A few years ago, you might have said that Silicon Valley was the centre of the electronics industry. Companies like Intel and HP, which forged new ground in the computing revolution, controlled the world through technology.

Today, however, the Valley is more about a service culture and internet business than hardware — though the huge names continue. Instead, the balance of power (at least manufacturing power) has shifted to China and more specifically Shenzhen. Companies like Foxconn employ hundreds of thousands of people to build the machines that we use every day, and many of the objects that pass through your hands each day will have had their genesis in a factory here.

All this means that SEG Plaza is, possibly, the world’s foremost electronics market. It’s in the heart of Shenzhen, itself the heart of the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing industry, and it occupies the first eight floors of a 300+ meter tall skyscraper.

There’s everything you could imagine inside: computers of all shapes and sizes, mobile phones (genuine and shanzhai), wires, cables, components, tools, accessories, electronics and much more. I’ve seen similar in other cities, and other countries, but SEG was so busy and bustling that it took things to a new level.

The photo above is one of the more odd things I spotted in there — a sales desk of some sort, where a large team of uniformed young people appeared to be taking orders and talking to customers on the phone.

All the surrounding stalls and cubicles were filled with goods: this one just had people. Given that it takes up valuable sales room, it’s definitely sending a signal about what these guys are up to.