After a couple awesome presentations at Beer and Pancakes this year I decided to go to the Canton Fair. This is the largest trade fair in China it has 60,000 booths and hundreds of thousands of products. The opportunities are endless!
The main purpose of this thread is hoping that the info helps others that make the trip (KAK and Mrs BRKb helped me a ton) and to convince people to go and check it out.
@TopChef and I left from the States at the same time and split a hotel room and did all the traveling together. We also met up with fellow BnPers @Hong King Kong and @AnneC . HKK is building his empire while living in Guangzhou and Anne flew out and met us over there for phase 3. We all went to dinner one night and chilled, it was a good time. I hope they can come and give their perspective and fill in the things I miss.
I met up with Top Chef in Los Angeles and we flew from there to Beijing and then on to Guangzhou. The plane was pretty uneventful, the food on Air China isn’t very good but Anne said hers (Delta or United) was worse so I can’t complain. Pack some food if you can.
Hotel
Our hotel was pretty far from the airport (its pretty far from any part of the city). I think the metro goes all the way to the airport but we didn’t use it so not positive but if so it’s an easy way to save a few bucks. We took a cab instead. After leaving the airport some guys tried to hustle us for a $100 cab ride to our hotel. It sounded ridiculous but we offered $50 and they declined saying it was too far. They wanted like $60 minimum. They were just hustlers and not part of any real cab service so we waited in line for a metered cab (DO THIS). We got in the cab and after 2 minutes in he said we would be $40 to get to our hotel. We acted like we didn’t understand what he was saying and just pointed to the meter. The cab ride ended up only being about $20… Don’t fall for their tricks just meter a cab! Pretend you don’t understand and just point to the meter.
We stayed in a hotel (thanks to @Arrabista for the recommendation) a bit away from the Fair because it was a ton cheaper (jinyi hotel on Dade Rd). The cost was around $60 a night and it was a pretty nice hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a $60 hotel but the beds were fine and it had a western style bathroom so we were good! The hotel staff didn’t speak any English, that was by far the worst part about the hotel.
There was a good restaurant right beside the hotel and we ended up eating there for breakfast almost every morning and some dinners. The food was good (unlike America Chinese food), breakfast was about $1 a day and dinner was $2-4 a day. Almost none of the restaurants had drinks so we always hit up 7-11 before or after. I’m sure we spent more on drinks than we did on food.
Travel Around City
Our hotel was near Pedestrian Street which is a pretty popular area with tons of shops and restaurants. It’s a really cool area that you should def check out if you are in the area. It was probably a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Amazing race went there this year if you watch that show.
Traveling around Guangzhou was easy, we were a 5-10 minute walk from the metro station. It seemed like you could pretty much get anywhere in the city for $1 and a 20 minute ride. The trip to the Fair was a bit crowded every morning but it only took 20 minutes or so and was pretty painless.
The Fair
We got to go to phase 2 and 3. We went to phase 2 for 4 days but the last day is really just a clean up day, it’s a good day to buy samples but the booths start packing up very early and it’s a madhouse once that starts. We were at phase 3 for 3 days and it was plenty for us.
The fair is a huge opportunity! Europeans far out numbered Americans. I don’t know the numbers but I don’t think I spoke with anyone who was from America and most of the English you heard had thick accents. Watching Europeans with thick accents talk to Chinese people that know little English was quite the sight.
I was looking to find a manufacturer for a few specific products that I wanted to add to my current product line. The main reason I wanted to go was to find a reliable supplier (or 2) for a specialty product that I knew would be readily available at the fair. I still wanted to see everything else to see about more products to add to my business and also was looking for some specific thing for a few friends. There were thousands and thousands of different products and we saw almost every booth in phase 2 and 3.
It’s hard to put into perspective just how big the fair actually is. The first day we got there we walked over 10 miles and covered about 1/3 of the phase maybe… It really is insane how big it is and pictures don’t really do it justice. We spent 7-8 hours a day for 3 days covering phase 2 walking row by row.
If you don’t know what you are looking for and just get catalogues from every manufacturer that looks cool it will be really heavy! Most people had rolling suitcases that they put their catalogues in. I just used a backpack and it was alright except maybe 1 day I got too overloaded. I would maybe recommend a suitcase or just go the digital method that we ended up doing. Just take their business card and take pictures with it and the products. I still got some catalogues but most of them are unneeded and some of the companies (especially trading companies) have HUGE catalogues.
Outside of the products I went looking for I also came away with a few things I am going to start selling in another vertical. I plan to mainly start these out on amazon but there is a ton of potential to get it into retail. Not sure where this will lead but the opportunity is pretty awesome and I couldn't let it pass me by.
Food
All the food we ate in China (outside the fair) was good but almost no one spoke English so we just pointed to pictures and hoped it was good. Most places we went only had pictures of a few items, luckily neither of us are picky. With that being said the food at the fair was pretty much crap. They have McDonalds and Papa Johns if you want to go that route or they have a few native options which is more or less their version of microwave dinners. You wont be missing much if you can skip lunch.
The street food is good. They have good fresh fruit including Jack Fruit that you need to try. They also have cooked food, no clue what most of it was and I only tried it a couple times, it was always really good.
The City
Overall the city was about what I expected. “It’s a manufacturing city” explains what to expect pretty well. I didn’t think the air quality was that bad, Beijing was WAAY worse but we were only there a few minutes so hard to judge. There was no crime to notice and overall people seemed decent, they work and that’s about it. The traffic is madness, everyone honks their horn at all times and cars fly from lane to lane like madmen. I’ve never witnessed anything like their traffic (I know, I know, I’m from Kentucky, but we do have paved roads and cars, and my city is actually pretty decent sized). Motorbikes go from street to sidewalk in an instant then come up behind you and honk in your ear. Bikes fly around corners, guys on motorized carts with boxes stacked 10 feet high fly down bike paths. I’m shocked there aren’t more accidents, Im shocked I didn’t witness a wreck or death. The bicyclists are nuts, I would never ride a bike there.
Random Stuff
The language barrier is big. Almost no one outside the fair spoke English. In the fair most spoke at least decent English but it was rough communicating with some of the people. Many people had translators and I would probably recommend that depending on your goals for the fair.
We weren’t able to make it to Hong Kong which is probably the only regret I have. The trains booked up our three off days between the fair. Book this early if you want to see it. We went downtown instead which was decent not a ton to write about there.
Also, apparently laundry’s aren’t a common thing in Guangzhou… We literally could not find one, either book a hotel with actual laundry, pack enough clothes for your entire trip or wash it by hand in the sink.
We went the entire trip without phone service. You can get a sim card and I hear they are pretty cheap but its not impossible to make it without one. I didnt really miss it, the hotel had internet that was slow but got the job done. Some websites are blocked so I had to get a VPN to access facebook to check on my Adspend.
Special shout out to @Mrs. BRKb and @Kak who have a good thread about their experience last year. You can pickup a ton of helpful nuggets there. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/chinese-hk-trade-show-experience.48745/
If you don’t have a current product idea or funnel, GO TO THE FAIR! Like I mentioned above the number of Americans there is SUPER low and opportunities are everywhere. Between TopChef and I we probably have 10 good product Ideas that we simply cannot act on currently.
Expenses:
Hotel $60 a night
Food, Drink, Travel $200 for 12-14 days
Flight $900 from LAX
Visa $200 (??? Maybe don’t remember)
Shots (immunizations) includes a ton of stuff I was just slacking on $400
Can’t think of anything else…
The next Canton Fair is in October.. Can you bootstrap $2000 in 6 months...?
Or do you have an excuse?
I'll try and answer any questions you all have and hopefully everyone else who went can give their thoughts.
The main purpose of this thread is hoping that the info helps others that make the trip (KAK and Mrs BRKb helped me a ton) and to convince people to go and check it out.
@TopChef and I left from the States at the same time and split a hotel room and did all the traveling together. We also met up with fellow BnPers @Hong King Kong and @AnneC . HKK is building his empire while living in Guangzhou and Anne flew out and met us over there for phase 3. We all went to dinner one night and chilled, it was a good time. I hope they can come and give their perspective and fill in the things I miss.
I met up with Top Chef in Los Angeles and we flew from there to Beijing and then on to Guangzhou. The plane was pretty uneventful, the food on Air China isn’t very good but Anne said hers (Delta or United) was worse so I can’t complain. Pack some food if you can.
Hotel
Our hotel was pretty far from the airport (its pretty far from any part of the city). I think the metro goes all the way to the airport but we didn’t use it so not positive but if so it’s an easy way to save a few bucks. We took a cab instead. After leaving the airport some guys tried to hustle us for a $100 cab ride to our hotel. It sounded ridiculous but we offered $50 and they declined saying it was too far. They wanted like $60 minimum. They were just hustlers and not part of any real cab service so we waited in line for a metered cab (DO THIS). We got in the cab and after 2 minutes in he said we would be $40 to get to our hotel. We acted like we didn’t understand what he was saying and just pointed to the meter. The cab ride ended up only being about $20… Don’t fall for their tricks just meter a cab! Pretend you don’t understand and just point to the meter.
We stayed in a hotel (thanks to @Arrabista for the recommendation) a bit away from the Fair because it was a ton cheaper (jinyi hotel on Dade Rd). The cost was around $60 a night and it was a pretty nice hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a $60 hotel but the beds were fine and it had a western style bathroom so we were good! The hotel staff didn’t speak any English, that was by far the worst part about the hotel.
There was a good restaurant right beside the hotel and we ended up eating there for breakfast almost every morning and some dinners. The food was good (unlike America Chinese food), breakfast was about $1 a day and dinner was $2-4 a day. Almost none of the restaurants had drinks so we always hit up 7-11 before or after. I’m sure we spent more on drinks than we did on food.
Travel Around City
Our hotel was near Pedestrian Street which is a pretty popular area with tons of shops and restaurants. It’s a really cool area that you should def check out if you are in the area. It was probably a 15 minute walk from our hotel. Amazing race went there this year if you watch that show.
Traveling around Guangzhou was easy, we were a 5-10 minute walk from the metro station. It seemed like you could pretty much get anywhere in the city for $1 and a 20 minute ride. The trip to the Fair was a bit crowded every morning but it only took 20 minutes or so and was pretty painless.
The Fair
We got to go to phase 2 and 3. We went to phase 2 for 4 days but the last day is really just a clean up day, it’s a good day to buy samples but the booths start packing up very early and it’s a madhouse once that starts. We were at phase 3 for 3 days and it was plenty for us.
The fair is a huge opportunity! Europeans far out numbered Americans. I don’t know the numbers but I don’t think I spoke with anyone who was from America and most of the English you heard had thick accents. Watching Europeans with thick accents talk to Chinese people that know little English was quite the sight.
I was looking to find a manufacturer for a few specific products that I wanted to add to my current product line. The main reason I wanted to go was to find a reliable supplier (or 2) for a specialty product that I knew would be readily available at the fair. I still wanted to see everything else to see about more products to add to my business and also was looking for some specific thing for a few friends. There were thousands and thousands of different products and we saw almost every booth in phase 2 and 3.
It’s hard to put into perspective just how big the fair actually is. The first day we got there we walked over 10 miles and covered about 1/3 of the phase maybe… It really is insane how big it is and pictures don’t really do it justice. We spent 7-8 hours a day for 3 days covering phase 2 walking row by row.
If you don’t know what you are looking for and just get catalogues from every manufacturer that looks cool it will be really heavy! Most people had rolling suitcases that they put their catalogues in. I just used a backpack and it was alright except maybe 1 day I got too overloaded. I would maybe recommend a suitcase or just go the digital method that we ended up doing. Just take their business card and take pictures with it and the products. I still got some catalogues but most of them are unneeded and some of the companies (especially trading companies) have HUGE catalogues.
Outside of the products I went looking for I also came away with a few things I am going to start selling in another vertical. I plan to mainly start these out on amazon but there is a ton of potential to get it into retail. Not sure where this will lead but the opportunity is pretty awesome and I couldn't let it pass me by.
Food
All the food we ate in China (outside the fair) was good but almost no one spoke English so we just pointed to pictures and hoped it was good. Most places we went only had pictures of a few items, luckily neither of us are picky. With that being said the food at the fair was pretty much crap. They have McDonalds and Papa Johns if you want to go that route or they have a few native options which is more or less their version of microwave dinners. You wont be missing much if you can skip lunch.
The street food is good. They have good fresh fruit including Jack Fruit that you need to try. They also have cooked food, no clue what most of it was and I only tried it a couple times, it was always really good.
The City
Overall the city was about what I expected. “It’s a manufacturing city” explains what to expect pretty well. I didn’t think the air quality was that bad, Beijing was WAAY worse but we were only there a few minutes so hard to judge. There was no crime to notice and overall people seemed decent, they work and that’s about it. The traffic is madness, everyone honks their horn at all times and cars fly from lane to lane like madmen. I’ve never witnessed anything like their traffic (I know, I know, I’m from Kentucky, but we do have paved roads and cars, and my city is actually pretty decent sized). Motorbikes go from street to sidewalk in an instant then come up behind you and honk in your ear. Bikes fly around corners, guys on motorized carts with boxes stacked 10 feet high fly down bike paths. I’m shocked there aren’t more accidents, Im shocked I didn’t witness a wreck or death. The bicyclists are nuts, I would never ride a bike there.
Random Stuff
The language barrier is big. Almost no one outside the fair spoke English. In the fair most spoke at least decent English but it was rough communicating with some of the people. Many people had translators and I would probably recommend that depending on your goals for the fair.
We weren’t able to make it to Hong Kong which is probably the only regret I have. The trains booked up our three off days between the fair. Book this early if you want to see it. We went downtown instead which was decent not a ton to write about there.
Also, apparently laundry’s aren’t a common thing in Guangzhou… We literally could not find one, either book a hotel with actual laundry, pack enough clothes for your entire trip or wash it by hand in the sink.
We went the entire trip without phone service. You can get a sim card and I hear they are pretty cheap but its not impossible to make it without one. I didnt really miss it, the hotel had internet that was slow but got the job done. Some websites are blocked so I had to get a VPN to access facebook to check on my Adspend.
Special shout out to @Mrs. BRKb and @Kak who have a good thread about their experience last year. You can pickup a ton of helpful nuggets there. https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/chinese-hk-trade-show-experience.48745/
If you don’t have a current product idea or funnel, GO TO THE FAIR! Like I mentioned above the number of Americans there is SUPER low and opportunities are everywhere. Between TopChef and I we probably have 10 good product Ideas that we simply cannot act on currently.
Expenses:
Hotel $60 a night
Food, Drink, Travel $200 for 12-14 days
Flight $900 from LAX
Visa $200 (??? Maybe don’t remember)
Shots (immunizations) includes a ton of stuff I was just slacking on $400
Can’t think of anything else…
The next Canton Fair is in October.. Can you bootstrap $2000 in 6 months...?
Or do you have an excuse?
I'll try and answer any questions you all have and hopefully everyone else who went can give their thoughts.
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, great report and i am sure lots of people will find your info really useful. For what its worth i took the subway every day to the fair and didnt have any problems
