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Ever thought about trying a self-driving bus? Accessing 5G network whenever you like? Or having a 5G robot patrolling in your neighbourhood? 

No need to wait for another 50 years for these sci-fi scenarios to become true. In a small scenic town in eastern China, all of this and much more is what the local residents would call a “normal day”. 

Wuzhen is a historic scenic town in China’s Zhejiang Province. It covers an area of only 71,19km², with no more than 100 000 permanent residents. 

Its history can be traced back to over 7 000 years ago. For years, the town was mainly known for its criss-crossing river, stone bridges, boats with black awnings, and houses built with black bricks and gray tiles contrasting sharply with the white walls. In 2006, it was short-listed as a World Heritage Site by the UN. 

In 2014, this small town, for all its historical flavour and traditional lifestyle, suddenly found itself at the centre of future technologies. It was picked by the Chinese government to host the World Internet Conference, or Wuzhen Summit, an annual international event for the big names and big ideas in hi-tech. 

Last month, the seventh edition was convened here, attracting 130 leading tech companies, such as Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, ZTE, Epson, and Infosys. For industry players and interested laymen, it is a most anticipated gathering, a dazzling show of cutting-edge technologies, and a peek into the future. 

Wuzhen’s newfound fame is not unexpected. As early as in 2012, the town enabled WiFi coverage in some of its scenic spots. An online store was opened for tourists to book hotels, tickets, travel packages, and souvenirs. The tourism boom over the past 20 years brought about by infrastructure development also gave the town the most critical element of interconnectedness. 

Every year in November, all eyes are on Wuzhen to see what mankind’s future may look like. 

In 2019, self-driving minibuses made their street debut here. These buses can react to complex traffic conditions in 100 milliseconds, far quicker than human reaction times of between 300 and 400 milliseconds. 

With over 30 smart sensors, they can sense pedestrians, motor vehicles and other obstacles within 200 meters and quickly respond by dodging, changing lanes, slowing or braking. The bus is also able to determine nearby traffic conditions through smart cloud technology and choose the most suitable route.

The town is also fully covered with a 5G network. According to those who tried the service, average download and upload speeds reached up to 745 Mbps and 53.2 Mbps respectively. The fastest download speed was a whopping 1019 Mbps. A 45-minute TV show took less than 10 seconds to be downloaded to the phone. 

This year, conference-goers were treated to new experiences — receiving eye-check results within seconds, finding out the most suitable type of milk for oneself by proving one’s height, weight, and statistics about physical exercise and sleeping, and trying a smart mattress that monitors one’s heart rate, breathing, pulses, blood pressure, and body temperature during sleep and automatically elevates itself to relieve detected snoring. There was even a robotic symphony orchestra that could stage a show on the instructions of a human conductor.   

As the new, beating heart of Internet technology, Wuzhen is definitely worth a visit.