Canton Fair: Chinese import and export fair, with over 10000 suppliers. Held twice a year in April (Phase 1: 15th-20th Phase 2: 25th-30th) and September (Phase 1: 15th-20th Phase 2: 25th-30th), in Guangzhou city.

If you are in search for new products and suppliers, the canton fair is probably one of the best places to go. Some advantages of visiting the fair vs. doing online research:

• meet the suppliers in person
• check the products quality - it's always better to inspect the product yourself before you place an order.
• negotiate the price in person - for some companies it's a big investment to be on the canton fair and are there to make deals. Some of them rely on the canton fair for their entire annual production. You can drop the price a lot, it's all up to your negotiation skills.
• find reliable companies - the cost for suppliers to attend on the canton fair is usually over $10000. It's more unlikely a reseller or fraudster to register and attend there, compared to free online presence.

Some negative points:

• in most cases you'll receive quote up to twice higher than the quote you receive to online enquiries.
• the cost of visiting the canton fair is a bit higher than visiting one-two companies. Hotel and airplane ticket prices over twice higher.

Our conclusion: for first time buyer, the canton fair is the easy way to find manufacturers in China and start successful import business.

Canton Fair official website: www.cantonfair.org.cn/