[mdorazio]

I have to wonder if there's a market for people who specialize in helping foreigners do factory tours like this more efficiently. For a few hundred dollars, someone who actually knows China could have easily paid for themselves by preventing ripoffs like the taxi to the border (as others have pointed out, the train is dirt cheap) and the rush visas (you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200), and made the whole trip smoother and less stressful. As someone who lived in China, this seems like it would be pretty fun.

[idra]

This market not only exists, but is quite saturated already with plenty of foreigners based in China making a living out of it. I've done this kind of work before and it's only fun the first time, then when it's time to actually deal with the suppliers it becomes stressful on a whole another level.

[culturestate]

> you can get them done in HK within 24 hours for way less than $200

They didn't mention whether that price included the PRC processing fee, but if it did that's not a terrible deal for having expedited it in the States. Honestly, given some of the crap I've had to go through with PRC immigration, I don't blame anyone for paying extra to make sure everything's in line before they fly 18 hours across the world.

[joshvm]

Dangerous Prototypes run periodic hacker camps which tour the markets in Shenzhen, I think recently they're including a factory tour. The focus is more electronics, but the general principles about navigating the city is probably transferable.

http://dangerousprototypes.com/hackercampshenzhen/

[imron]

This was my first thought on reading the article also.