BeijingMay 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — From May 29 to 31, 2026, the 66th China Franchise Expo, known as the “bellwether of the franchise market,” will be grandly held at the Beijing National Convention Center. Spanning 30,000 square meters, this year’s expo presents a one-stop showcase of “franchise picks, reliable stores.” Notably, this year’s expo not only welcomes the collective “debut” of time-honored brands such as Qingfeng Baozi Shop, Wujia Mixed Rice Noodles, and Longji Shancheng, but also attracts dozens of new cultural tourism and entertainment business formats, including Meituan’s instant retail matrix, smart fitness, marble games, cultural and creative experiences, and IP trendy toys. This makes the 2026 bellwether point to a perfect intersection of “certainty” and “new demand.”
New Forces Debut: Meituan Matrix Joins, New Business Formats Blossom
Riding the wave of consumption upgrades and digital transformation, lightweight, intelligent, and scenario-based new business formats are emerging in clusters. This expo precisely captures market trends, assembling a host of innovative and trendy brands covering popular high-quality tracks such as instant retail, smart fitness, trendy toy entertainment, cultural and creative technology, and parent-child experiences, opening up entirely new growth tracks for entrepreneurs.
Internet giant Meituan is strengthening its offline presence, bringing three instant retail brands—Raccoon Kitchen, Waima Wine Delivery, and Squirrel Convenience—to the expo as a group. These cover three high-frequency tracks: alcoholic beverages, general merchandise, and food delivery, offering platform-level new entrepreneurial opportunities.
Notably, this expo welcomes a batch of highly recognizable new consumer scenario brands, covering diverse business formats and needs such as tech entertainment, immersive experiences, smart fitness, and lightweight essentials. For example, in the trendy toy entertainment sector, brands like Childhood Marble Hall, Bullet Pig Fun, and Bullet Planet are reshaping the traditional marble game format; the immersive prayer-themed cultural and creative scene brand Youxian Ji Taoqu Fortune Temple; the letterpress printing immersive experience brand Aotu Zhijian; the children’s handmade DIY track-focused Bubble Slime; and in the smart fitness track, new brands like Iron Virtue, Iron Beast Sports; the 24-hour unmanned smart self-service mahjong brand Jiuque; the unmanned smart self-service car wash brand Aiche Xing; and the AI battle robot brand Iron Armor Arena, which integrates cutting-edge technology with immersive entertainment. These brands bloom in multiple areas, with blockbuster offerings across all age groups.
Time-Honored Brands Revitalize: Navigating Cycles, Embracing Certainty
While new species surge forward, time-honored brands, tempered by decades or even centuries of market experience, possess hardcore strength to navigate cycles, thanks to their natural brand credibility, national recognition, and stable customer base.
This expo gathers China’s time-honored brands and local heritage brands from across the country, including Xinjiang, Shandong, Chongqing, Beijing, and Fujian. Through product innovation, scene renewal, and model upgrades, they bring to the franchise market high-quality businesses that combine brand heritage with market vitality, suitable for long-term, steady operation.
For instance, the national brand and China time-honored brand Qingfeng Baozi Shop, which is franchising for the first time in 2026, will make its public debut with a youthful new brand image, new products, and new experiences, featuring a matrix of hundreds of products covering all-day dining scenarios from morning to night. Also debuting is Wujia Mixed Rice Noodles, which pioneered the Xinjiang rice noodle category and is among the first to receive the “Xinjiang Time-Honored” title and intangible cultural heritage status. Another is Longji Shancheng Tangyuan, a Chongqing time-honored brand inheriting four generations of craftsmanship and pioneering the “Tangyuan+” category, also recognized as intangible cultural heritage. Additionally, there is the China time-honored brand Dezhou Braised Chicken, founded in 1692 and hailed as a “marvel of the divine land,” and Fangjia Puzi, a national-level key leading enterprise and oriental nourishing brand founded in 1906. In this uncertain market environment, these brands become stable ballast stones for franchise investments.
Face Brands Directly, Unlock One-Stop Entrepreneurial Opportunities
As a benchmark expo in the industry with 27 years of experience and 65 successful editions, it is committed to creating a standardized, professional, and high-value real interaction and matchmaking platform, addressing pain points in franchise investments such as “information asymmetry, difficulty in site selection, lack of operational knowledge, and inability to calculate returns.” At the expo, all brand franchise managers will be on-site throughout, offering one-on-one model breakdowns, investment calculations, detailed model explanations, and policy interpretations. Attendees can experience products and test services up close.
This expo features over 300 participating brands, all of which have undergone qualification audits requiring “two stores and one year of operation,” ensuring the selection of high-quality brands with mature store models and stable operational systems. The brand lineup covers the entire spectrum of dining, retail, and lifestyle services, including rice, noodles, and pasta; coffee and tea drinks; yogurt and ice cream; specialty snacks; Sichuan cuisine and grilled fish; hotpot and skewers; fried chicken and burgers; Japanese and Korean cuisine; craft beer; IP trendy toys; cultural and creative experiences; bulk snacks; braised foods; gift foods; premium bakery; instant retail; convenience stores; tutoring and training; sports and fitness; mahjong and KTV; health and wellness; hotels; car washes; laundry services; children’s health; and fresh produce retail. Concurrently, the expo will also host the 2026 CCFA Franchise Conference & Lifestyle Services Development Conference and the World Franchise Council (WFC) Annual Meeting, forming a super franchise week with one expo and two conferences.
The 66th China Franchise Expo will be held at the Beijing National Convention Center from May 29 to 31, 2026, with the theme ‘Franchise Picks, Reliable Stores,’ focusing on the entire spectrum of dining, retail, and lifestyle services
The China Franchise Expo, founded in 1999 by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and filed with the Ministry of Commerce, has been held for 65 consecutive editions. Adhering to the concept of “invest in a good store,” it rigorously selects participating brands and is hailed as the “bellwether of the China franchise market.” As of 2025, the expo has featured over 9,700 participating brands and attracted more than 1.65 million professional visitors.