Chinaplas, currently Asia's largest trade show for the plastics industry, debuted in Beijing in 1983. But it hasn't been back to its birthplace since 2004. And it's not going back in any time soon.

Why? Believe it or not, although the Chinese capital is all geared up for the 29th Olympic Games, it is not ready for the ever-growing Chinaplas show.

That's according to Stanley Chu, chairman of Hong Kong-based Adsale Group, the organizer of Chinaplas.

"Beijing doesn't have a venue large enough to hold Chinaplas," he said April 17, the first day of the four-day-long 2008 Chinaplas show in Shanghai.

Chu said Beijing's largest exhibition hall provides 125,000 square meters of exhibition space, while Chinaplas 2009 is anticipating 140,000 square meters of space.

On the site of this year's venue, the Shanghai New International Expo Center, temporary pavilions have been built in between the 11 modern, spacious halls to fit more products and people.

Chinaplas is returning to Guangzhou next year. It will take place May 18-21 in the China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex, which, according to Chu, is the largest fairground available in China and only slighter smaller than the Hanover Exhibition Center.

Beijing remains the economic center for northern China. and as the southeast (the Peal River Delta) and east (the Changjiang River Delta) get more expensive than ever, businesses in those regions are inevitably moving north and inland for more competitive cost structures.

You may think the location of a trade show shouldn't be a big deal, as people from all over the world fly to China for the plastics carnival. But it does matter to a country with such vast territory and diverse cultures. Just like how people from the New England wouldn't want to visit Houston in the summer, Guangzhou isn't the favorite destination for people from China's northern regions. But I guess, at least for the time being, the overwhelming advantage of foreign investment and plastic manufacturing in the South outweighs everything else.