Canton Fair 2026–2027: Dates, Phases & Registration — How to Source on the Floor

The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China by exhibitor count and floor area: tens of thousands of exhibitors, three phases, about 515,000 m² of exhibition space in the autumn 2026 session alone. For a buyer it is the cheapest way to see hundreds of factories in one week. It is also a place where a first-timer can burn $3,000 on travel and come home with a bag of catalogs and no usable supplier. This guide covers the dates, what each phase shows, how to register, and how to decide at the booth who is worth a follow-up call.

In short: the Canton Fair (China Import and Export Fair) has run since 1957 at the Pazhou complex in Guangzhou, twice a year, spring and autumn, each session split into three five-day phases by product group. It is a shortlisting tool, not a place to close a container order.

Canton Fair dates: autumn 2026 and spring 2027

The autumn 2026 session is the 140th. Phase 2 is running as this article is published, so if you are reading it during the fair, you can still catch Phase 3.

About the spring 2027 dates. The official site had not published a final 2027 calendar when we checked in October 2026. Trade-show listings point to Phase 1 on 15–19 April, Phase 2 on 23–27 April and Phase 3 on 1–5 May 2027, but treat this as planned, not confirmed. Verify on cantonfair.org.cn before you book non-refundable flights. The pattern has held for years: the spring session starts mid-April, the autumn session mid-October.

Opening hours are normally 9:00–18:00, with the last day closing earlier. Exhibitors in some product groups swap between the first and second half of a phase, so a booth you saw on Monday may be gone on Wednesday.

Which phase to attend: what is shown in phase 1, 2 and 3

The most expensive mistake is flying in for the wrong week. The phase structure was reorganised in recent years, so older blog posts and last year’s itineraries are unreliable. Use this as a starting point and confirm against the official exhibitor map for your session.

For a villa or hotel fit-out you will usually need Phase 1 for lighting and Phase 2 for everything else, which is why many buyers stay for two phases with a gap day between. The gap day between phases is also when the hall is rebuilt, so do not plan to visit anything.

If your project is furniture-heavy, remember that the Canton Fair is only one view of the market. Serious furniture buyers also walk the showrooms of Foshan and Lecong (see the Foshan furniture market guide), which are open all year and show the real range of a factory, not the booth selection. The broader city picture is in Guangzhou wholesale markets for sourcing.

Registration: how to get a buyer badge

Entry is free for pre-registered overseas buyers. The steps:

1. Register online as an overseas buyer on the official site. You will need a company name, business type, website or business card, and passport details. A personal-name registration without a company often gets delayed.
2. Wait for approval. It normally arrives within a few working days, but allow 2–3 weeks before departure, because peak weeks are slower.
3. Receive the e-badge by email or in your account. Save it on your phone and print a copy.
4. Collect the physical badge at an on-site registration point with your passport and the e-badge. Do not lose it: replacement means queueing again.
5. Check your visa. Many nationalities need a visa or are covered by a visa-free or transit arrangement that changes frequently. Check the current rule for your passport with the Chinese embassy or consulate, not with a travel forum.

Warning on invitation scams. Several websites sell a “VIP invitation” or a “guaranteed badge”. The official registration is free. If someone asks you to pay for a letter, the only thing you are buying is a PDF you do not need.

Where to stay and how to get around

The fair is held at the Canton Fair Complex on Pazhou Island, Haizhu district, Guangzhou. The complex is connected to the Guangzhou Metro (Pazhou station on Line 8) and runs shuttle buses from major hotels and from the airport during sessions.

• Hotel prices triple. Rates near Pazhou rise several-fold during the fair, and the good rooms sell out well ahead. Book early and choose free cancellation.
• Stay along metro lines, not next to the hall. Zhujiang New Town or Tianhe, 15–25 minutes by metro, usually give better prices and food. Taxis near the complex are queue-heavy in the evenings, so use the metro or a ride-hailing app.
• Get a local connection. Mobile data and payment apps are essential. International cards work in many hotels but not at street food stalls or in taxis, and a working Alipay or WeChat Pay set-up saves a lot of friction.
• Plan 4–7 nights. Two phases in one trip means two days of walking 20,000+ steps. Wear comfortable shoes and carry a power bank.
• Build in a Foshan day. Tile, sanitaryware and furniture factories are 40–90 minutes away by car. Visiting the factory you met at the fair is the best use of a free day.

How to work the floor: a 5-minute booth routine

The mistake most first-time visitors make is collecting every business card. By the end of day two you have 150 cards and no memory of which one was the hardware factory. Use a fixed routine instead.

1. Photograph the booth number and the product before you speak.
2. Ask three questions in order: Are you a factory? What is your MOQ per model? What is your lead time for the standard order?
3. Ask for a price on one specific item with material, size, and finish, ex-works and FOB. Compare to your target, not to the sample price.
4. Note the person’s name, WeChat and title in your phone, and take a photo of them with the booth sign.
5. Score the lead 1–3 the same evening. Only score 3 gets a sample request.

Minimums vary hugely. A factory that quotes 20 pieces of a chair may demand 200 for a custom upholstery colour; see minimum order quantities in China for how to negotiate it.

Factory or trader: how to tell at the booth

A large share of Canton Fair booths are trading companies. That is not automatically bad, since a good trader consolidates and handles export paperwork, but a trader quoting you a “factory price” is the single most common source of overpayment. Test it on the spot:

The business license can be checked in the official enterprise register (gsxt.gov.cn), where you can confirm the registered address, the business scope and the date of incorporation. Our fuller checklist is in how to vet a Chinese supplier remotely.

From the Dream View practice: how we triage a Canton Fair shortlist

This is the process our team uses after a fair, as a checklist rather than a set of numbers. When a client brings back 30 cards, we do this before a single sample is ordered:

• Cut by business scope. Check each company in the national enterprise register; drop anyone without production in their scope unless they are a vetted consolidator.
• Ask for the same item in writing from three sources. The spread between quotes shows who is a factory and who is adding margin.
• Request a video walk-through of the actual production line, with the date written on a sheet of paper in the frame.
• Order a golden sample with all specs written down (material, density, hardware brand, finish, tolerance), not whatever is on the booth shelf. See samples before ordering.
• Never wire more than the agreed deposit before the sample has been approved and the contract signed.

This usually reduces 30 cards to 3–5 real candidates. Sourcing from the fair alone is rarely faster than going direct: the genuine value of the fair is the first meeting, and the deal itself is built in the weeks after.

Typical mistake: signing a deposit at the booth

A representative case from the kind of projects we see (anonymised). A buyer fitting out a small hotel visited Phase 2 in a hurry, liked a bathroom-ware booth, and paid a 30% deposit by bank transfer the same evening on a pro-forma invoice. No golden sample, no specification sheet, and the booth company turned out to be a trader reselling product from two different factories. When the goods arrived, the glaze colour differed between boxes and four of the twenty mixer taps leaked at the cartridge. Because the contract referred only to a model number, there was no technical basis for a claim, and the supplier stopped responding after the second email.

What would have worked: leave the fair with the model numbers and prices, order a sample set from the shortlisted factory, write cartridge type, finish and pressure test into the contract, and pay a staged deposit against a signed agreement with Incoterms (FOB, EXW or CIF compared). The cost of that delay is two to three weeks. The cost of skipping it was the entire shipment.

After the fair: the 30-day plan

Typical delivery after production by sea is 30–45 days, so an order placed in mid-November lands around February, right in the Chinese New Year slowdown. Plan around the shutdown with the Chinese New Year buying calendar and the holiday calendar for orders.

Canton Fair, other fairs or a sourcing agent: what to choose

If your budget is under roughly $100,000 per year, a trip costing $1,500–3,000 plus 10 days of your time often equals 2–3% of a year’s volume, and the same effort can be done remotely. A deeper comparison is in how to find a supplier in China.

How this works with Dream View

We are based in Guangdong year-round, so you can send us a category list and the target price, and we return a verified shortlist without you flying in. The fixed commission is 10% of order value, with a minimum order of $100,000 per year. The process: vetted suppliers, golden sample, contract with Incoterms, staged payment, pre-shipment AQL inspection and door-to-door logistics. Typical savings against local retail prices are up to 80% on furniture, up to 70% on tile and stone, up to 60% on plumbing, and from 20% on almost any item. VAT and duty depend on the destination: for example Thailand 7%, UAE 5% VAT plus 5% duty, Indonesia 11%, and the EU varies by country. The Incoterms behind the quote are defined in the ICC Incoterms 2020 rules.

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Planning to source at the next Canton Fair, or want to skip the trip? Send us your category list and target budget at orders@dreamviewchina.com or on Telegram, and we will prepare a shortlist and a free estimate of the landed cost to your site.