Shantou Chenghai Toy Market: Sourcing Guide for Overseas Buyers

Last fact-checked: November 9, 2026.

The Chenghai toy event a government page will actually date is the Shantou Chenghai International Toys and Gifts Fair. The 25th session ran from 29 October to 1 November 2026 at the Shantou International Convention and Exhibition Center. A year-round booth map, with gates and hours, did not open on 9 November 2026.

Buyers who type "Shantou toy market" often want a building they can walk every Tuesday. What opened, and returned HTTP 200, was the fair record plus a 2022 industry plan that still uses 2020 factory totals. Those are different objects. This note keeps them apart, and it keeps Yiwu District 1 apart as well.

A typical case

A buyer wants plain building blocks, no character, for a shop that already sells puzzles. The first sample can come from a Yiwu floor 1 booth, because that row exists every week. The maker conversation, if the volume grows, belongs with a Chenghai factory that cuts the invoice, not with a fair brochure from a session that has already closed. Terms on the grown order would be FOB Shantou or another named port. This is a typical case. It has no price and no factory name.

The Yiwu half of that plan is District 1 toys. The product path on this site is toys. A sample starts at sample order.

What the two fair pages agree on, and what they do not

Both pages are on shantou.gov.cn, both cite Shantou Daily, and both were opened on 9 November 2026.

Point	Preview, 27 May 2026	Opening report, 30 October 2026
Dates	29 October to 1 November 2026	29 October to 1 November 2026
Place	Shantou International Convention and Exhibition Center	Same center. A street address was not in this report.
Area	100,000 square meters, 11 halls	100,000 square meters. Hall count not repeated.
Brands	Over 2,500	Over 2,500
Other counts	Overseas exhibitors expected up 20 percent. First 2.5 days for professional buyers, then 1.5 days for the public.	863 enterprises, over 300,000 styles, 5,000 brands and buyers from 55 countries and regions. The 2.5-day split is not repeated.

Use the October report for what the session gathered. Use the May preview for the plan, including the buyer-day split, and notice that the opening report did not repeat that split. A street address for the center appeared on a chamber traffic note that returned HTTP 403, so it is not copied here. The May page also says the fair has UFI certification and is the first industry exhibition in the Chaoshan region to receive it. That is the government page's statement. The UFI directory was not re-checked for this article.

The fair is over. The next session's dates were not on either page. Write "unavailable" in the calendar until a new government notice prints them.

The 2020 factory totals are a plan baseline

Chenghai's manufacturing plan, issued by the district government on 27 July 2022 and republished on the Shantou portal, says Chenghai is a "China toy and gift city" with a chain from design through molds, parts, assembly, packing, transport, sales, and exhibitions. For 2020 it records 4 listed toy companies, 2 companies on the New Third Board, 128 above-scale toy enterprises, above-scale toy output of 8.638 billion yuan (27.97 percent of the district's above-scale industrial output), and added value of 2.339 billion yuan (33.19 percent of the district's above-scale industrial added value). Those are 2020 baselines inside a plan whose data year is 2020. They are not a 2026 census, and they are not a booth count.

The same plan mentions Bao'ao City as an e-commerce base next to the Shantou cross-border e-commerce pilot. It does not give Bao'ao a floor directory or trading hours. The operator site for that complex did not open on 9 November 2026. So a daily Chenghai toy mall, if you need one, is not described by a page this article can send you to.

What to ask a Chenghai maker

Ask who invoices. A fair stand and a factory can share a brand name and still be different legal persons. Ask the age grade, and read the EU criteria on the Commission toy-safety page and in Directive 2009/48/EC if the goods are for the EU. A battery inside the toy moves the file toward the checks on the Huaqiangbei electronics page. A character on the brick needs a rights answer before the mold is cut.

Inspection lines for the bulk, once a sample exists, are on the pre-shipment checklist. A visit that is actually in Yiwu, not Chenghai, is the market visit page.

What usually goes wrong

• Treating 863 exhibitors as the number of factories in Chenghai. That figure is the opening report's count of enterprises at one fair.
• Treating the May preview's "+20 percent overseas" line as a result. The preview marks it as an expectation. The October report does not repeat it.
• Flying to Chenghai in a non-fair week and expecting a published booth map. The map was not on a page that opened.

Put the product, the age grade, the port, and whether you need a fair introduction or a factory invoice on the RFQ. Guangzhou clothing is a different trip: Baima, Shisanhang, and Shahe.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Chenghai toy market open all year?

A standing directory with hours did not open on 9 November 2026. The dated public event is the fair, and the 25th session has ended. The 2022 plan mentions Bao'ao City and does not list its floors.

Which fair numbers should I quote?

Dates, the center, 100,000 square meters, and over 2,500 brands appear on both government pages. Enterprises (863), styles (over 300,000), and buyers (5,000, from 55 places) are in the 30 October report. The buyer-day split is in the 27 May preview and is not repeated after opening.

Should blocks be bought in Yiwu or Chenghai?

Yiwu District 1 floor 1 is a published toy row you can visit outside a fair week. Chenghai is where the manufacturing plan says the mold-to-packing chain sits. Sample in one place and produce in the other only if the spec is the same piece.

See also China Wholesale Markets by Product Category.

Sources

• Shantou government: 25th fair opening, 30 October 2026. Dates, area, 863 enterprises, brand and style counts, and the buyer figure.
• Shantou government, English: fair scheduled, 27 May 2026. The same dates as a plan, 11 halls, the buyer-day split, and the UFI statement.
• Chenghai manufacturing plan, issued 27 July 2022. 2020 above-scale toy totals, and Bao'ao named as an e-commerce base without a floor list.
• EUR-Lex: Directive 2009/48/EC. Toy safety criteria for the EU market.