Exhibitors and buyers walk through the exhibition halls at the 133rd China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on April 16, 2023. Photo: Chi Jingyi/GT

The 133rd China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, attracted over 660,000 visits in the first two days after its official opening on Saturday in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province.

As a bellwether of China's foreign trade, the fair, which attracted a large number of domestic and foreign visitors, mirrors the vitality of China's foreign trade despite external challenges and slams by some Western media that China, the world's factory, is losing momentum in terms of economy.

In the first quarter of 2023, the number of overseas orders picked up, traders told the Global Times on Sunday, saying that they were excited to participate in the event on-site and expressing their confidence in China's foreign trade.

 "We expect further export growth in 2023, as our exports also increased in 2022," Shi Yong, e-commerce manager of Fujian Nashida Electronic, told the Global Times on Sunday.

He stressed that although China has higher labor costs than some Southeast Asian countries, Chinese products offer higher quality and more advanced technology. "I am confident that these orders will return to China."

A sales manager at Zhongtong Bus Holding Co told the Global Times on Sunday at the fair that the company's exports doubled in the first quarter of 2023.

"We have sold our buses worldwide, including new-energy buses, mainly to Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Malaysia and Thailand," said the manager, who asked to remain anonymous, and added that many African buyers had showed an interest in purchasing the vehicles.

The Canton Fair, scheduled from Saturday to May 5, is the first fully on-site event after three years of the epidemic. Both the exhibition area (at 1.5 million square meters) and the number of on-site exhibitors (nearly 35,000) reached record highs, said Xu Bing, spokesperson of the Canton Fair.

The historic scale, record number of participants as well as the excitement among traders slammed a report by Voice of America, which claimed that the fair is bleak with traders worrying about their export orders.

China's exports rose 23.4 percent year-on-year in yuan-denominated terms in March, beating market expectations and offering a steady and positive start to 2023. 

Exports of new-energy vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells increased 66.9 percent year-on-year, driving up the country's overall exports by 2 percentage points, according to official data.