Canton Fair Phases: Find the One That Holds Your Category
· Updated August 21, 2026 
The Canton Fair runs in three phases, and they are not three parts of one event you can wander between. Each phase opens, runs for five days, closes, and the halls are rebuilt for a completely different set of products. Book the wrong week and your category is not there at all.
This page exists to answer one question properly: you sell X — which phase do you need? Everything else on this page supports that.
Phase 1 is things that are made and powered. Phase 2 is things that furnish a home. Phase 3 is things you wear, use or give to a child.
The three phases of the 140th session
Five days each, three days between them. The fair as a whole is structured into 13 categories across 54 exhibition sections, and those categories are distributed across the three phases.
Look up your product
This is the table to use. Find what you sell on the left, and you have your phase.
Those thirteen names are the official categories. The 54 sections sit underneath them, splitting each category into narrower groups — which is how a hall is actually laid out and signposted when you walk in.
The categories that catch people out
The phase themes are broad, and a few product types sit somewhere other than instinct suggests. These are the ones worth checking before you book.
1. Furniture
Instinct says home life, so people assume Phase 2. Furniture sits in Phase 1, grouped with building materials. If you buy furniture and homewares together, that is a two-phase trip.
2. Small kitchen appliances
A kettle or a blender feels like a houseware, but anything with a motor or a heating element belongs with electronics and appliances in Phase 1. Non-powered kitchen items sit in Phase 2. The dividing line is the plug, not the room.
3. Lighting
Decorative lamps read as home decoration, but lighting has its own category in Phase 1 alongside electrical fittings. If you buy both decorative accessories and lamps, check the split before you commit to one week.
4. Bags and luggage
These sit in Fashion in Phase 3, not with housewares or gifts. Straightforward once you know, easy to get wrong if you are thinking about materials rather than end use.
The table above gets you to the right phase for the great majority of products, but the official exhibitor search on cantonfair.org.cn is the only authoritative answer. Search your exact product, see which section it returns, and confirm that section’s phase. It takes five minutes and it is the cheapest insurance in this entire trip.
When your products span two phases
This is common and it is expensive, so plan for it deliberately rather than discovering it late.
The arithmetic is simple. Phase 1 closes on 19 October and Phase 2 opens on 23 October — a three-day gap. Phase 2 closes on 27 October and Phase 3 opens on 31 October — another three-day gap. Covering Phase 1 and Phase 2 means roughly two weeks away. Covering Phase 1 and Phase 3 means close to three.
Four ways buyers handle it:
The third option is the one I would push hardest. The suppliers whose stands you visited this week are far more willing to host a factory visit than someone emailing from another country, and the region around Guangzhou is where their production actually sits.
Why the fair splits into phases at all
Worth understanding, because it explains several things that otherwise look arbitrary.
The venue is a fixed set of halls. Every exhibitor across all three phases cannot fit at once — so instead of shrinking the fair, the organisers run it three times with different tenants. The three-day gap between phases is not a rest period; it is the time needed to strip out one set of stands and build another.
Two consequences follow directly from that, and both affect how you plan.
Your badge and paperwork carry across, but your route does not. The same halls hold completely different sections in each phase. A map you drew in Phase 1 is worthless in Phase 2, and a stand number from one phase means nothing in the next.
The grouping is by how a product is made and sold, not by who buys it. This is why furniture sits with building materials rather than with home goods, and why a blender sits with electronics rather than with kitchenware. The organisers are grouping supply chains, not shopping lists. Once you think in those terms, most of the surprising placements stop being surprising.
The themes are marketing names, the categories are the real structure
“Advanced Manufacturing”, “Quality Home Life” and “Better Life” are descriptive labels, and they get updated from session to session. The thing that actually determines where your product sits is the category and section it is assigned to, not the phase title.
This matters practically: do not reason from the theme name. “Better Life” sounds like it could hold almost anything, and “Quality Home Life” sounds like it should hold furniture. Reason from the category list instead, and confirm with the official search.
How a phase is laid out inside
Once you know your phase, the next thing that saves time is understanding that the halls are organised by section, not by company.
Those 54 sections are the working unit of the fair. A section groups similar exhibitors together, so competitors are literally next to each other. That is deliberate and it is useful — comparing five suppliers of the same product takes minutes rather than a day of walking.
The practical consequences:
1. Work section by section, not stand by stand
Identify the two or three sections that hold your products and treat everything else as out of scope. A section is a manageable unit; a phase is not.
2. Do a full pass of your section before any long conversation
Because competitors sit together, one uninterrupted walk gives you the price range for the whole category. Talk seriously only on the second pass, when you know what normal looks like.
3. Photograph the stand number before the product
Every stand has a number and it is the only reliable way back. A photo of a product against a white display panel is indistinguishable from four hundred others by the evening of day two.
This is the same discipline that works in the permanent markets, for the same reason. If you have read the Yiwu Market guide, the survey-then-talk approach will be familiar — it transfers directly.
Choosing between phases when both fit
Occasionally a product genuinely could sit in two categories, or your range spans a boundary. A few things to weigh.
Go where your core product is, not where most of your list is. The item that makes you the most money deserves the proper visit. Peripheral products can be handled by other means.
Consider what you want from the trip. If you are looking for new suppliers for an existing product, go to the phase with the deepest concentration of that category. If you are extending a range, the phase holding adjacent categories may be more useful.
Think about what happens after. Suppliers you meet in one phase can still quote for products in another — many companies make more than they exhibit. Meeting a good supplier matters more than meeting them in the exact section your product sits in.
Spring and autumn are not identical
The fair runs twice a year and the phase structure stays the same, but the two sessions are not interchangeable for every buyer.
Buying calendars differ. If you sell seasonal goods, the useful session is the one that lands before your ordering deadline, not the one that is closest. Christmas and winter ranges are typically placed well before the autumn session; spring and summer ranges before the spring one. Work backwards from when you need stock on your shelf, allowing for production time and shipping, and the choice usually makes itself.
New products appear on a cycle. Suppliers time launches around these sessions, so the range you see is a snapshot of what they want to push right now. If you came last session and found nothing new, the same supplier may have a different story six months later.
Attending the same phase twice a year is a legitimate strategy. Buyers whose range spans two phases sometimes take Phase 1 in spring and Phase 3 in autumn, rather than trying to compress both into one exhausting trip. You lose nothing except the ability to compare both categories in the same week, and you gain a properly prepared visit each time.
Once you know your phase
Three things follow from picking a phase, and they have hard deadlines attached.
For the wider picture — how the days break down, what to do in the fortnight afterwards, and when the fair is the wrong choice entirely — start with the complete Canton Fair guide. If you are still weighing the fair against the permanent markets, that comparison is in the fair versus the wholesale markets.
Send me your product list and I will map it
Tell me what you buy and I will tell you which phase holds it, whether your range spans two, and how to handle it if it does — before you book anything.
Send an enquiryCommon questions
What are the three Canton Fair phases?
Phase 1 is Advanced Manufacturing, covering electronics and appliances, machinery, vehicles, lighting and electrical, hardware and tools, and building and furniture. Phase 2 is Quality Home Life, covering gifts, decorations and housewares. Phase 3 is Better Life, covering fashion, home textiles, toys and baby goods, health and recreation, and stationery.
Can I attend all three phases?
Technically yes, but it means being in Guangzhou from mid-October to early November — around three weeks once you include the gaps between phases. Very few buyers do this. Most attend one phase properly, and buyers whose range spans two either send a second person or split across the spring and autumn sessions.
Is furniture in Phase 1 or Phase 2?
Phase 1. Furniture is grouped with building materials rather than with home life products, which surprises people who expect it alongside housewares. If you buy both furniture and homewares, that is a two-phase trip and needs planning as one.
Which phase has kitchen products?
It depends on whether they plug in. Non-powered kitchenware, tableware and storage sit in Housewares in Phase 2. Anything with a motor or a heating element, such as a kettle, blender or air fryer, sits with Electronics and Appliance in Phase 1. The dividing line is the plug, not the room.
How do I confirm which phase my exact product is in?
Use the official exhibitor and product search on cantonfair.org.cn. Search your specific product, see which exhibition section it returns, then confirm that section’s phase. The category tables get you to the right place for most products, but the official search is the only authoritative answer and it takes five minutes.
How many days is each phase?
Five days. For the 140th session, Phase 1 runs 15–19 October, Phase 2 runs 23–27 October, and Phase 3 runs 31 October to 4 November. There is a three-day gap between the end of one phase and the start of the next, used to rebuild the halls for entirely different products.
Questions & Comments
We read every one and reply within 24 hoursStill not sure which phase holds your products? Describe what you sell in the comments and I will tell you which phase to book — including the awkward ones that sit between two categories.