Eleven days across five cities, from the largest foreign trade fair on the planet to the manufacturing, technology and consumer hubs that are setting the industrial standard for the decade ahead.
In a few decades China went from copying to defining the state of the art in manufacturing, logistics, automation and retail. Watching that on video is not the same as walking the exhibition hall, talking to the factory engineer and understanding the business model behind the price.
The China Mission is led by the same team NEXXT keeps in Hong Kong, the one that works this corridor all year round. You are not travelling as a business tourist: you are travelling with people who already know the route, the language and the technical criteria that separate a good supplier from a good presentation.
We start on the factory floor, pass through capital and end at consumption. Each city stands for a different layer of the Chinese economy.
Canton has been trading with the world for more than two centuries and is still the front door of Chinese manufacturing. This is where the Canton Fair takes place, at the Pazhou complex, and where much of what Chinese industry exports to the West comes from.
The hinge between global capital and Chinese manufacturing. A free port with its own legal system and the financial centre through which much of the trade between Asia and the West passes. It is also where NEXXT keeps its own office and team.
In four decades a fishing village became the hardware capital of the world. The Pearl River Delta concentrates a supplier chain for electronics, robotics and electric vehicles with a density that exists nowhere else on the planet.
Capital of the Chinese digital economy and home to the country's largest e-commerce group. Hangzhou concentrates research in artificial intelligence and data logistics, and keeps in West Lake, a World Heritage site, one of the oldest landmarks of Chinese culture.
The financial capital and the shop window of Chinese consumption at full scale. Between the historic Bund and the towers of Pudong, Shanghai shows how Chinese brands design retail experience and how the world's largest consumer market behaves.
Held in Guangzhou since 1957, the China Import and Export Fair is the largest foreign trade fair in the world and brings together tens of thousands of exhibitors across three phases. Our window falls in Phase 2, dedicated to home, decoration, furniture, gifts and building materials, at the Pazhou complex.
Four days in the most direct place there is to understand how China supplies the world: thousands of factories under one roof, with price, sample and supplier in the same conversation.
The group is put together so the conversations go somewhere. Everyone travelling needs a mandate to decide, or to shape a decision, on purchasing, supply or investment.
People who need to see the next cycle in their own industry before committing capital.
Teams buying abroad who want to trade the middleman for a direct relationship with the manufacturer.
Operations looking at modernising plant, automating processes or widening their product line.
Brazilian passport holders currently have visa-free entry to mainland China and to Hong Kong for short stays. The rules change often, so NEXXT confirms the requirements in force with each participant before tickets are issued.
The whole mission is supported by interpreting between Portuguese and Mandarin. Technical negotiation on a factory floor does not work through a phone translation app.
China runs almost entirely without cash and on its own apps. We guide you through setting up WeChat Pay, Alipay and internet access before departure.
Travel between cities combines high-speed rail and a domestic flight, with executive transport inside each city.
