Traditional Chinese medicine gains global traction at Canton Fair

The booths dedicated to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at the China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, are bustling with activity, attracting a diverse array of global purchasers, from seasoned partners to newcomers.

The third phase of the 136th session of the Canton Fair opened in Guangzhou of south China's Guangdong Province on Thursday, presenting products in recreation and health sectors, with TCM receiving many buyers' attention.

"Your medicines and your hospitality is very nice. So we need to try your medicine in our country," said Indian purchaser Hisham Thari.

"In our country, the pharmaceutical industry, our main ingredients, we use more active ingredients than China. It's not so much based on the nature like China does," said Mexican importer Uriel Arsenio Angulo Castro.

"Chinese medicine is more than competitive. It is very interesting. That's why I come here. I don't go to Europe or U.S. or somewhere else, I come here, because what I want is natural medicine," said Raymond Tchappet, a buyer from Cameroon.

During the first three quarters of 2024, China's pharmaceutical product imports and exports totaled 147 billion U.S. dollars. The export value reached 79 billion U.S. dollars, which was more than 3.1-percent higher than the previous year. The six-decade old Canton Fair has served as a crucial bridge for domestic companies to access the global market.

To fit in with international markets, China's medical industry has set standards that adhere to global norms and practices.

"Traditional Chinese Medicine is unique, so to sell it internationally, the production system and products must be approved by the relevant authorities in other countries. Our products have already passed the tests and been registered in over 32 countries and regions. So, we can sell them there," said Huang Wei, vice president of Lanzhou Foci International Commerce. "We have completed the registration process and met the local requirements and standards. That's why we are able to sell our products in Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as in the United States, Russia, and Ukraine," said Zhao Deng, manager of Mayinglong Pharmaceutical Group.

TCM has been spanning 196 countries and regions. Remarkably, over one-third of the world's population has received treatment through traditional Chinese medicine. With policy and cultural exchanges intensifying, the global influence of TCM is expected to surge even further.

Traditional Chinese medicine gains global traction at Canton Fair

China's domestically developed C919 large passenger aircraft began flight transport service on two new routes on Sunday.

At 11:19 on Sunday, a C919 aircraft smoothly landed at the Shenyang Taoxian International Airport in Shenyang City, the capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, from Shanghai in east China some 1,000 kilometers away, marking the C919's first commercial flight in northeast China. The airport celebrated the occasion with a water salute.

"The seats are very spacious, and the flight experience is excellent," said a passenger.

"Flying on a homegrown plane feels especially smooth. I took the inaugural C919 flight to Chengdu, and unexpectedly, within a year, more than a dozen routes have been launched. I think the airline operations in our country are particularly impressive," said another passenger.

The other new air route opened on the day for the C919 is the one from northwest China's Xi'an City to south China's Guangzhou City about 1,400 kilometers away.

The Xi'an-Guangzhou service became the third domestic air route operated from Xi'an to use the C919, following China Eastern Airlines' earlier introduction of this aircraft on its Xi'an-Beijing and Xi'an-Shanghai routes. This also means that the Xianyang International Airport in Xi'an has become a major airport in China in terms of flights performed by the C919.

Notably, China Eastern Airlines in January 2025 started using the C919 jetliner for regular flights between Shanghai in east China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the country's south -- which is the airline's first scheduled commercial flight service to Hong Kong using the C919.

The C919 is a narrow-body passenger aircraft with a maximum capacity of 192 seats. It is China's first self-developed trunk jetliner, built in accordance with international airworthiness standards and featuring independently registered intellectual property rights.

China initiated the C919 project in 2007, and it was developed by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC). The first C919 aircraft rolled off the production line in Shanghai in November 2015.

China's homegrown C919 aircraft begins to serve two new domestic air routes