But this year, we were determined to go so I flew out my Mom and she watched our two kids for an entire week by herself while Jen and I made the trek to China. And the best part? When we got home, I was pleasantly surprised that my Mom taught the kiddos their multiplication tables while we were gone: First off, I just wanted to say that I have this love hate relationship with China.

On one hand, the food is incredible and the prices are pretty inexpensive by American standards.

But what I hate about China is that every time I go, I feel like everyone is out to cheat me and make an extra buck at my expense. On our first day out, we pretty much went straight to the Canton Fair after checking into our hotel. We took a taxi to the fair and visited a number of vendors that we had scheduled appointments with that day. But on the way back home, I realized that I forgot to have the concierge write down the name and address of the hotel in Chinese for the taxi ride home.

No big deal, I thought. After all, I can speak a little Chinese and I had the name and address of the hotel written down in English. The taxi driver could not read a lick of English and he had no clue where the heck our hotel was. So for the first 10 minutes, the taxi driver was literally driving aimlessly even though we told him to pull over as Jen and I frantically tried to look up our hotel on Google to get the Chinese address.

Even the most basic Google search takes like 15 minutes and I swear that each and every search query was being actively blocked by the great firewall of China. After a couple of iterations, I must have struck gold because the next thing I know the taxi driver stops the car right smack in the middle of the road in heavy traffic.

Now the sound of 10 horns blasting all at once was loud and deafening but it did not bother the driver one bit. Do you know where the hotel is? Can you call the hotel? After a couple more minutes of horn blastage, the driver starts driving again with his eyes glued to the GPS and NOT ON THE ROAD!!! Finally, after 30 minutes of driving the fair is only 10 minutes away he pulls up in front of our hotel. Incidentally, this was not the only time we got jacked by a taxi driver. The last time we came to the Canton Fair, we exchanged US dollars for Chinese cash BEFORE we got there.

But this time, we decided to wing it and use the ATM machine once we got into China. Now normally there are plenty of ATMs at the train station. But for some reason our ATM cards would not work at the train station ATMs so we were forced to use a foreign money exchange booth.

Now you would think that a money exchange place in the middle of a busy train station would be legit. But it turns out that these punks gave us a bunch of counterfeit Chinese bills without our knowledge. So for the remainder of our trip, restaurants and taxis kept looking suspiciously at the money we gave them and quite a few of them would not accept our money and asked us to use different bills to pay.

It was only after trying to exchange our money back to US dollars at the airport did they tell us that our money was fake. Incidentally, did you know that trying to exchange counterfeit money is illegal? When we tried to exchange the money for US dollars, the foreign exchange had to call the cops and we had to fill out a police report.

Outside of getting accused of printing fake Chinese money and getting ripped off by multiple taxis, we had a very successful trip. We met with all of our existing vendors and found half a dozen new ones to source new products for our online store. Here are some photos that we took at the fair along with a nice collection of tips if you plan on attending yourself. Before they let you enter the fair, a bunch of Chinese people in Hazmat suits make sure that you are not sick.

Below is a picture of one of the Chinese soldiers manning the door. Below is a picture of the super long corridor that connects all of the buildings of the fair. This hallway is so long that they have golf carts shuttling people back and forth. Each one of the boxes on that map is probably equivalent to half a football field. In order to attend the fair, you first have to register at this website. After you register, you will receive an invitation which you must use to get a visa into China.

Technically, you should get a business visa but you can also get a tourist visa which does not require that you show an invitation to the fair. Admission is free as a buyer. In terms of flights, you should book early and fly into the Guangzhou International Airport.

This year my wife and I booked too late and the airline tickets were ridiculously priced. That is why we flew into Hong Kong instead and then took a train from Hung Hom Station To The East Guangzhou Railroad station.

The hotel is located at Tianhe Road. What I like about this hotel is that it is right next to a high end shopping mall with an excellent food court and restaurants. So you can simply walk across the street and have access to shopping and good food. In addition, the hotel offers daily shuttles back and forth from the Canton Fair and it is very reasonably priced.

The fairgrounds are 10 minutes away. When you get off at the airport or the train station, you will be accosted by very nice Chinese people offering to get you a taxi. But in reality, they are leading you to private drivers that will cost you 10 times as much to reach your destination. Even though you might be at the airport or a major train station, a lot of times the business establishments that you first see will be out to make a quick buck.

Get money before you arrive! There is no real concept of lines and people will often butt in front of you at any time. While at the front of the taxi line at the train station, some random Chinese dude walked up out of nowhere and tried to steal my taxi. At this point I was fed forexware ceo with getting counterfeit bills and getting ripped off by taxi drivers that I gave the guy a shove, pushed him aside and told him to get in the back of the line.

And I forex ea generator free, the guy looked at me like I was crazy and that I was the one at fault. Always have your hotel concierge write down the address and the name of your hotel in Chinese on a card before you leave.

Various importing blogs often recommend going to anyone work from home for convergys fair with a translator. One time, I tried to speak Chinese to a vendor and my accent was so bad that he replied in English.

Here are 3 terms you writing work from home in vashi to know. MOQ — This stands for minimum order quantity.

Everyone will understand these 3 letters. Lead Time — Always ask for the lead times when you are discussing products. Sometimes a vendor will have certain goods in stock. Other times, they will have to make things from scratch. In general, the minimum order quantities for most vendors at the fair will be very high if you need to have custom products made.

Stock items are goods that they have in stock or produce on a regular basis. The MOQ for stock items is usually much less. The Canton Fair is enormous. It took my wife and I 3 full days to cover the textile portion of the fair alone. If you do decide to attend, make sure you map out which areas that you want to hit ahead of time. Otherwise, you will wander aimlessly and become overwhelmed by the sheer size of the fairgrounds.

The great thing about attending the fair is that all of the vendors will have lots of samples for you to go through in their booth. And having all of the forexpros gbp nzd congregated in a single location means that you can cover hundreds of vendors in a short period of time. I do have a couple of comments on samples that you should definitely be aware of.

Sometimes, the samples that you see in the vendors booth may not be indicative of the final product you may receive. In fact, often times the samples are just surplus items from a prior run of orders.

For example, a student in my Create A Profitable Online Store Course asked me to visit a vendor at the fair to look canton trade days location a product she was interested in selling. And when I sent her a picture, it was completely different than the product she was expecting. The reason was because the vendor had a bunch of these products left over from a production run where his client passed away before delivery could be made.

As a result, the vendor was selling these items for super cheap and in much lower quantities. Some vendors have stock that is many years old and they just want to get rid of it. Make sure you carry business cards with you along with a digital camera and a notepad.

Then we staple the business card to a little notebook and write down all of the MOQ and pricing information. Afterwards, we email the vendor with all the products stockport indoor market opening times we are interested in and get a formal quote.

If you value your time and you know that you want to source your goods from China, then going to the Canton Fair is a no brainer. Now you might think that using Alibaba is good enough.

Welcome to Canton's First Monday Trade Days! - ijiyyyiqic.web.fc2.com

Then you have to communicate. Then you have to have samples shipped across the world. Then you have to evaluate the samples and iterate. By going to the fair, you can bypass this stage altogether and have access to thousands of vendors who are all earnest money required oregon at the same place.

Hopefully this post has dispelled some of the myths of traveling to China for the Canton Fair. Good luck with your product sourcing! If you are really considering starting your own online business, then you have to check out my free mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Store In 5 Easy Steps. In this 6 day mini course, I reveal the steps that my wife and I took to earn thousand dollars in the span of just a year.

Best of all, it's absolutely free! Thanks for the insightful post! Before you attending the canton fairyou should check out their official E-commerce platformit will help you to check out Chinese suppliers which will attend the exhibition of the canton fair.

Just curious, why did you hire a cab if hotel had provided a shuttle at reasonable price. Also, which city airport did you land and was this trade fair in the same city. I am trying to visualize it in a way that you get off at Newark forex training in urdu part-9 in NY and the action happens in Manhattan.

The shuttles are free, but they only come at certain times of the day. This year, we flew into Hong Kong and took a train into Guangzhou because the ticket prices were substantially cheaper. Ideally, we would fly directly into GuangZhou airport. Any fairs you like in the states?

I am originally from Guangzhou but living in Australia now. Taxi drivers are always a pain. They rip off local people as well. Maybe worth to ask how much it costs to get to the destination before jumping into the taxi.

They should know roughly how much it costs if they know the way. I just tell them I wont pay any more than XX no matter what the meter says. Thanks steve, i was waiting for this post since your visit to canton fair. Also i am curious if there is any way to get canton fair product list at once instead of searching one by one? Usually the paper weight is slightly off, or the printing is a slightly different shade.

They are afraid of being reported because they will have their licenses taken away. Steve, do you have any tips on dealing with vendors themselves? The only advice I have in that department is to become friends with your vendors and strike up a conversation. That in itself seems to solve most quality problems. Being Chinese makes me proud and sad at the same time. Proud that the Chinese can accomplish and have accomplished so much — Gunpowder, paper, sending people to space, etc.

All the great things — the culture, the food. Sad, because no manners, trying to rip your fellow man off. Is this the kind of society we want others to think of us and to live in? This is the worst — http: Anyways, not all places with Chinese people are like that. Although there are crooks everywhere and in every country, I would ask you to visit Taiwan.

Of course I have a bias since my parents are from there, but we are still all Han people. In general, you will find the people fair, kind, and willing to help. The taxis are on meters and entirelly trustworthy for the vast majority of them.

Sorry you had the experience you had in China — this is the part that makes me sad to be Chinese. Loved the article Steve. I hope to come on board soon. Got my toes wet selling used stuff on Amazon and E Bay.

Hope to make it full time eventually. I find it comical all the bad luck you had there, but it is not untypical in many parts of Asia and I assume elsewhere.

I found Japan and Cambodia to be low on the trickster list. Do you have any suggestions for a group of 12 people, not staying at the same accommodation, to be able to communicate several times per day from their smart phones. I will answer my own question. Good post- I am planning attending the fair this October, but I am having a hard time registering. After you submit your registration how long was it before you received your invitation letter? Likewise it took me forever to register.

I had trouble loading my image for the badge. I have visited the canton fair last april. It is an awesome experience. I used canton fair service for my trip. They arranged everything for me, I advice you to take a quick look on their website http: This article, as well as all of the articles you write are fabulous!

You and your wife are a great team. Cannot express my appreciation enough for sharing all your valuable info!! Dealing with taxi drivers can be a headache. Always have the name and address of your hotel written down and in chinese.

Yeah the counterfeit stuff is everywhere.

Be sure to bring your passport. A way around this is to ask a Chinese person to help make the exchange. Great to run into your article! I also visited Canton fair twice in Looking forward to making my next time again this April. I am currently in Digital Signage Solution business for 3 years. Looking to expand into more ideas along with building online stores.

If you plan to go this April, please let me know would be great to meet in person and talk business over coffee or lunch. If you are searching for products, going to the wholesales markets and need an assistant.

I can be your local business agent in Guangzhou.

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First Monday Trade Days flea market in Canton, Texas, weekend dates, shopping tips, parking, maps, shopping pavilions, restaurants, hotels, and orientation for shoppers

Learn how to find products to sell and setup your online store. Sign up for my free newsletter and receive instant access to my mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Store In 5 Easy Steps. Home Back to start Our Story Who is Steve Chou? How to Build an Online StoreProduct Sourcing. And in just 4 short days, I got ripped off many times while I was there. The Taxi Incident On our first day out, we pretty much went straight to the Canton Fair after checking into our hotel.

Clearly, he took a circuitous route home and scared the crap out of us at the same time. The Counterfeit Money Scam The last time we came to the Canton Fair, we exchanged US dollars for Chinese cash BEFORE we got there.

There are many fairs in the states but everything will be much more expensive. Thanks, this is like taking a trip without the hassle. Great article… Do you have any suggestions for a group of 12 people, not staying at the same accommodation, to be able to communicate several times per day from their smart phones. I believe Facebook is a no go Thanks. I will answer my own question wechat is the most common app used in China.

We also used a vpn to use FB Plus also Skype. Hi m, Likewise it took me forever to register. Hi M, I have visited the canton fair last april. Hi Steve, This article, as well as all of the articles you write are fabulous!

Great on the ground reporting. Hey Steve, How many days do you suggest at the Canton Fair? I love your style of writing complete detailed information. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

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