review CBME
A Sweltering Spectacle
of Strollers-Carseat and Choices: Inside By Jonathan Feingold, Special Correspondent – Shanghai The Children Baby Maternity Expo (CBME), which bills itself as the 25th annual edition, opened, Wednesday 16the July at Shanghai’s immense National Exhibition and Convention Centre (NECC). While organisers count from its 2001 inception, one wonders whether those lockdown years under Covid were quietly skipped. No matter billed as the 25th Expo, the 2025 event has returned with unstoppable energy and overwhelming scale. Set against a furnace-like Shanghai summer - 37°C sweaty by day, a muggy 29°C by night, the expo unfolds within the sprawling steel and glass leviathan of the NECC. Arriving via the immaculate metro is the only civilised option; those caught in the hot and bothered taxi crush outside quickly regret it. The exhibition centre, shaped like a colossal four-leaf clover and fitted with an integrated hotel, hosts they claim over 100,000 visitors - more than a Wembley Cup Final, crammed into eight cavernous halls over three days.
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This is not just the biggest baby and maternity expo in Asia. It is, without exaggeration, the largest of its kind in the world. Over 3,000 exhibitors are spread across themed pavilions that include everything from feeding bottles to foldable bathtubs, heated stroller pads, and even camel milk formula.
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Security is airport-grade. Queues are everywhere - for bag checks, even for escalators. Inside, the air is heavy, the crowds constant, and the flow of people behaves more like a fast-running river than foot traffic. If you spot something you like on the way past, forget returning, it’s already swept away behind you. This is not just the biggest baby and maternity expo in Asia. It is, without exaggeration, the largest of its kind in the world. Over 3,000 exhibitors are spread across themed pavilions that include everything from feeding bottles to foldable bathtubs, heated stroller pads, and even camel milk formula - a curious favourite among niche nutritionists. Not something there might be much chance with in the UK but who knows, perhaps the next trend? Hall 3 is where the action truly begins, a stroller lover’s heaven or a market analyst’s nightmare, depending on your mood. Hundreds of brands compete for attention, many showcasing the kinds of lightweight, travel-friendly models familiar in Western markets. A pattern quickly emerges strollers aimed at the West’s taste are unmistakable - sleek, neutral-toned, compact, self-folding. These mirror the styles of Egg, iCandy UPPAbaby, Inglesina, Bugaboo, etc. But turn a corner and suddenly you’re in another world. Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Malaysian brands lean heavily into a completely different design ethos. Many 16
nursery today
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