Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests attending the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games arrived at the Sun Island Hotel in Harbin of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday noon for a banquet hosted by President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

Arriving for the banquet were Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and his wife Aigul Japarova, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and his wife Shin Kyung-hye, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach, and Vice President of the Olympic Council of Asia Timothy Fok Tsun-ting.

The 9th Asian Winter Games, scheduled for Feb 7-14, will bring together more than 1,270 athletes from 34 countries and regions, making it the largest edition in terms of participating delegations and athletes.

The opening ceremony of the Games is to unfold on Friday night.

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Guests arrive for Asian Winter Games banquet

Artificial intelligence and robotics, both major topics of discussion at the ongoing Boao Forum this year, are also being widely adopted at the event as ways to improve the service inside and outside the venue.

The BFA Annual Conference 2026 is being held in Boao, south China's Hainan Province. Running from March 24 to 27, this year's conference is themed "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation."

A water generator at the venue cools and condenses moisture from the air into water, then filters and sterilizes it. It can also run on solar power for a completely off-grid, zero-carbon operation.

Meanwhile, a special robot barista operates a coffee stand where guests can order a drink with the press of a button, prompting the robotic arm to get to work -- grabbing a cup, brewing, and frothing -- all in one smooth motion.

The venue has also adopted an AI-based management system, which can automatically adjust a range of factors based on current conditions and detect and respond to anomalies when they occur.

These sorts of systems are already being adopted at a wider scale across Hainan.

"This is our operational management center for the zero-carbon demonstration zone. It’s powered by an AI-driven system that manages all energy consumption and carbon emissions. From here, we can remotely control over three thousand devices across the island with a click, including air conditioners and lighting. It's smart management, done remotely," said Zeng Youwen, chief general engineer of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design Hainan Branch.

Outside the venue, some smart equipment is also sharing the workload. On Boao's coastline, a beach-cleaning robot moves along the shore, sweeping up cigarette butts, debris, and coconut shells.

The robots can work before visitors arrive or after sunset, cleaning up to 3,000 square meters of beach per hour. In the water, a diving robot that clears debris and even has emergency rescue capabilities.

These on-site applications of emerging technologies have helped spur discussions at the forum on how the deep integration of technology and industry is gaining momentum as China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

"Industries can only be upgraded by applying the new technologies, by applying AI, by applying other innovative technology, science and technology, there should all be injected into industries. And that's how the industries are going to produce high quality products. And you will have high quality productive forces that will change the lifestyle, the living standard of the Chinese people and the people living beyond," said Sohail Khan, deputy secretary-general of Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Founded in 2001, the BFA is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries closer to their development goals.

Robots, AI facilitate guest services at Boao Forum venue