China trade fairs
The fair calendar, checked against the organisers.
Most fair calendars online are copied from each other, and several are wrong. These dates were read on each organiser's own site, and anything we could not confirm is marked as such rather than filled in.
Coming in the wrong week is the expensive mistake. Coming in the wrong phase is the common one.
Dates verified 7 August 2026. We re-check them before each session.
How to use this
The category matters more than the date
01
Phases are not interchangeable
The Canton Fair runs three phases, and each one carries entirely different product categories. Furniture and building materials are in Phase 2 — a buyer who books flights for Phase 1 will walk halls full of machinery and appliances.
02
A fair is a net, not a decision
Fairs are where you cover ground and meet suppliers you would never have found online. Fair prices are usually above factory-direct prices, and a significant share of exhibitors are trading companies. Use the fair for breadth, then spend the rest of the week in the factories.
03
Dates move, and official sites go stale
Two of the sites we checked were still showing last year's edition on their own front page. We date every check and re-verify before each session rather than carrying figures forward.
By sector
What is on, and what it actually carries
Grouped by what you buy, not by date. Status shows whether we could confirm the dates on the organiser's own site.
Everything — the general fairs
Canton Fair — Phase 1
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex
15–19 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Home appliances, consumer electronics, industrial automation, machinery, vehicles and two-wheelers, lighting, electrical, hardware and tools, new materials
140th session. Buyer badge free with online pre-registration.
Canton Fair — Phase 2
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex
23–27 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Furniture, building materials, sanitary ware, ceramics, houseware, kitchenware, gifts and decorations, gardening
The phase for building and interiors buyers.
Canton Fair — Phase 3
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex
31 October – 4 November 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Fashion and textiles, shoes and bags, toys and baby, medical devices and health, personal care, sports and leisure, pet, stationery, food
Yiwu Fair
Yiwu, Zhejiang · Yiwu International Expo Center
21–24 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Small commodities, hardware tools, electronics, toys, sports and outdoor, stationery and office
32nd edition. The English site was still showing the 2025 edition when we checked — the Chinese site carries the current dates. Yiwu's permanent wholesale market runs year-round beside it.
East China Fair
Shanghai
1–4 March 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Light industry, garments and textiles, home goods, decorations and gifts
Co-sponsored by nine provincial commerce departments. The route into Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui manufacturing.
Electronics
ELEXCON + CIOE
Shenzhen · Shenzhen World, Bao'an
9–11 September 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Embedded and edge AI, memory, MCU/SoC, wireless, sensors, power devices, passive components, advanced packaging, optoelectronics
Components and embedded, not finished consumer goods.
HKTDC Electronics Fair — Autumn
Hong Kong · HKCEC, Wan Chai
13–16 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Consumer electronics, components, smart living
Clashes head-on with Canton Fair Phase 1 — you have to choose.
HKTDC Electronics Fair — Spring
Hong Kong · HKCEC, Wan Chai
13–16 April 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Consumer electronics, components, smart living
Global Sources Hong Kong
Hong Kong · AsiaWorld-Expo
Phase 1: 11–14 October · Phase 2: 18–21 October 2026To confirmWhat it carries — Phase 1: consumer electronics, gaming. Phase 2: mobile electronics, smart home, security and home appliances, lifestyle, sports and outdoor
The organiser's site is behind bot protection and could not be read. These dates come from the company's own press release and the Hong Kong Tourism Board. Note there is no third phase and no fashion edition announced for October 2026 — confirm before booking.
China International Industry Fair
Shanghai · NECC
12–16 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Industrial automation, robotics, machine tools, new materials, energy
Ends the day before Canton Fair Phase 1 opens.
Furniture, home and décor
Jinhan Fair for Home & Gifts
Guangzhou · PWTC Expo, Pazhou
21–27 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Home decor and furnishing, garden and outdoor living, gifts and seasonal decor
54th edition. About a kilometre from the Canton Fair complex and overlapping Phase 2 — the simplest combination on this list.
CIFF Guangzhou — Phase 1
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex and PWTC Expo
18–21 March 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Home furniture, home décor, home textiles, outdoor and leisure
59th edition. Free entry with pre-registration.
CIFF Guangzhou — Phase 2 + CIFM / interzum
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex and PWTC Expo
28–31 March 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Office and commercial furniture; furniture machinery, materials, components and hardware
The phase for anyone buying furniture components or production equipment.
Home InStyle · Gifts & Premium · Fashion InStyle
Hong Kong · HKCEC, Wan Chai
27–30 April 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Houseware, home décor, gifts and premiums, fashion and accessories
HKTDC's spring cluster, all in the same week. Home InStyle and Fashion InStyle are the renamed Houseware Fair and Fashion Week.
Shenzhen International Gifts & Home Products Fair
Shenzhen · Shenzhen World, Bao'an
20–23 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Gifts, premiums, home products, promotional goods
34th edition. Lands almost exactly in the Canton Fair Phase 1–2 gap.
Ceramics, bathroom and lighting
CeramBath — Foshan Ceramics & Bathroom Fair
Foshan · China Ceramics City
18–23 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Tiles, sanitary ware, bathroom, ceramic surfaces
45th edition, three venues. Spans the end of Canton Fair Phase 1, the whole gap, and the start of Phase 2. Foshan is about an hour from Pazhou.
Guzhen Lighting Fair — Autumn
Zhongshan · Guzhen Convention & Exhibition Center
22–25 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — The full lighting chain — fixtures, sources, controls, production equipment and materials
35th edition, held across the exhibition centre plus eight lighting malls. Registration is online only this edition: register before 18 October and the RMB 100 on-site fee is waived.
Uniceramics Expo
Foshan · Tanzhou International Convention & Exhibition Center, Shunde
19–22 April 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Ceramics and sanitary ware, production equipment, supporting materials
Annual, April only — there is no autumn edition.
GILE + GEBT
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex
9–12 June 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Lighting, LED, smart lighting; electrical engineering, home and building automation
The two run together. Free with online pre-registration; walk-in registration costs RMB 50.
Ceramics China
Guangzhou · Pazhou complex, Area A
23–26 June 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Ceramic production machinery, kilns, moulds, glazes and raw materials
41st edition. The industry and machinery show — not a tile-buying fair.
HKTDC International Lighting Fair — Autumn
Hong Kong · HKCEC, Wan Chai
27–30 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Lighting fixtures, LED, smart and outdoor lighting
Three of its four days fall exactly in the Canton Fair Phase 2–3 gap. Spring edition: 20–23 April 2027.
Toys, baby and stationery
China Toy Expo
Shanghai · SNIEC
21–23 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Toys, licensing, kids' products, preschool and educational
Around 2,700 exhibitors, with the licensing, kids and preschool expos co-located. Opens in the Canton Fair gap and runs into Phase 2.
Medical devices and health
CMEF + ICMD
Beijing · Capital International Exhibition Center
21–24 October 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Medical equipment and devices; ICMD covers device design, components and contract manufacturing
94th edition, and it is in Beijing — several calendars still list Shenzhen, which is wrong. ICMD is the one that matters if you are sourcing OEM medical devices. The spring 2027 edition is not yet published.
Hardware, machinery and industrial
China International Hardware Show
Shanghai · SNIEC
28–30 September 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Hardware, hand and power tools, DIY, fasteners, locks, garden tools
The show moved to late September — references to an October edition are out of date.
ITES Shenzhen
Shenzhen · Shenzhen World, Bao'an
24–27 March 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Machine tools, metal cutting and forming, industrial automation, robotics, precision manufacturing, tooling
28th edition. South China's industrial equipment show.
bauma CHINA
Shanghai · SNIEC and SWEECC
23–27 November 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Construction machinery, building-material machines, mining machinery, construction vehicles
Biennial. First edition run across two venues. Free visitor ticket.
CIMT — China International Machine Tool Show
Beijing · Capital International Exhibition Center and CIEC Shunyi
Opens 19 April 2027To confirmWhat it carries — Machine tools, metal cutting and forming, tooling, automation
Biennial, odd years. The opening date is official; the closing date is not yet published.
Xiamen International Stone Fair
Xiamen, Fujian · Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center
16–19 March 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Marble, granite, engineered and sintered stone, slabs and cut-to-size, processing machinery, diamond tools
The reference fair for stone. About 1h20 by air from Guangzhou.
Automechanika Shanghai
Shanghai · NECC
2–5 December 2026ConfirmedWhat it carries — Auto parts and accessories, aftermarket, NEV and charging
21st edition, across the entire venue.
CPHI & PMEC China
Shanghai · NECC
16–18 June 2027ConfirmedWhat it carries — Pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, machinery, packaging and drug delivery, contract services
Note the venue change from SNIEC to NECC.
Worth knowing
Two big fairs that are not sourcing fairs
Both appear on every China fair list. Neither will help you buy from Chinese factories, and it is cheaper to know that now.
China International Import Expo (CIIE)
5–10 November 2026 · Shanghai
An import expo: foreign brands selling into China. It is a major event, and it sits perfectly after Canton Fair Phase 3 ends on 4 November — but it is the wrong direction of trade if you came to source.
FHC Shanghai
10–12 November 2026 · Shanghai
Global food and beverage brands selling into the Chinese market. Useful if you are exporting food to China, not if you are buying Chinese food products.
Building the week
What can be combined, and what cannot
The Canton Fair leaves two gaps — 20–22 and 28–30 October. What you can do with them is the whole game.
The first gap: 20–22 October
This gap is unusually rich, and it is also a bottleneck: Yiwu, CMEF Beijing and the China Toy Expo all open on 21 October and all run into Phase 2. You can attend one of them, not two. Staying in Guangdong is the easier play — the Shenzhen gifts fair fills the gap almost exactly, CeramBath in Foshan spans it, and the Jinhan Fair is a kilometre from the Canton Fair complex.
The second gap: 28–30 October
Narrower. In practice it means one Hong Kong trip — the HKTDC lighting fair sits exactly in it — and little else.
How far is far
- Inside the Pearl River DeltaFoshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shenzhen — a genuine day trip. Guangzhou to Shenzhen is under 40 minutes by high-speed rail; add transfers and it is about two hours door to door to the Bao'an venue.Day trip
- Hong KongRail is under an hour, but immigration each way makes a crossing cost roughly half a working day — and many nationalities need a separate entry permit.Separate leg
- Shanghai, Beijing, Yiwu, XiamenFlights of one to three hours. Yiwu is nearly seven hours by rail from Guangzhou, so fly. These are worth a dedicated day or two, not a detour.Fly
What we could not confirm
The gaps we are not filling in
Publishing a date we could not verify would be worse than leaving it out.
- Canton Fair spring 2027 — no date has been published by the organiser. Any spring 2027 date you see elsewhere is an extrapolation from previous years.
- CMEF spring 2027, Guzhen spring 2027, ELEXCON 2027 and Global Sources April 2027 — none are published yet.
- Global Sources October 2026 — the organiser's site could not be read, so those dates rest on a company press release. Confirm before booking.
- Two organiser sites were showing past editions on their own pages when we checked, and one English-language site was a full year out of date. Check the Chinese page when the English one looks stale.
Registration rules and entry fees also change per edition. We confirm the current rules for your fair before you book anything.
Before you book
Three things that catch buyers out
The badge for whoever comes with you
At the Canton Fair, only you — the overseas buyer — can apply for an accompanying person's badge, you are limited to two per phase, and the interpreter badge requires a recognised Chinese interpreting qualification. Applications close two days before the day you attend. Many interpreters advertised online cannot be badged at all.
Entry is often free, but only if you pre-register
The Canton Fair buyer badge and its invitation letter are free. Several other fairs are free with online pre-registration and charge on the door — the Guangzhou lighting fair charges RMB 50 for walk-ins, and Guzhen charges RMB 100 unless you registered in time.
Your entry depends on your passport
China's visa-free entry covers around fifty nationalities for up to thirty days, and is currently published as running to 31 December 2026 — which covers the autumn 2026 fairs but not, as things stand, spring 2027. Many nationalities are not covered at all. Check your own case before you book flights.
Tell us the product. We will tell you the week.
Which fair, which phase, and whether the fair is worth your week at all — a written answer within 24h on business days.
Import from China with costs you can verify.