12/15/2015

Wuzhen: Ancient town cruising on information superhighway


By Chua Chin Leng (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2015-12-14 13:22
In a few days, more than 2,000 delegates from the modern cities of the world, Internet and computer savvy, will descend into this little water town that could be mistaken for a town from Lee Ang's Wuxia movie 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'.

The water town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang with 1,300 years of history is anything but an unlikely candidate to host the 2nd World Internet Conference (WIC). It hosted the first WIC in 2014 and the delegates were so impressed by its modern Internet facilities, an ancient town all wired up for the challenges of 21st Century demands of the Internet world, that Wuzhen is now the permanent home for the WIC.

An aerial view of the town gives the impression of a sleepy ancient town, wholly intact in colors and architecture as if time has stood still. There are no gleaming glass panel skyscrapers in the vicinity to this little town of 57,000 inhabitants that boasts of all the smart and innovative technologies one can think of, e-commerce, Internet financing, intelligent logistics, cloud computing, big data, Internet driven information and medical technologies and 380 start ups in the last six months.
Quoting from Ge Huijun, director of the publicity department of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee:

"Wuzhen has fully merged with the "Internet Plus" concept, with online medical services, smart tourism, and intelligent traffic successively put into operation. Its charm will further increase with the free Wi-Fi."

President Xi Jinping will arrive in this little town to give the keynote speech this week. In his company will be Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Temir Sarivev, and Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda and many ministerial-ranked officials. Many representatives of leading Internet technology companies will also be showcasing their latest products and equipment during the conference not unlike what is happening in Silicon Valley.

The presence of Xi marks the importance of this conference and China's intent to play a leading role in cyber development and cyber security. The theme of the conference is 'Our Interconnected world shared and governed by all, Building a Cyberspace Community of Shared Destiny'. Up in the agenda will be the structuring of cyberspace regulations and governance, two contentious areas where the issues of national security, freedom of expression and transparency would be put to test. With 650 million Internet and mobile users, China would be in a position to chart the course and direction of cyberspace development, in governance, technologies and innovations.

The contrasting backdrop of ancient Wuzhen and the task of the WIC is a testament of the past and present, of history and cutting-edge innovations, when the different dimensions of time come together.

The author is a political observer from Singapore.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

But why Sinkieland cannot host World Internet Conference when there are so many talented PRCs and other foreigners here? Why a sleepy ancient town in China can even beat Sinkieland to it?

Why ah?

Anonymous said...

Rb // President Xi Jinping will arrive in this little town to give the keynote speech this week. In his company will be Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Temir Sarivev, and Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda and many ministerial-ranked officials. //

How cum khc fried chicken poster ah pek not invited?

Anonymous said...

Rb // The contrasting backdrop of ancient Wuzhen and the task of the WIC is a testament of the past and present, of history and cutting-edge innovations, when the different dimensions of time come together.//


The contrasting backdrop of "modern smart city of SINS and WHORES" and the task of $8 cow is testament of past and present, a first world that works like 3rd world with ceiling collapsing, concrete slaps falling off overhead bridges in orchard rd, Christmas decorations lighting up and literally burning like a fireball and everything using textbooks management teaching to push and deflect the blame on nature, of a modern sin city and 3rd world kampung new immigrants, when the different dimensions of cultures and ( uncultured ) civilisations come together ( a perfect recipe for disaster and storm )?

Anonymous said...

Rb //The water town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang with 1,300 years of history is anything but an unlikely candidate to host the 2nd World Internet Conference (WIC).//


The city port of sins is a certainty to be the candidate to host the "Whore Sins Conference " ( WSC )?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Sure kena hacked....again and again 😂😂

The "bragging rights" for the hackers who successfully "own" Wuzhen by exploits will be quite significant in the "underground" dark web.

China has the largest number of internet-connected people. However, cyber security sucks balls. i.e. it could be more profitable to be a hacker in China than run legit internet-based business.

Long way to go still. But on the upside: China learns and implements very quickly.

It's just take a few "big hacks" maybe a stock exchange or a bank or total disruption of transport system as planes fall from the sky...then people will take cyber security more seriously.

Anonymous said...

China has 700m internet users. Singapore's population 5.4m, America's pop 300M.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ pot of gold ready for taking, 1106:

>> China has 700m internet users <<

700 million potential "suckers" for hackers to exploit:

1. Bank account
2. Credit card details
3. PayPal details
4. eBay hacking
5. Hacking of smartphones for "intimate" personal photos.

Wah. Chiak buay liao.

Anonymous said...


MS sounds like a pro hacker.

Must be living lavishly on others accounts.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Please continue to over estimate my ability. And to add fantasy to my very ordinary life. ;)

Anonymous said...

LoL, as expected the comments are full of anti-China BS.

As what you expected from western mainstream media poisoned zombies parroting what the west think is right and what is wrong.

That glass of water will always be half empty of those losers always seeing the negative sides of everything, whining and bashing all the time while winners will always see the positive sides and learn as mush as possible from them.

I'm looking forward for years ahead and I would love to see the faces of whiners when the hard reality come crashing on their faces^^