After grabbing a few hours sleep in my luxurious room at the Renaissance Yu Gardens Hotel the wake up call came at 7am. I opened the curtains and enjoyed the views of old and new Shanghai out of the floor to ceiling 45 degree angled windows and a took a quick shower. The shower head was very large and made me feel like I was standing in the rain. At 7.30am I took the lift down to the restaurant where the breakfast buffet was served. A delectable choice of Western and Eastern hot and cold dishes was available in a café like seating area overlooking Shanghai. I would have liked more time eating leisurely, but went down to meet the others in our group in the Hotel lobby at 8am to board the mini-bus for the short drive under the Huangpu River to attend the China International Travel Mart 2010 (CITM) at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC) in Pudong.
Since the opening of SNIEC in 2001, the exhibition centre has continuously expanded. The venue currently comprises 11 huge pillar-free, single story exhibition halls with 126,500 square metres of inside exhibition area. SNIEC has been experiencing rapid growth. It now hosts more than 70 world-class exhibitions each year and this number is set to grow in the future. It plans to complete all its facilities and reach full exhibition capacity by the end of this year. By then, the Centre will contain 200,000 square meters of indoor floor area and 130,000 square meters of outdoor area.
Even though it was peak hour traffic, it didn’t take long to reach our destination. We actually arrived early and waited outside until the CITM opened its doors at 9am. The CITM is an annual event that is held in Shanghai and Kunming alternatively. It is the largest professional travel mart in Asia. The CITM occupied 5 halls with a total exhibition area of 57,500 sqm and included 2,243 exhibition booths. Participants in CITM came from all sectors of the travel industry, including international and domestic tourist organizations, travel agencies, hotels, airlines, cruise companies and tourist attractions. There were 1,387 domestic China exhibition booths, making up 61.8% of the total, and 856 overseas exhibition booths, making up 38.2% of the total. Altogether 95 different countries and regions exhibited.
I was overwhelmed with the sheer size of the CITM, as there was so much to see and experience. In fact, during the first day I only managed to walk around one and a half of the exhibition halls. A lot of time and effort had gone into each of the booths colourful displays, brilliant lighting, stunning graphics and multi-media presentations. Many of the personnel at the booths wore elaborate national costuming. Various booths provided a range of entertainment including singing, dancing and pantomime to represent their region or country. We were provided with a luncheon voucher to obtain our midday meal from the cafeteria; however I did not use this. I was too busy visiting the display booths. I did not go hungry, as various booths provided samples of food and drink.
All the booths offered literature promoting their tourist features. I would have liked to pick up a copy of all the brochures offered, however I was very selective in what I took. If I took one copy of every brochure offered I would have needed to charter a jumbo jet to fly them all back home! Instead of brochures, I collected the DVDs that were offered from the China tourism booths. I now have a choice of 121 new DVDs to view to learn more about tourism in China.
In the afternoon we met with the management of China Eastern Airlines, who we flew with to China. They welcomed our Australian and New Zealand group and were eager for feedback on how their flights from Australia to China could be improved.
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