What does China begin with? With the frying pan on your stove. With good and reliable shoes that live in the closet. Maybe it begins with that t-shirt that was given as a present by your loved one. To be brief you’ve got the idea. We all have something Chinese and maybe even have nothing non-Chinese. That’s why the Celestial country is building new cities as quick as we get our light bulb changed on the porch, lays thousands of kilometers of roads, while we cover our favorite pothole with a rubble every month, and feels very confident in general. Have you ever wondered how do Chinese goods appear on the shelves of our shops? Who produces them and how to find someone who sells them? Today you will find out the answer to this question.
Modern Silk Road begins with an infinite number of exhibitions and fairs, where Chinese manufacturers and dealers demonstrate achievements of national industry. Such kind of events is being held every day across China, usually, they are narrowly specialized. But! Twice a year — in spring and in autumn — the world’s largest exhibition of Chinese products — Canton Fair is held in Guangzhou. It’s comprised three five-day sessions, in which 150.000 types of goods are exhibited in turns.
If you are a low-cost tourist and happen to be in Guangzhou during the exhibition, the cost of your journey is automatically raising and your travel goes to «business» category. The thing is for three weeks Guangzhou population increases by 200,000 business travelers and Chinese entrepreneurs don’t lose the opportunity to earn some money. Prices going up even in hostels, located on the outskirts of the province. It would seem how hostels are related to businessmen? In general, they aren’t, but you’ll have to prove it during check-in.
Now let’s turn to the merits. How to start a business with China?
1We attended spring session of 117th Canton Fair. Fair takes place in the largest exhibition center in Asia (and the 3rd in the world) — Pazhou (琶洲), located near the metro station of the same name. The first thing you need to do is to get the badge. If you don’t have suitable photo with you, it can be made on-site:
2At first glance you wouldn’t say it is the largest exhibition in China there’s nobody around. Because it’s not cats and dogs contest — all visitors are inside long ago, they’re doing business.
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Canton Fair aims for export that’s why they love foreigners more. Separate corridor and low ticket prices (100 yuan (15 dollars) for the whole duration of the exhibition against 300 yuan (50 dollars) a day for Chinese. We think it makes sense otherwise exhibition wouldn’t be visited by 200.000 foreigners, but rather 2.000.000 Chinese business sharks.
5Have you noticed how foreigners are called? Overseas buyers.
All buyers must obtain the badge otherwise they’re going to make their procurement at the local market. There are 2 ways to get a badge — cheap and cool. You can get a free badge if you register in advance and fill out an application form on fair’s website.
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Now when we have the badge it’s time to start the race for the easy yuan. But at first let’s check that the badge is working and the machine is showing your face. In our case it seems useless, but the myth that Europeans look the same for Chinese is just a myth.
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Here is the entrance to the largest Chinese fair. A very touching moment, many visitors calm themselves by taking the picture with a soldier.
13We are inside, there are a lot of people here indeed. To help you understand the scale of the building, it’s just a toilet.
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There are three pavilions in Pazhou: A, B, C. Each pavilion contains a lot of stands of different companies. Small colored rectangles on the map are rooms. You can see how many there are:
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At first, we were skeptical about the idea. Legs feed the Ukrainian businessman. But after a few laps through the pavilion, we haven’t noticed how we end up in line for the electric bus.
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Low-budget businessman can get a coupon for a free lunch (not our coupon, we’re cool, just took it to take a picture from some cheap Kyrgyzstan guy):
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You are probably already tired of waiting and want to see what kind of goods Chinese sell that people are visiting Canton Fair from around the world.
Watch:
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Binoculars. These, by the way, are the modest stands. They cost abour 30,000 yuan (5,000 dollars) to rent:
35And this is much more serious stand with a carpet. To rent it for the exhibition you will have to pay about 300,000 yuan (50,000 dollars), not including carpet.
36If you think the price is too high, I’ll disprove it. One successful exhibition will cover the costs for the stand, for the rent, for cocoa and tea and even more. If some company decides that the costs are not justified, another one will immediately take its place, there is a line out there. According to official data, 28 billion dollars worth of deals were made during the spring session of the exhibition. It’s just the official data, a lot of companies do not report the actual figures and many agreements are being concluded after the exhibition, following a hot scent. Therefore, the true figure is much higher.
37No, the Japanese Toshiba doesn’t go to the Canton Fair yet. This is Chinese TV with Toshiba’s screensaver.
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There are brands too difficult to pronounce. But don’t let that scare you, they’ll write any word if you pay.
41At this point, we managed to capture the ritual of making a deal. We called it the Battle of Сalculators. Weightlifter to the right won, we gather. For ethical reasons, we have covered faces of participants.
42Do you know what Chinese fear the most? The other Chinese. Or rather that they’ll steal their idea or product design. That’s why it is prohibited to take pictures and samples on many stands even for overseas buyers.
43Another peculiar detail — a lot of people with suitcases. At first, we had thought that these people were coming to the exhibition directly from the airport. But it turned out that suitcases are for all sorts of brochures, business cards, and catalogs. If you are not lazy and doing your best then by the evening you’ll definitely get your suitcase filled out with papers or maybe even more than one.
44Look at those wise people and remember the first rule of a businessman. The suitcase is a businessman’s must have item otherwise he is not a businessman rather ordinary merchant.
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He was showing visitors’ temperature. If you look closer you’ll notice that it shows everyone redcolored — Chinese prototype:
47There is a place even for foreign manufacturers — a small island in the vast Chinese sea. Here you can see modern advances in Indian spices and curry:
48Do headaches bother you? No, let’s change this. Does any kind of pain bother you? A way to cure it was invented a long time ago by Japanese:
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Everyone went to their hotels. Though buyers are extremely tired but that’s not all for today. After hotel’s hearty dinner and soothing bath they’ll be up all night busy with business cards and brochures that were agregated during the day. Cataloging them, remembering sellers and making a preliminary list of companies and products that they are interested in. And it will continue for 4 days.
53And we are staying to see how workers will disasemble stands. There are about 60,000 stands for 24,000 participants.
54They need to be diasembled and moved out quickly, because tomorrow their place will be taken by other companies.
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