Understand the three phases
The Canton Fair in Guangzhou runs twice a year, in spring and autumn, and each edition is split into three phases of a few days each, grouped by product family: electronics and machinery first, homeware and consumer goods next, textiles, shoes and health products last.
Booking the wrong phase is the single most expensive mistake a first-time visitor makes: your suppliers are simply not in the building that week.
Prepare before you land
You cannot walk the fair without a plan. Decide your product list, map the halls that carry it, and build a shortlist of stands to visit on each day.
- Register your badge online and secure your invitation letter early
- Book a hotel on a metro line that serves the complex
- Print a one-page brief per product, with your specification and target price
- Bring far more business cards than you think you need
On site: talk less, collect more
The fair is a filtering exercise, not a negotiation. Your job in three days is to collect quotations, catalogues, samples and contacts, and to note which supplier gave a serious answer to a technical question.
Photograph each stand's sign with the product you liked, so your notes still make sense two weeks later. And bring someone who speaks Mandarin: the price you are told in English and the price discussed in Mandarin are not always the same.
The real work starts after the fair
Follow up within a week, while the supplier still remembers you. Send a structured message with your specification, the quantity, and a request for a formal quotation, not a vague 'nice to meet you'.
Then narrow the field to two or three suppliers and visit their factories. The fair shows you a stand; only a visit shows you a plant.