The 26th China Hi-Tech Fair, which ran from Thursday to Saturday in south China's tech hub of Shenzhen, featured the debuts of over 4,300 new products and technologies.
One of the most eye-catching exhibits is an intelligent drone camera that doesn't require a remote control. It can take high-resolution pictures hovering at a certain distance above its owner after a facial recognition process.
"A great merit of the drone is it's portable, safe and convenient. The fully enclosed structure can effectively avoid visual obstacles for its 8K video camera. It is easy for customers to learn how to use the drone. It can fly at a speed up to 42 kilometers per hour. So it can be used during traveling and outdoor activities," said Song Yulong, an exhibitor.
Another highlight at the fair is a coffee robot capable of making latte art based on images uploaded to its system.
Besides daily products, the fair also presented many innovative solutions to production facilitation, such as a large language model that can quickly come up with dozens of design proposals based on a few pictures.
"For example, I upload the pictures of this pair of shoes and an armor, and then it can make a design based on just these two pictures. It can generate a specific and practical product design according to style references and modeling inputs," said Li Jiaxiang, another exhibitor.
The annual China Hi-Tech Fair, inaugurated in 1999, is the largest and the most influential science and technology fair in China.
This year's event attracted nearly 5,000 companies and organizations from over 100 countries and regions. More than 1,000 purchasing delegations around the world visited the fair, and more than 400,000 professional visitors negotiated deals at the fair.
It witnessed the signing of 869 contracts with their intended transaction volume surpassing 120 billion yuan (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars).
New technologies, products shine at China Hi-Tech Fair
India, home to one of the world's youngest populations, is witnessing a growing number of students heading to China in search of quality education and stronger career prospects.
Fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics and engineering are seeing a notable rise in enrollments.
Naresh Patra, a researcher in astrophysics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, chose to study in China for what he describes as the excellent value for the potential boost to his career.
"First thing, the education system is very good and expenses are too low. And second point [is that] you will get good exposure about machine learning and AI, and third point you will get jobs immediately after passing from these universities," said Naresh Patra, a student from India.
There has been a noticeable surge in inquiries from Indian students for courses in engineering and artificial intelligence. To attract more international applicants, Chinese universities have ramped up investment in world-class infrastructure, including advanced laboratories, while expanding scholarship offerings across a wide range of disciplines.
Akshay Bhambri is among those who secured such a scholarship, supporting his research in traditional medicine. He describes his academic experience in China as highly professional and well-structured.
"In different departments, there are enough resources to do that, and even in libraries, whatever you need is provided immediately to you. So this kind of environment for a researcher, for a student, be it undergrad or PhD student, is very helpful when they want to do some kind of research or some kind of understanding to get what they want immediately, so that they can excel in their work," said the researcher.
Cross-border studies are also foundational to forming academic partnerships between China and India, but experts say that even greater outreach and engagement are needed.
"It will be more possible if there is a higher level, not just the people-to-people level, but (if) we see the authorities from both sides interact, and university-to-university interactions, in that case, there would be a lot of confidence building," said Nishith Shah, principal of India China Academy.
More Indian students choose Chinese universities for quality education
