City in eastern China moving away from traditional manufacturing by embracing latest smart technologies

Visitors observe a humanoid robot at the Light of Internet Expo, a signature event of the 2025 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, on Nov 6. YANG MEIQING/FOR CHINA DAILY

Located in the heart of the Yangtze River Delta, Tongxiang in Zhejiang province is rapidly transforming from a traditional manufacturing hub into a highland for the digital economy. Focusing on smart vehicles, smart computing, smart sensing and the industrial internet, the city is partnering with China Unicom to build a robust foundation for future industries.

As a key driver of this regional transformation, China Unicom is accelerating the development of new quality productive forces across the province. By leveraging advanced computing centers, vehicle-road-cloud integration and the low-altitude economy, the telecom giant is comprehensively reshaping the local digital landscape.

At the core of this transformation is the Wuzhen supercomputing center. Situated near the permanent site of the World Internet Conference, this landmark project represents a total investment of approximately 1 billion yuan ($147.6 million).

Designed with 880 racks and a planned computing power of 2,000 petaflops, the center has already built a 500-petaflop multi-computing platform. Utilizing integrated power solutions from Chint, a smart energy solutions provider based in Zhejiang, the center sets a green benchmark for energy efficiency. By collaborating with industry leaders like Alibaba and Moore Threads, China Unicom is building a domestic computing ecosystem that empowers cutting-edge fields.

This massive localized computing power is the strongest brain behind Tongxiang's vehicle-road-cloud integrated city-level management service platform. Initiated by five ministries, this pilot project utilizes 5G and C-V2X hybrid networks to enable high-reliability and low-latency data exchange between smart roads and vehicles.

Qian Jianhua, general manager of China Unicom's Jiaxing branch in Zhejiang, detailed the strategic layout. "Because the data path is short and the data do not need to leave the city, the system achieves an ultra-low response time of just one to four milliseconds," Qian said. This rapid processing has optimized overall traffic flow.

The Tongxiang pilot project has yielded remarkable results. Nearly 40 autonomous vehicles, including unmanned delivery equipment and smart buses, are operating across 39 open test roads spanning 300 kilometers. They have accumulated over 39,000 hours and 303,500 km of operation. Furthermore, the platform monitors over 2,100 key vehicles in real time and is integrating with major mobility platforms like T3 and Didi Chuxing. To ensure data security, China Unicom is building a trusted data circulation platform complying with TC609 standards.

Beyond the roads, China Unicom is aggressively tapping into the low-altitude economy, a strategic emerging industry. The company is building smart low-altitude test networks in 10 cities. In Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China Unicom built the country's first large-scale 5G low-altitude smart network over a 98-km stretch of the Yangtze River in Nanjing for maritime patrols. In Shenzhen, Guangdong province, it is partnering with logistics giants like SF Express and Meituan to create a multi-scenario "3-km, 15-minute delivery" low-altitude logistics network. In Qingdao, Shandong province, China Unicom has developed a unified smart platform for the local data bureau, managing drone operations across eight urban governance scenarios.

These infrastructure advancements are deeply intertwined with China Unicom's artificial intelligence ambitions, spearheaded by the newly established China Unicom Digital Technology Co. Operating under a "one company, one research institute" structure that gathers top global scientists, the company is pioneering the circulation of data elements. During a nationwide wave of trusted data space construction last year, China Unicom was tasked with building 12 of 63 trusted data spaces initiated by the National Data Administration.

In July 2024, the company released its in-house large language model, Yuanjing, which has already been implemented in over 100 benchmark cases. In Zhejiang's traditional clothing industry, China Unicom has partnered with leading enterprises like BXN Holdings and Jihua Group to build 5G future factories. Powered by a massive clothing data model, these factories feature rapid design, one-click pattern making and virtual fitting, reducing design cycles by 80 percent and production cycles by 30 percent.

Workers produce automotive radar, camera modules and domain controllers in a smart production workshop at Freetech Intelligent Systems Co in Wuzhen on Nov 10, 2024. DONG XUMING/FOR CHINA DAILY

Chen Haifeng, chairman and general manager of China Unicom Digital Technology Co, emphasized the company's commitment to technological self-reliance. "We are dedicated to solving the challenges of domestic computing cards and domestic AI models," Chen said.

This commitment has yielded remarkable results across various vertical applications. In the government sector, China Unicom's Yuanjing secretary AI agent is revolutionizing administrative workflows. By combining foundational large models like DeepSeek-V4 with fine-tuned small models, it covers 15 types of official documents and performs intelligent policy comparisons. Deployed in highly secure, localized environments where data do not leave the domain, it can process a 12,000-word report in just one minute with an accuracy rate exceeding 90 percent.

In the heavy industry sector, China Unicom's Yuanjing industrial time-series analysis platform is transforming traditional thermal power plants. By utilizing a dual-model architecture for prediction and optimization, the platform directly adjusts industrial control systems with a latency of under one second. In a major regional power plant, this AI-driven approach has stabilized steam temperatures, reduced nitrogen oxide emission fluctuations by 50 percent, and significantly improved the plant's ability to adapt to power grid peak-shaving demands.

In the medical sector, China Unicom has partnered with Beijing Tongren Hospital to develop an AI fundus screening tool. "Previously, patients spent half a day at the hospital. Now, with a simple scan at a community hospital, they receive a diagnosis in seconds, reducing the cost to less than 100 yuan," Chen said.

Similarly, in the cultural tourism sector, China Unicom has co-developed the Palace Museum digital twin platform. Utilizing internationally advanced cross-engine 3D real-time rendering technology, the platform integrates over 20 million multi-source data entries. It creates a highly accurate digital avatar of the museum, allowing global visitors to experience centimeter-level, first-person digital roaming of the Central Axis of Beijing and the Hall of Mental Cultivation via mobile apps.

As AI applications proliferate, the business model is evolving. Ding Ding, deputy general manager of China Unicom Digital Technology Co, highlighted the company's innovative "token" operations. Instead of merely selling raw computing power, the company integrates tokens with specific business scenarios."The logic of token billing is highly similar to telecom data plans. Our ability to provide transparent, real-time and fair billing eliminates industry issues like fake billing, serving as a significant security and trust highlight for our customers," Ding said.

To support this digital ecosystem, China Unicom Zhejiang Branch has built nearly 100,000 5G base stations, extending coverage to 99 percent of rural areas. Looking ahead, Tong Haibo, Party secretary and general manager of China Unicom Zhejiang Branch, summarized the strategic vision.

"The development of AI and computing applications is not an isolated technological evolution, but an organic whole deeply intertwined with communication networks. By building a high-speed, stable and intelligent network architecture, we have laid a solid 'information highway' for massive data transmission and computing, contributing more to the construction of new quality productive forces," Tong said.

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn