I attended the 5th China-ASEAN expo in October 2008. It was very interesting. China hosts the expo in Nanning annually. The 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) come to Nanning with extravagant displays and demonstrations. Commerce ministers, and sometimes even heads of state, also attend.

Each country has it's own exhibition area and the other areas are grouped by industry type, eg. agriculture, industrial machinery, electronics, home decor and construction, tourism, energy, etc. It really is like a mini-world's fair for these 11 countries.

The exhibition center in Nanning hosts the even every year and is quite an impressive complex. It sits on a hill in the south east part of the city. My company, along with a German company, designed the exhibition center. It includes some huge and elegant exhibition halls, vast outdoor plazas, and a huge round meeting hall (think UN) that is topped with a roof to represent the hibiscus, Nanning's city flower. This roof has become an icon for the city. It's not all that hibiscus-like to me (kind of like an upside down hibiscus) but it is still a beautiful structure, and so much larger than it looks.

Check out the CAEXPO website at http://eng.caexpo.org