By Cheng Yuanzhou, People’s Daily

By 9 a.m., the streets and alleys of Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen’s Futian district are already bustling with activity. 

SEG Electronics Market, the Electronic Technology Building, and other shopping centers open their doors one after another. Stalls overflow with a wide array of smart electronic products, while buyers and tourists from around the world navigate the crowded markets, suitcases in hand, exploring and testing the latest innovations.

Known as “China’s No. 1 Electronics Street,” Huaqiangbei is home to 35 specialized markets and more than 115,000 businesses. It supplies more than 1 million types of electronic components and consumer electronics to markets around the world, establishing itself as a major global hub for electronics and technology consumption. 

According to Chen Jiongwen, Party chief of Huaqiangbei subdistrict, the area receives an average of 750,000 visitors a day, including more than 8,000 international visitors. For most merchants, foreign trade accounts for over 70 percent of sales.

Indian businessman Mall Kaoyou arrived with his suitcase and a clear goal: sourcing China’s latest smart electronics.

He stepped into the global AI hardware selection center operated by Zhipinku, a supply chain and channel service platform, located on the first floor of the Electronic Technology Building. There, a pair of AI glasses caught his eye. Staff walked him through its full suite of functions: real-time translation, high-definition shooting, lossless music, and an in-built smart assistant. Kaoyou quickly tried on the glasses to experience them firsthand.

“It’s amazing!” he remarked during the demonstration, asking about technical specifications and pricing. “These cost at least 1/3 less than comparable items on global e-commerce platforms, yet  they offer more features,” Kaoyou noted.

The store also offers AI companion robots, smart headphones, misting fans, and more, carrying over 300 smart hardware products from more than 80 Chinese brands. Every product is labeled with information in both Chinese and English. As Kaoyou tried one product after another, his shopping list kept growing.

“I’ve never seen many of these products before. This place feels like a window into future technology,” he told People’s Daily.

In the past, foreign visitors to Huaqiangbei mainly came to source electronic components. Today, consumer electronics such as smart robots, AI wearables, and smart home appliances are increasingly popular. Many international visitors now come specifically to experience newly launched products at the earliest opportunity, said Meng Hangfang, co-founder of Zhipinku.

Overseas social media platforms are further expanding Huaqiangbei’s global reach. A new model combining online discovery, offline experiences, global sourcing, and cross-border sales is taking shape. More and more Huaqiangbei merchants are using platforms such as AliExpress to sell their products around the world. The latest data show that electronics from Huaqiangbei are now exported to more than 190 countries and regions.

Kaoyou first learned about Huaqiangbei through social media. “Many influencers recommend this place and call its electronic products a ‘Shenzhen specialty,'” he said. “After coming here, I found the biggest attraction isn’t just the low prices — it’s the innovation. Many products can be bought here before they appear anywhere else.”

After trying the AI glasses, Kaoyou came up with a new idea.

“If you could make AI glasses tailored to the Indian market, with multilingual translation and longer battery life for high-temperature environments, they would definitely sell well,” he said.

“No problem. We can help you work with the brand, and you could have a customized sample in as little as two days,” Meng replied immediately.

This kind of rapid customization is increasingly commonplace in Huaqiangbei. More than 90 percent of the core components needed for a smart device can be sourced within an hour. Merchants can also quickly adjust hardware functions, system languages and exterior molds according to the usage habits and needs of consumers in different countries, making it possible to combine small-batch flexible customization with large-scale production.

“In the past, sourcing a customized smart hardware product often meant working with dozens of suppliers in different locations. Just getting a prototype could take weeks or even months. Huaqiangbei is incredibly efficient,” Kaoyou said after hearing how the process works.

That efficiency is rooted in Huaqiangbei’s mature and highly integrated ecosystem for technological innovation and industrial development.

Huaqiangbei is developing a model in which a product can be designed in the morning, prototyped in the afternoon, put into mass production the next day and shipped overseas within a week. A new smart product can go from an initial concept to overseas shipment in just one week.

For smartphones and other complete devices, the fastest path from concept to mass production is about one month, while the average iteration cycle for consumer electronics has been shortened to three to six months, far faster than the global industry average, Chen said.

Kaoyou said some of his friends back in India had previously brought back small quantities of AI headphones and multilingual translators from Shenzhen. Their advanced features and high quality quickly made them sell out at retail stores in India.

“I hope Chinese AI-powered electronics can help upgrade India’s smart consumer market and make my business bigger and bigger,” he said. He is also looking forward to working with brands in Huaqiangbei on joint customization, bringing more products made with Chinese ingenuity to the South Asian market.

By Li Gang, People’s Daily

At Dongguan Port in Dongguan, south China’s Guangdong province, giant “express parcels” are being lifted onto ocean-going vessels. From a distance, they look like ordinary shipping containers. But up close, each container reveals itself to be a fully finished house. 

These modular units are shipped across the seas to Australia, North America and the Middle East, where they are assembled like building blocks to form hotels, apartments, hospitals and other structures.

Why have China’s container-like prefabricated houses become so popular in global markets? People’s Daily looked into the story.

Inside a smart factory operated by China Construction Science and Industry Corp. Ltd., a subsidiary of Chinese construction company China State Construction Engineering Corporation, in Huizhou, Guangdong, there is no dust or scaffolding typically seen at construction sites. 

Instead, a fully automated production line, stretching more than 400 meters, runs around the clock. Here, a house is divided into six panels, each manufactured simultaneously on six sub-lines before being assembled into a complete module. Construction precision is consistently maintained at the millimeter level.

A single production line at the factory can turn out 50 housing modules a day, according to Li Huakun, chief engineer of China Construction Science and Industry Green Technology Co., Ltd. That is 10 times the daily output of similar factories in North America, where the figure is around five modules.

At a smart construction industrial park operated by China State Construction Hailong Technology Company Limited in Longgang, Shenzhen, a four-story, 50-meter-high vertical factory likewise bears none of the raucous commotion typical of conventional construction sites.

Every 20 minutes, a fully equipped module rolls off the production line, said Wang Qiong, chief engineer of the company. With 190 workstations and more than 80 pieces of equipment linked together, the facility has essentially turned house building into an industrial manufacturing process: raw materials such as sand and gravel enter at one end, and a finished housing module emerges   at the other.

The facility is home to the world’s first flexible smart manufacturing production line for concrete MiC (modular integrated construction), overcoming a major challenge in the mass production of concrete modules. 

Construction materials are stored in a 10-story automated warehouse, while nearly 100 automated guided vehicles (AGVs) move around the factory, delivering materials according to production schedules. 

Inspection robots use laser scanning to reconstruct the interiors of modules in three dimensions, with any millimeter-level deviation automatically identified and flagged by the system.

“More than 70 percent of construction processes have been moved to the factory, which cuts construction periods by over 60 percent,” Wang said. The production line is capable of delivering 20,000 to 30,000 concrete prefabricated modules annually.

Prefabricated houses mainly fall into three categories: steel structures, concrete structures, and wooden structures. Chinese companies have developed strong advantages, particularly in steel and concrete technologies. The parallel development of the two technical approaches has given China’s construction sector greater flexibility and competitiveness in global markets.

With industrialized standards, digitalized precision, and automated efficiency, houses are increasingly shifting from being “built on construction sites” to being “manufactured in factories.”

In New South Wales, Australia, giant “express parcels” shipped from Dongguan Port are arriving one after another, and an apartment complex is rapidly taking shape.

Traditional building construction involves laying foundations, erecting scaffolding, constructing walls, plastering, and decorating step by step. But that is not how this project is being built. The giant “express parcels” arrive with structural components, walls, electrical and plumbing systems, and interior finishes already completed in Chinese factories. The only task left at the site is assembly — much like putting together building blocks.

From the arrival of the modules at the construction site to completion of the main structure takes only a few months, whereas a traditional project of the same scale in Australia would typically take two and a half years, Li told People’s Daily.

In Australia, labor costs account for 30 to 40 percent of the total cost of traditional construction. Modular construction shifts a large number of processes to factories in China, reducing on-site labor by more than half and cutting the construction period by more than half. As a result, overall construction costs can be reduced by more than 10 percent, Li said.

More importantly, modular construction delivers higher quality. Factory-built modules boast far higher precision than on-site manual construction. Every unit undergoes full-range quality inspection prior to delivery, enabling a perfectly tight, seamless fit during on-site assembly.

Dubai, a major hub for construction in the Middle East, has long relied on traditional cast-in-place concrete standards in its approval system. Before this, there had been no precedent for approving multi-story MiC projects.

In 2025, China State Construction Hailong Technology Company Limited obtained Dubai’s first preliminary approval in principle for a MiC project. The company adapted its technology to U.S. standards and Dubai’s building codes, improved structural calculation documentation, and transformed Chinese project experience into localized technical materials. The approval marked a shift for Chinese construction from “benchmarking against international standards” to “integrating into the international market.”

“Overseas clients care most about three things: delivery quality, delivery efficiency, and cost,” said Jiang Li, deputy general manager of China Construction Science and Industry. Supported by robotics, digital factories, and green building materials, China’s construction industry is increasingly able to deliver on all three fronts.

Behind this success lies the world’s most complete construction industry chain. From steel and concrete to bathroom fixtures and electrical appliances, almost every component can be quickly sourced in China. Customized solutions also ensure structural safety during overseas transportation.

“Modular construction represents a new quality productive force for the construction industry,” Wang said. Having achieved industrialized production and data-driven management across the entire process, Wang’s company is now confident that China’s modular construction technologies will become an important driver of the global transformation toward industrialized construction.

By Zou Song, People’s Daily

At a processing facility run by Ethiopia’s AWO Coffee in Hawassa, coffee beans move through standardized production lines, where they are carefully sorted, processed, and stored before being shipped to overseas markets, including China.

“China, with its rapidly growing market, has become one of our most important export destinations,” said Tesfaye Gebru, founder and general manager of AWO Coffee. “Sales to China have brought Ethiopia not only larger purchase orders but also the confidence to expand production, improve quality, and build long-term export channels.”

Ethiopia is widely recognized as the birthplace of Arabica coffee, where favorable altitude, climate, and a long tradition of coffee cultivation create distinctive flavors. In recent years, Ethiopia’s coffee exports to China have grown by an average of 27 percent annually, making China the country’s third-largest export market for coffee.

In fiscal year 2025-2026, Ethiopia exported nearly 48,000 tons of coffee to China, valued at $347 million, with volumes and value rising by about 40 percent and 58 percent, respectively. Founded in 2014, AWO Coffee now exports around 90 percent of its roasted coffee products to China, with shipments to the Chinese market growing by roughly 10 percent annually.

“China’s zero-tariff policy and other supportive measures have significantly enhanced the competitiveness of Ethiopian specialty coffee, encouraging more Chinese buyers to source directly from the country of origin,” Gebru said.

He noted that the growing consumer demand generated by China’s enormous market has provided African businesses, including AWO Coffee, with a practical pathway to turn distinctive local products into stable export businesses. 

Exporting to China is about more than simply selling more products, he said. Through sustained demand and open trading platforms, it helps African small and medium-sized enterprises reduce market-entry barriers, strengthen their export capabilities, and turn local resource advantages into sustainable development gains.

In 2025, AWO Coffee made its debut at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), where it established connections with dozens of Chinese importers interested in long-term cooperation.

“The CIIE has helped us expand our brand presence, strengthen relationships with our Chinese trading partners, and gain a better understanding of the preferences of Chinese consumers,” Gebru said.

Today, the company’s 14-hectare coffee plantation is unable to fully meet demand from China. To increase supply, it has begun working with nearby farmers to expand coffee bean procurement. 

Growing demand from Chinese consumers for a wider variety of roasted coffee products has also encouraged the company to move beyond exporting mainly green coffee beans to higher value-added products such as roasted and packaged coffee.

“China’s commitment to high-standard opening up and the steady implementation of preferential trade policies for Africa have sent a strong signal of long-term cooperation, greatly boosting the confidence of African businesses,” Gebru said.

He added that AWO Coffee will continue deepening cooperation with Chinese importers, expand exports of Ethiopian specialty coffee to China, and develop more value-added products, including ready-to-drink and portable coffee products.

“With China’s continuously expanding market, inclusive and business-friendly trade policies, and diverse platforms for commercial cooperation, more high-quality African products will enter the Chinese market, and Africa and China will continue advancing together on the path of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation,” he concluded.