Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

THE 29th China (Shenzhen) International Gifts, Handicrafts, Watches & Housewares Fair and the 1688 Merchant Festival kicked off with a record exhibition area in the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center in Bao’an District yesterday.

The exhibition area this year has been expanded to 240,000 square meters, an increase of 50 percent year on year, according to fair organizer Reed Huabo Exhibitions.

With 12 halls of the exhibition and convention center open to accommodate sellers and buyers, the fair has prepared more than 10,000 exhibition booths for over 5,000 exhibitors to meet the unleashed procurement demand.

The four-day event is expected to receive nearly 200,000 buyers from across the country.

For the first time, the gifts fair has joined hands with 1688.com, Alibaba’s online purchasing and wholesale platform and invited the platform’s more than 1,000 source factories to participate in the offline exhibition in halls 3, 4 and 5.

At the same time, the gifts fair will also launch an online exhibition in partnership with the 1688 Merchant Festival to attract online buyers.

Buyers can directly negotiate with merchants face-to-face in the offline exhibition and can also do online consultations, negotiations and procurement through the exclusive online exhibition, said the organizer.

“We show up at the gifts fair every year. The gifts fair is an excellent platform for us to reach potential buyers and showcase our latest products,” said Piao Chengxue, a staffer with electrical appliances manufacturer Morphy Richards.

The Second Shenzhen Gifts Packaging & Printing Fair and the Seventh China Mobile Electronics Fair are also concurrently held during the gifts fair.