Xiamen Stone Fair Delayed Again

XIAMEN, China – For the second time this year, the China Xiamen International Stone Fair postponed its opening day.

The industry trade show – the world’s largest before the COVID-19 pandemic – announced the delay from the early May dates announced earlier this year. No new dates have been set.

“To comply with government’s COVID-19 control measures and to ensure the health and safety of all parties,” according to a March 30 release, “Xiamen Stone Fair Organizing Committee has decided to postpone the 22nd China Xiamen International Stone Fair from the original date of May 5-8.”

The online Cloud Xiamen Stone Fair will continue,

The announcement closely follows the announcement of new efforts by the Chinese government to combat COVID-19. A major move came when a two-phase limited-length restriction that began early this week in the country major commercial hub of Shanghai quickly developed into a city-wide lockdown with an uncertain ending date.

Xiamen Stone Fair organizers first planned to hold the 2022 event in mid-March. However, due to a COVID-19 outbreak at the start of this year, the show dates were pushed back to later in the spring.

The event went through two postponements before eventual cancellation in 2020, and opened to a mainly domestic audience last May. China maintains one of the strictest border policies worldwide to control COVID-19, slowing foreign business travel to a trickle of pre-pandemic levels.

Event organizers remained optimistic about staging the show later in 2022.

“Thank you for your understanding and support all along,” a statement noted. “We deeply apologize for any inconvenience this postponement may cause and will spare no effort to do all work well. “