The Expo (Day 1)

Let me begin by explaining that I had no idea which expo I was going to until yesterday after waiting in line to get our passes. It turns out this is the "China International Beauty Expo" or "CIBE" (apparently established in 1989). For those who don't know, this is now my 3rd major beauty expo after attending one in Bologna, Italy and New York City. My job is to be a packmule for my wife who has her own medspa clinic, but I occassionally help by asking questions to vendors about their products. I spend a lot of time observing the companies to see which products look cool or popular.

We started the day with a hotel breakfast where I ended up eating 6 eggs, some toast, and decently-strong espresso (I was warned we wouldn't have time to eat lunch). We then walked 15 minutes to the nearest metro station which would take us to the front door of the Canton Fair Expo Center.

For a metro day pass, you get a litle plastic green coin that you tap to get into the metro station, and then deposit when you leave at your destination. Once we got to the Expo center, there was an incredibly long line for registration (I think it took us about an hour to finally get our badges and get into the Expo).

We didn't really know where to start, so we just took the first door to a large hall and started working our way through the jungle of vendors. Some expos have themed halls (e.g., hair styling hall, lipstick hall). I think that is true with this Expo, too, but I noticed laser equipment vendors mixed in with the cosmetic vendors.

Around 2:00 PM, I was desperate for a drink, so we ventured to the basement dining hall that had endless restaurants (you could not see the end of the hall in either direction from where we entered).

At one point while I was waiting around, I saw a dog walk by carrying a basket on its back; but, upon closer inspection, I realized it was robotic. I wanted to follow one around, but then I would risk losing track of my wife in the sea of people. After a few hours, I managed to find one of the vendors packing up the robot dogs for the night.

Several people around me seemed to think it was amusing that I was taking pictures of the robot dogs. Whatever, I'm a tourist! Speaking of which, I am always on the hunt for funny translations. One that stood out to me was "pillow face", which I intend to use to describe my face after waking up from now on.

I'm well aware that many companies just dump English words into their marketing to look cool, not caring if it makes sense as long as it isn't obviously offensive. It's not unlike people who get cool Chinese tattoos and later learn it reads something dumb like "coffee filter".

After a very long and sweaty day walking around the crowds, the police officers went around blasting a message on their speakers that apparently said "the Expo has already closed, it is time to leave now". The crowd outside was worse than what we encountered entering the Expo, so it took us over an hour to get back to the hotel.

There are a ton of electric scooters and small motorcycles parked at the metro stations, and I saw a ton of older gentlemen offering rides on their scooters (like a taxi service). I was busy asking my wife important questions like "do you think the scooter taxi grandpas are friends?" as my wife struggled to figure out why our Uber car couldn't find us at our pick-up spot.

We had about two seconds to drop our stuff off before going to dinner with my wife's friends who had invited us to a fancy restaurant. This time, they invited their kids along and hoped I would be able to practice some English with them during dinner (mostly a success - I think their English was about on par with my Chinese, so we could ask basic questions).

We are about to head out for Day 2 (of 3, apparently) of the Expo. More to come later.