anyone going to the Canton Fair @ Guangzhou in October?

[babygodzilla]

anyone going to it? any hotel recommendations? never been to Guangzhou, so totally blind. any help with hotels is appreciated. im going with my parents so they're probably willing to pay a little more for a better room & service

i thank you for any help!

[sarahkuang]

Thought I am not going to the fair, I know a bit about it. In the Fair period, the traffic around the Fair gets terrible, most of hotels are fully booked. Check following website, like White Swan Hotel, Oriental Hotel are famous hotels. Good Luck!

http://www.guangzhouhotel.com/fairrates.htm

[Roee]

There's also www.sinohotel.com but they tend to be a bit slow.

Durign the fair, hotels might charge four times and even more of the usual rate. Which means that for a 150USD you might get a smelly 3 stars hotel room; hotels that are farther away from the fair's two locations could be the better choice. They'd probably have daily free transportation to the fair anyhow.

[Jonny Wang]

I've been before and found that anything in Guangzhou was ridiculously expensive, by Chinese standards: $400-$500 for 4 & 5 stars and even 3 stars were all over $100 as I recall. What my customer and I did was stay in Shenzhen, where hotel prices didn't seem to be affected, and took the express train to Guangzhou eary in the morning. I think this train only takes about an hour, and you can buy tickets the day before. This method is more time consuming, but you can save some money. Check out www.elong.com for hotels and online booking (click "English" in the upper right corner to view the English website). Most Guangzhou hotels on the website will list how far they are from the various exhibition centers.

Also, be forewarned that the Canton Fair takes place in *two* locations! Make sure you know which Exhibition Center you want to go to before deciding which hotel you want to stay at.

Have fun and get ready to be overwhelmed!

Another word of advice for you or anyone else visiting the fair: Return tickets to Hong Kong from Guangzhou (train, bus or boat) can be purchased in the Exhibition Center's main halls, but they sell out *early* in the day. If you wait until 4pm or 5pm to buy a train ticket to Hong Kong, you won't get one. Buy them as soon as you arrive!

[Jonny Wang]

Another couple things I just thought of:

The line to get in, can be ridiculously long! Sometimes takes well over an hour just to get in the door!!! It's sheer madness! You can avoid some of this by:

1. Arrive early in the morning, before too many people have lined up.

2. Pre-register beforehand. Many of the bigger hotels in the area offer pre-registration.

Also, make sure you take all of the necessary documents with you. This fair is not like others - you can't just waltz in. You'll need an invitation, your passport and a copy of it, business card, etc., etc.

Check out the Canton Fair official website for more information.

[babygodzilla]

thanks for the reply guys! yeah ive taken care of the invitation, registration, the E-pass, and all that. now i just have to get a plane ticket and a hotel room. since im going with my parents they might be willing to pay a little more

and ive also taken note of the 2 locations, there are things i want to see at both complexes... so maybe i should find a place somewhere in the middle.

any other suggestions?

thanks!

[babygodzilla]

has anyone ever attended any of these Fairs? do you think theyre actually useful? is it worth it to spend the money?