For those of us who love wholesale markets, you will be spoilt for choice in Guangzhou. The Chinese city is home to more than 1,000 wholesale markets covering a wide range of products. And wholesale markets from other parts of China buy from those in Guangzhou.
With so many options, the challenges are where to start and visit with the limited time we had. We also had to consider the amount of time we expect to spend in each market.
During our recent trip to Guangzhou to attend Canton Fair, we set aside two days to visit wholesale markets.
We read many online reviews and narrowed down to about half a dozen markets catering to our interests — electronics, gifts and clothes. Factors we considered include products, location (we didn’t want to travel hours to get there and back) and proximity of shortlisted markets to one another.
Here are our favourites:
Nanfang Dasha International Electronic Market
Electronics is top of our list and we were thrilled that Nanfang Dasha International Electronic Market is located across the road from another on our list — New Asia International City.
We preferred Nanfang because it is brighter and less cluttered. While it didn’t feel like it was large, the building is massive with lots of corridors linking to another wing on the back.
Some brands look familiar because we saw their booths at Canton Fair the day before. Many of the stores seem to sell similar goods such charging cables, power banks, power strips, and in-ear headsets. It’s hard to discern which brand is better so it’s a case of gut feel. Overall, the staff at the shops are friendly and try their best to communicate with us. We speak Mandarin but sometimes can trip over jargon.
Baima Clothing Wholesale Market
The building looks modern on the outside and we were welcomed by touts offering us imitation watches. When we told one we weren’t keen, the reply was, “So you only buy originals?”.
We let that slide and moved quickly into the building which was filled with shops stocking local brands, nearly all of which we have not heard of. Most shops don’t indicate prices on the products so it’s a case of enquiring if you’re keen. The biggest challenge lies in the similarity of products among the shops.
Having said that, it’s a good place to source for China-made clothing. I must say that some of the designs look really trendy. And if nothing catches the eye, there are a few other clothing wholesale markets within walking distance.
Onelink Plaza
This has to be our favourite wholesale market — we returned to cover the ground another day just to be sure that we’ve seen everything.
Onelink Plaza is a catch-all wholesale market with something for everyone. Its shops carry products ranging from home decor and furniture to stationery and bags. And many indicate their prices so there’s no need to second guess the cost of the products. While we were there, there were bargains galore at several of the stores . It’s the place where we bought the most from.
A major plus point is that its basement toilets have sitting pans. The same cannot be said of those in the upper levels.
We’ll be back!
Besides these, we visited a few other markets over that two days. However, those are nothing to shout about.
We aim to return next year to revisit Onelink Plaza and maybe Nanfang Dasha International Electronic Market, plus check out a few others we did not get to see.
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