So much more than a pink mountain bike

My daughter, who is beginning her freshman year at Shenzhen University in Guangdong province, recently bought a mountain bicycle for nearly 1,500 yuan ($225) because she says the campus is too large for her to walk from the dormitory to classrooms every day.

In addition to its lovely pink-color design, the bicycle — under the brand XDS — a partner of China's national mountain bike team, has a gear transmission system that enables her to ride easily on roads throughout the campus.

When she sent me a picture of the bicycle via social media platform WeChat and asked if I could pay for it, I was reminded of a very old fashioned bicycle I had seen not long ago.

The old-fashioned bicycle was displayed at the original site of the first session of the China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the Canton Fair, as part of an exhibition tracing the development of the 70-year-old trade event.

Without new materials or technologies such as a gear transmission system, the bicycle, under the Chinese brand Phoenix, was one of many hot items popular with foreign buyers during the 83rd session of the fair in 1998.

Made of sturdy steel with smooth lines, it featured a slanted-beam design, with the swallow-shaped handlebars giving the overall design a simple appearance.

Along with the Phoenix bicycle, 110 photos and 145 vintage items were on display at the exhibition, which features six parts and showcases a panoramic view of the fair's history since its inception in 1957.

It was launched in line with the opening of the 140th session of the fair, which attracted more than 210,000 international buyers and 32,000 Chinese companies.

After 70 years, the fair has developed into one of the most important global trade events, with exhibition space growing from its first session with 18,000 square meters to its current size of 1.55 million sq m at the Pazhou Complex in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.

Most significantly, products being exhibited at the fair have changed greatly, shifting from canned goods, silk and local specialties to new energy, robotics and artificial intelligence-driven products, reflecting China's push toward building a modern industrial cluster.

This year the fair showcased smart, green and service-oriented products, with high-tech, customized and low-carbon debuts drawing foreign buyers and highlighting new opportunities for Chinese manufacturing.

Like the fashionable XDS mountain bike, a series of China-made bicycles and vehicles with new functions and cutting-edge technology were displayed, raising prospects of being highly sought-after in overseas markets.

While the products displayed at the fair may have changed a lot over the past decades, some things have hardly changed.

On the opening day of the fair, I met Michael Li, vice-honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Chinese Importers' & Exporters' Association, who accompanied his grandfather to the fair every year.

"My grandfather started attending the fair in 1957 from the very first session and participated in 126 consecutive sessions without missing a single one," he said.

Li, also vice-president of Yuen Tai Trading Co Ltd, has attended nearly 50 sessions of the fair since his first visit when he was only 18.

"With three generations of my family involved in the fair, all of this could probably be made into a television series about my family and China's foreign trade development," he said.

Like Li, foreign buyers, regardless of whether they are new or have been attending for years, have kept their business confidence in the fair, now widely regarded as a barometer of China's foreign trade, and more importantly, as a showcase of China's manufacturing prowess and innovation.

I eventually paid for my daughter's fashionable pink mountain bike. She is part of China's new generation, and she really needs to brace for the great changes ahead that are expected to have a significant impact on her studies and her future.