The electronics markets in this city, which claims to be China’s richest, are not to be missed. The two I visited today were unearthly. The bottom floors are components–the closer to the street, the more basic. When you first walk in there are cases and cases of resisters, heat sinks, cable ties, and a million other things I couldn’t recognize. Further up are chips and boards–including kiosks where chips seemed to be getting labeled by hand. Next comes flat panels (all naked and wavy–I’ve never seen a monitor running windows off of a few alligator clips) and batteries and disks. In the first market, I don’t think I saw whole computers for sale until the 5th floor. In the second, the bottom floor included voltmeters and digital thermometers (both as components and finished products). Upper floors were appliances.
After dinner, where we met the ’special package’ that we are bringing home with us, we walked through a giant honking pedestrian mall. I can’t even begin to describe it.