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Shenzhen’s Electronics Markets By Edison Zhang Have you ever seen an entire shopping mall dedicated to electronics? Shenzhen has two right next to each other! The larger one features not just consumer electronics like cameras, drones and so on but also bustling floors full of almost every electronic component you can think of. T he Huaqiangbei Commercial Street market is described as the world’s largest electronics market. It is about six stories tall, with component sales mainly occurring on the ground floor and a couple of floors above it. Beyond that, the shops mostly sell consumer electronics. While that isn’t what I went there to see, they are well worth a visit, especially the drone vendors. One of the things you’ll immediately notice upon entering the ground floor is shop after shop packed to the rafters with reels and boxes of components. Another is the people constantly wheeling trolleys full of boxes of components in and out. There must be millions of individual parts on some of those trolleys! While there is a lot of wholesale-­type activity, the market is open to the public, and any vendor will happily deal with you. The local dialect is Cantonese, although many people also speak Mandarin. It is possible to shop at the market even if you can’t speak either language, especially if you have a smartphone equipped with a translation app. A human translator would be even better. I found one large vendor selling semiconductors with an employee who could speak English fairly well, but it is uncommon. In some cases, the vendors are happy to sell you just a handful of parts, but many of them deal in volume. While you don’t need to buy full reels or boxes of parts, you might need to start at around a hundred pieces. Don’t feel that would be too expensive, though; depending on what they are, those hundred parts might only cost you one or two Australian dollars; sometimes less than a dollar! Reels with thousands of components that, in my estimation, were of decent quality started at around $10. Shops in the market tend to be specialised; for example, many of siliconchip.com.au the shops sell just one or two of the following component types: ◼ SMD ceramic capacitors ◼ SMD resistors ◼ Inductors ◼ Transformers ◼ SMD transistors ◼ SMD ICs ◼ LEDs ◼ Switches ◼ Solid electrolytic capacitors ◼ Through-hole plastic film and ceramic capacitors ◼ Crystals ◼ USB and SD connectors ◼ Cables Where is Shenzhen? The Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province was created to complement neighbouring Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was still under British rule, they created a ‘special economic zone’ outside its borders, right next to the ‘New Territories’ of Hong Kong, to bring similar economic benefits. The Sham Chun River separates Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Today, both cities are part of the Pearl River Delta region, a densely populated area with around 85 million people. It has significant industry, including electronics manufacturing. There are 11 major cities in this area, but a lot of the PCB manufacturing and electronics assembly is concentrated in and around Shenzhen. Hong Kong has a great deal of economic activity. Still, with its relatively limited land area, it is more of an international trade Australia's electronics magazine December 2023  57 The markets are housed in a building that spans a small road. Electric scooters are popular here! The other side of the building. Some entrances are at ground level while others take you straight up a floor or two. and finance hub (like London or New York) than a manufacturing powerhouse. Most of the manufacturing occurs in the adjacent mainland China area. will see those types in large numbers, even though you might not have heard of them. For example, the S8050 NPN transistor is quite popular there, with several vendors selling it in quantity. They are rated at 20V and 700mA, so they are useful as general-purpose NPN transistors in low-voltage circuits, where we might use a BC328 (25V, 800mA) instead. Similarly, in terms of Mosfets, certain types will crop up often, usually from the AO (Alpha & Omega brand) or Si (Vishay Siliconix) series; for example, the AO3400-3407 series are popular high-current Mosfets in SOT-23 SMD packages. I am unsure if these are genuine brand-name parts or clones, but from the testing I’ve done, they meet all the relevant specifications. ICs and regulators are similar; you will find a certain subset of parts that Chinese manufacturers appear to have standardised on are widely available, while other parts that you might be used to seeing will be special-order types. Available brands You might be wondering whether the parts sold at the markets are genuine brand-name devices, or some sort of clone/knockoff. Virtually all the parts I saw seemed genuine, although they didn’t always have the expected branding. In some cases, it had been purposefully removed or crossed out, possibly to avoid betraying the ‘grey market’ source of these parts. By that, I mean that they likely come from a factory making brand-name parts, but perhaps not through official sales channels that the manufacturer endorses. Some of the brands that I saw represented at the markets included AVX, EPCOS, Kemet, muRata, Panasonic, Samsung, TDK, Vishay, Wima & Yageo (capacitors), Abracon (crystals), Atmel, Analog Devices, Fairchild, Infineon, Maxim, Nexperia, onsemi, Rohm, ST Micro, Texas Instruments & Toshiba (semiconductors) and MEAN WELL (power supplies). Subjectively, the quality of everything I saw was good. For example, the USB connectors didn’t have a brand name I recognised. However, the materials used seemed appropriate, and the forming of all the leads, shells, plastic mouldings and so on appeared to be done with as much accuracy as you’d want for such complex and detailed assemblies. Similarly, the semiconductors I saw were in modern packages loaded into reels on tape, and they all appeared to have good lead finish, plastic package deflashing and so on. It’s clear that they are being made in modern factories with up-to-date equipment. I would have no hesitation buying and using the parts sold by most vendors there, as long as you use common sense. It’s clear that many manufacturers are buying these parts by the thousands, if not millions. They would be rightly upset if they made a heap of TVs, computers or similar, only to discover that even a small percentage didn’t work! China is full of factories, including numerous silicon fabs, many of which are in the Pearl River Delta and crank out components by the millions. There’s a lot of competition, and I don’t think anyone selling sub-par parts would survive for long. Still, the markets are probably not for you if you need your parts to come with an audit trail. You’re better off ordering from a vendor like DigiKey, Mouser or element14. One thing that takes a little getting used to is that what is considered a ‘standard’ part in China is a little different from in Australia or New Zealand. Manufacturers there have clearly settled on specific parts or series and stuck with them. As a result, you 58 Silicon Chip The AliExpress connection I have no proof of this, but I suspect that many electronics vendors on websites like AliExpress and eBay, a significant proportion of which are based in Shenzhen, are official or unofficial agents for the markets. Locals could easily make money by advertising products they see at the markets on one of those websites at a markup. If someone places an order, they can pop down to the markets, make a purchase and stick it in an envelope addressed to you. They probably do the same for many people all at once for greater time efficiency. I even noticed shops in the markets selling packing materials like I took this photo early, with some shops yet to open. Check out how many reels are in the small shop on the right! Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au The upper floor shops mostly sell consumer electronics and gadgets. Watch out for knockoffs, unless that’s what you’re after! Some of the large component vendors also have shops upstairs, which they seem to use as local warehouses. boxes and bubble wrap. It’s possible that people can fulfil orders on eCommerce platforms without having to go very far outside of the market building. but it is still worth visiting. I noticed more hifi stores there compared to Huaqiangbei, for example, plus plenty of shops selling devices like cameras and smartphones. Buying from the market Local area While many vendors will accept cash payments, it is more common to pay with a smartphone app like AliPay or WeChat (which isn’t just a messaging app). Both are very convenient for buyers and sellers and generally involve one or the other scanning a QR code with their phone or POS system. You need a Chinese mobile phone number to set up either app, but AliPay now has an English translation. Once in China, it is possible to set up the app and transfer some money from your bank account. That makes purchases much easier throughout China, as virtually all shops offer those two apps as payment options. One of the vendors told me renovations are planned for the lower floor of the markets in late 2023, so they could have changed somewhat by the time this article is published. Still, given how much activity I saw going on there and the evident links to manufacturing, I expect most of the same vendors will be back once renovations are complete. If you want to visit the Huaqiangbei markets, there is an excellent four-star hotel right next door called the Huaqiang Plaza Hotel. It is affordable by Australian standards. The Hotel and the markets are just off Huangqiang Lu, a pedestrian mall with many shops, restaurants and attractions. So there are plenty of other things to see in the area and it is quite tourist-friendly. Like Hong Kong, Shenzhen is an international city where Westerners will feel somewhat at home, although it is not exactly a tourist destination. Still, as I wrote earlier, don’t expect many people to speak English. I found it easy to get around Japan without understanding Japanese (there are many English signs there), but I cannot say the same about China (yet). Conclusion Another building called the Seg Communication Market is across the street from the Huaqiangbei Commercial Street market (www. hqew.com). It is located at 1015 Hua Qiang Bei Lu, Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China 518028 (https://maps.app. goo.gl/fAAKEci7fFjkqG7V7). It is smaller and is mainly concentrated on consumer electronics, I really enjoyed looking around the Shenzhen electronics markets to see what was available. The massive amount of parts surrounding you makes you feel like a kid in a lolly shop. If you are travelling to Asia, it is very much worth a visit. If you plan to visit Shenzhen from Hong Kong, although they are right next to each other and part of the same country, they operate under the ‘one country, two systems’ scheme. Other places you could consider visiting if in the area include Foshan (famous for food, ceramics & martial arts), Guangzhou SC (zoo, architecture & shopping) and Macao (casinos). This photograph gives you a good idea of how many components are going in and out at one time. While I visited the markets, the ground floor was filled with smaller stalls packed with electronic components. The Seg electronics market siliconchip.com.au Australia's electronics magazine December 2023  59