Canton Fair vs Global Sources: What This Check Could Actually Read

Last fact-checked: November 10, 2026.

Canton Fair versus Global Sources is a choice between organisers, and this check could only read one of them properly. The Canton Fair exhibition-date page, updated 5 November 2026, prints the 141st phases: 15-19 April, 23-27 April and 1-5 May 2027. Requests to Global Sources on 10 November 2026 returned HTTP 429, so this article does not quote a Global Sources date, a product list, a fee, or a ranking. If you need that organiser's positioning, open their site when it answers and read it there.

The phase lists in plain language are phase 1, phase 2, and the date page on this site. A marketplace comparison that is already written, and is not this one, is Canton Fair versus Alibaba and 1688. The standing-market version is Canton Fair versus Yiwu. Phase 3, if the goods are apparel, toys, or textiles, is the phase 3 guide.

Use the list you can read

On the November page, lighting, electrical goods, hardware and tools sit with phase 1. Gifts, furniture and kitchen goods sit with phase 2. Apparel, toys and home textiles sit with phase 3. That is a reason to be in Guangzhou in a named week. It is not a reason to declare another city's fair worse. HKTDC's English home returned HTTP 200 on the same day. The page shell did not include a show calendar in the text retrieved, so no Hong Kong fair date is copied. The China Foreign Trade Centre is the Canton Fair organiser named on the fair's own session page. It is not a review of other shows.

The complex is named on the session page updated 5 May 2026: No. 382 Yuejiang Zhong Road, Haizhu, written in Chinese as 阅江中路 382号. An English label on the fair site says West Road. That address does not locate a Hong Kong fair or a Global Sources fair this check could not open.

A second city in the same quarter

Hours inside a Canton phase, and the page they come from, are opening time and a day plan. The first day in the building is the first-time routine. Whether a small order belongs in a hall at all is the small-buyer decision.

Drivers in April, cushions in May

An importer needs LED drivers and a cushion range in the same quarter. Drivers sit with electronics on the phase 1 list, 15-19 April 2027. Cushions, as home textiles, sit on the phase 3 list, 1-5 May 2027. The buyer writes those two ranges from the November page and stops. The gap days, 20-22 April and 28-30 April 2027, are not listed as fair days, so they hold notes rather than hall appointments.

They then open the HKTDC English home. The shell does not include a show date in the text this check could read, so the Hong Kong cell stays empty. A blog that "usually" places a Hong Kong fair beside Canton is not a page.

They try Global Sources the same afternoon. The request returns HTTP 429. They do not type a date from a previous email, and they do not ask which fair is "more electronics." Phase 1 listing electronics is a Canton Fair fact, not a score against a page that did not load. Until that site answers, the bookable trip is the two Canton ranges. Badge rules stay on the badge and fee note. This comparison does not move them onto a Hong Kong or Global Sources ticket. No fare is compared here. The case is a planning example, not a named exhibitor.

Pitfalls

• Pasting a Global Sources date from memory after the site returned 429. The cell stays empty until that organiser's page loads.
• Filling the Hong Kong cell from the HKTDC home page that was opened on 10 November 2026. The shell had no calendar in the text retrieved.
• Treating "phase 1 lists electronics" as a verdict that the Canton Fair beats every other electronics show. It is a product list, not a ranking.
• Booking "the week after Canton" in Hong Kong without a date on an HKTDC page you have actually read.
• Using a third-party fair calendar for either organiser. The November Canton page is the Canton source. The other organiser is the source for the other show.
• Mixing this choice with Alibaba or with the Yiwu market and then using those articles' conclusions as a score. They answer different questions. The links above are the place for them.

Checklist before two fairs share a trip

• Each Canton phase on the sheet was copied from the page updated 5 November 2026.
• The product sits on that phase's list: electrical and lighting in phase 1, home and gifts in phase 2, textiles and toys in phase 3.
• Any Hong Kong date was copied from an HKTDC page that showed the date, not from the home-page shell.
• Global Sources is unread until the site answers. No date, fee, or ranking is filled in from somewhere else.
• No attendance figure and no ticket price was used to pick a winner.
• Gap days inside the 141st session are not being used as hall days.
• The complex address, if Guangzhou is on the trip, is the Chinese line from the May 2026 session page.

Questions this check leaves closed

Which fair is bigger?

Unavailable. No attendance figure is used here, including figures printed on older Canton Fair pages about earlier sessions. Bigger would not tell you which week lists your product.

Is Global Sources the electronics fair?

Unverified on 10 November 2026. The site did not return a page. Phase 1 of the Canton Fair does list electronics, electrical goods, and lighting, on the November date page. That is a Canton Fair fact, not a comparison score.

Can the two trips share a week?

Only if both organisers have printed dates you have read. One of those dates is missing from this article on purpose. Share a passport trip only after the second date is on the second organiser's page and does not collide with the Canton phase you actually need.

A product you want quoted before you pick a city can go on the RFQ form or through the sourcing agent page.

The fair logistics around this are the Pazhou hall map, spring versus autumn, factory visits after the fair, and collecting quotes in the halls.

Official sources

• 141st Canton Fair exhibition dates, updated 5 November 2026.
• HKTDC English home, opened 10 November 2026. No show date copied from the shell.
• China Foreign Trade Centre, organiser named on the Canton Fair session page.