Visitors experience VR products at the 130th China Import and Export Fair on October 18, 2021. Photo: CFP

China's landmark trade event, the China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, closed on Tuesday with 600,000 visits in person and 27.92 million online. 

The 130th session, held simultaneously on-site and online for the first time after COVID-19 hit, remained as the world's largest on-site exhibition in terms of scale amid the pandemic.

About 26,000 Chinese and foreign enterprises participated in the exhibition showcasing over 2.87 million articles, 113,600 more than in the previous session, Xu Bing, spokesperson of the Canton Fair and Deputy Director General of the China Foreign Trade Center, announced during a press conference on Tuesday.

Among all the exhibits, 898,200 were new products, with 112,700 smart products and 248,600 products with independent intellectual property, Xu remarked.

The in-person exhibition covered an area of 400,000 square meters, with 7,795 exhibitors and a total of 600,000 visits. While the online platform was accessed 32.73 million times. Exhibitors made a total of 43,000 broadcasts, with more than 350,000 viewers online.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 and other factors, overseas buyers and purchase representatives still participated in the event actively. A total of 18 industrial and commercial organizations, including the American Chamber of Commerce in South China and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, organized more than 500 member companies to attend the event on-site. 

A total of 378,000 buyers from 228 countries and regions registered online to attend the fair.

The number of buyers grew steadily and the sources of origin set a new record, expanding the level of diversity and globalization of the Canton Fair, Xu said.