CIFTIS visitors wowed by exhibitors' offerings

The Shanxi pavilion at the 2023 CIFTIS attracts visitor with its eye-catching design. [Photo by Ruan Yang for China Daily]

Twenty companies representing the development of Shanxi's service sectors displayed themselves at the recent China International Fair for Trade in Services, garnering attention from both Chinese and international visitors.

The five-day event, also known as CIFTIS, concluded in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Wednesday. Statistics released by the fair's organizers show that it attracted more than 2,400 companies to exhibit their products and services offline, with their booths covering a total area of 155,000 square meters.

The exhibitors from Shanxi were from six sectors – cultural tourism; medical and healthcare services; supply chain and commercial services; engineering services; services relating to communications, computing and information technology; and education.

The Shanxi pavilion, which housed 20 exhibitors, was one of the most eye-catching areas at this year's CIFTIS due to its novel design that combined the elements of modern sciences and traditional Shanxi architecture.

And the exhibits themselves were both modern and traditional, with folk artwork like paper-cuts from the county of Guangling and duijin embroidery from Changzhi city displayed side by side with modern exhibits like robots made by local producer Jiashida.

Shanxi-based Mingkong Yinghua, a company developing software and platforms for the culture and tourism sectors, was a regular exhibitor at the event. But it has brought new exhibits to every session of the fair.

According to an executive of the company, Mingkong Yinghua's offering at the 2021 CIFTIS was a platform for the immersive show of intangible cultural heritage. And this year, it brought something totally different – an artificial intelligence-aided program code generating platform that allows for software development by ordinary people without any knowledge of programming.

The executive added that CIFTIS has been an effective platform for exchanging and generating new ideas.

"We are here to communicate with our old friends and find new partners," he said. "But more importantly, we view it as a window to see how we can identify new development opportunities by learning from the new ideas of our friends."

Zhao Jinyang, an executive of Zhilin Information Technology responsible for exhibition at this CIFTIS event, held a similar view.

Zhilin is a developer of AI-based platforms for assisting teaching and examinations in middle schools.

"We highlight interactions with our clients and other partners in developing systems suiting their demands, so we have traveled extensively for networking," Zhao said. "And CIFTIS is a better venue for communication as it has gathered everybody here."

He added that CIFTIS is a world-class showcase, through which local companies can display their competitive products and services to the whole world.

Also on display was Pinshenghuo Culture, a Shanxi-based company that offers research and design services for wellness tourism operators in Shanxi.

Wellness tourism is an emerging sector featuring travel associated with the pursuit of enhancing one's personal well-being. It covers activities such as thermal springs, spas, exercise, recreation, relaxation and recuperation.

Zhang Jing, general manager of the company, said that when offering design services for the sector, it highlights the use of digital, intelligent technologies for creating cozy, relaxing and pleasant experiences for tourists.

Yan Jie and An Xiaoyi contributed to this story.