The Huaibei Industrial Museum, once an old thermal power plant dating back to 1969 in Huaibei City of east China's Anhui Province, is attracting visitors to experience the city's industrial history in a high-tech and immersive way.
Once the largest thermal power plant in the province, the site underwent a significant facelift after its closure in 2018. Renovations and expansions have transformed the factory into a cultural hub, drawing in tens of thousands of visitors since its soft opening over the recent May Day holiday season on May 1-5.
"The historical significance carried by this old power plant is actually part of the memories of the city. Here, we can see various advanced and aesthetically pleasing art forms integrated into this industrial museum. I believe it is something which we can take pride in," Zhu Miao, a visitor, said in an interview with China Central Television prior to the May 18 International Museum Day.
Through a meticulous integration of industrial heritage and cutting-edge technology including AI and VR, the museum has been fashioned as a site that not only encapsulates the city's industrial past but also offers visitors a futuristic journey through time.
From the coal mining in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) to the surge in coal, electricity and textile industries since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and the transition to sustainable industries in resource-depleted urban areas, visitors are treated to a captivating historical expedition with various interactive scenarios.
Anhui Province boasts over 50 industrial heritage sites, with more than 30 industrial museums dotting the landscape. Drawing in millions of tourists annually, these museums have become a cornerstone of urban cultural tourism development, showcasing the region's rich industrial legacy and its journey towards modernity.
Industrial museum converted from power plant opens to public in east China's Anhui
Smart technologies have reshaped China's ecological and environmental monitoring system, Huang Runqiu, minister of Ecology and Environment, said Thursday in Beijing on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress(NPC).
"Regarding ecological and environmental monitoring, we have been promoting the digitalization, informatization, and intelligentization of the entire monitoring process in recent years, reshaping the ecological and environmental monitoring system. For instance, in water environment monitoring and sampling, we have used intelligent drones which can quickly locate sampling points, collect samples accurately, return rapidly, and they are safe and reliable, improving work efficiency by over 70 percent. They are particularly advantageous for sampling during flood seasons and in remote areas," Huang told the press.
"In terms of environmental sample analysis, we have developed 'lights-out laboratories' in recent years. As the name suggests, these labs operate without lights and are unattended. Through robotic arms, robots, and intelligent management systems, they achieve full-process automation and intelligence from sample handover, testing, and analysis to report generation. This has significantly enhanced work efficiency, increasing it by more than eightfold compared to traditional labs. More importantly, it reduces human interference, human error, and even data falsification," he said.
Thanks to the improved ecological and environmental supervision capabilities, the number of environmental violation cases nationwide has decreased from 130,000 five years ago to 43,000 last year, representing a decline of 68 percent, Huang said.
The minister said China has already applied environmental DNA technology in the biodiversity monitoring work.
"In the field of biodiversity monitoring, monitoring aquatic organisms remains a weak point. However, significant progress has been made in recent years as we have developed environmental DNA technology. Although this chip is very small in size, it contains DNA detection information for aquatic organisms, including the finless porpoise and the Chinese sucker, from 19 state-controlled sections in the Jiangsu segment of the Yangtze River. The results showed that over the past five years, more than 20 species of aquatic organisms have increased in this river section, fully demonstrating the tangible effectiveness of the ten-year fishing ban in the Yangtze River," Huang said while showing a chip to reporters.
The 14th NPC, China's national legislature, concluded its fourth session on Thursday.
Smart technologies reshape China's ecological, environmental monitoring system: minister
