Shenzhen - Bao'an electronics markets made easier

English Name	SEG Electronics Market (Nanshan)
Chinese Name	赛格电子市场
Google Maps link	https://goo.gl/maps/AHPGWLpoyA22
Baidu Maps link	https://j.map.baidu.com/Sn4M2
Subway Station	南山 (exit E2)

I was interested in this market because the main SEG plaza in HQB is an interesting mix of stuff.  It turns out to be another disappointment, it's a thriving market for PCs and consumer goods, not what I was looking for.  The top floor is filled with optometrists.

English Name	Depp Electronic City
Chinese Name	德普沙井电子城
Google Maps link	https://goo.gl/maps/FASdRLAYhfC2
Baidu Maps link	https://j.map.baidu.com/6d-yP
Subway Station	马安山 (exit C)

This is by far the best market I know of.  It's huge and has a facinating collection of parts, tools and supplies.  I did two visits out here on this trip, once by bike, once by bus - I prefered the bike.  The bus stops are both decent walks at either end.  I took the e33 express bus which seemed to puzzle the driver as the cost is fixed (10RMB), not cheap and I only travelled two stops.  I've included both the bus and bike maps below.

Since I first visited this market the car park has been sold to residential development and it's surrounded by apartments towers.  It's not hard to imagine this market moving further out a some point.  The photo shows the main building and a smaller supplies building.  The supplies building is also worth a visit for stuff like packing, anti-static apparel etc.  The first and second floors of the main building are enormous and loaded with great things to see.  The third floor is PCs and pos terminals, worth a quick look.  You can see the scale of the place in the photos of the maps, each small booth is about 6'x12'.

English Name	Shenguan Electron Square
Chinese Name	深莞电子广场
Google Maps link	https://goo.gl/maps/6NR7JqU2K9s
Baidu Maps link	https://j.map.baidu.com/z9wR2
Subway Station	松岗 (exit D)

I'm not going to spend long on this one, it's not worth visiting.  I biked for about 20 mins each way and spent 10 mins in the market.  It's mostly a pc and consumer goods market.  It had a sad feel and felt like it may close some day,  The power was off to the escalators (to save $ presumably) and I didn't get a smile out of anyone in the place.  Not many customers around either.  The top floor was empty and access blocked.

In any project it's important to document failures and successes, this was a failure for me.

English Name	Yihua Electron Square
Chinese Name	益华电子广场
Google Maps link	https://goo.gl/maps/3HYA11jVvp32
Baidu Maps link	https://j.map.baidu.com/bDWJZ
Subway Station	后亭站 (exit B)

The first market I'm going to visit is Yihua.  This is a good one to start with because it is only 800m walk from the subway, no taxis/buses/bicycles to navigate.  There is also a KFC attached if you like such things.

Yihua has 3 floors, the first two are interesting, the top floor is PCs, printers and motherboards - these are the same the world across but probably worth a quick walk through.

The walk from the station is fine but like anywhere in the world, walking along an 8 lane expressway isn't that pleasant (noisy and polluted). Consider a mobike to make the journey short and painless.  There is plenty of sidewalk to bike/walk on and I found there were plenty of bikes at both the station and market but ymmv.