AI-powered consumer product craze brings buyers to China's biggest electronics market

Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei, one of the world's largest electronics markets, is attracting visitors and buyers from around the world in search of the latest in cameras, smartphones and AI-powered gadgets.

Visiting Huaqiangbei in south China's Guangdong Province allows buyers to experience cutting-edge technology firsthand, especially products such as smart glasses with real-time translation.

"This is a major electronics hub in the world. As you know, you can find whatever you want. I bought [VR] glasses, smart glasses. There is so [much] stuff here, so it's amazing," said a buyer from Brazil.

"I'm on business here. I want to check what you have in new products and bring it to my country," said a shopper from Jordan.

While the innovative products themselves are the major draw, updated trade policies are also helping drive the market's popularity.

On July 14, 2026, the European Commission adopted a delegated act adding six new product categories, including smart glasses and other wearable devices, to the list of exemptions from the EU's portable battery removal and replacement requirements.

The new exemptions relieve manufacturers of the need to substantially redesign products for battery removability, thereby reducing both production and sales costs.

"Our sales have already surpassed the total for all of last year in just the first half of this year, and overseas markets now account for about 60 percent of our business. Since the new policy was introduced, our European clients have been the most responsive -- they have started placing more customized orders for battery-integrated designs," said Zhong Xianguang, a supplier in Huaqiangbei.

Sales of AI-powered plush toys offering emotional companionship have also risen significantly this summer. Plush toys that can recognize faces, remember interactions, and act playfully have become popular among overseas children.

"During the summer, we see about a 30-percent increase of number of child visitors. Our best-selling product this summer is AI Meow, which supports 67 languages and can be exported to over 200 countries. It's only been on the market for just about 10 days, yet daily orders have been ranging from a few hundred to as many as 20,000 units," said another supplier in Huaqiangbei.

According to data released by an official from Huqiangbei Subdistrict, the area has recorded an average of nearly 8,000 foreign business visitors per day since the start of 2026.

Between January and July, sales of AI products in Huqiangbei increased by over 55 percent across all categories, with AI glasses sales seeing a 100-percent surge and sales of drones and robots rising by 60 to 70 percent.

AI-powered consumer product craze brings buyers to China's biggest electronics market

Thailand's rural tradition of elephant stewardship is rapidly vanishing as livelihoods change and younger people pursue opportunities elsewhere, threatening centuries of irreplaceable elephant-care knowledge.

For generations, mahouts in the region have passed on their tradition of closely bonding with the elephants they care for. Taweesuk Lapsan is one of a dwindling number of mahouts who diligently carry on the practice.

Long before the sun rises over the fields, he was already at work, gathering bundles of food for an animal that had been part of his family for generations.

"We've had elephants since our grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations. We've been around elephants our whole lives, so we have a strong connection and experience in raising them. That's how we've been able to live with them like this," the mahout said.

Caring for his elephant was not merely a job, but an inherited way of life. Years of daily coexistence forged an intimate bond defined by an intuitive understanding of subtle movements, sounds, and hesitations that take a lifetime to master.

"We live together like this. It's like a family. We're like family; we always go through things together. Until we breathe our last, it just depends on who lives longer," said Taweesuk.

Mahouts and elephants have been woven into parts of Thailand's cultural landscape, from rural livelihoods and traditional practices. However, the tradition has been upended by the collapse of the commercial logging industry and the rapid expansion of tourism.

As fewer young people follow in their families' footsteps, conservationists warned that an intricate system of animal care, refined over centuries, faces gradual extinction.

"When a mahout disappears, they are replaced by people who simply come in to take care of the elephants, essentially, elephant keepers. There are differences in terms of the bond between the keeper and the elephant, the cultural aspects, and the passing down of knowledge and traditions from one generation to the next. So we are concerned about the quality," said Parntep Ratanakorn, Secretary General of the Asian Elephant Foundation of Thailand.

Taweesuk said that his daughters may choose paths far removed from the stables, a decision he fully respects. As the practice fades, experts warn the loss extends far beyond a vanishing cultural heritage, threatening the daily welfare safety nets upon which captive elephants rely.

Thailand's centuries-old elephant care tradition face extinction as livelihoods change