When the opportunity arose to travel to the other side of the planet and see first-hand what was going on, how could we resist? The opportunity was the 2004 National Roofing Contractors Association study tour to Beijing, China. Roofing Contractor joined a group of 22, including NRCA staff and a group of roofing contractors and their spouses. The tour was set around the 2nd China International Exhibition for Building Waterproofing Technology, sponsored jointly by the China National Waterproof Building Materials Industry Association (CNWBMIA), China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBMGA) and NRCA.
According to Daniel Wan, manager of the international liaison department of CNWBMIA, a total of 17,500 industry professionals attended the exhibition over the course of four days. Attendees included 5,000 contractors, 2,000 foreign visitors, and 3,000 visitors from building materials companies.