My first business trip to Canton Fair

It was only 2 weeks after joining this company that I had my first 4-days business trip to Guangzhou, for the 103rd Canton Fair.










* my buyer badge


103rd China Import and Export Fair (4/24-4/27)

People:Hong Kong – Regional Manageress Ms A, Merchandising Manageress Ms V Holland – CEO Mr Fire, Supply Chain and Sourcing Manger Mr Crab (my head), Director of Design Marco

Venues: Liuhua Complex, Pazhou Complex

4/24 Arrived with Ms A at White Swan Hotel in the evening, took a quick rest, taxi to a Japanese Restaurant to meet our colleague, and dinner with supplier. The taxi driver must be from other province because did not know the place, and nearly drove us to somewhere unknown. Those Dutchmen drank alcohol like water. Then on the way back to hotel, they had gone… mad. While the CEO heard that we three ladies shared a room, he just came to check like discovering of the New World. This night I could not sleep…








* Liuhua Complex

4/25 We went to Liuhua Complex where it looked like the Kai Tak Airport. Ms A, Mr Crab and I as a group to visit existing suppliers. Along the way we found many of our products being fraudulent used or copied by other companies, by hiding our logo, changing the design a tiny bit, or even simply put into their catalogues. Crab and Fire ordered those people to take away the products, and I took photos of the booth numbers and the products as evident. Fortunately the three Dutchmen are strong and tall so that those people only argued "We made the length 2cm shorter, is it still copycat?" or "You use aluminum, but we use steel, it is not copy." Otherwise it would have happened like seizing the catalogue from Ms A's arms rudely, "Any prove? Do NOT take it if you do not buy!"

Dinner we had a BBQ at the hotel. I ordered two glasses of watermelon juice. After the first dish of salad I was almost full but still ordered a little dish of grilled mutton and mushroom, and made a puzzle of Stitch with them. While they continued their happy hour at the bar, I was sleeping deadly in the bed.


* Garden inside the hotel
















* Stitch made of grilled eggplant, mushroom, cucumber and mutton









* Lovebird in the hotel







4/26 A, V and Fire stayed at the Liuhua Complex; Crab, Marco who looks like Colin Firth and I went for sourcing at the new Pazhou Complex. Pazhou Complex is made up of two centres, and now constructing another two centres. The complex is huge but quite remote, and Marco said HKCEC is much more beautiful. Thank you. While we passed a booth hung up all chains Marco asked if I like playing with the chains. I replied no. Then he told Crab, "She does not like SM." (!!!) They laughed and talked in Dutch again and again since. To put a word of Ms A, "They must be talking dirty things." Sure. At 2p.m., we sent Marco off to MTR station for gather with Fire and Ms A to Hong Kong. We then went back to the complex and wait for an hour before getting on the first coach at 5p.m. back to hotel. Dinner at a steak house where the food looked good but… roasted duck breast was too tough to cut by a saw, cheese cake and tiramisu are iced to hard like a brick. The restaurant manager explained traditional cakes have to be put into fridge, but I wondered he meant freezer. We could not press the spoon into the cake. The most shocked thing is the waiter said he could reheat them with microwave oven. What!? After the meal, Crab suggested to have foot massage so we walked two hours (and consulted a Hotel manager) for a qualified foot massage centre. This is a good one. It is amazing that my feet and legs (and myself) were exhausted but turned out feeling light. The hot old ginger made me hot but comfortable. Following the master massage my knees and thighs, the great painfulness in my right thigh made me mute. After all, I had my best sleep ever.






* Pazhou Complex with a mascot looks alike Doraemon






* my roasted duck breast, looks pretty, but tough





4/27 The sleep was too nice to get up the next morning. Just a quick but rich breakfast we jumped to a van towards a factory meeting. On the way they slept at the back while I kept talking to the driver. One reason was I am talkative, the other reason was I do not sleep at the front seat. With the tight schedule, we visited a wholesale centre and found several of our products being copied; one of our previous suppliers produced a double of our products with a factory and sell at the wholesale centre.

In the evening, we took a train to Shenzhen and transit to Hong Kong.

I was exhausted but, happy.