Lying in the east of Guangdong, Shantou is a city coming with total population of 4.875 million. It can be considered as a large city.

Shantou holds the balance of toy industry. Chenghai district of the city ranks one of the most famous toy production bases in domestic China. It is known that, exceeding 3,000 toy makers and traders flourish here, housing over 120,000 employees. More than 70% of products are for export. From January to August this year, accumulative export of toys registers 210 million US dollar, growing by 33.4 percent against the same period of last year. Among the total amount, 54.65 US dollar of toys is distributed to Hong Kong, increased by 2.7 percent. Hong Kong is the largest export market for Shantou.

Though Shantou is a coastal city, citizen’s living standard can not be said high. In the year of 2006, disposable income per capita in urban was 10,949 RMB, as much as national disposable income per capita, say, 12,000 RMB. Different with other cities, Shantou does not have its toy wholesales market. In fact, traders would make bulk purchasing directly with makers.

Shantou houses not only a great number of toy makers, but also noted brands. Two Well-known Trademark in toy realm—Huawei and Auldey, are from Chenghai. Expert in Shantou’s toy industry tells TOY INDUSTRY that, since Chenghai’ toys are in good quality and reasonable price, products from other cities can hardly enter local market.

Major sales channel for toys in Shantou

Wal-Mart (Nanguo store)

Lotus

Parkson (Nanguo store)