The Expo (Day 3)

The third (and final) day of the Expo felt rushed, but we also felt as though we had seen the majority of the MedSpa device vendors we wanted to see. We woke up late again, and during breakfast I learned that the Expo would end early (around 2:30 PM), so that only gave us a few hours. We decided to take a taxi again, hoping against hope that traffic would be lighter. Instead, we got stuck in a traffic jam that turned out to be the result of a car accident (I have noticed a lot more accidents on this trip than on previous trips to China).

Speaking of cars, I have noticed a dramatic shift to electric vehicles (EVs) since I was last in China in 2019. I estimate 80% of the cars and scooters I have seen are fully electric. Every single taxi we have taken so far has been electric (mostly from Chinese brands like BYD and Aion). Of the thousands of cars I've seen, I have only counted two Teslas. I can't help but wonder what was done with all of the old non-electric cars that were everywhere a mere five years ago.

Back to the Expo.

Since we had already visited most of the vendors we wanted to, we decided to spend a bit of time testing some products. I tested an eye device that used radio frequency (RF) to help reduce swelling (joke's on them – I inherited permanent "pillow face").

After the eye treatment, I tested a new robotic back massage machine that looks like a robotic arm from an automotive assembly plant. The back massage was ok, but one of the settings used electro-magnetic energy and it got so hot that I'm pretty sure it was burning my skin... I don't seem to have any photos of the device (sorry!), but it's obviously not ready for primetime anyway.

A common theme among the device vendors was artificial intelligence (AI). The devices themselves look exactly the same as they have at past expos, but now the companies are claiming they are enhanced with AI!

There were several machines with "AI" marketing where I couldn't fathom how anything AI-related could possibly improve them (I am, of course, assuming "AI" here is referring to the generative varieties that are all the rage right now). Is the eye machine I tested going to generate poems for me? I can't wait.

The Teardown

As 2:30 PM rolled around, I noticed construction crews had begun pouring in to start tearing down the Expo booths. I assumed there would be more police announcements that the Expo was closed, but this time it was quiet and most attendees continued browsing vendor booths as they were being dismantled.

It was mindblowing how quickly the construction workers took things down (and, granted, I understand it's usually faster to take things apart than it is to assemble them). But this was something entirely different. My wife sat down at a booth to talk with a vendor, and in the 15 minutes she was talking, an entire section of the Expo was dismantled and packed up. This included building scaffolding, moving the scaffolding to take down lights and electronics, unscrewing light fixtures, removing and packing (in giant crates) MedSpa devices, ripping up carpet, dismantling platforms, removing large (200+ inch?) displays.... the list goes on!

These construction men and women were so fast and efficient that it remains one of the most impressive things I think I've ever seen.

It was as if they were told they had to have the entire Expo hall cleared in under an hour – and I fully believe they could do it at the speed they went. As my wife and I slowly left the main hall, we found full-sized trucks were parked in an adjacent hall. My wife was stunned, so she asked a security guard how they drove a truck inside (through one of the oversized cargo doors). I'm impressed the floors of the massive building could support the weight of everyone and all the trucks parked inside (this was up on the 3rd floor).

I was amused to see attendees still browsing the mostly-dismantled booths as trucks were driving past them in the hall. Equally amusing was how it didn't phase them to have a giant truck drive right next to them inside the Expo hall. No big deal.

As if this wasn't all impressive enough, the thing that stunned me the most was yet to come.

As my wife and I walked out of the MedSpa device hall, we realized we were in a small section of a larger hall – that was connected to another larger hall. Upon entering this hall, I noticed it was impossible to see where it ended in the distance.

At one point we passed a large door that said "Friendship Hall", so I peeked inside and saw a stadium-sized room that would have been impressive on its own.

We then walked outside to try to orient ourselves to where the nearest metro station was. It was around that point that we found a map that indicated we were in Building 1 of 4. Four of these buildings with these unimaginably large halls (it's actually possible there are more than 4 buildings - that was what I remember seeing on the map). Wikipedia simply states this place is "possibly the largest convention center in the world" (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Fair_Complex). I fully believe it.

Once we finally found the nearest metro station, my wife said her map/GPS app indicated we had walked a mile since we had started back at the MedSpa device hall (but that includes a few detours of us taking some wrong turns in our attempt to leave).

Needless to say, we only managed to see a very tiny fraction of the overall China International Beauty Expo in our 3 days here. It's also worth mentioning that this same expo travels to other places around Asia before it comes back to Guangzhou in the fall. This might help explain why the construction workers are so efficient: they have a ton of experience doing this over and over again all year!

After taking the metro, we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The metro station is near a giant stadium ("Olympic Stadium") that we could see from our hotel room.

We then decided to go grocery shopping – something I've decided is worth dedicating an entire post to (up next).