The 2009 (17th) Guangzhou Fair will open at the Guangzhou Liuhua Exhibition Complex on September 3. Organizers announced at a press conference on August 25 that the forthcoming Guangzhou Fair will no long have two simultaneously held exhibitions, an integrated one and a specialized one; rather, it will take place in two phases – the specialized exhibition, Guangzhou International Electronic Games Industry Exhibition, will be staged from September 3 to 6, and the integrated exhibition will be held from November 12 to 15 along with the UCLG World Council Meeting and Guangzhou International Sister Cities Convention.

The upcoming specialized exhibition is expected to become more specialized, as organizers will team up with Taiwan businesses to stage Guangzhou's first professional exhibition on electronic gaming. The Game Time International (GTI) Guangzhou Exhibition will showcase indigenously developed gaming products as a demonstration of the strength of China's homegrown gaming industry.