World of wonders on display

One young executive tells you where a parking space is available, and another chooses the best bed for you tonight－all in a split second by using apps. Yet another innovator offers an ingenious solution for protecting smartphone privacy.
Nearby, Baidu, China's online search giant, is showing off a driverless car, while Nokia asks visitors to try its virtual reality camera.
Welcome to the world of wonders in the Internet era, an event being staged in Wuzhen, a river town in East China's Zhejiang province.
At least 200 companies, including startups and industrial behemoths like IBM and Alibaba, are showcasing their latest Internet technologies and products, offering spectators a glimpse of innovation at the four-day Light of the Internet exposition, which opened on Tuesday.
The expo, held at the same time as the Second World Internet Conference, is a place where innovators are letting their imaginations soar and presenting their solutions.
JD.com, a NASDAQ-listed online retailer, is demonstrating what it calls a "mini-connected intelligent household" program, in which special chips are installed in air-cleaners, refrigerators and other electric appliances that it sells, allowing customers to control the products anywhere, anytime.
Helen Zhang, presales manager from Beijing Yuanxin Tech Co, said that for the first time, Chinese smartphone users can expect a domestically developed mobile operating system.
"After three years of research and development, we are now serving customers in police, military units and some government departments with Syber OS," said Zhang.
The mobile operating system, plus the chips from Spreadtrum Communications, China's leading mobile phone chipmaker, will enable the company to make inroads into the smartphone market, targeting security-conscious average users, according to Zhang.
Chen Qing, general manager of China Post Group's Zhejiang branch, said Internet technology, particularly big data, is reshaping the country's nearly 120-year-old postal service provider.
The 110,000 Internet-connected mini supermarkets that China Post set up all over the country's rural areas generate much information each day, allowing the company to see exactly what sells well and in which area.
A terminal displayed at the Wuzhen expo shows the top 10 products sold in the countryside markets. The beverage category, for example, has Snow Beer taking the top slot in November, with 22 percent of the rural market.
"Analysis of the big data will help us to bargain with factories to get a reasonable price for products to be sold in the mini supermarkets," Chen said. "If quality products are available at a reasonable price in rural markets, fake and shoddy products will be phased out."
In three years, the number of such Internet-empowered mini sales points will surge to half a million, Chen said.

Company representatives show visitors how to use a smart bike, which can display the route, mileage and speed at the "Light of the Internet" Expo on Thursday in Wuzhen. The expo features the latest Internet technologies and products. [WANG ZHUANGFEI/CHINA DAILY]

A company representative plays a 3D printed violin at the expo. [ZHU XINGXIN/CHINA DAILY]