Who this is for: overseas buyers coming to Guangzhou for the 140th Canton Fair.

What it is: everything I wish someone had told me before my first show — the practical

things that decide whether your trip works. Definitions, dates, how to get there, getting

paid, getting online, getting a taxi, what to wear, where to eat, and how to visit a

factory outside Guangzhou.

Cost: free. I am not selling you a tour.

If you only read one page, read §3 Before You Fly and §13 What I Can Arrange For You.

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Contents

1. What the Canton Fair actually is
2. Dates, phases and venue — which phase do you need?
3. Before you fly: the checklist
4. Getting to Guangzhou (flights, visa, arrival)
5. Getting to the venue (metro, taxi, shuttle)
6. Your buyer badge — how entry works
7. Paying in China with your phone (Alipay / WeChat Pay)
8. Getting a SIM card and staying online
9. Getting a taxi and ride-hailing (Didi)
10. Weather and what to pack
11. Where to eat and recharge during the fair
12. Apps worth installing before you land
13. What I can arrange for you (translation, hotels, cars, QC, factory visits)
14. If you are not looking for baby furniture — let me connect you anyway
15. Visiting our factory in Yichun — how to get here
16. Contact

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Official links — bookmark these before you travel

Everything below is the official Canton Fair / government source. Do not rely on third-party guides (including this one) for anything that changes at short notice — check these:

Official contact

• Call centre (Chinese mainland): 4000-888-999
• Call centre (outside mainland China): (8620) 28-888-999
• Email: info@cantonfair.org.cn
• Venue address: No. 382, Yuejiang Zhong Road, Guangzhou 510335, China
• Canton Fair Hong Kong Representative Office: (852) 2877 1318

The fair publishes its notices page frequently during the run-up — hall changes, entry

requirements and phase details do change. It is worth checking the week you travel.

Useful non-fair official sources (payments, metro):

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1. What the Canton Fair actually is

The China Import and Export Fair — everyone calls it the Canton Fair — has run since 1957. It is held twice a year in Guangzhou: a Spring session (April–May) and an Autumn session (October–November). The 140th session is the Autumn 2026 show, and it marks 70 years since the first one.

It is the largest trade exhibition in the world by any measure:

What that means in practice: walking from one end of the complex to the other takes about 20 minutes. You will do 15,000+ steps a day without trying. You cannot “see it”. You go in with a shortlist and you work the shortlist.

Full list of official links and contact numbers: see «Official links» above.

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2. Dates, phases and venue — which phase do you need?

The fair is split into three phases, each five days, with a 3-day break between them while exhibitors swap over. Most exhibitors attend only one phase — so picking the wrong phase means you meet the wrong suppliers entirely.

Opening hours every day: 09:30 – 18:00.

Which phase is yours?

⚠️ A note that matters for anyone sourcing nursery or children’s furniture:

Furniture sits in Phase 2, but “Children, Baby & Maternity Products” sits in Phase 3.

If you buy both, you need both phases — and the 20–22 October break between them is

the natural window to visit a factory. Our factory is a good use of that window (§15).

Venue

China Import and Export Fair Complex (the “Canton Fair Complex”) No. 382, Yuejiang Zhong Road, Haizhu District, Guangzhou 510335, China

• On Pazhou Island, Haizhu District
• Areas A, B, C — interconnected but enormous
• Metro Line 8 runs directly to it
• Parking for 10,000+ vehicles
• 45–60 minutes from Baiyun International Airport

Our booth: 11.3L40-41 (Phase 2, 23–27 October).

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3. Before you fly: the checklist

Everything here is something that has genuinely stopped a buyer at the door. Print this page.

Documents

• ☐ Passport valid at least 6 months beyond your return date
• ☐ Chinese visa (or confirm visa-free eligibility for your nationality — rules changed

several times recently, so check your own country’s latest before booking)

• ☐ Canton Fair buyer registration confirmation — print it and save a photo on your phone
• ☐ Your existing Buyer Badge, if you have one from a previous session — the overseas

Buyer Badge is valid for multiple fairs, so an old one still gets you in and saves you paying for a new one. Check your travel wallet and previous trip files before you book anything; a replacement fee applies if you lose it. (Details in §6.)

• ☐ Business licence / company registration scan (sometimes requested at registration)
• ☐ Hotel booking confirmation with the address in Chinese characters
• ☐ Insurance (medical + trip)

Money

• ☐ Set up Alipay or WeChat Pay before you fly — this is the single most useful thing on

this list. You cannot easily set them up without a working phone number and a card your bank will authorise. Details in §7.

• ☐ Bring two cards from different banks. Foreign cards get declined in China more often

than almost anywhere else. Two banks doubles your odds.

• ☐ Some cash (RMB) for the first day — taxi, a coffee, small shops.

Phone and internet

• ☐ Carrier-unlock your phone if you plan to buy a Chinese SIM
• ☐ Install the apps in §12 — especially WeChat, Alipay, Didi and a translation app
• ☐ Download offline maps and an offline translation pack before you fly
• ☐ Check your roaming plan, or plan to buy a local SIM (§8)
• ☐ A power bank — and check it carries the Chinese 3C mark

⚠️ On domestic flights in China, a power bank must carry the 3C (CCC) certification mark on the case, or security may refuse it. If you plan to fly internally (for example to visit a factory), check yours before you pack it. Power banks must also go in hand luggage, never checked baggage.

Practical kit

• ☐ Comfortable shoes — genuinely comfortable. 15,000+ steps a day is the real number
• ☐ Business cards
• ☐ A notebook or note app for booth numbers (you will forget)
• ☐ Layers (§10 — warm and humid outside, cold inside the halls)
• ☐ A water bottle — optional. Exhibitors hand out bottled water all day, so a

thermos is not necessary; a light bottle is enough if you want one

Prepare your shortlist (do this at home, not at the show)

With 75,700 booths, arriving without a plan wastes your first day:

1. Download the exhibitor list from the official site.
2. Shortlist 20–30 must-visit booths.
3. Note hall + booth numbers and plan by hall, not by product.
4. Email your top 5 before you travel and ask for a slot. An exhibitor who expects you

is a completely different meeting.

Do not leave a factory visit to chance. A factory visit is a full day — sometimes two —

and good ones fill up during the fair. Arrange it before you arrive. See §13 and §15.

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4. Getting to Guangzhou

By air

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) is the main gateway, with direct flights from major hubs across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and North America.

• Immigration can take 45–90 minutes at peak fair times. Build it in.
• The airport is 45–60 minutes by taxi from the venue.
• Use the official taxi queue — not people approaching you inside the terminal.
• Airport Express + Metro: 60–75 minutes, much cheaper.

By train

If you are already in China or Hong Kong, high-speed rail into Guangzhou South Railway Station is fast and comfortable — from Hong Kong West Kowloon it is under an hour.

Visa

Chinese visa rules for business visitors have changed repeatedly in recent years, and several nationalities now have visa-free or simplified entry. Check your own country’s latest requirements directly — I am not going to give you a rule that may be out of date.

Typically you will be asked for:

• An invitation letter
• Your company’s business licence
• Hotel and flight bookings

If you need an invitation letter from us, just ask. We can issue one on company letterhead.

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5. Getting to the venue

Metro — usually the best option

Line 8 runs directly to the complex:

• Metro runs roughly 06:00 – 23:30
• Signage and announcements are in English
• Avoid: the rush windows 08:30–10:30 and 17:30–19:30 (the fair itself runs 09:30–18:00 — these are the commuting peaks around it, not opening hours)

Do not queue for tickets. Use the QR ride code instead.

Search “广州地铁公共交通码” in the Alipay or WeChat mini-program search bar (or in the official Guangzhou Metro app). Open the code, scan at the gate, walk through.

• It covers both metro and bus, and gives you the same discounts as a physical Yang Cheng

Tong card

• One person, one code. Enter and exit with the same code — you cannot mix codes between

gates

• Top up / make sure your linked payment account works first, or the gate will refuse you and

the code gets suspended

• If a journey record is incomplete, the app will prompt you to fix it before you can ride again

Prefer a physical ticket? Two options:

• Single ticket — from machines at any station, cash or phone payment
• One-day pass RMB 20 (unlimited metro for 24h from first entry) · Three-day pass RMB 50

(72h) — buy at a station service centre. Usually the better deal if you are riding a lot.

• UnionPay credit cards with QuickPass can be tapped directly at the gate — if you happen to

carry one.

Official Guangzhou Metro ticket guide (Chinese):

https://cs.gzmtr.com/ckfw/pwzy_202001/202011/t20201117_69745.html

Fair tip: during the fair the metro near the venue is extremely crowded around 09:00–10:00 (arrivals) and 18:00–19:00 (departures).

Leaving the hotel before 08:30 makes the whole day easier — and you reach the booths

before the aisles fill.

Taxi and ride-hailing — and the real queue

See §9. In short: Didi is easier than hailing a street taxi, because it handles both the language and the payment.

But be realistic about the taxi rank at the venue. During the fair, the taxi queue at the complex is one of the slowest things you will do all day:

• Peak times (around opening and closing) you can wait 30–60 minutes for a taxi at the rank.

It has been a long-standing complaint from exhibitors and buyers alike.

• The queue is worst on the first morning of each phase, and in the 17:30–19:30 departure

rush.

• If you are on a schedule, do not rely on a taxi from the venue. Use the metro (Line 8) or

the fair shuttle instead, and take a Didi from a nearby hotel or a metro stop away from the complex — drivers avoid the jam around the venue.

Express and bus options around Pazhou

Besides the metro:

• Fair shuttle buses — free, run between the distant halls and to some partner hotels. Routes

change between sessions; ask at any information desk.

• Hotel shuttle buses — most hotels near the complex run their own shuttle during the fair.

Ask your front desk for the timetable on your first morning.

• Public buses — several routes serve the complex (avoid them at peak times; the roads around

Pazhou are badly congested during the fair).

• HaiZhu Tram — runs along the riverside to Conference Centre East (会展东) stop, which is

right at the Pazhou ferry terminal. Useful if you are taking the ferry.

Rule of thumb during the fair: metro for anything time-critical; shuttle from your hotel in

the morning; Didi from a nearby hotel in the evening — never the venue taxi rank at 18:00.

Luggage and luggage storage

If you arrive at the fair straight from the airport or the station with bags, do not carry them around the halls.

There are luggage storage / cloakroom counters at the entrances to the complex. You can leave your bags there for the day.

• Cost is around RMB 50 per item per day, depending on the size of the bag — a small bag

costs less than a large suitcase. Ask at the counter before you hand anything over.

• Paid by WeChat Pay — so have WeChat Pay set up (see §7)
• Bring your passport / ID — counters usually log it
• Collect before closing (18:00) — the counters do not stay open late

Practical tip: if you are going straight from the fair to the airport, leave your suitcase,

do your last meetings, then collect on the way out. It is far easier than dragging a case

between halls.

Exact locations shift between sessions — ask at any information desk or check the official

notices page on the day.

Official fair shuttle

The fair runs free shuttle buses between distant halls and to some partner hotels. Ask at any information desk for current routes — they change between sessions.

Sailing from Pazhou to Hong Kong International Airport 🚢

If you are flying home via Hong Kong, you can leave straight from beside the fair — by boat.

The Pazhou Hong Kong–Macao Ferry Terminal (琶洲港澳客运口岸) sits beside the Canton Fair Complex and runs a fast ferry to the SkyPier (海天码头) inside Hong Kong International Airport, plus a second route to China Ferry Terminal, Hong Kong (中港城).

Why buyers like it:

• “Check in at Pazhou, board at Hong Kong” — you can complete airline check-in and through-

check your luggage at the Pazhou terminal, then sail straight into the airport’s restricted area

• No Hong Kong immigration procedure — you do not clear HK entry; you go straight to the

departure level

• No road traffic risk — it is a boat; the drive to Hong Kong airport can lose you hours
• Sailing time is about 2 hours

Practical details:

⚠️ Check your airline first. Not every airline can be checked in at Pazhou — the list of

airlines offering check-in at the Pazhou terminal is limited and changes, and some only offer

check-in at the HKIA SkyPier instead. Confirm with your airline or the ferry operator before

you plan your last day around the boat.

⚠️ Schedules change and the route has had suspensions. Confirm sailing times and that the

route is operating before you rely on it — ask the terminal, your hotel, or check the

official site.

Getting to the terminal: Metro Line 8 to Pazhou Station, Exit A — about 15 minutes’ walk; or the HaiZhu Tram to Conference Centre East (会展东), which stops at the terminal. Taxis and Didi can drop you at the car park (drop-off only — there is no public car park at the terminal).

If the ferry does not suit you: the alternative is a direct bus to Hong Kong (some run to

the airport), or fly out of Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN) instead — see below.

From the airport (Guangzhou Baiyun, CAN)

• Taxi / ride-hailing: 45–60 minutes (longer in traffic)
• Airport Express + Metro: 60–75 minutes, cheapest
• Airport shuttle to major hotels: 60–90 minutes

First-time tip: put your hotel’s name and address in Chinese characters on your phone

before you land, and hand it to the driver. It solves most taxi confusion instantly.

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6. Your buyer badge — how entry works

International buyers attend free. You still must register.

Three ways to register

What you need

• Valid passport (6+ months validity)
• Business licence or company registration
• Professional buyer credentials (business card, company website, etc.)
• Invitation letter, if applicable

Fees (140th session)

Practical notes

• Print your confirmation. Phone batteries die; paper does not.
• Bring your badge every day of the session — you need it to enter, and to re-enter if you

step out of the complex during the day.

• ⚠️ If you already have a Buyer Badge from a previous Canton Fair, bring it.

The overseas Buyer Badge is valid for multiple sessions — it does not expire after one fair, and you do not pay again for a badge you already hold. The official wording is: “The overseas Buyer Badge can be used for multiple sessions. Please keep it properly.” Returning buyers normally just log in to their existing account, update details and confirm attendance — no new badge application needed. Keep the card after the fair. Do not throw it away with the other event materials.

• If you have lost or forgotten it, reapplying costs money and invalidates the old card.

The Canton Fair Hong Kong Representative Office currently lists a reapplication fee of RMB 200 / HKD 250 for a lost or forgotten multi-entry Buyer Card, and the reissued card cancels the previous one. So check your travel wallet, previous trip files and old badge holder before you apply for a replacement. (Confirm the current fee on the official site before relying on that figure.)

• If you are bringing a colleague or family member who is not a buyer, there is a separate

accompanying-person badge process — check the official guide.

• Keep your badge on you. Exiting and re-entering requires it.

Official buyer guide: https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/buyerguide

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7. Paying in China with your phone

China is close to cashless. In Guangzhou you can pay for a coffee, a taxi, a metro ride and a bowl of noodles with a QR code — and many small places now find cash inconvenient. Set this up before you fly, because it is much harder once you land.

The two apps that matter

Setting up Alipay with a foreign card

1. Install Alipay, register with your own phone number (foreign numbers work).
2. Go to Account → Bank Cards, add an international Visa / Mastercard / Amex.
3. Complete identity verification — you will need your passport.
4. Test it before you fly if you can; test it on day one with a small purchase.

WeChat Pay — the official 3 steps

Straight from WeChat’s own help centre:

1. Download or update WeChat to the latest version, register with your phone number
2. Me → Pay and Services → Wallet
3. Bank Cards → Add a Bank Card → agree to the terms → fill in your identity information →

add your card

If you verify with a passport, you will be asked to upload a copy of it.

Official answers to the questions that actually come up:

WeChat’s official guide: https://help.wechat.com/cgi-bin/micromsg-bin/oshelpcenter?opcode=2&id=2307252mur7f2307257zfyfe&lang=en

Some banks block these transactions by default — if a payment fails, call your bank, ask them to allow the merchant category, and try again.

What to expect

• Small merchants: QR code, you scan, you type the amount, done.
• Some places take cash but may struggle to give change.
• Cards are accepted at hotels, big retailers and the fair venue — but not everywhere else.
• ATMs exist and generally accept foreign cards. Bank of China and ICBC are the safest bets.

If you get stuck

Message me. If you are at the fair and a payment will not go through, I or a colleague can help you sort it out — that is a normal thing for us to help with, not an inconvenience.

One honest warning: do not leave payment setup until the airport. Bank security checks,

SMS verification and identity steps are all much harder on airport wifi with a queue behind you.

Official documents — check these yourself

Payment rules and limits change. These are the sources I checked, and the ones to re-check before you travel:

The short version of what those documents say:

• Alipay accepts Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club International and Discover — and no longer

requires a prepaid account or a Chinese phone number

• WeChat Pay accepts international cards; 3% fee applies only above RMB 200 per transaction
• Both need passport verification

If a link is dead, search for the same title — government pages get moved. That is why I have

given you the source name, not just the URL.

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8. Getting a SIM card and staying online

Option 1 — Buy a Chinese SIM (best for data and local calls)

Where: official China Mobile / China Unicom / China Telecom shops in the city, or counters at the airport. Buy from an official shop, not a street reseller.

What you need: your passport. Registration is mandatory and takes 10–20 minutes.

Rough cost: a tourist data plan runs from around RMB 100–200 for a month with generous data. Ask for a tourist SIM — they exist and are simpler.

Why bother: a Chinese number makes Didi, food delivery, restaurant bookings and Alipay/WeChat verification dramatically easier.

Important: your phone must be carrier-unlocked. Check before you leave home.

Option 2 — eSIM (easiest, no shop visit)

If your phone supports eSIM, a travel eSIM bought before you fly gives you data the moment you land, with no queue. Slightly more expensive; far less hassle. Data-only — you will not get a Chinese phone number.

Option 3 — Roaming

Works, and your home number keeps working for SMS (useful for bank codes). But it is the most expensive option and can be slow. Many people run roaming for calls/SMS + eSIM for data.

Wi-Fi

• The fair venue has free Wi-Fi — usable, but slow at peak times
• Hotels are generally reliable
• Cafés (Starbucks, Luckin, local chains) all have Wi-Fi, often faster than the venue

A practical note on international sites

Some international services are not directly reachable from mainland China. Many business travellers arrange their own solution for this before they travel — sort it out at home, not at the airport, because the relevant sites are themselves harder to reach once you are here. Your email, WeChat, WhatsApp business contacts and banking apps generally work fine.

What actually matters day-to-day: WeChat, Alipay, Didi, a maps app that works in China

(Baidu Maps or Amap, not Google Maps), and a translation app. Get those five working

and your trip runs smoothly.

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9. Getting a taxi and ride-hailing (Didi)

Didi — use this

Didi (滴滴) is China’s Uber. It is the answer to almost every taxi problem, because:

• You type your destination in the app (in English or by picking on the map) — no explaining

in Chinese

• The price is fixed in the app — no meter arguments, no “sorry, meter broken”
• You pay in the app — no cash, no change
• It works for taxis and private cars in the same app
• It has an English interface

Set it up before you fly, linked to Alipay or an international card.

Street taxis

Perfectly fine, and there are official taxi ranks at the airport, the venue and major hotels. But:

• Drivers usually do not speak English — show the destination written in Chinese
• Have cash or Alipay/WeChat Pay ready
• Use the official queue. Ignore anyone who approaches you inside the terminal or outside

the station offering a car — this is where overcharging happens

• At the fair, use the designated taxi pick-up points, which move between sessions

Typical journey times (traffic dependent)

If your next stop is Hong Kong, the Pazhou ⇄ HKIA ferry is often the better call than a

road transfer — see §5. If it is just a trip across town, metro beats the taxi rank

during peak hours: the queue alone can eat 30–60 minutes.

During the fair, everything near the venue takes longer. Budget double the normal time for

any trip starting or ending at Pazhou during the morning rush (08:30–10:30) and the

evening rush (17:30–19:30) — these are the commuting peaks around the fair, not its

opening hours. The fair itself is open 09:30–18:00 every day.

The one tip that saves the most trouble

Save your hotel, the fair venue, and our factory address in Chinese in your phone notes. Then you never have to explain anything — you just show the screen.

Useful to have saved:

• 广交会展馆（琶洲）— Canton Fair Complex (Pazhou)
• 广州白云国际机场 — Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
• 广州南站 — Guangzhou South Railway Station
• 伊春林都机场 — Yichun Lindu Airport (if you are visiting our factory)

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10. Weather and what to pack

October in Guangzhou

Guangzhou in late October is warm, humid and changeable — think late summer, not autumn.

The thing nobody warns you about

The halls are heavily air-conditioned and can feel cold after a few hours — especially once you have been walking and are tired. People who arrive in a t-shirt and shorts often end up buying a jacket at the venue by day two.

So: dress for warm outdoors, but carry a layer for indoors.

Packing list

Clothing

• ☐ Light, breathable shirts (you will want a fresh one each day)
• ☐ One light jacket or cardigan for the halls
• ☐ Two pairs of comfortable walking shoes — rotate them. Your feet will thank you
• ☐ Socks you do not mind walking 15,000 steps in
• ☐ One smart-casual outfit for dinners or serious meetings
• ☐ A compact umbrella or light rain shell

The essentials people forget

• ☐ Plasters / blister patches — genuinely, bring them
• ☐ Pain relief for feet and back
• ☐ Electrolyte tablets — humidity plus walking drains you faster than you expect
• ☐ Sunscreen (you will be outside between halls)
• ☐ Hand sanitiser
• ☐ Reusable water bottle
• ☐ Power bank + cable (two cables; one always fails)
• ☐ Universal adaptor — China runs on 220V / 50Hz. The usual socket is the

flat two-pin (Type A), with Type I (three flat pins) also found. If your devices are 110–120V, bring a voltage converter, not just a plug adaptor.

Business

• ☐ Business cards
• ☐ Printed shortlist with hall and booth numbers
• ☐ Notebook
• ☐ A folder for the catalogues you will be handed (you will be handed a lot — bring a tote)

Practical tip: keep a photo of your passport, visa and badge in your phone, and email

them to yourself. If you lose the physical ones, this saves your trip.

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11. Where to eat and recharge during the fair

The fair complex is enormous, and the food courts inside are convenient but get extremely busy at lunch. Here is how I handle it.

Inside the complex

• Food courts in Areas A, B and C — convenient, limited choice at peak times, queues

12:00–13:30

• Concession stands and coffee kiosks scattered through the halls
• Practical advice: eat at 11:15 or after 13:45. You will halve your wait.

Near the venue (Pazhou)

• Hotels around the complex — international hotel restaurants, reliable, expensive
• Pazhou metro area — a good range of local Cantonese restaurants, mid-priced
• Cantonese food is what Guangzhou does best. If you have one free evening, make it dim sum

or roast goose rather than a hotel buffet.

Where to recharge (battery and body)

These are the ones buyers actually use, because they are near the venue and easy to find:

During the fair, cafés near the venue fill up fast after 17:00. If you need to send

follow-up emails the same evening, either go straight from the fair or head one or two metro

stops away from Pazhou.

Halal food

If you need Halal (清真) food, Guangzhou has real options — you will not be stuck:

• Inside the fair complex: there are Halal food outlets in the venue. Ask at any

information desk for the nearest one in your area (A, B or C) — locations shift between sessions, so confirm on the day.

• Around your hotel: most hotels and hotel clusters near the venue and in the city have

Halal restaurants within walking distance or a short ride. Muslim neighbourhoods and areas near mosques are the surest bet — ask your hotel front desk for the closest one and get the address written in Chinese to show a driver.

• At the venue: if you are unsure, ask me and I will point you to the right hall.

Water and energy

• Drink far more water than feels necessary. The combination of humidity, air conditioning

and 15,000 steps catches people out.

• Water: most exhibitors keep bottled water on the booth and will happily offer you one —

take it. It saves you a walk to the food court. Bring your own too, but know you will rarely go thirsty on the show floor.

• Bring snacks — nuts, dried fruit, a protein bar. Halls are long and you will not always

want to trek back to a food court.

• If you are feeling flat at 15:00, that is normal. A 15-minute sit-down with a coffee

resets you better than pushing through.

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12. Apps worth installing before you land

Install these at home, on good Wi-Fi, while your banking app still sends SMS to your normal number. Setting them up at the airport, tired, on a queue, is the hard way.

Essential

Strongly recommended

Useful

Set-up order that works: WeChat → Alipay → add a card to Alipay → Didi → translation app

with offline pack → maps. Do it in that order and each step gets easier.

One more thing about your phone

Bring a power bank. Between maps, translation, WeChat, photos of catalogues and Didi, your battery will be at 20% by early afternoon. Charging points at the venue exist but are competitive.

⚠️ If you will take any domestic flight in China (for example to visit a factory), your

power bank must carry the 3C / CCC certification mark on its casing — a rule introduced

for domestic flights, and one security does enforce. Pack it in hand luggage, never in a

checked bag. If yours has no 3C mark, buy a small one locally instead.

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13. What I can arrange for you

This section is the reason this handbook is worth your time.

Most suppliers send you a catalogue and wait. What actually makes a China sourcing trip work is the logistics around the meetings — and that is where I can genuinely help, because I live here and do this every week.

You do not have to buy anything from me to use any of this. Several of the services below are free because they are simply what a good host does.

13.1 Translation and accompanying interpreter

Tell me your language pairs and which days, and I will tell you what I can arrange.

13.2 Trip arrangements

I can organise the parts of the trip that are hard to do from abroad:

• Airport pick-up and drop-off — meet at arrivals, drive to your hotel
• Hotel booking — I know which hotels near the complex are actually quiet, close to the

metro, and don’t inflate prices during the fair

• Car and driver — hourly, daily, or for a full multi-stop day
• Guiding you around the complex — with 75,700 booths across three areas, an hour of

someone who knows the layout saves you half a day

• QC support — a quality inspector to accompany you to factories and check goods against

your spec, so you are not relying on the supplier’s own word

• Factory visits around Guangzhou — this is the most valuable day of the trip for most

buyers. See below.

13.3 Factory visits and QC — why this matters most

A catalogue tells you nothing. A factory tells you everything.

When you visit a factory in person, you find out:

• Whether the “factory” is actually a factory, or a trading office
• Whether the machines and lines are real
• How they handle quality when it goes wrong
• Whether the owner is someone you can work with for five years

I can arrange:

• Factory visits in Guangdong and the surrounding industrial belts, with logistics handled
• A QC professional to come with you and inspect against your spec
• Multi-factory days — if you are comparing suppliers, we can do two or three in one day
• An interpreter on the same visit

Book this early. Factory visits are a full day each, travel time is real, and good

inspectors get booked out during the fair. Message me before you fly and we will put the

visits in the calendar properly.

13.4 The window you should know about

The fair has two 3-day breaks for exhibitor changeover:

These are the perfect factory-visit windows — no show floor to cover, suppliers are back at their plants, and you are already in China. Experienced buyers plan their trip around them. If you want to use one, tell me which break and I will build the itinerary.

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14. If you are not looking for baby furniture — let me connect you anyway

Read this even if wooden nursery furniture is not what you came for.

I am an export sales manager, but I am also based in China and I know this manufacturing landscape. If you are at the fair looking for something I do not make, I would still rather help you than not — partly because it is the decent thing to do, and partly because buyers remember who helped them.

What I can do for you

1. Point you to the right industrial belt. China’s manufacturing is clustered. Home textiles in one province, ceramics in another, hardware in another, furniture in several. If you tell me what you are sourcing, I can tell you which region actually makes it — and which regions are just trading companies reselling.

2. Introduce you to factories in that belt. I have contacts across several industries from years of working with suppliers here. If you need a category I can vouch for, I will make an introduction — and tell you honestly if I cannot help.

3. Flag the questions worth asking. Things like: is this a factory or a trader? Are the certifications real? What is the real MOQ? What happens when the shipment is wrong? These are the questions that decide whether a supplier relationship works, and they are easy to skip when you are impressed by a booth.

4. Give you a straight read on a quotation. If a supplier quotes you something and you want a second opinion on whether it is reasonable, ask me. Sometimes the answer is “that is good”, sometimes it is “that is high, go back” — and you will get the honest version.

What I am not

I am not a sourcing agent, I do not take a commission on other people’s factories, and I am not going to pretend to represent capabilities I do not have. If I can help, I will say so. If I cannot, I will tell you that too.

How to use this

Message me at the fair, or before. Tell me:

1. What categories you are sourcing
2. Roughly what volumes and what market
3. What has been frustrating about sourcing from China so far

That is usually enough for me to tell you whether I can point you somewhere useful.

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15. Visiting our factory in Yichun — how to get here

If you would like to see where our furniture is actually made, you are very welcome. Factory visits are the part of this business I enjoy most, and buyers usually say it was the most useful day of their trip.

Where we are

Yichun Fulin Wood Works Co., Ltd. 286 Yijia Road, Wuying District, Yichun City, Heilongjiang, China

Yichun is in Heilongjiang province, north-east China — known as the “Forest Capital of China”, which is why the timber industry is here. We have been manufacturing here since 2002.

Why it is worth the trip

• See the actual production — 4-axis CNC machining centre (±0.05 mm tolerance), UV roller coating line, spray finishing, 5-stage in-line QC
• Meet the people who make your product, not just a sales office
• Check certifications and test reports against the physical goods
• Discuss OEM/private label properly — custom sizes, finishes, packaging, documentation
• Make an honest judgement about whether we are the right partner for you

How to get here

Option A — by air, straight to Yichun

• Fly to Yichun Lindu Airport (LDS)
• Yichun Lindu Airport → our factory: about 40 minutes by car
• I will meet you at the airport

Option B — high-speed rail from Harbin (usually the most comfortable)

• Get to Harbin first (fly in, or high-speed rail from Guangzhou)
• Harbin → Yichunxi Station (伊春西站): about 2 hours by high-speed rail
• Yichunxi Station → our factory: about 1 hour by car
• I will meet you at the station

Getting here from Guangzhou

• Guangzhou → Harbin or Yichun: roughly 5–7 hours flying including connections
• This is a full day of travel each way. Plan it as a proper trip, not an afternoon excursion.
• If you are already in the north or in Beijing, it is far quicker — tell me where you are and I

will work out the best route for you.

What I will arrange

If you are coming, tell me:

1. Your dates and how many people
2. Which products you most want to see
3. Whether you want to combine it with a QC inspection or a visit to other factories

I will handle the airport pick-up, hotel, and factory schedule — you just need to get to Yichun.

Honest advice on timing: if your trip is short, the factory visit is best done during one

of the two fair breaks (20–22 Oct or 28–30 Oct) — see §13.4 — or in the days immediately

after the fair. Trying to fit it into a fair day does not work; you will be exhausted and the

travel alone is a day.

And if you cannot come: ask me for a live video walkthrough instead. It is not the same

as being here, but it is far better than a catalogue, and I will show you the lines you ask

about rather than a polished tour.

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16. Contact

Mia Sales Manager · Yichun Fulin Wood Works Co., Ltd.

What we manufacture

Solid wood furniture, as OEM / private label — we do not sell under our own brand, so we never compete with our customers:

• Nursery: cots, cot beds, convertible cots (3-in-1 to 5-in-1), changing units
• Kids: toddler beds, junior beds, bunk beds, kids’ bedroom furniture
• Bedroom: beds, wardrobes, nightstands, chests of drawers
• Materials: pine, rubberwood, MDF, plywood; NC and water-based finishes, any Pantone colour

Compliance: EN 716-1/-2 · EN 71-3 · EN 1130 · NF D60-300 · EN 14749 · EN 747 · AS/NZS 2172 · SASO/SABER documentation support (certificate issued to the buyer) · BSCI social audit · FSC chain-of-custody · EUDR-traceable timber.

How to reach me most quickly

WhatsApp or WeChat on +86 134 2439 4492 — that is where I am quickest. If you are at the fair and something is not working, message me; I will help whether or not it is about our products.

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Prepared by Mia for buyers attending the 140th Canton Fair, October 2026.

Dates, venues and official procedures come from the official Canton Fair materials. Always confirm the latest details before you travel:

• Official site: https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US
• Official Buyer’s Guide: https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en-US/buyerguide

Call centre — mainland 4000-888-999 · overseas (8620) 28-888-999 · info@cantonfair.org.cn