Driverless ice cream trucks, 3D avatar booths: Hangzhou shows off tech innovations at Asian Games

HANGZHOU: Hangzhou, the capital of China’s Zhejiang province, is known as an innovation powerhouse, and home to Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma.

It is also where the Asian Games are being held until Oct 8.

The city of 12 million is using the event as an opportunity to showcase the country’s cutting-edge technologies, including big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

Roaming around the Asian Games venues are unmanned vehicles offering tours and ice cream, robot dogs that patrol power-supply facilities, and automated mosquito trappers that zap the pests.
 

Athletes and visitors can stop a driverless roving ice cream truck with the wave of a hand, and choose from over a variety of flavours such as avocado, peach and vanilla.

Photo booths equipped with 140 tiny cameras are able to create 3D avatars within five to eight minutes. The avatars can move, dance, play, and even take part in the Hangzhou Games metaverse, where visitors can play sports in virtual reality with the mascots.

At the media village, an unmanned bus takes journalists around the vicinity on 10-minute tours. The bus is not the usual - it does not have windows. Instead, it has screens that display a real-time camera view of the roads and scenery outside.

SMART AND GREEN GAMES VILLAGE

Hangzhou’s government spent about US$30 billion on Games-related infrastructure, with an aim to make the Games village smart and green.

For a start, all venues are powered by renewable energy.

Bike-sharing is highly encouraged and residents of the Games village can participate in environmentally-friendly practices to accrue points online that can be exchanged for gifts.

“In the construction process of this Asian Games village project, we incorporated the values of being green, intelligent, frugal, and civilised,” said Mr Chen Zhanglin, deputy chief of the Asian Games village.

“In the green aspect, for example, we consider how we can use as little land as possible. We also need to be efficient in using land, materials, and energy.”

Organisers said this demonstrates China as a mature and responsible major power that is environmentally aware and sophisticated.

FIRST MAJOR SPORTING EVENT SINCE END OF ZERO-COVID

The 19th edition of the Asian Games was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It opened on Saturday (Sep 23) with a spectacular ceremony that celebrated the city’s status as one of China's centres of technology.

This is the first major sporting event that China is hosting since it lifted its zero-COVID strategy. About 12,000 athletes from 45 nations are competing in 40 sports.

However, the country is still reeling from a weakened economy, and record high youth unemployment.

Questions have arisen over the billions poured in to host the mega-event, with some businesses saying they are not yet seeing the benefits.

“(The Games have had) no impact on us at the moment. Everything is the same as usual. This is not the main competition venue, so the flow of people is not so much,” said Mr Han Yi, a shop assistant at a store located in the city centre, about 12km away from the Games venue.

GAMES BRING CHANGES TO THE CITY

Others, however, said the Games have brought significant changes to the city.

“It feels like the city now has a very new look. A lot has changed. For example, in terms of the subway transport system, and the way people have become more caring,” one Hangzhou resident told CNA. 

“The world has given us the opportunity to host the Asian Games, we must cherish it and be responsible Hangzhou residents. We should be civilised and polite, be friendly and help others,” said a fellow local.

The Games are estimated to draw more than 20,000 visitors to Hangzhou, sparking hopes that they will inject a much-needed boost to the Chinese economy.

“For Hangzhou to host the Asian Games, it proves that our country's comprehensive national strength is far more than that of many countries, and it is still gradually developing. So in this case, we spend the money to hold the competition, and it is an honour for us to do so,” another resident said.

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