A Chinese woman's embroidery process is live streamed in 8K resolution with 5G networks during the Light of Internet Expo on Friday in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang Province. Photo: Zhang Hongpei/GT

China, as a digital economy trailblazer, is eagerly pushing its internet technologies better integrated with the real economy while hoping to openly share with the world, industry observers told the Global Times ahead of the kickoff of the 6th World Internet Conference.

The Light of Internet Exposition was opened Friday in the scenic river town of Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang Province, preceding the internet conference, which will be opened on Sunday under the theme of "Intelligent interconnection for openness and cooperation: Building a community with a shared future in cyberspace."

Being run till Tuesday, the expo has attracted more than 600 tech firms, including over 100 foreign companies, up 30 percent year-on-year.

From piano-playing robots to traditional Chinese embroidery live streaming in 8K resolution with 5G networks, the expo showcases the latest technological achievements in various fields such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and industrial internet.

The town of Wuzhen has achieved full 5G network coverage for commercial use this year, and over 60 intelligent projects will be displayed, including remotely controlled autonomous cars and a millimeter-wave security check device.

Both stands of China Mobile and China Telecom, two Chinese telecom network carriers, showcased their advanced 8K ultra-high-definition content transmission through 5G networks. They live streamed traditional Chinese culture including paper cutting and embroidery.

Zhao Wei, a manager at China Mobile Group Zhejiang Co, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the expo that 8K ultra-high-definition content transmission is the future direction and will be gradually popularized in the near future. At present, most videos are in the 4K resolution.

"Currently, Japanese firms have more advantages in terms of coding and decoding technology and basic materials in realizing 8K. And we should beef up efforts on those areas," said Zhao, adding that China has cultivated its own advantages in panel and 5G technologies.

Ant Financial, the financial affiliate with China's e-commerce giant Alibaba, launched its garbage recognition technologies during the expo. Bottles can be automatically recognized and correctly classified via such AI technologies as machine vision, voice assistance and environment graphics.

German carmaker BMW brought its intelligent connected vehicle BMW Vision iNext to the expo as well as the XC Interface which provides digital immersion experience.

The displayed BMW Vision iNext vehicle demonstrates "shy tech," which is an innovative technology integrated out of sight yet always available. Apart from the steering wheel and displays in the driver's area, there are no other screens or controls to be seen in the vehicle.

"In the transformation of digitalization, China has become the forefront of applying the latest technologies, leading the future trend in terms of scale, efficiency and transformation capability. Compare to other markets, Chinese customers are younger with higher acceptance of digitalization," the company said in a note sent to the Global Times.

Chinese internet market has become a key test ground and battleground for both domestic and foreign players to develop their business while pursuing technological transformation, industry observers said.

"It's been six years since the first internet conference was held, during which Chinese internet firms and technologies have seen robust and rapid growth," Qiao Guanru, manager at Alibaba's event department, told the Global Times on the sidelines of the expo.

"One big change is that more and more Chinese firms have begun to develop from point to area: they are attaching importance to a full solution instead of the previous strategy of only providing a side of technology, for example, the 5G solution, the solution for government's digitalization," said Qiao.

"The change reflects that Chinese internet firms are learning quickly and grasping their self-grown technologies based on long-term investment in research and development," he added.

Meanwhile, Chinese firms are eager to export their internet technologies to build a shared cyberspace with the world based on their experience in China, the largest internet user base, said Qiao.

By June, the country had 854 million internet users, more than the entire population of Europe, up 25.98 million compared with the level at the end of last year, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. The popularizing rate has reached 61.2 percent, increasing 1.6 percentage points from the end of 2018.