The biannual China Import and Export Fair has long been an event no trader can afford to ignore.

The Canton Fair, as it's known, has been held every spring and autumn since 1957 in the southern city of Guangzhou.

It has become the bellwether of the nation's foreign trade climate. Orders placed at the two-week events usually amount to a quarter of the country's total annual export. Last April, for instance, over 192,000 buyers attended the fair's 103rd session. They made total purchases of more than $38.2 billion.