Designed in China: Part Two Click - Short Edition

It probably won't surprise you if I told you China makes a lot of stuff,

but would you believe it makes quite this much? In 2011, the country

produced 90% of all computers, 80% of all air conditioners and

energy-saving lightbulbs, 70% of all cellphones, just over 1 billion of

them, and also found time to make 63% of the world's shoes. And much

of all of that would have come from this place. Welcome to the city of

Shenzhen. So much of the world's Electronics come from Shenzhen. So

many of your electronics started life here. Cases, components,

circuit boards, chips. This is where stuff gets me. -- made. On the

southern coast, it is called the Workbench of China. And for good

reason. Less than 40 years ago, only 30,000 people lived here. Now there

are 12 million. That explosive growth is built on foundations of

silicon. This week, I am on a mission to find out how our things

become, well, things. And as the saying goes, when it comes to

electronics, all roads lead to Shenzhen. This is the hardware

accelerator in downtown Shenzhen. Each year, teams of hopeful

entrepreneurs make a pilgrimage to this place to plan, prototype and

perfect their gadgets of the future. But before I show you around, time

for a spot of lunch. We call it micro foods, so which is insects as

a new protein. It is something that has been eating for a long time in

all parts of the world, actually. -- eaten. It can be very efficiently

grown. This is the smallest possible footprint of producing protein and

nutrients. So better than plants, better then a cow? Definitely better

than owning a cow. You can grow it on waste materials. You don't have

to add additional water, they take it out of the food they get. And you

need very that all energy. What do they taste like? You can just try

them. What do they taste like? They taste slightly nutty. Mostly

neutral. That's what I wanted to know. They can actually be mixed

into any types of recipes. In this way, we rested them, so they are

roasted and crispy. But you can also make them into a meat patty and make

them into a burger. It is a shrimp that came on land a

really long time ago. That is what it is. It's not bad. Living farms is

only one of the companies currently in residency and there is no

shortage of interesting ideas. There is the auto guitar tuner, the skiing

brutes that Rajasthan, the Internet of things, and the remote control

fish tank cleaner -- that tracks your style. This takes liquid

materials, special formulations, and converts them into fibres using an

electric field. What happens is this little spinning needle produces

fabric that is composed of the fibres. This machine is aimed at

researchers right now. We are looking to get into the market and

help people ring advanced textiles to a commercially viable point by

making available a fast machine. Shenzhen has a wealth of vendors so

for a prospective area could they be to shops to work with. They respond

to text messages and allows us to do work in a short amount of time for

cheap. It is good quality work as well, so good from unflattering. It

has been here since 2011, and over 100 companies and their ideas have

passed through. It is empty today because there is another office over

in the US, and at the moment, everyone is over there showing off

their creations, including the boss. Nice to meet you. It is bizarre that

you are in San Francisco and I am in Shenzhen. Why do you have a space

here and a space in San Francisco? Surely all of the action is here?

Yes, the early stage action is there, definitely, and all of the

entrepreneurs in the world who go to Shenzhen and work with suppliers to

build B best products to get to market, but after investing and

accelerating about 145 companies in the last two years, I realised it

was important to sell those products, and it is difficult to

sell a product compared to building it. So we have been building the

next phase of the programme in San Francisco. The big appeal is that it

is within a short walk of some of the best and biggest electronic

markets in the world. That means instant access to the cornucopia of

components you will need to source if you want nothing to become a

thing. -- your thing to become a thing. I said the word thing again.

That can only mean the markets of Shenzhen are so advanced it would be

foolhardy to venture in alone. I need a guide. So we are at Singapore

airport and heading to Hong Kong. We go out there once a month. Andrew,

or Bunny for short, is omitted Terry Hacker and MIT graduate -- legendary

hacker. He has written books, including the essential guide to

electronics in's. He will do. -- in Shenzhen. You can see the circuit

lights up. There is no soldering required.

Today, Bunny is making the pilgrimage to Shenzhen, like many

entrepreneurs before him. I am tagging along to find out what it is

about. This is where I come to do a lot of searching to see what is

available, what is selling and not selling. There are cables here, and

cables there. How do they price each other? That is the whole idea of

this market. It is intensely competitive. Discounts are easily

ten have one of what you can get in online retailing in the states.

These are the same things? They are resold there. And it is not long

before I succumbed to the magic of the market. They are beautiful. I

will have "As well, please. The charging squid -- script! The dress

is the ordering. -- the choice is well known. There is a choice of two

more floors. Of radio switches. Display connectors. Second-hand

parts. Power adapters. USB connectors. Industrial controls.

These are battery holders inside toys. Bits of wire. I could come

here and ask today and say I want a longer wire and you will make it up

and have them ready for me by the next day. When I come to Shenzhen I

don't even pack tools. I buy everything I need as it is such a

hassle to get through airport security. Then I just leave them in

the hotel when I leave. It is cheaper than paying for packed

luggage. Development kits, that engineers would buy. Programming

dear within ten metres of here. You can get everything you need to take

a simple project and bring it into existence -- dear. -- side. I have

spent a decade here. It is like the movie Inception. The market has

reinvented itself by the timely comeback. If you do a deal, what do

you do? Do you shake on it or have some kind of... ? It is a crazy

thing where sometimes you say you need 10,000 parts, and it is not a

small amount of money. A lot of times a person will come along and

say comeback in two days. I could not come back with the money and

they will have the parts, and lot of time they don't ask for a deposit.

Bettered you then me. -- Betty do then me. -- better you than me.

And that is it for the shortcut of Click in China. The full-length

version is available to watch online right now. We are back in China

again next week. Catch us on Twitter throughout the week. We will be

putting up backstage photos as well. Thank you for watching. Seducing. --

see you soon.