Qingdao, Shandong province [Photo/VCG]

As a vital platform for China's opening-up, the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, has promoted the high-quality development of trade and bolstered the country's dual-circulation development paradigm.

The ongoing 133rd Canton Fair, which is running from April 15 to May 5 in South China's Guangdong province, is the first Canton Fair held in the first year of implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

For Qingdao, the Canton Fair is a testing ground for products, a touchstone for the market, and the forefront of opening-up.

The city has always regarded the Canton Fair as an important window to showcase the city's industrial development and business-friendly environment, engage in overseas markets, as well as to promote economic and trade cooperation.

At this year's Canton Fair, 1,005 exhibitors from the Qingdao trading group are participating in the event with a total of 879 booths. Qingdao exhibitors are distributed across 43 exhibition areas, including home appliances, building materials, auto parts, tools, gardens, kitchens, gifts, furniture, food, and home textiles.

Qingdao showcases the city's industrial development and business-friendly environment at the Canton Fair. [Photo/VCG]

"The Canton Fair has become the best stage for Chinese companies to go global," said Zhang Qingfu, vice-president of Candy, an Italian family-owned manufacturer of home appliances acquired by Haier. Zhang noted that Haier is displaying the cutting-edge technologies, high-end products, and smart scenarios in the home appliance industry at the fair.

Wang Bao, deputy general manager of the international marketing department of Hisense, said, "This year is the 30th year for Hisense to participate in the Canton Fair. We will continue to make progress."

At this year's fair, Hisense has set up eight exhibition areas, displaying more than 100 models of the latest technologies and high-quality products, such as ULED X platform and the 120-inch 4K laser TV, to unveil technological innovations to overseas customers.

With the comprehensive restart of offline activities after three years of them being not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's fair is bringing about many new changes and highlights. The exhibition area of each phase has expanded by 100,000 square meters, while six new themes have been added, including industrial automation and smart manufacturing, new energy, as well as intelligent connected vehicles. In addition, the number of on-site exhibitors has increased from 25,000 to 35,000.