Major Destinations: China's Tale of Two Cities

It didn't take the recent Summer Olympics to thrust China into the world spotlight.

Its booming economy already did that, and, as its economy has grown, so has its exhibition industry. Foreign and domestic organizers made Chinese exhibitions among the world's leaders, and state-of-the-art Chinese exhibition centers have sprung up to accommodate them.

Two of the country's premier exhibition cities are Beijing, China's capital and second-largest city, with a population estimated at more than 15 million, and site of this year's Olympic Games, and Shanghai, the country's most populous city with more than 20 million residents. Both cities combine the ultramodern with the ancient, and both are booming megalopolises and major financial centers.

When it comes to tradeshows, Beijing and Shanghai also are among China's leaders. According to “The Trade Fair Industry in Asia,” a report issued this year by UFI, The Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry, Beijing boasts nine exhibition venues with 50 exhibit halls, offering a total of 257,078 square meters (2.7 million square feet) of exhibit space. Shanghai features eight venues with 26 halls and 213,308 sq. m. (2.3 million sq. ft.) of space. China has a whopping 85 convention centers with 3.5 million sq. m. (37.6 million sq. ft.) of space. In 2007, the country hosted 456 major exhibitions, including 28 UFI-approved events.

Michael Duck, senior vice president at CMP Asia, said the tradeshow business in Shanghai continues to grow, but perhaps not as rapidly as it did a year or two ago because the global slowdown is starting to affect growth rates across Asia.

Kate Newman, Messe Frankfurt head of Asia Pacific corporate communications, said her company hosts a number of successful events in both Shanghai and Beijing. Both cities are not only extremely important for tradeshows, but also are major business hubs and have more exhibition venues than other Chinese cities, she said.

“Supporting infrastructure – airports, ground transport and hotels – is now very good, and both cities are easily accessible to foreigners,” Newman said. “China has put in a lot of effort and investment to make this so.”

She noted that Shanghai is better suited to consumer product-oriented events, such as fashion or interior design, because it is more influenced by popular culture than Beijing. “But this is a gross generalization,” Newman added. “In fact, events in every sector take place in both cities.”

The Shanghai New Intl. Exhibition Centre is the city's main venue for large shows. Currently, there are 11 halls of 11,000 sq. m. (118,400 sq. ft.) each, with six more scheduled for completion by 2010. According to Duck, other venues in the city – the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Shanghai Everbright Intl. Convention & Exhibition Center, Intex Shanghai and Shanghaimart – still are good for shows of a niche nature and as feeder venues for shows that eventually grow into the SNIEC.

Duck noted that in 2010, Shanghai will host the World Expo, for which new exhibit space will be built, some of which will be used afterward for other events. It's unclear at the moment how much space will become available.

“The answer is I'm not quite sure,” said Paul Woodward, manager of the Asia-Pacific office of UFI and principal with the Business Strategies Group. “It's a good question. I have received varying information on that issue and never managed to pin it down.”

Woodward said he heard the China Pavilion at the World Expo will be retained as a permanent convention facility. He noted that at one stage, the industry was hoping that up to 100,000 sq. m. (1 million sq. ft.) would be retained, but that does not seem likely now because Beijing's city government appears to have decided that the riverside site where it will be placed is too valuable to devote that much to exhibition space.

“The most credible report I have heard is that about 40,000 sq. m. (430,550 sq. ft.) of space will be retained,” Woodward said, “but that is not confirmed.”

Duck said Shanghai does not compete with Beijing or other cities. “It is an international gateway to East China and (the rest of) China, depending on the industry and the degree of maturity in the market. As an exciting city with good air links, both international and domestic, and ample five-star hotels and entertainment places, it's a fun destination to do business in,” he added.

Duck said that during the past 15 years, Beijing has gone from being the country's most important tradeshow destination to merely the second or third most important. However, the China Intl. Exhibition Centre constructed eight halls of a new venue (the New CIEC) that spans 100,000 sq. m. (1 million sq. ft.), while another eight halls are being added.

According to Woodward, the first phase of the expansion opened in March, and a few events were held before a pre-Olympic moratorium was put in place. The phase included 200,000 sq. m. (2.1 million sq. ft.) of exhibit space and 155,000 sq. m. (1.6 million sq. ft.) of hotel, office and additional business space. Total usable floor area for exhibitions in this phase exceeded 100,000 sq. m. (1 million sq. ft.), according to Woodward.

“This new center near the new airport will give Beijing a new lease on life in terms of venue availability and importance in China,” Duck said. “Today, there are quite a few important shows which are growing well, due not only to the fact that Beijing is the capital of China, but because Beijing serves the northern part of China as the showcase city.”

Other smaller venues still are operating, serving smaller niche shows: the Kerry Centre Hotel, World Trade Centre, (the existing) CIEC and the Beijing Intl. Exhibition Centre.

“Beijing, of course, has good air links and good entertainment facilities in terms of five-star hotels, restaurants and places to visit such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall,” Duck said, “but Guangzhou is still the largest trade fair city in China today, followed by Hong Kong, for international shows.”