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Do you know how factories are distributed in East China? China’s manufacturing resources are distributed in different industrial clusters and different provinces.
East Coast and South China almost dominate most of the domestic light industry. So if you clearly understand what the significant resources in these two regions are, then it would be easier for you to find the best-selling products on Amazon for your online shop.
In this post, you will find out about the 13 industrial cluster cities and the distribution of typical local wholesale markets in the East of China. Of course, you can download the China Industrial Cluster Map for free in this article.
Let’s move on and learn more about the Chinese industry!
Factory Distribution in Zhejiang Province
In this section, I will introduce the manufacturing hubs and primary advantage product resources in Zhejiang Province. The industrial clusters in Zhejiang Province are among the major 8 manufacturing cities:
- Taizhou City;
- Hangzhou City (the Capital of Zhejiang);
- Wenzhou City;
- Ningbo City;
- Jinhua City;
- Shaoxing City;
- Xuzhou City;
- Huzhou City.
A. The largest clothing wholesale market in the east is located in Hangzhou City
The city is famous for its sightseeing, such as the West Lake and meanwhile Hangzhou City, also with very competitive trading and manufacturing capability.
- Geographic location: Hangzhou is located in the north of Zhejiang Province. It’s about two hours from Shanghai to Hangzhou by the bullet train, and the cost is about RMB 100 per ticket.
- Airport: Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport IATA: HGH, ICAO： ZSHC
- High-Speed Rail Station: Hangzhou Station and Hangzhou East Railway Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Apparel/Textile/Stationery
Wholesale Markets Distribution in Hangzhou City:
a) SiJiQing Garment Market
Location: Hanghai Road, Jianggan District, Hangzhou (Close to Hangzhou Station)
The market floor area of 50000 square meters, with more than 3000 stores, and products sold to Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas market. The market covers all the garment categories, which include women’s wear, kids’ clothing, and men’s wear…etc.
A lot of best-selling apparel on Aliexpress or Wish comes from the Hangzhou SiJiQin garment wholesale market. If you are touring in China and want to find garment suppliers in the east of China, then it’s worth it for you to visit the local clothing wholesale market.
You can check another article about Importing Clothing and Textiles from China
b) The Global Pen Wholesale Market: FenShui Town/Tonglu Country, Hangzhou City
Tonglu belongs to Hangzhou City, and this is the most famous pen production center in China.
The largest Chinese stationery supplier, like Beifa Group, is buying from Tonglu pen suppliers. So you should check with Tonglu suppliers if you are going to import the stationery primarily pens from China.
You can find various Tonglu stationery suppliers on online wholesale sites like Alibaba, AliExpress…etc.
B. Knitwear Industry Cluster: Shaoxing City
- Geographic location: North of Zhejiang Province, about an hour and 30 minutes by bullet train from Shanghai. (RMB 100.00 per ticket)
- Airport: Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport
- High-Speed Rail Station: ShaoXingBei Railway Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Fabric material wholesale|Textile|Umbrella|Socks|Knitwear
Wholesale Markets Distribution in Shaoxing City:
1 China Textile City/ Keqiao Textile City
The market is in Keqiao District, Shaoxing City.
The Keqiao fabric market is the most extensive textile distribution center in China and Asia’s largest textile market.
A quarter of the world’s material is imported from the Keqiao fabric wholesale market each year worldwide. You can find almost all types of fabric material from this market which include but are not limited to:
Cotton, chemical fiber cloth, linen, woolen cloth, silk, and blended fabrics…etc.
The market total with 3.26 million square meters and more than 50,000 fabric material wholesalers selling all kinds of fabrics. People who are involved in material and textile China trade businesses should invest time to visit the largest fabric material wholesale market to see if they can find the right vendor.
2 The Umbrella Capital/ Shangyu District, Shaoxing City
There are two umbrella manufacturing hubs in China. The Songxia Town in Shangyu District (Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province) and the Dongshi Town in Jinjiang City (Fujian Province).
The umbrella industry is the leading industry in Songxia town. It was named “China Umbrella City.” There are 1,263 umbrella enterprises producing 500 million umbrellas a year.
It is the most extensive umbrella manufacturing base in China, with an annual output value of 10 billion yuan, accounting for one-third of the world’s production and sales.
I found the Shangyu umbrella price is more competitive than that of Fujian, but the latter has with more fashionable design of umbrellas.
Also, you can find a lot of knitting products such as knit beanie hats, knit gloves, and Knit scarves from Shangyu. They are selling worldwide with high quality, especially to college stores, sports leagues like NCAA, NBA, NFL…etc
C. The Kingdom of Socks: Zhuji City, Shaoxing City
- Location: Zhuji City located in the Southwest of Shaoxing.
“International Socks” is the business card of Zhuji City. The Datang Town in Zhuji City started the manufacturing of socks in 1970. Now the total number of socks produced each year in Zhuji accounts for more than 70% of the country and one-third of the world. The entire Datang Socks District already has an annual production of 11.9 billion pairs of socks.
The largest retailers in the world, like Walmart, Target, and Costco, are importing the socks from Zhuji sock vendors.
Datang Town, Zhuji City, is a large sock wholesale and manufacturing base in China, and you can find all types of socks at a reasonable price from local vendors. The wholesalers in the Yiwu market are also buying from the Zhuji socks wholesale market. Almost 60-70% top top-selling socks on e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay are made in China and mostly are from Zhuji.
D. East China Trade Center: Ningbo City
- Geographic location: East of Zhejiang Province. Two hours from Shanghai to Ningbo by bullet train. Around RMB 200.00/ticket.
- Airport: Ningbo Lishe International Airport (IATA: NGB, ICAO: ZSNB)
- High-Speed Rail Station: Ningbo Railway Station/ located in Haishu District
- Industrial Cluster/Features:Housewares|Kitchenwares|Outdoor Sports|Stationeries| Garden Products/tools…etc.
Tip: Which city wins the No.1 in the export industry in the Zhejiang Province?
It’s Ningbo city, which is the East China trading center. You can find many Chinese trading companies in Ningbo that provide a variety of products.
Why is Ningbo’s export volume the largest in the whole of Zhejiang Province? Because of Ningbo’s strong trade integration capacity and unique port location. Ningbo’s most advantageous categories include small household appliances, kitchenware, outdoor supplies, stationery, and so on. Other types include accessories, Garden Products/Tools, sports equipment, etc. It almost covers most of the items in the light industry catalog.
You may find out a lot of Ningbo trading companies are listing their various products on Alibaba.
I love to tour the showroom of Ningbo suppliers, and every time I can see something new and creative happening here.
E. Do you know Yiwu International Trade City? It is located in Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province
- Geographic location: Jinhua City is located in the central part of Zhejiang Province, about two hours by train from Shanghai.
- Airport: Yiwu Airport (IATA: YIW, ICAO: ZSYW)
- High-Speed Railway Station: Jinhua Station and Jinhua South Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Small Commodities City, Hardware, Jewelry, Crafts
Wholesale Markets/Areas Distribution in Jinhua City:
1 The Yiwu International Trade City
The most famous city in Jinhua is Yiwu city which is the largest wholesale market in the world. You can find all kinds of products and smart gadgets from the Yiwu market.
I have visited the Yiwu market hundreds of times, and you need to be equipped with essential skills to work with Yiwu merchants and get the right price and product here.
2 Arts&Crafts/photo frames/stationery(stamps): Lanxi City (Jinhua)
3 Tools/Hardware/Stainless Steel Products/Thermos Cups: Yongkang City (Jinhua)
4. Wood Carving/Fishing tackle/Ornaments: Dongyang City (Jinhua)
Above all are the four major manufacturing hubs in the Jinhua City area where you can find almost any useful item you’re looking for and buy it at a reasonable price.
F. Plastic Products Wholesale and Manufacturing Hub: Taizhou City
- Geographic location: Central east part of Zhejiang, three hours from Shanghai to Taizhou by the bullet train, and the cost is about RMB 200.00/ticket.
- Airport: Taizhou Luqiao Airport
- High-Speed Rail Station: Taizhou Railway Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Plastic products/Injection Mold development
Wholesale Market Distribution in Taizhou City:
Taizhou is known as the “kingdom of plastic” and “home of the mold.” There are more than 12,000 plastic production enterprises in the city. Plastic household products account for about 70 percent of the Chinese market. They are equipped with the supply chain from the tooling, production, packing…etc.
Most of the best-selling plastic household products on Amazon are produced in Taizhou and exported worldwide. If you want to develop a new inspection mold for your private label product, then looking for a vendor in Taizhou would be a good option.
I placed orders to the Taizhou mold factory several times and came out the very positive results both on mold price and quality.
Taizhou International Plastic City
Location: 1288 Tailong Street, Luqiao District, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province
The sunglasses made in Taizhou are also a hot export because of their reasonable price and various designs of eyewear.
G. Wenzhou City, located in southeastern Zhejiang Province
- Geographic location: Southeast of the Zhejiang Province. It takes 4 hours from Shanghai to Wenzhou by the bullet train. The ticket cost is around RMB 300.00 per ticket.
- Airport: Wenzhou Longwan International Airport.
- High-Speed Railway Station: Wenzhounan Railway Station
Industrial Cluster/Features: Shoes, lighters, Nonwoven goods, PP woven shopping bags, small household appliances…etc.
1. Shoes: There are currently four shoe manufacturing hubs in China. Guangdong’s shoe industry base, represented by Guangzhou and Dongguan, is the world’s Research and Development (R&D) Center for the production and manufacture of footwear. Fujian’s shoes are represented by Quanzhou and Jinjiang. Wenzhou shoe base mainly produces leather shoes for men and women, safety shoes, leisure shoes, and injection molding shoes.
2. Lighters: 90% of the world’s lighters are made in Wenzhou.
3. Nonwoven bags and PP woven bags are also essential exports of Wenzhou, and excellent printing has made such goods very popular in the world.
Whenever I am buying woven bags from Wenzhou suppliers, I just feel the quality is excellent, and the price is so competitive.
H. Kids Clothing Wholesale City: Huzhou City
- Geographic location: North of Zhejiang Province. 2 hours from Shanghai to Huzhou by bullet train, RMB 110.00 per ticket.
- High-Speed Rail Station: Huzhou Railway Station
Industrial Cluster/Features: Children Wear, Kids Clothing, Silk Fabric
If you want to import children’s clothing from China, Huzhou Kids’ clothing vendors could be an option.
There are more than 70,000 people in the town specializing in children’s wear. There are more than 6,000 children’s wear production manufacturers, with 65,000 medium- and high-speed sewing machines and 2,142 computerized embroidery machines.
In 2018, sales of children’s wear reached 55 billion yuan, with 60 percent of China’s children’s wear coming from here.
Huzhou silk has a long history, with a history of more than 4,700 years. It is the city to produces premium quality silk fabric and exports to Europe like Italy, the UK, and also to North America.
Above all are the eight main industrial clusters in Zhejiang that might support you when manufacturing in China.
Factory Distribution in Jiangsu Province
Now let’s discuss the industrial clusters and hot China items produced in Jiangsu Province. This province wins the second prize in total export volume in China.
Today we will drive deeper into five major manufacturing hubs in Jiangsu Province and find out what would be the advantageous categories.
- Suzhou;
- Zhenjiang;
- Yangzhou;
- Xuzhou;
- Lianyungang.
A. The city is known as the “Wedding Dress Capital”: Suzhou City
- Geographic location: Southeast of Jiangsu Province, 1hr from Shanghai to Suzhou by bullet train and ticket cost is RMB 30.00 (Approx.)
- High-Speed Rail Station: Suzhou Station and Suzhoubei Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Wedding dress, Silk, Textiles.
Wholesale Market Distribution in Suzhou:
1. Huqiu area in Suzhou City: It is the largest wedding dress wholesale market in China. Now the wholesale market is moving to a new place and known as “Suzhou Wedding Dress City”.
2. Suzhou Bridal City/Wedding Dress City (the most extensive wedding dress/accessories wholesale market)
Address: 999 Hufu Road, Gusu District, Suzhou
More than 72,000 square meters. 1st floor with photographic equipment, makeup series, photo album frame, and jewelry. And the second floor for the wedding dress, and men’s suits.
You can find all different types of wedding dresses, suits along accessories in the wholesale market. 70% of the eCommerce wedding dress top sellers on AliExpress, DHGate, and Wish are selling wedding dresses made in China. There are many bridal boutique shops in Suzhou, and you can order tailor-made wedding dress suits for important occasions.
Once my UK customer told me that he ordered the wedding dress from Suzhou for his daughter, and they were delighted with the quality!
B. The Hometown of Chinese Glasses Export: Danyang, Zhenjiang City
- Geographic location: East of Jiang Su Province, 1hr, and 30mins from Shanghai to Danyang. Train tickets cost around RMB 100.00 per ticket.
- High-Speed Railway Station: Danyang Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Eyewear
Wholesale Markets/Areas Distribution in Danyang:
1. The Danyang International Glasses City
Address: No. 1, Danyang Station Road, Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province,
The gross leasable area has 37,000 square meters and more than 800 shops
Danyang has more than 1,600 eyewear-related enterprises, known as the “hometown of Chinese export eyewear.” Danyang’s products are exported to Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, and other countries and regions.
More than 50,000 people in the region are engaged in the glasses-related industry, with an annual output of nearly 200 million pairs of frames.
C. Wholesale of Hotel Supplies or Plush Toys: Yangzhou City
- Geographic location: Central part of Jiangsu Province
- High-Speed Railway Station: Yangzhou Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Hotel products, Plush toys
If you are sourcing hotel products like brushes, slippers, combs, or other products on Alibaba, then you would find lots of Yangzhou vendors listing their products on the wholesale websites.
Yangzhou is the leading manufacturing hub for hotel products.
Yangzhou is China’s plush toy and gift capital, more than 150,000 people engaged in the design, production, and sales, of hundreds of millions of plush toys every year from Yangzhou shipping to the world.
D. Importing Glassware from Xuzhou City
- Geographic location: Northwest of Jiangsu province
- High-Speed Railway Station: Xuzhou Station
- Industrial Cluster/Features: Glassware, Crafts
The city is famous for its manufacturing capacity of all kinds of glassware, which include perfume bottles, cosmetic glass bottles, medicine bottles, wine bottles, oil bottles—large containers…etc.
The Xuzhou glassware wholesale market is the largest in China.
E. Lianyungang City is a Suitable City for Wholesale Underwear
As far as I know, more and more people are becoming consumers of “erotic underwear.” More than 30,000 items a day have been sold on Taobao (we call it Chinese Amazon) over the years, and today more than 100 million people shop online each year. The lingerie is one of the hot-selling categories on Amazon or eBay.
Tip: The vast majority of lingerie is a one-time high consumption of goods, and you can imagine how significant business opportunities are!
When I looked at the data, I found that 80 percent of Chinese erotic underwear/lingerie came from Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province. Guanyun country is the manufacturing hub in Lianyungang city.
Guanyun County is exporting the lingerie to the world. The United States, Japan, South Korea, Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, and even the Middle East, and North Korea have Guanyun customers.
It is the production base and manufacturing hub of erotic underwear. For every ten pieces of erotic lingerie sold online in the country, six are made by Guanyun County. The county has a specific scale of sexy underwear manufacturers, with annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan.
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Final Thoughts
China remains the global center for product manufacturing. Understanding the precise industry clusters of China Factory Distribution in the East of China will greatly help you find the best prices and suitable suppliers for your products.
You may feel a little hassle if you can’t speak Chinese when touring the China wholesale market. So you may need to hire a translator or China sourcing agent like Owlsourcing to help you do the on-site investigation and exploring. Reach out to us if you need any support when doing China imports.
We hope you will get an idea about how to find the product in the advantageous regions for your project.
Please share with us if you would have any comments!
