- By limpkin - My Projects -

Shenzhen... when you say this name, what directly comes to mind are all the electronic things you can find in this great city. So on my fourth day there I finally decided to visit the electronics markets everyone kept telling me about.

A few years before this visit I actually already had gone to one similar place in Beijing, so as you can see in the video embedded below I wasn't as surprised as I should have been. I however have to say that there are a lot more purchasable items in the Shenzhen markets, and that anyone can find anything (s)he can think/dream of. I'm pretty sure it would take you days (if not weeks) to know your way around all the buildings and their numerous floors...

To my surprise the sellers were not particularly friendly and to be honest seemed bored. My camera wasn't even welcome in most markets, which made me wonder about the quality of the components you can buy there. It's of course common knowledge that you shouldn't buy "famous" things such as SD cards or microcontrollers. Sourcing reliable and cheap components is therefore one of the hardest tasks if you ever build a product in Shenzhen (especially if you don't have chinese face).

But all in all it was still a pleasant experience to see with my own eyes all the different things I had been viewing for so many years on ebay or taobao!



