Choosing Your Phase: which five days carry your product category

The Fair splits every session into three five-day phases, and the product groups move with them. How the split works, where the official category list lives, and what choosing the wrong phase costs.

Three phases, two intervals

Every session of the Fair runs as three phases of five days each, with a two-day closed interval between phases while exhibitors change over their booths. The 140th session runs Phase 1 from 15 to 19 October, Phase 2 from 23 to 27 October, and Phase 3 from 31 October to 4 November; the intervals are 20 to 22 October and 28 to 30 October.

The intervals are not dead days. They are when exhibitors reset the halls, and they are the natural window for factory visits outside the Complex: the organiser's own Trade Bridge programme uses this time to take buyers to industrial bases and parks.

What each phase carries

Phase 1 is the manufacturing phase: household appliances, consumer electronics, industrial automation, processing and power machinery, construction and agricultural machinery, new materials, new energy vehicles and smart mobility, vehicles and spare parts, motorcycles, bicycles, lighting, new energy resources, hardware and tools.

Phase 2 is the home phase: ceramics, kitchenware and tableware, household items, glass and art ceramics, weaving and rattan products, home decorations, festival products, gifts, clocks and watches, building and decorative materials, sanitary equipment, furniture and prefabricated housing.

Phase 3 is the consumption phase: toys, children, baby and maternity products, kidswear, mens and womens clothing, underwear, sportswear, fur and leather, fashion accessories, shoes, textile raw materials and fabrics, cases and bags, home textiles, carpets, office supplies, food, medicines and health products, personal care, toiletries, sports and recreation products, and pet products.

The category lists above follow the 139th session's exhibition sections as a reference structure. Category allocation is set by the organiser for each session, so treat them as the current shape rather than a guarantee for every future session.

Where the official list lives

The organiser publishes the exhibition structure for each session on the official website and app, which run year-round and mirror the onsite sections. The phase themes, category list and dates for the session you plan to attend are published in the official session introduction before registration opens.

Check the list twice: once when booking flights, and again two weeks before departure, because category assignments are finalised close to each session and late adjustments do happen.

What choosing the wrong phase costs

The halls are reset between phases, so a category you need is physically absent on the wrong days: its exhibitors are either not yet set up or already packed. Arriving for Phase 1 when your products sit in Phase 3 means a second flight or a wasted week.

Hotel prices around the Complex track the Fair calendar tightly, so a late phase correction also re-prices the trip. Booking refundable accommodation and confirming the phase before buying the ticket protects both halves.

When you buy across phases

Buyers who source from more than one family should anchor the trip on the phase that carries the category they cannot see anywhere else, then work the other phases around it: the anchored phase decides the dates, the flexible phases fill the gaps.

A buyer of, say, furniture and footwear can anchor on Phase 2 for furniture, take the interval days for factory visits, and stay through Phase 3 for shoes. The interval days are the bridge that makes a two-category trip work without a second flight.

Phase dates and category families come from the organiser's official session introductions. The buying strategy is our own.