1987, Zhongda Fabric Market is originated in Guangzhou city, a group of people moved into a deserted area which is near to Zhongda University(Sun Yat-Sen University), to continue their illegal fabric stall business, they never expected it becomes into world largest fabric wholesale market, now the whole area consists of nearly 30 different textiles and accessories markets.

The market developed slowly but everything was in disorder till year 1996, Guangzhou Municipal Government started a standardized management and reformation, they built some simple temporary constructions and the vendors moved inside.  At the meantime, another wholesale market named “China Textile City” in Keqiao Zhejiang was flourishing, Zhongda Fabric Market was still faded in weakness.

In year 2001, Zhongda market came into a booming period, Guangzhou government put it into the municipal development program, the market was expanded rapidly. Till today, it covers more than 1,000,000 square meters construction area and more than 100,000 people work there, announce itself as “world fabric trade center”. The wholesalers there sell not only textiles but also varieties of garment accessories for clothing industry. To some extent, it’s also an overextended fabric market, some new buildings which far away from Guangzhou International Textile City (the business center) are not really prosperous, some shops actually are used as warehouses.

Traffic inside the market is terrible, even if the roads and aisles are quite wide, watch out your way, be careful of the tricycles and motorbikes, which are convenient methods for the shops to deliver samples and small orders. Along the roadside or inside every market, 95% shops offer sample-cards for you to pick up freely, and you can ask them to cut a small piece of sample whenever there is no ready-swatch.

That’s not an easy job for you to visit the market without a guide. In addition to the maze alike market, another problem you will face is very few suppliers can speak English, they can simply type out a price on calculator, but it will be difficult to do further discussion, such as fabric composition, in stocks or not, fortunately there are many sourcing agencies who can help you with guiding, interpreting, sourcing, exporting. Many clients spend a few days to source fabrics and collect samples, pay deposits sometimes, but leave the extra works to an agency, especially when they establish a mutually trusting cooperative relationship.