xingcheng, Liaoning Province, swimwear products are exported to Russia, the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and other more than 20 countries and regions, accounting for 20% of the global market, is the largest China swimwear production base.

Others include Jinjiang in Fujian Province and Yiwu in Zhejiang Province.

Note: Clothing industry belt involves too many categories, each subdivision category has the advantage of producing area.

SourcingArts just lists the first section of each category. Of course, there are many other industrial clusters in China.

But they are mainly concentrated in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian. When searching for clothing manufacturers on the Internet, they can be screened by industry cluster.

Cosmetic Industrial Cluster

Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province is the largest and most complete cosmetics production base in China.

There are also many cosmetics processing plants in Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Shenzhen and other places.

China Small Commodity Cluster (Yiwu Wholesale Market)

Yiwu more than 100,000 small and medium-sized enterprises produce more than 400,000 kinds of small commodities, the products are exported to more than 150 countries and regions, the annual sales of more than 200 billion yuan, become the world’s first and largest commodity market.

Yiwu electronic watch production accounts for 40% of the world’s total, jewelry accounts for 70% of the country, tape accounts for 50% of the country, zippers account for 40%, socks account for 35%, etc.

Conclusion

Most of the professional buyers we have contacted have one thing in common, that is, they know China’s industrial clusters very well.

Cooperating with suppliers located in industrial clusters will allow you to avoid some middlemen. And even if it is a trader, the traders located in the industrial cluster will have a competitive advantage over the traders in other regions, regardless of the price or the delivery time.

Above SourcingArts have introduced the industrial cluster of some products, which will help you better find Chinese manufacturers. If you want to know more about the industrial clusters of products, you can leave a message below.