well the way i can see u r a start up ,
u can join hands on ur first visit to shenzhen with another start up newbie ,
there are many to find the legitimate longterm buyer...
once trust kicks in , things will go smooth..
but one thing , i advise u not to shake hands with direct factories..
quality changes with the passage of time here :)

Do not go to guangdong provence for anything other than tech goods. It's way too expensive. If you want the advice of a westerner, try Yiwu, like one of the other posters has said. It's reasonably close to Shanghai, with good transportation links, and a market so large it will blow your mind. Trust me, I've been there!

Anyother questions, I'm happy to help. I'm in shanghai right now so PM me

Hi Mr. tarrynjacobson,

This is May who worked in handbag and jewellery field for 5 years, i can introduce the place for the cheapest handbag, and more different jewellery beautiful styles in China, please contact with me about more details after you are in China, welcome to our country  and my pleasure to help you purchase here, email me or add my msn at: quliangmei@hotmail.com .

Have a good trip.

Best Regards

May

MSN: quliangmei@hotmail.com

you have two choices guangdong and yiwu,   the quality of goods in guangzhou is better but much expensive,  in yiwu price very cheap but quality not good as guangzhou.   For same quality product, the price in yiwu is cheaper than in guangzhou. And in yiwu there have a big commodity city, you can buy almost everything there. 

The first time you do business in china, you need find an agent. He can book hotel  for you , can pick you at airport, can lead you to the market  choose goods, can help you arrange shipment and so on.

If you interested in come to yiwu, you can contact with me by email: sales02@cnyiwucommodity.com,  i am Colta

In my opinion,i think you have to identify what's kind of handbags you are going to deal with,then learn about relative knowlege regards to material & craft.After that, you have to start to learn about chinese market as well as current price,may be you can start with alibaba.Highly recommand you come to china if you want to establish a long-term relationship with excellent chinese suppliers.Wish you everything goes well! Good luck! 

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I hope you and business are both doing well.

ByTrade.com is an online B2B trade platform, where you can search or post information for your products or promote your companies. It provides most online up to date information such as sell offers, buy offers, products list, company profiles etc. It is just a business marketplace for buyers and sellers to meet together and find the right business partners.

Welcome to bytrade.com and have nice business. I think that it will help succeed.