The right way to source toys from China depends on the shape of your order: full containers go factory-direct, mixed smaller orders go through a trading company, and if you can travel, showrooms let you choose in person.
Most guides on this subject describe a single process – find a supplier, get a sample, place an order – as if every buyer were the same buyer. In practice the Chinese toy industry serves several kinds of buyer through several distinct routes, and picking the wrong route costs more time than any other mistake. A note on where this advice comes from: SourceToys runs a supplier directory for China’s toy production regions – we list factories, trading companies and showrooms separately, take no commissions and do not broker transactions – so this guide has no service to sell you. Where a figure appears below, it comes from the structured supplier archives we maintain or from the public regulatory record.
First, work out which kind of buyer you are
Four buying situations cover most of the trade. Find yours before you contact anyone.
- You can place a full-container order with one factory. Go factory-direct: browse factories by region and category and negotiate specifications, packaging and terms yourself. One caution – this route has a precondition on the factory’s side as well as yours. The factory has to be able to serve overseas clients independently: handle inquiries, quote export terms, manage documentation. That generally takes a factory of some scale, which is why smaller workshops usually sell through trading companies instead.
- You want products from several factories, but modest quantities from each. Work with a trading company. The service is full delegation, not just freight consolidation: you submit the products you have selected, and the trading company handles everything from there – factory coordination, production follow-up, collection and one consolidated shipment. Price, commission and payment terms are agreed privately between you and the trading company. The trade-offs between this route and factory-direct are covered in our factory vs trading company guide.
- You already manufacture toys and need parts or materials. If your local supply chain does not cover components, packaging or materials, the production belts sell those too – see toy parts and accessories. Either a factory or a trading company can supply you; this is usually an ongoing supply relationship rather than a one-off order.
- You can come to China and want to choose in person. Permanent toy showrooms in the production districts display samples from thousands of suppliers year-round, so you can inspect products, compare them side by side and negotiate with suppliers face to face in a single visit. In Chenghai, the three main venues sit within a 745-metre walk of each other, so one day covers all of them – see the Shantou showroom guide.
One thing that does not decide your route: OEM and ODM. A persistent piece of folk wisdom counts custom work as a reason to go factory-direct, but in the main production belts customisation is a standard capability, not a differentiator – in Chenghai, factories across the belt generally take on OEM and ODM work once the commercial terms are agreed. Negotiate it as a term of your order, whichever route you take.
Where toys come from: China’s production belts
Toy manufacturing in China concentrates in regional belts, and each belt has a role. Which belt you buy from is a cross-factory fact no single supplier will explain to you – it is worth knowing before you compare quotations.
- Chenghai (Shantou, Guangdong) is the comprehensive toy base – plastic toys, building blocks, dolls, RC and electric toys – with dense supplier coverage and a complete supply chain. The market is well contested, with products spanning entry-level through mid-to-high price tiers.
- Dongguan (Guangdong) offers stronger coordination across electronics, hardware, tooling, precision manufacturing and large-scale contract production. It suits projects with complex structures or heavier electronic content, or where quality management, certification and branded OEM/ODM requirements are higher.
- Yiwu (Zhejiang) is a major trading and consolidation hub, and suits multi-category selection, small trial orders, consolidated orders and mixed containers. Yiwu also has plenty of factories of its own – it is not merely a marketplace – but many of the toys traded there originate in production belts such as Chenghai, so prices are not necessarily lower than buying direct from a source factory; what you gain is sourcing flexibility and consolidation.
- Yunhe (Zhejiang) centres on wooden educational toys, early-learning products and teaching aids.
- Yangzhou (Jiangsu) is the plush and stuffed-animal belt.
- Pingxiang (Hebei) is the country’s main base for children’s ride-ons – bicycles, tricycles, balance bikes, walkers, twist cars, scooters and strollers – and electric ride-on toys, with very large output and a complete parts chain behind them.
- Linyi (Shandong) is both a production cluster and a wholesale hub, weighted towards entry-level and volume price tiers. Plush is a strength, alongside clay, kinetic-sand and DIY lines, and Tancheng county nearby carries a 600-year woodturning toy heritage.
Read the belt descriptions as price-tier positioning, not quality verdicts: a volume-tier belt and a certification-heavy belt both exist because different buyers need them. And not every category has a home belt – games and puzzles, outdoor lines, arts-and-crafts and novelty toys are made across several belts, so for those, search by category rather than by region.
Marketplaces, agents, directories: know what you are looking at
Wherever you search for suppliers online, you are using one of three kinds of platform, and each has a business model that shapes what you see.
Marketplaces earn from suppliers: listing fees and advertising. The breadth is enormous, but placement generally reflects what a supplier spends as well as what it makes, and the filtering work is yours.
Sourcing agents earn from you: a commission or service fee in exchange for searching, negotiating and quality-checking on your behalf. That is a real service – particularly the on-the-ground legwork – and for multi-factory orders, trading companies based in the production districts provide the same consolidation as part of their standard offer. Keep one thing in mind when reading agents’ guides: the route they recommend is also the product they sell.
Directories – SourceToys is one – earn from neither side of your transaction. Suppliers are archived with structured profiles – founding year, factory area, staff and capacity, export markets, certifications, response times – factories, trading companies and showrooms are labelled as what they are, and you contact suppliers directly. A directory cannot negotiate for you; what it gives you is an unmediated view of who actually exists in the producing regions.
The compliance baseline
Certification lists are ultimately confirmed per order with your supplier and a testing lab, but two baselines cover most of the trade:
- European Union. EN71 (parts 1-3) testing with CE marking under the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC is the baseline commonly required for toys sold in the EU. A new Toy Safety Regulation, (EU) 2025/2509, entered into force on 1 January 2026 and becomes fully applicable from 1 August 2030; toys conforming to the current directive can continue to be placed on the EU market during the transition. The new regulation adds a digital product passport and tightens restrictions on substances such as PFAS and bisphenols.
- United States. ASTM F963-23 is the current toy safety standard, incorporated into 16 CFR 1250 and in effect since April 2024. US buyers typically ask the factory for test reports supporting a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC), which covers CPSIA lead and phthalate limits for children’s products.
- Practical add-ons. Lithium-battery products need UN 38.3 transport test summaries for shipment, and electronic or radio-controlled toys commonly add electromagnetic and radio testing in both markets – your factory will know which apply.
Factories hold their own test reports and certificates, so category-specific lists are a question your shortlisted supplier can answer directly – an electronic toy and a plush line do not carry the same test list. One EU obligation, however, sits on the importer’s side rather than the factory’s, and no factory can handle it for you: see the first question in the FAQ below. Requirements vary by destination market and product design – always confirm the certification list with your supplier and a qualified testing lab before ordering.
What the timeline looks like
Across the factory archives on SourceToys at the time of writing, most factories quote a response time of 12-24 hours for inquiries, samples in about 7 days (10 for more complex products), and production runs of 25-35 days for typical orders. Shipping comes on top and depends on destination and mode: sea freight typically takes several weeks, air freight a few days at a very different price point. On payment, the most common quotation in the same archives is T/T with a 30% deposit and the balance before shipment, on FOB terms – individual factories vary, so read each profile. Read all of these as planning figures – each supplier quotes its own terms, and the inquiry-to-order process is where they get confirmed.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an EU Responsible Person to import these toys?
If you sell into the EU, yes. Since 13 December 2024 the EU General Product Safety Regulation requires every consumer product sold in the EU to have an EU-established Responsible Person, whose details must appear on the product, its packaging or an accompanying document. This is the importer’s obligation, not the factory’s – your supplier in China cannot fill this role for you. The Responsible Person can be an EU-based manufacturer, importer, authorised representative or fulfilment service provider.
Can I order from several factories in one shipment?
Yes. A trading company can consolidate products from several factories into one order and shipment, which suits buyers who want a mix from different suppliers rather than a full container from a single factory. If you prefer to choose in person, a showroom lets you inspect samples and negotiate with suppliers on site.
Do I need a sourcing agent to buy toys from China?
It depends on which buyer you are. If you can fill a container with one factory and the factory is set up to serve overseas clients, you can work direct. If you are buying from several factories, a trading company in the production district provides the consolidation and follow-up an agent would, as its standard service. If you can travel, showrooms put you in front of suppliers without anyone in between. An agent earns its fee when you want someone on the ground working only for you – it is one route among several, not a precondition for buying from China.
How long does it take to get toys made in China?
As planning figures from supplier archives: expect an inquiry response within 12-24 hours, a sample in about 7 days, and production in 25-35 days for typical orders, plus shipping time that depends on destination and mode. Complex or heavily customised products run longer – confirm the schedule with your supplier when the specification is fixed.