First exhibits for 136th Canton Fair arrive in Guangdong

The first products to be exhibited at next month's 136th Canton Fair arrived in Guangzhou City in south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday.

The products passed customs clearance procedure and are ready to be displayed before potential customers from China and the world at the major trade fair, which is scheduled to open on Oct. 15 in Guangzhou. The first shipment of 43 different products are mainly household appliances from Egypt, including gas stoves, washing machines, ovens, weighing more than 3 tonnes. The exhibits are to be transported to the Canton Fair Complex on Pazhou Island in Guangzhou.

Local customs, ports, and related enterprises have been working to streamline the logistics procedure and facilitate the whole preparation process.

"We have established special customs clearance windows for Canton Fair exhibits, providing round-the-clock service for participating companies to schedule customs clearance. Priority is given to handling procedures such as declaration, inspection, sampling, and testing. Additionally, we coordinate with the port to prepare berths, hoisting, and shifting arrangements for Canton Fair exhibits in advance, and closely follow up on regulatory operations such as shipboard inspections and container unloading inspections," said Qin Yi, the head of Nansha Port inspection sector under Guangzhou Customs.

"This is our third consecutive year of handling Canton Fair inbound exhibits. In recent years, the exhibition industry has continued to thrive, and the quantity and variety of Canton Fair exhibits have significantly increased. After the cargo arrives at the port customs, the inspection and clearance procedures are getting faster and more efficient. The whole process is quite smooth," said Li Cong, the general manager assistant of Sinotrans Beijing Fairs and Events Logistics Co.

Beyond the ports, Guangdong Customs is also working to ensure preparations for the fair run smoothly.

"We have set up a special customs clearance window for Canton Fair exhibits at the site and developed a 'Smart Expo' information system to provide round-the-clock online and offline customs clearance scheduling for participating companies. We have also established 'Canton Fair Guest Express Lanes' at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Pazhou Hong Kong-Macao Ferry Terminal to ensure the smooth customs clearance of personnel participating in the Canton Fair," said Guo Rong, the secondary officer of the Customs of the Canton Fair Complex First Inspection Office under Guangzhou Customs.

The Canton Fair, also known as the China Import and Export Fair, is China's longest-running, largest, most comprehensive, and most widely attended international trade event.

This year's Canton Fair will include 55 different exhibition sections and approximately 74,000 booths.

From Oct. 15 to Nov. 4, over 29,000 enterprises from home and abroad are expected to showcase all varieties of products.

First exhibits for 136th Canton Fair arrive in Guangdong

A group of Russian tourists recently visited a series of picturesque historical sites in east China's Jiangsu Province where they said seeing iconic locations reminded them of many classical Chinese movies and TV series.

The tourists, who included Russian landscape architecture experts and artists, traveled around many historical cities in Jiangsu, such as Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, and Changzhou.

Jiangsu is known for its elegant and refined regional culture, in particular the classical gardens in Suzhou, which are famous for their exquisite designs and layouts.

"The first Chinese film I watched on a Chinese television channel was 'Journey to the West'. But, in fact, Chinese films are also highly welcomed in Russia and we know Russian cinemas have screened many Chinese movies, such as 'Hero'. I have been studying Chinese culture for nearly 30 years, so, every time I visited China, I always found something new in things like rituals and food. Today, I visited some parks, which were new to me, and I want to recommend them to everyone. They should come and see these gardens for themselves. Besides, modern parks in China are also worth visiting," said Elena V. Golosova, President of the Landscape Architecture Committee of Russia and CIS Countries.

Russian artists in the tour group said their first-hand experience of Chinese culture heightened their desire to learn more about the country's tradition and promote more cultural communication between Russia and China.

"Thanks to these historical TV series, we can see Chinese traditions, banquet rituals, and different traditions and etiquette used in interpersonal interactions and communication. Surely, there are some details that I have never known before and I want to read and study all the content related to Chinese culture. In addition, I want to say that many people in Russia have strong interest in Chinese movies and China's art of cinematic presentation. Next week, Moscow Asian Film Festival will start featuring a series of movies and one section of the film festival will be about Chinese movies and it will last a whole day," said Anna Donchenko, a Russian artist who has studied Chinese painting styles.

Russian tourists explore Chinese culture in picturesque historical sites