Anyone who doubts the total obsession in China with real estate and property should attend the Shenzhen Autumn Real Estate Trade Fair. It is packed with visitors view models of apartment buildings. The show last five days and it is already a major success.
Tradeshow Week says Shenzhen, a former Chinese fishing village that didn’t even exist as a city 25 years ago, has emerged as one of the great success stories of China’s modernization program.
Its population of more than 8.6 million now is larger than that of neighboring Hong Kong, and the infrastructure of the two cities, somewhat belatedly, is being linked together, according to Paul Woodward, principal of Hong Kong-based Business Strategies Group and manager of the Asia-Pacific office of UFI, the Global Assn. of the Exhibition Industry.
“Shenzhen is, in some ways, China’s melting pot,” Woodward said. “Almost nobody comes from Shenzhen, and the dialect spoken there is predominantly Putonghua, the national standard, as opposed to the local Cantonese. Companies have hired the brightest and the best from around China, and the country’s most dynamic technology companies are located here. If these companies are holding their own in world markets, they’re probably based in Shenzhen.”
Interestingly, Shenzhen doesn’t really compete with Hong Kong or Guangzhou for international sourcing fairs, Woodward said. The city has become a key center for domestic sourcing activity and Reed Exhibitions recognized this when it acquired control of Shenzhen Sino-Expom, which has a huge gift fair dominated by domestic Chinese buyers.
English.EastDay.com reports that this year’s increase in Shenzhen Municipal Government funding includes subsidies not only for all organizers holding shows in the SZCEC, but also to exhibitors who participate in shows in the facility.