Chongqing- "This was a cool surprise," a foreign online viewer raved after he watched the "Exploring Smart China Expo Online 2020" live stream held by iChongqing. From the live stream, a YouTuber was leading viewers into a capsule-like VR cable car. It ran through buildings, rivers, and bridges, making the city of Chongqing gleams with smart technologies.

The Smart China Expo Online 2020 (SCE OL 2020) combined online and offline forms and used Cross Reality (XR) and other technologies to create the visual experience of personally on the scene. As the SCE OL 2020 closed on September 17, over 70 projects with a total contracted investment of 271.2 billion yuan were signed at an online promotion event for key projects.

The capsule-like VR cable car is the exhibition platform in the "Renowned Smart City" boutique pavilion of the Lijia Intelligent Park Chongqing. Through the application of the 5G network, the Chongqing branch of China Mobile installed panoramic cameras underneath the cable car, collecting and sending back real-time images to VR servers synchronously. By wearing a VR headset, users will be able to enjoy not only the beautiful landscapes along the cableway but also the diverse tourist attractions in Chongqing, no matter when and where.

Chongqing embraced smart technologies for more foreign co-operations

On the afternoon of September 15, the opening ceremony of the SCE OL 2020, iChongqing invited five YouTubers to visit and introduce the exhibition halls at the SCE OL 2020 through live-streaming. By sharing the highlights, their observations, and thoughts through six accounts synchronously on YouTube and Facebook, more than 28,000 online interactions were created among the participation of 1,182,000 people.

From the live stream, smart technologies had flooded into the city of Chongqing, including smart cars, artificial intelligence (AI) clothing design, smart city applications, big data technologies, and a multitude of smart products and applications. The SCE OL 2020 had pictured an appealing future of the smart age for the public.

Some foreign viewers had also compared the Smart China Expo to Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Hannover Messe in Germany. They regarded the event as a great opportunity to understand smart products and innovation fruits in China's cutting-edge science and technology fields, which further promotes a discussion of the new moves and trends in global big data intelligence. The SCE OL 2020 drew attention and applause from domestic and overseas guests, who showed their willingness to cooperate with local sci-tech companies.

"From my perspective, many companies in Chongqing are well equipped with mature technologies, products, and practices about big data application," said Stephen Ho, Chief Operating Officer of Skylab Group. "We would like to meet as many sci-tech companies as possible through SCE OL 2020, to explore potential cooperation opportunities between Singapore and Chongqing on smart city applications, big data, cloud computing, industrial internet, etc."

Besides, SanTiong Ng, President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, noted that Chongqing had made strategic breakthroughs in innovation-driven development, which is led by big data intelligence, and showed its global competitiveness in smart manufacturing fields. He considered the SCE OL 2020, a great platform to highlight smart developments, with an aim to encourage the improvement in the efficiency of smart technology applications and people's quality of life.

Over 1,200 foreign media outlets reported SCE from different perspectives

To expand the influence of the first Smart China Expo Online, Chongqing International Communication Center has invited 60 reporters from BBC, Bloomberg News, the Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, Asahi Shimbun, etc. More than 200 stories on the SCE OL 2020 were released as of September 17.

Specifically, the opening ceremony and forums were the focus of these foreign mainstream media outlets. More than 10 foreign mainstream media outlets, including Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Straits Times, Agencia Informativa Latinoamericana, Independent News Pakistan, Channel NewsAsia, Seoul Economic Daily, News Break (an American news information app), and Asia Pacific News, published 19 relevant news stories through SCE OL 2020. Phoenix InfoNews Channel also played the opening of the SCE OL 2020 through “Phoenix Focus” for three minutes at their prime time, 20:00.

Furthermore, when searching for "Smart China Expo 2020" on the homepage of Google, the relevant news produced by the Chongqing International Communication Center dominated the screen. On the opening day alone, more than 70 news stories were published by overseas Chinese media from multiple angles, including www.ifeng.com, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and ArgChina, etc.

More importantly, the Center produced three news articles about the SCE OL 2020 in 14 languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Polish to the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific region, covering 1,200 overseas media. This involves Fox Broadcasting Corporation, Yahoo Finance, Saigon Times, Wall Street Journal Online, ASEAN Briefing, Asia Briefing, and Morningstar, attracting the attention of 160 million overseas users in total.