Inside the Singapore travel trend that’s swarming China’s furniture capital

For a growing number of Singaporeans, furnishing a new home has become reason enough to book a holiday.

Not the sort involving beach clubs or Michelin-starred restaurants. Instead, these design-savvy travellers are flying to China armed with camera rolls full of sofa and cabinetry photos, meticulously curated Pinterest boards and floor plans marked with dimensions down to the centimetre, all in pursuit of custom-made furnishings for their homes.

Blame it on our collective obsession with our living spaces. In a city where most of us live in compact flats, every square metre matters. We want our homes to work harder than ever, serving as offices, gyms, entertainment hubs and sanctuaries from the outside world. Naturally, we want them to look good, too.

And for anyone who has spent even a little time scrolling renovation content on Instagram, TikTok or RedNote, one destination is likely to have appeared on their feed with increasing frequency: Foshan.

Located in Guangdong province, about an hour from Guangzhou, the industrial city is renowned as China’s furniture capital. It is home to sprawling furniture malls, factories and showrooms that were once the domain of interior designers and industry buyers but are now increasingly attracting everyday consumers.

According to Singapore-based sourcing specialist Kelvin Chua, founder of The Kurater, Foshan’s appeal lies in the scale and structure of its manufacturing ecosystem.