Canton Fair 140th Buyer Badge: Which Collection Desk Is Open on Which Day — and Three Changes to the Accompanying-Personnel Badge

Checked on 3 October 2026. We are Guangzhou Guanri Translation Service Co., Ltd. (广州市贯日翻译服务有限公司), an interpreting company based in Guangzhou. We are not the Canton Fair organiser, not a badge agent, not a factory-audit firm and not a law firm. The escort interpreting this article mentions at the end is the service we sell, so read that part the way you would read anything written by a seller. Nothing below is legal advice or compliance advice. Every date, time and Fair fee below comes from an official Canton Fair document named in §8; the only prices of ours are the published interpreting rates in §6. The calendar in §2 and the day counts are our arrangement of the Fair's tables.

On 26 September 2026 the Canton Fair published its badge guide for overseas buyers of the 140th session, in Chinese and English. On 28 September it opened applications for the accompanying-personnel badge — the one an assistant or interpreter needs to walk into the halls with you. The guide's most useful part, the list of where you can collect a badge and on which days, is published only as pictures. We have typed those tables out (§2) and turned them into a calendar, because the desks are not all open on the same days, and not every type of ID works at every desk.

All day counts below are measured from 3 October 2026. Phase 1 runs 15–19 October (12 days away), Phase 2 23–27 October (20 days), Phase 3 31 October – 4 November (28 days).

1. Which line is yours

Read the row that matches you. Each row ends in something you can do. Any row's question can go to the Fair's customer service centre: 4000-888-999 in China, (0086) 20-28888999 from abroad, info@cantonfair.org.cn.

2. Where to collect, and on which days

The guide gives two tables. The first lists five places away from the exhibition complex; the second lists three registration offices at the Complex. We have copied both, then laid them out as one calendar.

Away from the Complex — these accept only three types of ID: a foreign passport, a Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents, or a Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents.

At the Complex — these accept the same three plus a fourth: a Chinese passport with an overseas permanent residence permit or permanent residence visa.

Note on the last row: the guide gives Phase 1 hours separately for Areas B and C and for Area D, but its Phase 2 and Phase 3 lines carry no area label. It does not say whether the Area D office opens in those phases. Ask before you go to D on those days: 4000-888-999 in China, (0086) 20-28888999 from abroad, info@cantonfair.org.cn.

Put together, this is the calendar:

The Hong Kong office and the hotels are left out of the calendar: the office keeps weekday hours all year, and the guide gives no dates for the hotels.

Four things the calendar shows that the lists do not:

• Guangzhou South stops earlier in each of the first two phases. It is not listed for 18–19 October, the last two days of Phase 1, or for 25–27 October, the last three days of Phase 2.
• The off-site desks stop on 1 November. Phase 3 runs to 4 November. Arrive on 2, 3 or 4 November and the Complex is the only Guangzhou desk listed with dates.
• Both airport desks are listed in the international arrivals halls. If you fly into Guangzhou on a domestic flight, the table lists no desk in the domestic halls; ask the Fair, or plan on the Complex.
• No Guangzhou desk is listed with dates before 12 October. If you need your badge in hand earlier, the Hong Kong office is the only place on the list with published opening hours, on weekdays — and it takes only the first three ID types.

The hotel list deserves a warning of its own. The guide says 60 designated hotels will issue badges and puts them on a map behind a QR code for a Chinese map app (Amap), which we did not open; it gives no dates or hours for them, and tells you to watch the official website for detailed hotel information. As of 3 October we did not find that detailed list: we searched the titles of 300 items pulled from the Fair's content stream (297 published between 7 May and 30 September 2026, plus 3 pinned items, two of them older) for 酒店 and hotel, and the only hit was a notice about coach parking at hotels. Before relying on a hotel desk, confirm with the hotel or the Fair that it issues badges on your dates.

3. What to bring to the desk

The guide lists three things, and says new badges, replacements and renewals are all free of charge:

1. The original of one valid ID — one of the four types above. The airport, railway station, ferry terminal, hotels and the Hong Kong office take only the first three.
2. A business card.
3. The pre-registration QR code receipt, which the buyer system shows once you have submitted your badge application.

The Fair's Hong Kong office adds two points in its own guide (dated 30 July 2026): a photocopy or electronic copy of the business card is acceptable, and, for collection at the Hong Kong office, a colleague may collect your badge for you only if they work in your own company's sourcing department and bring both your business cards. It also asks you to book an appointment by email before you go; the address is in that PDF (§8), and you can confirm it by calling the office on 2838 3278. The 26 September guide does not repeat either point.

The guide for work-visa holders carries a warning that applies to everyone. We quote its first point in full; it is one sentence in the official Chinese, and the English is our translation, because we did not find an English version of that guide among the same 300 titles:

一、广交会从未授权任何第三方机构和个人代理证件业务，除广交会官方公布的收费标准外，不会收取任何额外证件费用，请广大参会客商务必提高警惕，通过官方正规渠道申请证件。

(Our translation: "1. The Canton Fair has never authorised any third-party organisation or individual to act as an agent for badge business; apart from the officially published fees, it charges no additional badge fees. Attendees are urged to stay alert and apply for badges through official channels.") The buyer badge itself is free. Anyone charging you for it is not the Fair.

4. If you hold a Chinese passport and an overseas work visa valid for one year or more

This is the row people miss. Since the 137th session, a mainland Chinese citizen holding an overseas work visa valid for one year or more (the Chinese guide's 一年以上; the English sign-up screen says "over one year") no longer gets an Overseas Buyer Badge. The Fair issues a Purchasing Agent Badge instead, free of charge. Overseas Buyer Badges issued on a work visa have a validity of three years and six sessions, so any issued at or before the 134th session are no longer valid.

The documents, as listed in the Fair's Chinese guide for this group (our translation):

1. The original Chinese passport, or the original exit-entry permit for travelling to and from Hong Kong and Macao, or to and from Taiwan.
2. An overseas work visa or endorsement valid for one year or more, still valid on the day you collect.
3. A valid second-generation PRC resident identity card.
4. An entry record dated no earlier than 1 August 2026.
5. A personal business card and the QR code receipt.

The guide lists only the three Complex offices for this badge, on the hours in §2; the Hong Kong office's July guide also limits the other locations to foreign passports and the two Mainland Travel Permits. The same guide also states that anyone who has held a service-personnel badge for this session, or whose application for an exhibitor-personnel badge was rejected, cannot apply; nor can anyone who has held an exhibitor-personnel badge for the same phase.

5. The interpreter you bring into the halls: the 140th accompanying-personnel badge

The application opened on 28 September 2026, in Chinese and English. Most of it repeats the 139th-session notice of 2 April 2026: only the buyer can apply, at least two calendar days ahead, assistants and interpreters, interpreters must show one of three qualifications (CATTI, NAETI, or a graduation certificate in a foreign language major from a higher education institution in the Chinese mainland), up to two people per buyer per phase with at most one of each, buyers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and holders of a Chinese passport limited to the assistant type, RMB 300 per day plus a RMB 50 administrative fee, and a genuine accompanying relationship required. Three things are different in substance; the wording of the exclusions also changed, see the end of this section.

First, a new buyer must finish their own application first. Section I of the 140th notice is four sentences in the official English; we quote the last:

New buyers must first complete your pre-registration （https://buyer.cantonfair.org.cn）and submit the application for the Overseas Buyer Badge before submitting applications for accompanying personnel.

The official Chinese puts the same section in three sentences; the difference is the English text's own sentence break. Returning buyers can apply directly, as the section's third sentence says. In practice, if you are new: register yourself and submit your own badge application before you try to add anyone.

Second, a lost badge now has a price. Section V is three sentences in the official English; the third is new, and the 139th notice did not have it:

If a badge is lost, a replacement fee of RMB 200 per badge will be charged.

That is on top of the RMB 300 per day and RMB 50 fee. The rule that a badge is non-refundable once scanned by an entry gate is unchanged.

Third, the opening clause about resident identity cards is gone. The 139th notice began with this sentence, the first of four in its opening paragraph:

For the 139th Canton Fair, Chinese assistants or interpreters (holders of a People's Republic of China resident identity card) of overseas buyers (hereinafter referred to as buyers) are required to apply for the “Badge of Accompanying Personnel for Overseas Buyers.”

The 140th notice opens instead with the date and a QR code. But its closing paragraph still says this, one sentence in the official English:

To improve badge application efficiency, buyers are encouraged to complete their pre-registration in advance, contact their accompanying personnel, and have ready the required basic information, including the accompanying personnel’s mobile phone number and resident identity card number.

So the notice no longer states in its first line who the badge is for, and still asks for a resident identity card number. It does not say what happens if your companion has none. If you are bringing a companion without a PRC resident identity card, that is the question to put to the Fair in writing before you fly: 4000-888-999 in China, (0086) 20-28888999 from abroad, info@cantonfair.org.cn. We do not answer it for them.

The deadline arithmetic, from the notice's own example: to have an interpreter with you on 15 October, submit by 13 October. For the first day of Phase 2, 23 October, submit by 21 October; for the first day of Phase 3, 31 October, by 29 October. These are submission deadlines; the Fair reviews each application.

The 140th notice also restates the exclusions, in slightly changed wording: anyone holding an exhibitor or exhibitor-representative badge for the same phase cannot be your accompanying person for that phase, and anyone holding a service-personnel badge for this session (the move-in/move-out badges for exhibitors and construction), or whose exhibitor or exhibitor-representative badge application was rejected, cannot be your accompanying person at all this session.

6. Interpreting: the Fair's own desk, and where it stops

The Fair runs its own interpretation service through its Buyer Service Centre, in ten languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Korean and German. Its page gives English at RMB 600 a day for a booth interpreter and RMB 800 for an escort interpreter, and other languages at RMB 800 and RMB 1,000; under four hours counts as half a day. You pay in RMB at the Buyer Service Centre in Area A, B, C or D.

The page lists 30 September – 14 October as the pre-fair booking period: (020)89138055, ISC@cantonfair.org.cn. During the Fair (15 October – 4 November) you book at the Buyer Service Centre counters in the halls: Area A 86-20-89130395; Area B 86-20-89061946 or, at the registration office, 86-20-89130185 / 86-20-89130195; Area C 86-20-89074104 or 86-20-89074105 / 86-20-89074106; Area D 86-20-89139941 or 86-20-89133215 / 86-20-89133270. The page shows no publication date; the Fair's content system records its last update as 29 April 2026. The page also says the service covers only the exhibition complex, during opening hours, and that interpreter numbers are limited, first come, first served.

The buyer system's home screen, as shown in the Fair's own step-by-step pictures, also has a tile labelled "Interpreter Reservation". We have not used it and the guide does not describe it, so we cannot tell you what it books.

Everything outside the halls — the airport on the day you land, the hotel, the factory, the dinner, a supplier in another city — is outside that service. That is the part we sell: escort and consecutive interpreting from ¥200 per hour or ¥800 per full day, depending on language pair and subject, as published on our FAQ page. Message us on WhatsApp +86 139 2416 6640 (WeChat: Saralee93), or use our contact page, with your dates, city and what each day involves. You can browse interpreters in our Guangzhou interpreter directory. If you want a Chinese interpreter with you inside the halls as well, the badge in §5 is yours to apply for, not ours, and whether it is issued is the Fair's decision. If you are a buyer from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, or hold a Chinese passport, the notice does not let you apply for the interpreter type at all. Ask the interpreter you book, before you apply, whether they hold a PRC resident identity card and which of the three qualifications they have.

7. What we could not confirm

• The 60 hotels. The guide promises detailed hotel information in later notices. We did not find it as of 3 October (§2).
• Area D in Phases 2 and 3. The table does not say.
• A companion without a PRC resident identity card. The 140th notice neither repeats the 139th clause nor states an exception (§5).
• Which languages the desks work in. The guide does not say.
• Purchasing Agent Badge holders and companions. The accompanying-personnel notice speaks of overseas buyers; it does not say whether a Purchasing Agent Badge holder can apply for a companion, although an example screenshot in the work-visa guide, taken from an earlier session, shows an accompanying-personnel tile on a Purchasing Agent account.
• Hong Kong public holidays. The Hong Kong office closes on them; check the Hong Kong government's list for your dates.

For any of these, the Fair's customer service centre is the one to ask: 4000-888-999 in China, (0086) 20-28888999 from abroad, info@cantonfair.org.cn.

8. Sources

All read on 2 October 2026 and checked again on 3 October at cantonfair.org.cn. The Fair's site is a single-page application, so the stable identifiers are the content numbers given here.

• Canton Fair Badge Guide — Your Go-to for Overseas Buyers (English, published 26 September 2026, content number 148399eb233648dbb67d26374001e436) and its Chinese counterpart 《广交会办证畅行GO——境外采购商篇》 (published 26 September 2026, 9e70eea4bba042a09fdbb410e1fd76e6). The location tables in §2 are images in both; the transcription is ours.
• 《广交会办证畅行GO——采购代表（工作签证）篇》 (Chinese; we found no English version, see §3; published 26 September 2026, bdbe7d2521aa4e87aff8dab81aa8f22d): §3's warning and §4.
• Badge Application for Accompanying Personnel for Overseas Buyers of the 140th Canton Fair is Now Open (English, 28 September 2026, cc18c57e7b58462b910ef5efb55cdafd) and 《第140届广交会已开放境外采购商陪同人员办证申请》 (Chinese, 28 September 2026, 098f22042c9845d294800d96ab65d415): §5.
• Notice on Badge Application for Personnel Accompanying Overseas Buyers for the 139th Canton Fair (2 April 2026, 1003583666053890048EN): the 139th clause quoted in §5.
• Phase dates (15–19 October, 23–27 October, 31 October – 4 November): the Fair's 《关于第140届中国进出口商品交易会出口展展位申请事宜的通告》 (5 May 2026), matching the registration-office hours in the badge guide.
• Canton Fair Interpretation Service (802506534755274752EN; Chinese 802506534755274752; no date on the page, last update in the content system 29 April 2026): §6.
• 140th Canton Fair Overseas Buyer Badge Pre-registration Guide, Canton Fair Hong Kong Representative Office, dated 30 July 2026 (PDF): the Hong Kong office points in §3.

Related on this blog: Canton Fair interpreter badge rules and how much a Canton Fair interpreter costs.