Destination · Zhejiang
Zhejiang: the province where most shortlists start.
This is home. Yiwu, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shaoxing sit within a working radius of each other, which means a trip here can combine a market, large plants and textile mills without losing days to travel.
- Yiwu small commodities
- Ningbo hardware, appliances, new-energy
- Hangzhou electronics & textiles
Why this cluster
Why Zhejiang, rather than somewhere bigger.
Zhejiang is not one industry — it is several tight clusters side by side. Yiwu trades small commodities, Ningbo makes hardware and appliances, Hangzhou does electronics and textiles, and Shaoxing/Keqiao is the fabric hub.
The practical win is density: you can see a product sold in Yiwu and made in Ningbo within the same trip, because the two are a short transfer apart rather than a flight.
Because it is our home base, the vetting is deepest here. We have walked these floors repeatedly, and the shortlists come from people we have actually met.
The trade-off is that Zhejiang is not where you go for electronics of the Shenzhen kind, or for the very highest private-label density of Guangdong. Different clusters, different trips.
Presence
Home base
Our daily ground. The clusters here are where we run most shortlists.
Cluster variety
High
Market, large-plant and textile clusters all within reach.
Travel between
Short
Adjacent cities, so a multi-city route is genuinely efficient here.
Categories & markets
What is actually made here.
Categories first, then where inside the cluster each one trades.
- Small commoditiesYiwu — the market plus the manufacturing hinterland behind it.
- Hardware & appliancesNingbo and its belt — presses, tooling, documented process control.
- Electronics & textilesHangzhou — assembly and finishing, with a growing engineering scene.
- FabricsShaoxing / Keqiao — the textile market and the mills behind it.
Sample structure
Three to five days, two clusters.
A typical Zhejiang trip combines a market day with two or three factory days, without a transfer day in between.
DAY 1 · YIWU
Market day
The districts relevant to your category, collecting prices and MOQs in a structured list.
DAY 2 · YIWU
Factory behind the market
Out to the manufacturing towns to meet the suppliers behind the stalls.
DAY 3 · NINGBO
Large plant
A full-site visit for the tooling-led part of your product.
DAY 4 · HANGZHOU
Assembly or textile
Depending on category, an electronics or textile visit.
Filming feasibility
Camera access in Zhejiang.
Home advantage — the clusters we know best are the ones where we can be most accurate about what will get filmed.
- Typical answerUsually yes, with lead time varying by cluster — Yiwu is fast, Ningbo large plants are slow.
- Ask this earlyTwo to four weeks depending on the cluster.
- What gets refusedNDA lines, clean rooms and anything running a foreign-brand order.
- Practical noteThe answer depends on the cluster, not just the category — we will be specific for your route.
Timing
Best time to come — and when to stay away.
Seasonal windows
- 01.Best months: March–June and September–November.
- 02.Chinese New Year shuts the province for one to three weeks.
- 03.The October National Day week is a hard shutdown for most plants.
When a visit wastes your money
- Treating Zhejiang as one city. The clusters are close, but a Yiwu market day and a Ningbo plant visit are different days.
- Expecting Yiwu pricing in Ningbo. Market-floor economics and tooling-led economics are not the same thing.
Before you book: how we verify a factory
Home base means the vetting here is the deepest on the site — but it also means we know exactly where the intermediaries hide.
Keep going