Field-tested advice for importing from China — from first contact to delivered goods.
Aug 31, 2026
Foshan is not one market, it is a cluster of specialist furniture towns. Get the geography right (Lecong, Longjiang, Shunde) and you skip weeks of chasing the wrong factories.
Aug 30, 2026
The factory price is never the landed cost. How duty, VAT, broker fees and the rest stack up, and how to estimate your real cost before you commit to an order.
Aug 30, 2026
1688 holds China's true price floor, often 20 to 50 percent under the same factory's Alibaba listing. It is built for domestic buyers, though, here is the honest workaround.
Aug 30, 2026
The world's largest small-commodities market beats Alibaba for a certain kind of buyer, and swallows first-timers whole. How the International Trade City works and how to shop it in one trip.
Aug 29, 2026
Canton Fair and the other big sourcing fairs compress months of supplier hunting into a few days, but only if you show up prepared. What to book, what to bring and how to follow up.
Aug 29, 2026
Half the container defective is a story that repeats every year and is almost always preventable. The four QC stages, AQL sampling, what inspection costs and how to act on results.
Aug 29, 2026
Guangzhou anchors the Pearl River Delta apparel cluster. The markets buyers actually use, how to move from idea to sample fast, and the fabric and MOQ traps to avoid.
Aug 28, 2026
Lead times slip, samples lie, and the cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest order. The unglamorous lessons that separate a break-even hobby from an import business that works.