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Finding Suppliers
Manufacturing in China is clustered by city and by product. These guides map the clusters and explain how to shortlist and vet suppliers.
- 01China Manufacturing Hubs: Which City Makes What (Cluster Map)China's manufacturing is organized in product clusters, often a single town or county making one category. Key examples: Yiwu for small-commodity wholesale, Shenzhen for electronics, Chenghai (Shantou) for plastic toys, Datang (Zhuji) for socks, Danyang for eyeglass lenses, Cixi for small appliances, Yongkang for hardware, Wenzhou and Jinjiang for footwear, Zhili for children's clothing, Shiling (Guangzhou) for bags, Foshan for furniture, Dehua for ceramics and Anxi for rattan-iron crafts.6 min read
- 02Factory vs Trading Company in China: How to Tell and Which to UseCheck the supplier's business license on China's official enterprise registry: a factory's business scope (经营范围) includes production verbs such as 生产 (produce), 制造 (manufacture) or 加工 (process) for your product, while a trading company's scope lists only sales, wholesale or trade. Then confirm with a live video walk-through or third-party audit. Factories usually win on price and technical control; trading companies win on low MOQs, mixed orders and English-speaking service.7 min read
Key terms
- Factory audit
- An on-site assessment of a supplier's legal status, facilities, production capacity, quality system and sometimes social compliance, done before placing orders or periodically.
- Industrial cluster
- A city or town in China where many factories, component makers and suppliers of the same product category are concentrated, such as Shenzhen for electronics or Foshan for furniture.
- RFQ
- A written request that asks several suppliers to quote price, MOQ, lead time and terms against the same product specification, so their offers can be compared like for like.
- Trading company
- A company that buys products from factories and resells them to buyers, adding a margin and usually handling communication and export paperwork, without making the goods itself.
- Unified social credit code
- The 18-character national ID assigned to every Chinese company and organisation under standard GB 32100-2015, printed on its business licence and searchable in official registries.