How to verify a Chinese supplier is a real factory
Updated September 2026 · Written by the team at Zaoqiniaoer (Wuhu, Anhui, China)
You found a supplier online. The photos look right, the prices are good, and they want a 30% deposit. Before you wire the money, you want to know one thing: is there actually a factory at that address?
Here is what you can check yourself for free, what those checks genuinely prove, and the gap that none of them close.
What you can check for free, from your desk
1. The business licence
Every mainland Chinese company has a Unified Social Credit Code — 18 characters, on their business licence. Ask for a photo of the licence, then look the code up on the government registry (国家企业信用信息公示系统, gsxt.gov.cn) or a commercial tool like Qichacha or Tianyancha.
What it proves: the company legally exists, when it was registered, its registered capital, and its official registered address. What it does not prove: that anyone is at that address, or that the company makes anything. Registering a company in China is cheap and fast.
2. Marketplace badges
Gold Supplier, Verified Supplier, Assessed Supplier — these mean different things and none of them means “we watched them manufacture something”. Most confirm that a third party checked paperwork, and some include a site visit. Read the badge’s own definition on the marketplace rather than assuming.
What it does not prove: that the company selling to you is the one that makes the goods. A trading company can legitimately hold every badge on the list.
3. Satellite and street imagery
Put the address into a mapping service and look at the building. An industrial park looks like an industrial park. If the registered address resolves to a residential tower or a co-working floor, that is worth a question.
What it does not prove: satellite imagery is often one to three years old. A closed factory and a busy one look identical from above.
4. Reverse image search their photos
Run their factory photos through a reverse image search. If the same production line appears on twenty other suppliers’ pages, those are stock photos or someone else’s plant.
5. Ask for a live video walk-through
Ask them to walk from the street sign, through the gate, to the production floor — in one unbroken call, today. It is free, and a real factory can do it in five minutes.
What it does not prove: you are seeing what they choose to show you, from an address you cannot independently confirm.
What none of those checks can tell you
Every check above is done from your desk, using information the supplier controls or that was recorded some time ago. Three questions remain, and all three need a person standing on that street:
- Is anyone there today? Companies stay registered long after they stop operating.
- Is the sign on the building their name? A different name on the door usually means you are talking to an intermediary.
- What do people inside say when asked plainly? Not over a prepared call — in person, unannounced.
Work through the five free checks here — it takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and ends with a plain summary of what you still cannot know.
What a site visit normally costs
A full factory audit from an international inspection firm runs roughly $200–$400 per man-day, typically $500–$1,200 for one visit, and usually takes a week or more to schedule. That is the right tool when you are qualifying a long-term manufacturing partner.
It is heavy for the question most buyers actually have, which is simply: before I wire this deposit, is this place real? Between “a $99 database export nobody visited” and “a $900 two-day audit”, most buyers pick neither and guess.
What we do instead
We send three unrelated people to the address. They do not know each other and they do not see each other’s answers. Each one photographs the entrance and the signage, walks in and asks a plain question, and independently writes down what they saw. You get all three accounts plus the photos, in English, within 24–48 hours.
The reason it is three people and not one is the whole point: fooling three strangers who have never met is hard. One person can be mistaken, or talked around at the gate. Three independent accounts that agree are worth more than one report signed by a company you have also never met.
Every verification is permanently attached to that company’s public record on our site. It cannot be edited or deleted afterwards — including by us, and including by them.
What this is not
Being straight about the limits, because buying the wrong thing is worse than buying nothing:
- It is not a quality inspection. We do not examine your goods, test samples, or check them against a specification.
- It is not a factory audit. We do not assess production capacity, certifications, or working conditions. If you need that, hire an audit firm — it is genuinely a different job.
- It is not a credit check. We tell you what is at the address, not whether they pay their debts.
It answers one question well: what is actually at that address, right now, according to three people who went and looked.
Price and how to order
¥700 (about $99) for one address: three people, photographs, three independent written accounts, report in 24–48 hours.
Tell us the company name and the address. We email you a PayPal invoice — pay it by card or with your PayPal account, whichever you prefer. International bank transfer also works. Verification starts as soon as payment clears. You pay from the invoice we send, not from this site — so this step involves an email rather than a click.
Questions first? Email jinchi1026@163.com.
Operated by Wuhu Zaoqiniaoer Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Wuhu, Anhui, China. Our observers are ordinary people in the city where the address is, paid per visit.