The Financial Times tracked the roaring trade of mobiles grabbed in London, New York and elsewhere, then sold in one district in southern China’s Shenzhen.
Traders from mainland China, Hong Kong and much of the global south flock to Huaqiangbei district to haggle over wholesale batches of iPhones.
In any other neighbourhood, the Feiyang Times building, a drab grey-and-brown tower in southern China, would be most notable for the gaudy, propaganda-plastered columns that line its forecourt.
But like many of the electronics markets in the labyrinthine malls of Huaqiangbei, the fourth floor of the building has its own specialism: selling second-hand iPhones from Europe and the US.
