When German businessman Can Yildirim first walked into the Canton Fair 23 years ago, he was young and unsure how to find the right business partners. As luck would have it, a stranger named Jimmy Chen noticed that he seemed a bit lost and offered to help him navigate the fair.
That first meeting really stuck with him. Yildirim and Chen have kept in touch, and Yildirim has been connected to the Canton Fair ever since.
"It's about being open-minded and making friends," said Yildirim, who now keeps a long list of suppliers he has met through the fair. "When we have to cope with a difficult period, none of my Chinese suppliers has ever left me on my own," he said.
The China Import and Export Fair, better known as the Canton Fair, has grown and thrived through openness for 70 years. Now, it's back in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, for its 140th edition. Running in three phases from Oct. 15 to Nov. 4, the fair has grown into China's largest and longest-running international trade event, with buyers coming from more than 220 countries and regions and cumulative transactions reaching 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars.
Often seen as a barometer for China's foreign trade, the fair has enjoyed enduring success that underlines China's unwavering commitment to expanding high-level opening-up and the practical need for economies to draw on each other's strengths and work together for mutual benefit.
Official data showed that China's foreign trade maintained solid momentum in the first three quarters of this year, with total imports and exports rising 18.8 percent year on year during the nine-month period, the highest level for the same period in five years.
Smarter and greener products are helping drive China's export growth, a trend on full display at the Canton Fair. The first phase of the fair drew more than 12,000 exhibiting companies, about half of which were high-quality firms such as specialized or innovative enterprises. The number of new products, AI products and green products on display were up 6.7 percent, 20.5 percent and 13.5 percent respectively over the same period of the previous edition.
For international buyers, the expanding range of products and technologies offers fresh opportunities for growth.
"China is like a gold mine. The deeper you dig, the more you get," said Anis Sajan, a buyer from the United Arab Emirates. His company imports more than 500 containers of goods from China every month, helping his business grow 30 percent this year.
Such trade is increasingly about more than importing finished goods. More countries are relying on China's products, technology and capital to improve their own industrial systems and lift their high-end export capacity, accelerating industrial upgrading and steadily climbing the global value chain.
At the booth of Bodor, a Shandong-based company specializing in laser cutting and welding, several buyers from Southeast Asia watched closely as a machine sliced cleanly through aluminum alloy. "We don't just need cutting equipment," said one buyer from the sheet metal industry. "We want equipment that can help drive digital upgrading across our whole industry. A complete digital solution like this is exactly what our current transformation needs."
China's push for more balanced trade is also creating opportunities for exhibitors to tap further into the Chinese market. The Canton Fair has hosted an import section since 2007, giving foreign companies a direct channel to Chinese and global buyers.
During the second phase of the fair, which had just concluded, the import section brought together 213 companies from 27 countries and regions, including national pavilions from nine countries, such as Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan, showcasing kitchenware, household goods and gifts.
Dominik Bledzki, general director of the Polish-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, comes to the Canton Fair twice a year and finds something new each time -- new buildings, new suppliers and new products, all of which help him expand his business.
"China is a global buyer, but it's also a global seller," Bledzki said. "If you look for your products, if you want to do business, you have to be here. China is not only manufacturing goods; it is manufacturing ideas, new technology and new designs," he said.
