How to Buy Goods from China?
If you want to buy goods from China, you can do it in several ways.
- ▸ Online shopping is the easiest way to find a product on a platform and buy it.
- ▸ Another option is to attend a trade fair, see many exhibitors in person, and make deals on-site.
- ▸ A third option is to have someone currently in China or a Chinese contact near you to assist with purchases.
- ▸ The best option, rarely discussed, is to travel to China and personally find a company with expert assistance.
In this article, we will focus on this last method and show you how it looks and how we do it.
Specialized Cities and Industrial Centers in China
In China, there are entire cities and industrial centers dedicated to the mass production of certain types of products. We wrote about this in the article
Navigating the Chinese Market: A Guide to Product Sourcing.
Each of these centers specializes in a particular area – in Yiwu you can find an endless supply of small goods and accessories, in Shenzhen the majority of world electronics are developed and produced, while Guangzhou is known for textiles and fashion.
Knowing where products are made makes it easier to reach the right suppliers and reliable sources for the goods you are interested in.
What sets a good agent apart from a foreigner living and working in China, or a Chinese person offering help, is that we know where to look and where large numbers of manufacturers for specific products are concentrated.
Recently, a well-known regular client informed us of his upcoming trip to China, seeking our help in finding a specific type of stone.
When buyers come to China, they usually do not want to leave their comfort zone. Visiting a trade fair is considered enough. Fairs are in large cities, so there’s not much wandering. You know where things are, and there are no exhausting drives across China or eating in worker canteens (which you’ll encounter if you go to rural areas). Our client started with the idea that we won’t go outside the big city. There are enough stone manufacturers in Guangzhou and Foshan, which are relatively close. Additionally, Foshan is one of China’s ceramic centers, so we expected to find what we were looking for.
And indeed, we did. After two working days, we found the required goods with prices and quality satisfying the client, but… On our suggestion, the client agreed to go deeper into the "jungle," to venture outside the city and visit places where his product is mass-produced.
Case Study: Searching for Stone
After a short flight and a few hours of driving, we arrived at our destination.
What you see is almost unreal for someone coming from Europe.
Imagine driving on a highway through a populated area, with stone manufacturers lined up on both sides. Some smaller, some larger, but all organized in the same way. In the front row, next to the road, are offices with products stacked outside.
Behind them are production facilities or factories.
This goes on for kilometers, and on both sides of the road, you see an incredible number of stone manufacturers.
In two days, we visited a large number of sellers. It’s impossible to visit them all, but even what we visited was more than enough.
All of them offer the same or very similar goods and compete for every buyer. Many do not even appear at fairs, at least not regularly every year, and each of them can offer satisfactory quality at a favorable price (which you can negotiate on the spot, specifying your conditions, stone colors, dimensions, material hardness, etc.).
Advantages of Visiting Production Centers Directly
- Lower prices – direct contact with the manufacturer without intermediaries.
- Wider selection – dozens or hundreds of companies offering similar products in a small area.
- On-site negotiation – the ability to agree on price, quantity, dimensions, colors, and other terms immediately.
- Better insight into quality – see the factory, production process, and finished product in person.
- Product customization – many manufacturers are willing to produce goods according to your requirements.
- More reliable supplier choice – easily compare multiple companies and choose the one that suits you best.
Challenges of Visiting Production Centers
If you plan to visit these parts of China, forget about the comfort of luxury restaurants.
We enjoyed lunch in a worker canteen, where the hosts kindly warned us that food is eaten with chopsticks and there is only one spoon and one fork for the entire restaurant. The toilet was a traditional squat, no flush – simple, but authentic!
In addition, prepare for the following:
- Distance – many centers are far from major cities and require additional travel by plane or long drives.
- Basic conditions – worker restaurants, simple accommodation, and basic infrastructure are not for everyone.
- Language barrier – manufacturers outside big cities hardly speak English.
- Cultural differences – negotiation, meals, and daily habits may be challenging without local help.
- Time management – impossible to visit all companies, so you must know how to select the right ones.
- Expert assistance needed – without an agent or guide, it is difficult to navigate, assess quality, and make the right deal.
Conclusion of What We Observed
After the exhausting trip, we returned to the city and tried to grasp the scale of everything we saw. We felt as if we had traveled 10–15 kilometers along a single street lined with companies one after another.
Since it was impossible to visit them all, we asked Baidu (Chinese Google) how long the street actually is. The answer shocked us – about 50 kilometers!
Imagine driving 50 kilometers on a highway, with only stone manufacturers on both sides – blocks, slabs, columns, fences, figurines… whatever you can think of. The scene is truly unreal.
These are the places where you really need to look for suppliers. Many appear at trade fairs, but not all. Those who mainly work for the domestic market or are trying to break into the foreign market are often willing to offer you the best combination of price and quality.
If you want to quickly and safely find a reliable supplier in China, contact us – our on-the-ground experience can save you time, money, and a lot of stress.
