China's ascent as a modern trading power began here on the banks of the murky Pearl River, where British merchants traded silver for Chinese tea and silk -- then brought in opium to get their silver back.
Despite wars, foreign occupation and violent political upheavals, Guangzhou -- formerly known as Canton -- has been trading ever since. And the biggest commercial event in town is a twice-annual trade fair that during Chairman Mao Zedong's (
Although the rest of China has opened up, giving businesses many more avenues to pursue, the Guangzhou fairs still account for one-fifth of China's exports and organizers are hoping for a resurgence as the economy opens further as part of the WTO.
China's WTO membership will bring more foreign goods and services into the mainland, providing more competition for domestic manufacturers, who in turn are hunting for new customers for their exports.
"We need to expand our markets," said Gao Jianwei, a trader for Nanjing Pole Feather and Down Products Co Ltd, who was trying to lure visitors to his booth full of quilts, parkas and other down products in the back of a 14-building exhibition center.
"Japan was our biggest market -- it's not so great now and we need to find others as well," Gao said.
To give the exporters more space and a better chance of being seen, organizers split this year's fair into two six-day sessions last month. More than 110,000 foreign buyers and 8,400 Chinese businesses participated, offering some 100,000 different products.
The broader format seemed to help: organizers reported US$16.85 billion in deals signed at the April 15-30 fair, a 26.7 percent increase over last year's spring session.
The traders here are still dealing in tea, and simple commodities like garlic bulbs.
But reflecting China's ascent up the global manufacturing ladder, some offer sophisticated medical instruments, flat-panel computer and television screens, and robotic toys.
And there was a lot in between -- ice shavers, beaded ball gowns, dentist chairs, hacksaws, bathroom scales, chemicals, pitchforks, glue guns, paint rollers, machetes, microwaves, kids pajamas and pickled plums.
WTO membership means Chinese now can sell at the lowest available tariff rates to many more countries than in the past, and a large share of the buyers were from those developing countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
"We're still a bit behind the US, but there are buyers from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America who will be satisfied with our products and happy with our lower prices," said Li Lichuan, a marketing executive with the Nanjing Foreign Economic and Trade Development Co Ltd.
Li was offering infant incubators, stethoscopes and other medical equipment.
Founded in 1957, the Guangzhou fair originally lasted a month and was virtually the only chance foreign businessmen had to haggle directly with Chinese suppliers.
Mao's portrait hung at the entrance, back in the days when trade accounted for less than a tenth of China's economic activity. It now generates about a third.
The fair's importance has diminished with the lifting of foreign trade restrictions and the advent of the Internet.
"It used to be the principle venue for exchange with China. Now, business is done elsewhere by and large," said John Kamm, a former trader who began attending the fair in 1976. "But it's still a good first-timer's fair, a place to come and make initial contacts to be followed up later."
Manufacturers say the gargantuan industrial bazaar is an event they can't afford to miss. State-run media say the fair still generates about one-third of China's export business.
"We simply have to be here, even if the fair itself isn't such an important source of business for us," said Brook Xia of Jiangsu Sunshine Group, China's biggest maker of worsted woolens and business suits.
Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong, the province adjacent to Hong Kong that since the late 1970s has pioneered China's dealings with the world as overseas Chinese poured billions of dollars back into their homeland.
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