Situated in mid Shandong, Zibo lies to the east of Jinan, the capital of Shandong. The city is convenient to transportation, civic center of which is 70 km away from Jinan airport and 300 km from Qingdao port. Zibo is an economic development city in Shandong peninsula approved by the State Department and has regional legislative power. It governs five districts, namely, Zhangdian, Zichuan, Boshan, Zhoucun and Linzi, and three counties, namely, Hengtai, Gaoqing and Yiyuan. Total area accounts for 5,938 km². Population of the city is 4.18 million, including 2.77 million of city dwellers.

The year of 2006 registers ￥49.981 billion yuan in social consumable retailing, growing by 16 percent against the previous year. Deposit balance of urban and rural dwellers reaches ￥72.53 billion yuan, rising by 14.78 percent by the beginning of the year. Disposable income of urban dweller amounts to ￥13,794 yuan, which can be translated into high living standard and consumptive power.

It is known that, toy wholesales in Zibo profits from Linyi, a city next to Zibo. Small commodities wholesales market in Linyi is the largest distribution center for toys in Shandong, which has great influences not only Shandong, but also regions in Henan and northern Jiangsu. Since Zibo and Liyi is away in only two-hour for driving distance, most of local toy merchants make purchasing from Linyi. There is no special wholesales market for toys in Zibo.

Zhejiang Yiwu Small Commodity City, which has been built up in Zibo has seen greater scale. However, not so many stores are engaged in toy business, moreover, most of them focus on retailing. Wholesales in the city does not see large volume. Being a toy company with impact, Tianbang Toy CO., Ltd. supplies toys for local department stores and private business.

In fact, a great number of department stores and supermarkets exist in Zibo, including large chain stores like Wal-Mart, RT-Mart and A.Best, where special counters for toys are set. Since these stores are all situated at downtown areas, busy crowd boosts up toy sales. They are main force for toy retailing in Zibo.

Major toy retailers in Zibo:

Zibo Shopping Plaza

Zibo Jindi Shopping Center

Zibo Yinzuo Shopping Plaza

Zibo Liqun Shopping Plaza

RT-Mart

Wal-Mart

Zibo Xinxing Shopping Plaza