The Zone

One thing I really love about this job is the opportunity of traveling overseas for events and media familiarisation trips. Case in point, last week electrical goods giant Haier brought a bunch of us IT journalists and writers to check out their headquarters in China.

To be honest, most of the members of the media (including yours truly) on the trip never really thought much of the Haier brand until we saw the scale of their operations in China and worldwide did we realize the magnitude of their corporations; fly-by-night factory they aren’t. You will read more about them in next month's HWM special feature. In the mean time, check out the pics I took of the Canton Fair after the jump!

The first main stop of our Haier media trip was to visit their booth at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, the largest trade fair for consumer goods and other appliances in China with hundreds of business deals taking place during the event. Ever wonder where local and foreign hypermarts and supermarkets like Giant or Walmart get their electrical products at wholesale prices? The Canton Fair is where such deals are made.

Check out the huge number of dealers and goods there. Luxury cars, washing machines, televisions, garden supplies, stickers, furniture, industrial machineries for baking…you name it, they got it.

In some of the larger exhibition booths, small tables and chairs were set up for prospective buyers who were interested in striking deals with the exhibitors. Haier had tables and chairs set up on the ground floor as well as on a higher platform above their exhibition booth.

As we ogled at the a large array of the latest consumer electronics and goods on display from almost all around the world, our host brought us to exhibition hall number 24 on the 2nd floor, where Haier was there in full force with their whole range of electrical appliances and consumer products.

At the Haier exhibition booth, Zong Zhen Long and Hou Xin Lai were kind enough to explain to us some of their latest products on display. 

Haier started off with making air conditioners in the 80s, so it’s no surprise that they won the bid as the official major supplier of air conditioning for the Beijing 2008 Olympic stadiums.

The very sleek-looking A18 HD LCD TV series, which Haier says they will bring to Malaysia in the following months. They will only bring the 42” and 52” models, since the difference between the 47” to 52” is slight.

They even have Haier brand desktops and notebooks! They’re thinking about bringing notebooks and some monitor models to Malaysia but desktops are not in the plans.

View of the Haier exhibition booth from the raised platform.

We bumped into the Malaysian trade delegation there! It was a treat to see so many familiar local faces in a huge country like China.

Part 2 to come soon!