Thread by @JRUrbaneNetwork

Family member broke their phone in Nepal so when we arrived back in Hong Kong in the morning we took the metro to the world's largest electronics market, Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen, in hope of getting it fixed. Because if it's electronics, Huaqiangbei will have it. 🧵of my trip.

The market is a cluster of several muiltfloor commercial buildings all connected by a network of underground malls and metros. You can buy anything here computer parts, phones drones etc. The area is also a global hub for electronics parts wholesaling and import/export logistics.

Anything electronic can be found here，from consumer and industrial products to obscure electronics parts.

The most fun I have is looking at the stores that are fronts for factories where you can sit down look at specialized type of IC, transistors, server fan, capacitor, ethernet cable etc and place an order of 1,000 of them.

There are stores that are fronts for factories that just specialize in selling those ubiquitous "holographic authenticity" "Made in China", "QC Pass" stickers you see on all consumer electronics.

Freight forwarding companies are common here too, as if you ordered some consumer electronics or Arduino board off AliExpress it most likely came from here.

So for the phone situation we found a building that is housing hundreds of phone repair stalls with 師傅s working way replacing batteries，volume rockers and charging ports.

My family member's broken phone is an obscure export variant of a Chinese brand. However after some discussion and online research with the phone repair 師傅 he determined that a LCD panel from a local phone model is compatible.

He called his friend who runs a store that specializes in phone screen parts on the other side of the market to check and pick up the part. He confirms it will work and says he can replace phone display unit in 2 hrs. I go and eat 炸醬面, browse the market's plethora of wares.

The fast turnaround of phone repair is achieved because of the centralization of electronics sellers, knowledge and connections. There are 100s of models of phones but also 100s of stalls specializing on every part/component imaginable here.

The 師傅 WeChated me to come back to pick up the fixed phone. He even took us to a neighbouring stall who he knows is better with phone speaker and mic replacements to double check if the phone was put back together properly.

He was talking to us like a vet discharging a patient ending with " leave the rubber bands [keeping the phone together] on for at least 2 hours, don't be too rough with it today."

I thank him and we have coffee to celebrate (and not be rough with the phone), then take metro to a Chaoshan Hot Pot place for dinner and head back to HK.

So thanks for reading this thread that I typed on my family member's now functional phone. For more electronic urbanism like, share and subscribe. Insert the IC on that PCB to ensure you get future notifications from me.