In the summer of 1975, the sea of Shekou in Bao'an County, Guangdong Province was dark, while the lights of Liufu mountain in Hong Kong on the other side flickered faintly.

It faces deep bay in the East and the mouth of the Pearl River in the West. It faces Yuen Long and Liufu mountain in the new territories of Hong Kong across the sea. Unlike Dapeng Bay, where sharks haunt, the sand on the beach is exposed every day when the sea water ebbs. Everyone knows that the opportunity is coming again.

A group of people are waiting for the opportunity, waiting for night to fall. The searchlights of the border guards flashed over and over the surface of the mud again and again. Everyone took advantage of the night and quietly launched from here.

In that special era, swimming naked to make a living in Hong Kong on the other side was one of the few ways for young people.

At the end of 1977, during Deng Xiaoping's investigation in Guangdong, local officials reported the tragedy. They told Deng Gong that 700000 young people tried to sneak into Hong Kong. It was estimated that about 140000 people successfully boarded Hong Kong, and about half of them drowned accidentally in the sea.

After listening to the data and looking at a desolate land, Deng Xiaoping immediately said: "the central government has no money and can give some policies. You can do it yourself and fight a bloody way."

Subsequently, Bao'an county had a new name - Shenzhen.

Today, the quagmire of jumping into the sea and sneaking into the sea is now the location of Minghua cruise ship in the sea world. In the evening, the lights are bright, and children often run and play under the colored flag hanging on the side of the ship.

Forty years later, those who fled Hong Kong could not imagine that the lights on the north side of Shenzhen would one day be brighter than those in Hong Kong.

What's more, a street on the North Bank of Shenzhen can make countless people rich and free.

01

Every city is an open book, from which we can see its ambition. On the first page of the book "Shenzhen", there are three big characters - "Huaqiangbei".

In the early days of the founding of the people's Republic of China, considering national defense and security, coastal military factories with advanced technology were hidden in mountain areas. The North Guangdong Arsenal stationed in the mountainous area of Qingyuan County was the most technologically advanced enterprise in Guangdong at that time, specializing in the production of military radio semiconductors.

In the summer of 1979, the national policy encouraged "military reform for the people" and mobilized military factories to try to find their own way and market.

Since the production of civilian products has begun, the problem of military confidentiality does not exist, and it is not necessary to continue to stay in the mountains with inconvenient transportation. After a decision, the North Guangdong Arsenal applied to the province for relocation.

The leaders of Guangdong province did not neglect to stand in the overgrown land in Futian District, Shenzhen, and promised that all 160000 square meters of land in Futian would be used to accept the relocation of the factory.

As a result, Guangdong north Arsenal shifted from the production of semiconductors to the production of radio, television and other household appliances. The relocation also left the brand of the times. The factory took off the original army number and officially changed its name to "Huaqiang".It means that China is strong.

A road near the factory is called Huaqiang road in the name of the company, and the name of Huaqiang North is generated.

One year later, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was officially established. AVIC, a subsidiary of the Ministry of aviation industry of the people's Republic of China, and CETC, a subsidiary of the Ministry of electronic industry, have settled in one after another.

At that time, Hong Kong was one of the largest electronic processing distribution centers in the world. Investors on the other side of the river stare at the construction progress of Shenzhen electronic building every day to see how many floors you can build a day.

Seeing that your mainland is doing solid work in establishing the SAR, the other side has also added a sense of confidence in investing in the mainland, and Hong Kong's electronics industry has crossed the Deep Bay since then.

     

Finally, at the foot of Wutong Mountain in 1981, the landmark building in Shenzhen, the 20 story electronic building with a height of 69.9 meters, was greeted.

In 1984, Deng Gong came to Huaqiangbei again. The electronic building was an important stop of his trip. Then he walked into an electronic factory and said, "computers should start from dolls" after seeing people playing chess with computers.

It is this sentence that has changed many people's lives and brought an opportunity to Huaqiangbei's electronic industry.

Four years later, the State United scattered small and medium-sized enterprises and established SEG Electronics Group. Then, a small half of the first floor of SEG industrial development building was separated and decorated into a supporting market. More than ten months later, the whole eight storey building was occupied by the electronic supporting market.

Huaqiangbei can both manufacture and trade. It is not only the source but also the end point. It can become a complete industrial chain.

There is a three foot counter and an account book. As soon as the shop opens in the morning, small bosses with dialects all over the country will pick up customers with a smile around the shop - they can make money again.

At first it was a spark, and soon it became cooking oil.

Huaqiangbei officially opened its own era of electronic empire.

02

At that time, there was a trend of large-scale industrial transfer all over the world. Developed countries moved their processing and manufacturing industries to Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Because the upgrading of high-tech products is fast and the price is also fast, many chips with excess production or chips eliminated after the replacement of electronic products are sold to Shenzhen at very low prices through smuggling channels in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In those days when Huaqiang electronic world officially attracted investment, a 500 meter team lined up outside the window of the shop registration office. Some people saw that the normal queue could not get the shop, so they offered a high price to buy the second-hand shop, and began to hype the shop. Some people don't even open shops in Huaqiang North. They can make a lot of money by reselling their shops alone.

Standing in the electronic building, the tallest building in Shenzhen, overlooking the foot, there are opportunities to get rich everywhere. Buyers and sellers, money in and money out, and Hua qiangbei continues to perform the little man's gold rush dream, which is an opportunity given by the times.

This upsurge of going south has made countless current entrepreneurs, such as Ma Huateng's OICQ, which started on the fifth floor of Huaqiang North SEG square.

   

In 1993, Motorola handled a batch of electronic components in Hong Kong. This is a small chip used in a hands-free phone. The price is two or three cents. A counter owner of Hua qiangbei spent thousands of yuan in 30000 warehouses.

Until 1995, Motorola stopped production of such chips, which could not be found all over the world. Finally, in Huaqiangbei's market, the original 20 Mao goods could be sold for 27 yuan each.

This single business earned him hundreds of thousands, while the salary of ordinary people in Shenzhen was only 380 yuan a month.

The flow of people, money and information gathered in Huaqiangbei, and such a wealth story happened every day at that time. The protagonists of the story include Wu Haijun, the founder of Shenzhou computer, and Zhao Jianjun, the founder of TP-LINK router.

On July 17, 1994, Wanjia department store (China Resources Wanjia) officially opened. Women's world, men's world, Manha mall, Causeway Bay department store, Shundian and other professional markets and theme malls poured in and took root, transforming the leased industrial plants into commercial properties. Huaqiangbei really began to have the "human flavor" of urban life.

In the Spring Festival of 1995, Wanjia department store's business was booming, and Vanke boss Wang Shi served as a labor force to help the cashier at the counter.

At this time, Huaqiangbei has many customers, high profits and large market demand. Whether it is private goods or regular goods, whether it is disassembled old components or difficult to get new products, everyone is very popular. Every self-employed boss never covers up the source and quality of goods.

The miracle of Huaqiangbei was staged one after another on the stage at the end of the 20th century. In those years, foreigners from Huaqiangbei said that the 400 components that need to be completed in two months in Silicon Valley can be assembled in Huaqiangbei in one day.

How about selling components alone? Huaqiangbei's electronics factory has gradually begun to make efforts. The production quality of our own electronic watches, BB machines, tape recorders, learning machines and small household appliances is excellent. Occasionally, companies can enter the supply chain of large overseas enterprises.

The first decade of Huaqiangbei is a well-known decade, which is a gift from the times.

03

But fate not only gave a gift to Hua qiangbei, but also buried the trap together.

In 1984, the world's first mobile phone was born, "big brother" Motorola dyna TAC, which opened the precedent of mobile phone. This mobile phone weighing up to 1 kg will sell for up to 20000 yuan once it comes out, and the network access fee will be 6000 yuan.

This year, Chinese families were still immersed in the joy of buying a 21 inch color TV produced by Huaqiangbei.

In 1999, Nokia was well-known all over the world, Symbian system was very popular, and it was 15 years since the birth of mobile phone that China officially entered a new era of mobile phone. This year, there were only 700000 mobile phones in China, while the global sales of mobile phones had reached 280 million.

Mobile phone is undoubtedly a new opportunity for Huaqiangbei.

All Chaoshan and Wenzhou people who do business in Huaqiangbei have embarked on the journey to Huaqiangbei's next wealth decade just before the Millennium bell rings.

At that time, Ma Yun had just founded Taobao, and the three operators of China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom had not been established.

Originally, everyone was just standing at the counter, reselling parallel goods from Hong Kong and making refurbished machines to earn a price difference, but there was a serious shortage of mobile phones in the market.

Until 2003, Taiwan MediaTek mobile phone chips were mass produced and shipped. This low-cost chip solution called "turn key" in the industry bundled the chip, software platform and third-party application software, and integrated various functions such as camera, MP3, video and touch screen on the mobile phone chip.

This means that manufacturers can produce mobile phones by adding a battery and shell.

Pandora's box was thus opened, and Hua qiangbei's "Shanzhai" story has since set off a climax.

There is another reason for the word "Shanzhai". At the beginning, manufacturers in Shenzhen did not dare to sign place names on mobile phones. They could only print the letters "SZ". Over time, they were called "Shanzhai".

Relying on the component industry in Shenzhen, Huaqiangbei's boss only needs to add different components, batteries and shells to assemble finished mobile phones, and the cost is reduced to hundreds of yuan. Countless domestic brands came into being.

At that time, 3 ~ 5 new mobile phones were born in Huaqiangbei every day. According to the conservative figure of 3 models / day, the new mobile phones of Shanzhai machine in a year also reached more than 1000.

Later, the competition has become fierce. As long as Huaqiangbei has a new fake mobile phone on the market, other manufacturers can take a look at it. That night, they can change and upgrade the system, paste their own trademark and produce it. They get it at the counter the next morning, which is the best machine king sold that day.

In 2004, the biggest headache of Huaqiangbei's mobile phone factory every day was not technology, but cross-border innovative appearance and brand name for Shanzhai mobile phones.

In addition to serious Shanzhai machines, high imitation machines have also become popular. Many models can make it difficult for people in the industry to distinguish between true and false. If they don't know a little about mobile phones, they may look out of sight and buy products from Huaqiang North.

In those years, almost all the best-selling models on the market were copied. For the most popular models such as Nokia N7 and N95, dozens of copiers were on sale at most.

A miniature Audi car model, turned over, is a touch-screen mobile phone with a camera. There is a stylus hidden in the headlights of its "front"; A mobile phone with "big brother" style in its early years is called "wolf proof mobile phone" because its upper antenna can release strong current in an instant; Don't be afraid to hold a "grenade" in your hand. As long as you break it, it can make a call immediately.

More extreme performance is that the deafening eight speakers or being turned on by an eminent monk have become the selling points of Shanzhai mobile phones.

     

It was an era when young people were crazy about Shanzhai machines. Only Huaqiangbei's mobile phone could do four cards and four waiting. The shape was cool. With eight running lights, it was so cool to hold it in your hand.

In 2005, Huaqiang North created a sales miracle of 28 billion yuan, which is more than the sum of Wangfujing and Shanhai South Road in Beijing.

On average, 500000 passengers flow to Huaqiangbei every day. Gold miners with a dream of making a fortune follow one another, and their eyes are full of desire for money.

But here, everyone is thinking about how to make fast money, but no one wants to be a century old store.

04

Behind the prosperity, no industry or field can escape the law of monthly profit or loss.

In 2007, jobs was born with the slogan of "Apple redefined the mobile phone", which caught Huaqiangbei Shanzhai mobile phone market unprepared.

You are a thousand piles of snow, I am a long street. As soon as the sunrise comes, the moment of mutual disintegration appears again.

The era of smart phones has come, but Huaqiangbei merchants have no R & D capability and core technology, so they can only follow the old way of assembly and plagiarism.

The courage and wisdom exercised in Savage growth and the business rule of making a quick money and running away are no longer feasible.

The wind turned to regular brand mobile phones overnight, but the bosses of Huaqiangbei haven't responded yet. Tens of thousands of stock Shanzhai machines are stored in the warehouse. The profit of Shanzhai machine also fell to less than $1.

The recession came so fast that in the tide of mobile Internet, Huaqiang North's proud advantage disappeared. Years of popularity and reputation have also turned into fragments of memory, hidden in the struggle of once bustling and rich merchants yesterday.

Huaqiangbei has not fought against the changes of the times.

In 2008, at the 10th high tech fair, Huaqiang North was awarded the title of "China's first Electronics Street". At the same time, some Shanzhai manufacturers who are ready to defeat their own brands say that "Chinese Shanzhai netbooks will rush out of the country and go to the world".

But in only half a year, netbooks were eliminated by a newer product, tablets, and some heavily invested Shanzhai manufacturers lost their money.

Also this year, in exchange for the word "Shanzhai", the word "Shanzhai" won the first prize in Google's popular search entry in China, which made China's name of "world Shanzhai factory" widely spread overseas, or notorious.

The Shenzhen government loves and hates Huaqiangbei, the eldest son of Huaqiangbei. Everyone wants to hold Huaqiangbei up from the quagmire and delay the decline of Huaqiangbei and even China's electronics industry.

I have to say, "luck" also unexpectedly stood on the side of Huaqiangbei in the next two years.

The flood in Thailand in 2010 brought the component OEM industry in Thailand to a standstill, resulting in a shortage of components and hard disks. Huaqiangbei's component factory ushered in a small peak of orders.

In 2011, the magnitude 9 earthquake in Japan once again broke the component supply chain, and Huaqiangbei people made disaster wealth again.

The second rise of the component business temporarily delayed the decline of Huaqiangbei, and the bosses' desire to occupy the mobile phone market did not stop for a moment.

In 2010, Apple launched the epoch-making product iPhone 4.

Young people dream of owning an iPhone 4. Some even don't hesitate to sell their kidneys and change machines. Hua qiangbei must not be absent from such a dream opportunity. Hua qiangbei, who was once addicted to Nokia's research and development, turned around and madly copied Apple's electronic products.

The Shanzhai road continues to move forward out of control, but Shenzhen doesn't want to go on with this title anymore.

In 2011, the Shenzhen regulatory authorities conducted a six-month "doubles" special action to "drive away" more than 2000 merchants.

At that time, in the surprise action of Shenzhen police, the Shanzhai mobile phone merchant hiding in the residential building locked the door and threw the mobile phone out of the window to destroy the evidence.

     

Shenzhen TV station photographed nearly a thousand fake apple and Nokia mobile phones being thrown down from the 18th floor of Manha Digital Plaza, Huaqiang North Road

Huaqiang becomes a mountain stronghold in the north and loses.

The turning point of fate was quietly written as early as the moment when Ma Yun created Taobao in 1999.

In 2014, jd.com and Alibaba were listed in the United States successively. E-commerce attacked Huaqiangbei all the way.

The world has become smaller because of the Internet. The contacts and repeat customers accumulated by Huaqiangbei's bosses over the years have gradually become insignificant in front of the Internet wave.

It was also in this year that a group of famous component merchants began to run away, causing a sensation in the whole market, making people nervous and worried. That year, a new round of stock market disaster gave Huaqiangbei bosses a gentle knife.

The decline is hard to reverse, and winter is coming.

05

Of course, this is not the worst news.

Since March 2013, the main road of Huaqiang North Road has been closed due to the construction needs of Shenzhen Metro Line 7. The inconvenience of transportation has become the last line of defense to crush Huaqiangbei.

In the years when the street was closed, Huaqiang North was quiet, many people left, and the remaining merchants were still looking for their own way out.

In September 2014, storm video released the first generation of storm magic mirror, which is the first VR headset product released by domestic Internet giants.

Then VR became a popular concept in the venture capital circle, followed by the emergence of a large number of VR head display devices.

Tuyere gave birth to start-ups and downstream OEM factories. Making VR boxes has become a new demand in the electronic market. The bosses of Huaqiangbei smelled the business opportunity and immediately started the road of VR box assembly.

Do whatever is hot. I also made a balance car in the first two years. Later, the balance car didn't work, and the VR head display went on the assembly line again.

However, almost all businesses soon embarked on the old road of price war. Merchants in Huaqiangbei could not escape the fate of small profits and high turnover.

Opportunities are fleeting, and the competition is fierce and cruel.

Like mobile phones, power stores, bracelets and other products, once the price war starts, all factories have no way back and can only make it cheaper. The price of VR head display has also been reduced from 199 yuan to the lowest 10 yuan within half a year.

After the novelty of users curious about VR passed, Huaqiangbei's VR box business also ended.

The subway of Huaqiang North Station has been repaired for four years. The road leading to Huaqiang North has been sealed for four years.

In 2017, Huaqiang North Road was reopened by removing the baffle for street closure and reconstruction.

Nokia also returned with the replica 3310 model, but no one in the industry has paid attention to where Nokia is going.

People only see bitcoin prices soar from less than $1000 to $20000.

With a flick of his fingers, things are different. Who expected that the world had changed, like the abyss of heaven overturned.

Speculation in bitcoin is recognized as a kind of speculation, and the mining machine business is like a speculation in speculation.

Hua qiangbei will not be absent. Bitcoin is growing well, and the "iron box" virtual currency mining machine has been placed in the most prominent position on the counter of Huaqiangbei electronic market.

This is a machine similar to a reduced version of a computer host. Connected to the power supply, after debugging, the machine can calculate day and night through the built-in chip, and then obtain a certain amount of virtual currency.

   

Mining machine used to dig bitcoin

According to some data, Huaqiangbei is the distribution center of about 90% of mining machines in the world, and all kinds of mining machines are sent to the world from here.

On December 18, 2017, when the real-time price of bitcoin reached the historical peak of US $19442.1, the market price of bitcoin miner white card B with an export price of more than 30000 yuan was once fried to RMB 130000.

On January 2, 2018, the leading group of the Internet financial risk special rectification office issued a document requiring all localities to guide enterprises within their jurisdiction to withdraw from the "mining" business in an orderly manner, and regularly report the work progress.

In the next 20 days, the price of bitcoin began to fall after climbing too high. The market value of $200 billion of bitcoin quietly evaporated, and the mining machine business also fell and ushered in losses.

Once tens of thousands of mining machines could drop thousands of yuan to tens of thousands of yuan a day.

Three months later, the profit of mining machinery fell by 90%, which hit more than ten electronic markets in Huaqiang North, and tens of thousands of dealers were locked up.

In 2019, the e-cigarette industry will become the only outlet in the venture capital circle, and this wave of Huaqiangbei has also not been missed.

As you can see in the end, the emergence of regulatory regulations on the e-cigarette market at the command choked the tears of Huaqiangbei people.

This is the common story of almost all Huaqiangbei manufacturers in recent years. The production lines of these small factories almost follow two standards: what is hot to do, and what can be copied quickly without technical threshold.

It is said that there is no winter in Shenzhen, but when Huaqiangbei is ruthlessly killed by the market again and again, the hearts of Huaqiangbei bosses are full of snow.

06

How brilliant China Electronics first street used to be, how lost it is now.

After 40 years, Huaqiangbei has repeatedly repeated its glory and trough in China's economic transformation and the Internet wave.

For decades, the story of sudden wealth behind Huaqiang's north three feet counter has never stopped circulating. Between the rise and collapse of this cottage Kingdom, Huaqiang North Road experienced the collapse of big people and the rise of little people.

In Huaqiangbei, no one dares to say that he is an ever victorious general, because there are always latecomers.

On the 9th anniversary of Xiaomi this year, Lei Jun said publicly: in just nine years, Xiaomi's biggest change is the elimination of Chinese fake mobile phones.

       

For 9 years, Xiaomi's biggest opponent has always been Huaqiangbei. For Huaqiangbei, a 930 meter long street, the biggest opponent is how to "wash white" his heavy yesterday story.

Shanzhai is just a gray spot in the 40 year development of Huaqiangbei, but it has dirty the face of the whole Chinese electronics industry.

The boss of the counter in Huaqiangbei Street changed one after another, but no one wanted to clean up the mess for his predecessors.

Gold diggers agreed not to mention the past in the cold wind of the economy. See you at the next outlet.

Just last month, you came out of entrance a of Huaqiang North subway station in Shenzhen and walked east along Zhenhua Road. In a short distance of 500 meters, you can pass through 4 or 5 cosmetics wholesale cities.

Yuanwang Digital City Phase II, Mingtong Digital City, hualianfa square, Bauhinia city and Manha square have quietly transformed into the business of importing beauty makeup before they can change the signs of the digital city.

According to the interview, Huaqiangbei has gathered more than 1000 merchants engaged in imported beauty cosmetics, many of which have taken the initiative to transform from mobile phone digital merchants.

This time, Huaqiangbei people completely put down their identity of electronic first street.

But now no one knows how long it will take for Huaqiangbei's industrial transformation, nor how long it will take for the whole country to be known again.

For Huaqiangbei, there has always been a long and cruel truth:

Gold diggers always just want to make a fortune. No one really cares about the fate of this street.

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