China Digital Human Trade Shows

This list portrays China’s “top annual tech show” landscape for digital humans as a broad, recurring multi-industry circuit rather than a single dominant expo, where digital humans are routinely showcased as deployable front-end interaction agents across AI/cloud, cybersecurity, digital government, trade and services, manufacturing, healthcare, marketing and advertising, culture and creative industries, media and broadcasting, and developer infrastructure events; it suggests these venues function as consistent launch and demonstration stages (including live “host/speaker” roles, docenting and guidance, bilingual trade presentations, livestream commerce operations, medical training simulations, HR workflow applications, and newsroom production), while also serving as legitimacy and policy-adjacent platforms where ecosystem reports, pilot initiatives, awards, and “landing cases” circulate, and it highlights a maturation trend in what gets emphasized: increasing focus on toolchains and full-stack infrastructure narratives (including domestic GPU/developer ecosystems), operational governance/compliance framing, and even performance scoring or benchmarking of digital replicas, implying the circuit is moving from spectacle toward measurable quality and commercialization-ready deployment.

A typical entrance cost for a foreign visitor to a tech trade show in China is often nothing at all if the visitor pre-registers, because many major trade shows allow free entry for registered trade attendees. If the visitor does not pre-register, the usual on-site admission cost is still fairly low and is often around US$5 to US$15. As a simple planning figure, US$0 is a reasonable expectation with advance registration, while a small fee is more likely without it.

Annual calendar of events:

Shaded rows are public holidays, not events — they mark the windows when travel into and around China is hardest. Red is severe disruption, amber moderate.

Severe travel disruptionSpring Festival / Chinese New Year (春节) — late January–February, 8 days. The world's largest annual migration (chunyun 春运) leaves transport sold out nationwide, with widespread business closures.

1. March — Shenzhen Spring Trade Fair (LED CHINA & SIGN CHINA) — Annual display and signage industry trade fair held in Shenzhen, covering LED technology, digital signage, and visual communication products.
2. March — FILMART — annual four-day film and TV market held mid-March in Hong Kong.
3. March — ISLE — Integrated Systems and Live Entertainment expo held in Shenzhen, focused on audiovisual integration, display technology, and live event production.
4. March — Zhongguancun Forum — Annual technology and innovation conference held in Beijing, featuring digital human demonstrations, AI-driven panels, and frontier science showcases.

Moderate travel disruptionQingming / Tomb-Sweeping Day (清明节) — early April, 3 days. Spikes regional highway traffic and short-distance trains as families travel to ancestral graves.

5. April — CITE — China Information Technology Expo held in Shenzhen, focused on electronic information, artificial intelligence, smart terminals, integrated circuits, and related digital technologies.
6. April — CMEF (Spring) — China Medical Equipment Fair spring edition held in Shanghai, covering medical devices, health technology, and hospital equipment.
7. April — Digital China Summit — Annual national conference held in Fuzhou on digital governance, smart cities, and China’s digital economy strategy.
8. April — Beijing International Film Festival — Annual Beijing film festival, 16th edition 16–25 April 2026; its AIGC Film Unit runs the festival’s first dedicated digital human track.
9. April — China Network Audiovisual Conference — Annual Chengdu conference for online audiovisual media, 13th edition 14–16 April 2026; its AI Creator Economy Forum releases the China Digital Human Influence Index Report.

Severe travel disruptionLabour Day / May Day (劳动节) — 1–5 May, 5 days. High surge pricing and heavy crowding across all major domestic vacation spots and transport routes.

10. May — China (Shenzhen) ICIF — China International Cultural Industries Fair held in Shenzhen, the country’s largest trade fair for cultural products, creative industries, and digital content.
11. May — World Digital Education Conference — Ministry of Education conference on educational digitalisation, where the education digital human (教育数字人) is handled as a state category rather than a demonstration. Host city rotates (Wuhan 2025, Hangzhou 2026).
12. May — Baidu Create (AI Developer Conference) — Baidu’s annual Beijing developer conference, and the venue where its digital human platform Huiboxing was renamed Baidu Yijing in 2026.
13. May — China Cyber Civilization Conference — Cyberspace Administration conference on online civilisation, the one venue here that treats digital humans as a governance question. City and month both rotate (Hefei 2025, Nanning 2026).

Moderate travel disruptionDragon Boat Festival (端午节) — mid/late June, 3 days. A moderate uptick in domestic leisure travel, with localised congestion around river cities hosting race events.

14. July — China Internet Conference — Annual industry conference held in Beijing covering internet policy, platform economy, and emerging digital technologies.
15. July — WAIC — World Artificial Intelligence Conference held in Shanghai, showcasing AI research, products, and policy from Chinese and international participants.
16. July — Global Digital Economy Conference — Annual Beijing digital-economy conference; released China’s first industry-specific digital human policy in 2022 and now a product-launch venue.
17. August — China Internet Security Conference (ISC.AI) — Annual cybersecurity summit held in Beijing focused on network security, AI-driven threat response, and digital infrastructure protection.
18. August — China (Guizhou) Big Data Expo — Annual exposition held in Guiyang dedicated to big data policy, industry applications, and cloud computing ecosystems.
19. August — ChinaJoy — Annual Shanghai digital entertainment expo (late July to early August), the venue for virtual idols, AI idol groups and game-side digital humans.
20. September — CIFTIS — China International Fair for Trade in Services held in Beijing, covering digital services, intellectual property, finance, education, and cultural trade.
21. September — World Manufacturing Convention — Annual industrial conference held in Hefei focused on smart manufacturing, industrial automation, and advanced production technologies.
22. September — China International Digital Publishing Expo — Annual publishing and digital content trade expo held in Haikou covering e-books, digital education, and online media.
23. September — ICT China / PT Expo — Annual telecommunications and information technology expo held in Beijing, covering 5G, broadband infrastructure, and carrier networks.
24. September — Yunqi Conference — Alibaba Cloud’s annual developer and enterprise technology conference held in Hangzhou.
25. September — Global Digital Trade Expo — Annual digital trade exposition held in Hangzhou focusing on cross-border e-commerce, digital services, and data economy.
26. September — China–ASEAN Expo — Annual Nanning trade exposition; digital humans deployed multilingually for Southeast Asian markets.
27. September — Metaverse Development Forum / Shanghai Metaverse Innovation Conference — Recurring Shanghai forum series pairing policy-and-industry releases with hands-on XR and digital human showcases.
28. September — CMEF (Autumn) — China Medical Equipment Fair autumn edition held in Guangzhou, covering medical devices, diagnostics, and health technology.

Moderate travel disruptionMid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) — September/October, 3 days. High demand for regional transport for family reunions. Merges with National Day when the dates overlap.

Severe travel disruptionNational Day / Golden Week (国庆节) — 1–7 October, 7 days. Peak nationwide domestic sightseeing floods major landmarks, parks and tourist cities to maximum capacity.

29. October — Canton Fair (Autumn) — China Import and Export Fair autumn session held in Guangzhou, one of the world’s largest trade fairs spanning consumer goods, electronics, and industrial products.
30. October — World VR Industry Conference — Nanchang’s permanent VR conference, convened by MIIT and Jiangxi since 2018; digital humans appear here as industrial-training agents.
31. October — Nanchang VR/AR Industry Expo — Annual virtual and augmented reality industry expo held in Nanchang inside the World VR Industry Conference, covering XR hardware, content, and enterprise applications.
32. October — 1010 Digital Human Festival — Annual event on 10 October run by Chengdu’s Mingtu Technology; the only event here whose subject is digital humans themselves.
33. November — World Internet Conference – Wuzhen Summit — Annual global internet governance and technology summit held in Wuzhen, convening government leaders, tech executives, and researchers.
34. November — National New-Media / Broadcasting Conference — Annual industry conference held in Changsha covering digital broadcasting, streaming media, and new-media content production.
35. November — Baidu World — Baidu’s annual technology showcase held in Beijing presenting advances in AI, autonomous driving, large language models, and digital human products.
36. November — China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF) — Annual high-technology trade fair held in Shenzhen covering AI, robotics, biotechnology, new energy, and advanced manufacturing.
37. November — China International Advertising Festival — Annual advertising and marketing industry conference held in Xiamen covering brand strategy, digital marketing, and media innovation.
38. November — Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area Cultural Industry Investment Conference — Annual cultural investment forum held in Guangzhou connecting cultural enterprises with financial institutions across the Greater Bay Area.
39. November (odd years) — Wuhan Design Biennale (武汉设计双年展), Wuhan — biannual government-hosted professional design exhibition, held since 2011. (Not to be confused with the Wuhan Biennale (武汉双年展), a contemporary art exhibition held in even-numbered years.)
40. December — China Digital Entertainment Conference — Annual digital entertainment industry conference held in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District covering games, digital music, AIGC, and virtual content ecosystems.
41. December — Shanghai International Artificial Intelligence Exhibition — AIE 2026 is a broad AI expo where digital humans appear as one application area

Not recurring — single documented editions, each with its own record:

1. January 22, 2026 — Moment Conference — one-off Baidu product launch event held in Shanghai.
2. Late December 2025 — Moore Threads MUSA Developer Conference — single documented developer conference held in Beijing by GPU manufacturer Moore Threads.
3. September 23–24, 2024 — China Digital Human Conference — inaugural edition held in Beijing; the only dedicated digital-human conference in this list.
4. March 31, 2023 — China Virtual Human Industry Conference + AIGC Innovation Forum — single documented edition, held in Guangzhou.
5. November 10–11, 2022 — Global Metaverse Conference (Shenzhen Summit) — one documented Shenzhen summit; later activity migrated into Digital China Tech Week programming.