Canton Fair phases: match the dates to what you want to buy

A hotel fit-out sounds like one buying project until the Canton Fair puts the lighting, furniture and bed linen in three different phases. Your shopping list has suddenly developed a rather ambitious travel itinerary.

That is the useful question to settle before booking Guangzhou: which products do you want to investigate, and when are their exhibition sections open? A business label such as hospitality, homewares or building supplies can cover several categories. Write down the actual items and the fair’s structure becomes much easier to use.

This guide uses the 140th Canton Fair in autumn 2026 as a dated planning example, with the published category list, calendar and badge guidance rechecked on 25 October 2026. That edition’s dates are 15–19 October for Phase 1, 23–27 October for Phase 2 and 31 October–4 November for Phase 3. For a later edition, use that edition’s official sector list and dates rather than carrying this calendar forward.

The fair groups products by exhibition sector, so related items in your business can appear in different windows. A room’s furniture, lights and textiles belong together in the finished project, but each has its own place in the fair.

The official 140th-session sector list places electrical and manufacturing-related sections in Phase 1, home and household sections in Phase 2, and textiles, clothing and other consumer-product sections in Phase 3. These example buying lists show how the individual sections change the decision:

Use that category match to find the relevant companies and products in the official directory. Then confirm the exhibitor’s participation for your edition and the location of the stand. The phase list helps you find where to investigate; it can’t confirm that a particular specification or supplier will be there.

A buying list that spans three phases gives you choices about the work, rather than an automatic reason to spend three weeks in Guangzhou.

For a furniture-and-textiles project, you might be ready to inspect furniture while the textile brief still needs defining. That gives Phase 2 a clear purpose on this visit. If both briefs are ready and need in-person investigation, the longer stay may be worthwhile. The fair’s sectors establish when those opportunities exist; the state of your project helps decide which to take.

A team can split responsibilities too, with suitable admission for each person and a shared way of recording the findings. Agree that method before splitting up. Otherwise one colleague returns with measurements, another with a photograph of a chair, and nobody remembers which company supplied it.

For each target, put the product description, company, phase, confirmed hall or booth, appointment and main question in the same record. Leave locations and appointments unconfirmed until you have them. You can then see the difference between a promising lead and a meeting that belongs in the diary.

The published autumn 2026 calendar leaves changeover periods between the exhibition windows:

Attending all of Phases 2 and 3 spans 13 calendar days, including ten exhibition dates and three changeover dates. All three complete phases span 21 calendar days, made up of 15 exhibition dates and six changeover dates. Arrival and departure sit around that calculation, and selected meetings may let you attend fewer exhibition days.

The gap still matters when the meetings you want sit on either side of it. Put those nights into the accommodation budget before comparing flights. If you want to use the interval for a factory visit, arrange the invitation, location and transport separately; it isn’t an extra programme included with the buyer badge.

This calendar also gives you a useful basis for phone data. A single-phase visit and a stay covering all three phases need different validity periods, while a team sending files and arranging meetings may use data differently from someone mainly opening messages. Compare our China eSIM range against the full stay and the work you expect to do, rather than choosing an allowance from the destination alone.

Badge services can open before the stands. Guangzhou’s 15 October 2026 buyer-badge notice lists registration at the complex on 22 October, for example, while Phase 2 opens on 23 October. That earlier service day gives you a chance to prepare, not another day with exhibitors.

For overseas buyers, the notice describes pre-registration followed by collection using the receipt, original eligible identification and a business card. Keep those documents ready for the collection route that applies to your identity and location, so the confirmation email is part of the paperwork rather than the only thing you have at the counter.

A Chinese interpreter or assistant needs the separate accompanying-personnel badge described in the notice, with an application at least two days ahead. Include that application in the team plan when arranging joint meetings. Your buyer badge covers your own entry.

The meeting record should still make sense after you get home. Connect each product reference to the company and contact, record what was discussed and leave a next action with a named person responsible for it. Where photographs are permitted, attach them to that record instead of relying on a camera roll of unidentified samples.

Use the same format across phases, especially if different colleagues attend different dates. Questions about specifications, samples and commercial terms need to remain visible after an enthusiastic conversation. Meeting a supplier gives you a starting point for that work; it doesn’t complete your checks on the business or its products.

For the phone side, our China preparation guide covers payment accounts, login codes and saved addresses. Those are useful to organise at home alongside the meeting list. A data-only travel eSIM doesn’t provide a Chinese number or establish that a business or payment app will accept your account; our China eSIM buying guide explains the separate service choices.

With the right sectors, confirmed exhibitors and changeover days accounted for, the trip starts to look like a buying plan. The list can still be ambitious. At least now it agrees with the calendar.