When Is It, Exactly — and Which Days Can You Buy?
The show runs 7 to 13 December 2026. The first four days, 7-10 December, are trade days: they require a trade visitor badge or exhibitor pass, and a normal visitor cannot buy their way in. The public days are 11, 12 and 13 December — Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
That single fact reshapes most itineraries. If your plan is "fly to China for the airshow", you are really planning around three days, and the Saturday is the busiest of them by a wide margin. Friday and Sunday are noticeably calmer at the gates and on the road in.
Scale, if you have not been before: close to 50 countries and regions, more than 1,100 exhibitors and over 3,000 items of equipment, of which roughly a tenth are first-time showings. This edition also opens a maritime display area for the first time, with naval vessels on static display — something no previous Zhuhai show has had.
Official Ticket Prices
These are the official prices published by the organiser for the 2026 show. Prices are official and subject to change on site — always confirm on the official ticketing site before you pay.
One ticket covers one person, one day, one entry. Concession tickets apply to visitors aged 60+ and under 18. The ground-equipment dynamic display area is a separate add-on ticket, and the space centre bundle includes the Zhuhai Space Centre as well.
Note that the Liangzhou unmanned-systems area and the Gaolan maritime area are different venues with different dates and their own tickets — they are not covered by an airshow-centre ticket. More on that below.
| Venue | Dates | Ticket | Price (RMB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airshow Centre, Jinwan | 11-13 Dec (public days) | Individual | 600 |
| Airshow Centre, Jinwan | 11-13 Dec (public days) | Concession (60+ / under 18) | 400 |
| Airshow Centre, Jinwan | 11-13 Dec (public days) | Ground display area bundle | 1,000 |
| Airshow Centre, Jinwan | 11-13 Dec (public days) | Ground display bundle, concession | 800 |
| Airshow Centre, Jinwan | 11-13 Dec (public days) | Space Centre bundle | 2,499 |
| Liangzhou unmanned area | 8-10 Dec | Flat rate | 100 |
| Gaolan maritime area | 7-11 Dec | Free, online reservation + review | 0 |
The 8 Sale Days — and the Refund Ladder Nobody Mentions
Tickets are released in batches rather than sold continuously. The first drop was 19 October at 12:00, and the organiser tops up stock every Monday at noon, six top-ups in total, running to 30 November. A final sale on 3 December releases tickets that were refunded. That is eight sale days in total.
The part worth knowing is the cancellation schedule, because it is unusually generous at the start and gets expensive fast:
· Until 26 October, 12:00 — cancellation free of charge
· 26 October to 11 November — 10% of face value
· 11 November to 26 November — 20%
· 26 November to 3 December — 30%
· From 3 December, 12:00 — no refunds at all
In plain terms: buying in the first week costs you nothing if your plans move. From late November it becomes a commitment. If you are still weighing up dates, the cheap window is now, not December.
Three Venues — and Which One Is Worth Your Day
Most visitors assume "the airshow" is one place. It is three, with different dates, prices and characters:
Zhuhai International Airshow Centre (Jinwan) — the main event, public days 11-13 December. Flying displays, static park, the exhibition halls. This is what people mean by the Zhuhai airshow.
Liangzhou unmanned-systems area — 8-10 December, ¥100 flat. Drones and unmanned equipment, open on days when the main centre is still trade-only. Genuinely useful if you are in town early for business.
Gaolan maritime area — 7-11 December, free, but entry is by online reservation with review. First time the show has opened a sea area, with naval vessels on static display. Free plus limited plus brand new means it will be oversubscribed; the reservation channel is announced by the organiser, and there is no walk-up.
If you have two days, do the main centre on the quieter of your two days and add Liangzhou or Gaolan as the second. Trying to do all three in one day is not realistic — they are in different directions from the city.
Getting There: There Is No Railway Station at the Show
This is the single most important logistical fact. The venue sits on the western bank of the Pearl River estuary, immediately beside Zhuhai Jinwan Airport, and no railway line serves it. Everything moves by road, and on public days that road is the bottleneck.
From Zhuhai city centre / Gongbei: roughly 40-50 minutes by road. On public-day mornings, budget considerably more — the queue into the car parks is the delay, not the distance.
From Macau: cross at Gongbei or Hengqin (Hengqin is usually the faster of the two for the show), then the same 40-50 minutes. Allow an hour for the border itself on a Saturday.
From Hong Kong: ferry to Jiuzhou port then a road transfer, or the HZMB shuttle to the Zhuhai port and in from there. Either way it is a half-day door to door — this is not a day trip from Hong Kong.
From Guangzhou: about two hours by road, and the last stretch over the river is the unpredictable part. High-speed rail to Zhuhai Station is faster and more reliable, then a road transfer for the final leg.
By air: if you can fly into Zhuhai Jinwan, you land beside the venue. That is the smoothest arrival of all, and worth paying a little more for.
The practical rule we give every client: treat the transfer as the main event of the morning. Leave earlier than feels necessary, and do not book anything tight for the evening.
Where to Stay
Zhuhai is a small, flat, easy city, but the show redistributes hotel demand sharply for one week.
Gongbei / city centre — closest to the Macau border, best restaurant and evening options, 40-50 minutes to the venue. The right base if you are combining the show with Macau.
Jinwan / near the airport — shortest morning commute, but very little around you in the evening, and rates here move most violently during show week.
Hengqin — the middle option: newer hotels, quick border access, and a straighter run to the venue than from Gongbei.
Doumen / further west — cheaper, but you add real time every morning. Only worth it if everything closer is gone.
Across the board, the good rooms near the show are taken six to eight weeks out, not the week before. December is also the best month of the year here — 15-22°C, dry, clear, no typhoon risk — which is precisely why demand concentrates.
How to Shape the Trip
Two nights, show only. Land the day before, one full public day at the main centre, out the next morning. Tight but it works if Zhuhai is the whole point.
Four nights, show plus a city. Two public days at the centre, then Guangzhou (about two hours by road, or high-speed rail to Guangzhou South) or Macau (40-50 minutes) for two nights. This is the shape most people are happiest with.
A week, show as the anchor. Zhuhai and Macau, then Guangzhou, and if you have the appetite, Guilin — but be honest about the last one: Guilin is a flight or a long rail leg away, and bolting it on turns a good trip into a transit exercise.
One thing worth saying plainly: the airshow is not seven days of flying. Most visitors spend one or two days at the ground and use the rest of the week for the region. Plan the trip around the region and slot the show in, rather than the other way round — it produces a better holiday and, incidentally, a much cheaper one.
What We Arrange
We are a Zhuhai-based operator and this is our home city — which matters less for the ticket than for everything around it. What we handle:
· Cars and drivers for show days — airport transfers, hotel to venue returns, and multi-day charters, with a driver who knows which gate and which car park actually move
· Hotels in Gongbei, Hengqin or Jinwan, booked at the right moment rather than the desperate one
· English-speaking guides for the city days either side of the show
· The regional routing — Macau, Guangzhou, and onward by rail
On tickets, we are deliberately straight with you: public-day tickets are real-name, sold exclusively through the official online channel, with no box office on site. We do not resell them and we would not advise anyone who does. What we will do is tell you exactly which of the eight sale days to aim for, which venue suits your dates, and how the cancellation schedule works — then you buy in your own name, at official price.
Tell us your dates and how many of you are travelling and we will put a day-by-day shape together you can keep either way — no obligation. See also our guides to Hong Kong and Macau if you are building the trip around the delta, and how a private China tour is priced if you want to budget the whole thing.
Since 2012 · 500+ private tours · 4.9★ on TripAdvisor · Based in Zhuhai
Practical Notes Before You Book
Passport, not just a ticket. Entry is real-name and checked against your ID document. Foreign visitors use their passport — bring the physical passport on the day, not a photo of it.
Book the ticket in the name of the person attending. Names cannot simply be swapped later, so do not buy a block in one person's name and sort it out at the gate.
Security screening is outside the gate. Arrive early; the queue before the queue is the one that catches people out.
December in Zhuhai is mild but the waterfront is windy. 15-22°C by day, cooler on the estuary in the evening. A light jacket is enough — this is not Harbin.
Cash is not needed. Alipay and WeChat Pay work everywhere, and foreign cards can be linked before you fly. Set that up at home, not at a bank counter in China.
Prices and sale dates above are the official published figures as of 20 October 2026 and are subject to change on site — confirm on the official ticketing site before you pay.
Want this itinerary priced for your dates? Send us a message — free, no obligation, reply within 24 hours.
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