An Insider’s Guide to Shenzhen Manufacturing

From Makezine:

The Chinese have a saying: “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it can catch mice.” While often attributed to the late Chinese leader and architect of economic reform, Deng Xiaoping, it is older. But it is fitting that people attribute it to Xiaoping because it was his push for a more pragmatic, results-based approach to economics and politics that gave birth to the mutant urban marvel that is Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city that’s become not only a global mass market electronics manufacturing juggernaut, but also a place where tiny startups flock to incubate their products and get them to market as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Shenzhen is a relatively new Chinese city purpose-built to cater to electronics manufacturing. If you’re serious about taking any type of consumer electronics product to market — robots, microcontroller-based projects, mobile phones, laptops, internet appliances, 3D printers, etc. — there is only one city where you need to be, and that’s Shenzhen.

So, how do you get started exploring manufacturing opportunities in Shenzhen? “You buy a ticket,” says Bunnie Huang, matter-of-factly. Huang, the engineer and Maker’s Maker behind such products as the open-source laptop Novena and Chumby, the enigmatic internet appliance, has been helping others break into business with Shenzhen for years. “So, you go and you look around,” he says. “And you look around some more. You make calls, establish connections. You take like a week, and essentially, you speed date the factories of Shenzhen. Going to the factories gives you a good sense of what’s going on, the conditions there, the media that you have to work with, the manufacturing processes.” He adds: “It also gives you new ideas. You see things you didn’t know were possible in the manufacturing process and that gives you ideas for what you can do with your product that you hadn’t considered before.”

http://makezine.com/magazine/making-in-shenzhen/