Q: I am looking for wholesale sources for women's apparels. Will Shishi city be the right place to search? Are there any other cities I can find such sources?

There are quite a few Chinese cities known for their clothing wholesale markets.

In Quangzhou, there are many clothing wholesale markets. There are too many of them to name. Quite a few othem are in the neighborhood of Guangzhou Railway Station. One of the larger markets is Baima Shangmao Dasha (White Horse Trade Plaza).

Outside but close to Guangzhou, the satelite city Humen is also known for its clothing markets. Humen is part of Dongguan City, located about one hour southeast of Guangzhou. Here there are over 1,000 clothes-making businesses and a dozen or so large clothing markets, with 8,000 or merchants operating there. It is said that Dongguan as a whole does well with women's clothing. Some say that upper-end clothes are found at markets in Shenzhen (Hanyan Market, for example), middle-range clothes are found in Humen, and lower-end clothes are found in Guangzhou.

In the neighboring Fujian Province, large clothing markets are found in Shishi, Quanzhou and Jinjiang. These three cities are all located on the coast, about 20 km apart from one another. There cities are smaller than Guangzhou.

In Shanghai, the largest clothing-apparenls wholesale market is on Qipu Lu (Qipu Road - some people, referring to the prices of the goods they find here, give the place the English nickname "Cheap Road"). Qipu Road is in the heart of Shanghai, one kilometer or so north of the Bund, close to Subway Line 8 and Subway Line 4.

In Beijing, one of the large clothing wholesale markets is Dahongmen ("Great Red Door"). It is said that there are over 7,000 merchants operating at this market, concentrating in clothing and apparels, shoes and textiles. Dahongmen Clothing City is located in the southern part of Beijing, on Nanyuan Road between South 3rd Beltway and South 4th Betlway. Another major clothing wholesale market in Beijing is close to the zoo in the city, known as Dongwuyuan (Zoo) Clothing Market. This is the northwestern part of the city.

All these markets are sizeable and have a large number of goods to offer. Some people believe that clothing markets in the Guangzhou area (Guangzhou, Humen, Shenzhen, Zhongshan, etc) have an advantage in that the region is the home of numerous clothing factories; this means that the markets in the area can bring new products to their customers more quickly. Of course, you need to look into all this to make a good decision as for which place or places to go.