Internet Life in Wuzhen
By staff reporter GONG HAN
WANG Xiaochuan runs a small grocery store in Wuzhen, a riverside town in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. He is in regular contact with a takeaway website that accepts consumers’ orders for various goods and which it passes on, as appropriate, to Wang. Upon receipt, Wang compiles the goods ordered and readies them for deliverymen to pick up and transport to consumers’ doors.
Wang, in his 30s, can’t imagine life without the Internet. He browses the morning news on his smart phone, and orders lunch and buys clothes and food items online. A sports enthusiast, Wang and his fellows exchange information through a virtual community. He also monitors his heartbeat and sleep quality through wearable devices that analyze his health and make corresponding suggestions.
Wang’s life is typical of many others living in this 1,300-year-old small town of Wuzhen on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It is a region whose mild weather, fertile land and picturesque scenery have earned it the reputation of a “heaven on earth.”
Wuzhen officially became part of modern society in 1990, when it gained access to the national road network. Until then it had avoided, through its isolation, the intrusions of sophisticated urban civilization. Superficially it remains the same as it ever was – a typical South China rural community characterized by bridges, boats, white walls and slanting black tiles. But today Wuzhen is an integrative model for traditional and cutting-edge Internet technologies.
In December 2015, the town hosted the Second Session of the World Internet Conference (WIC) that welcomed more than 2,000 guests from 120 countries. Among them were eight state leaders, about 50 ministerial officials, the heads of around 20 international organizations, and more than 600 Internet celebrities and corporate leaders, experts and scholars.
Prior to deciding where to establish the WIC site, the preparatory committee cited three conditions: it should be a Davos-like small town, have an advanced Internet economy, and display characteristics celebrating China’s long history and culture. Wuzhen eventually came to the fore of the relevant candidates and was chosen as the permanent WIC site.
For Wuzhen residents, the WIC is a big but not extraordinary event, because the Internet has long been part of daily life.
As early as 2003, the local government buried a broadband cable – then rare even in big cities – during renovations to Xizha, a core scenic area. Visitors hence have unlimited WiFi access.
Xiao Dai runs a family inn in Wuzhen, where seven out of every 10 guests book rooms through travel ticket websites like Taobao, Qunar and elong. Another lodge, The Silent Home, has successfully promoted its signature dishes like spicy fish and mouthwatering shrimp online. And practically all merchants are happy with mobile phone payments.
The Internet greatly facilitates holidaymakers’ leisure activities. They can rent bicycles by scanning the QR code, book tickets online, obtain digital navigation maps and weather forecasts, browse yellow pages, and carry out wireless charging at smart info pavilions on Wuzhen’s streets.
“All of these changes save people time and provide extensive information,” Wang Xiaochuan said. “I couldn’t live without the Internet.”
Wuzhen became involved in tourism development in May 1999. Under the principle of renovating old sites in their original style, Wuzhen retains the most authentic Southern Chinese riverside town scenery. It has been commended by a UNESCO expert as the Wuzhen Mode.
The village scenery draws visitors to rest and watch boatman at work from the vantage point of a riverside café.
Wuzhen is also a popular spot for hi-tech enthusiasts, one of whom is Li Zaizhong, who used to run his own business in Beijing’s Zhongguancun, or China’s Silicon Valley as it is known. Li moved to Wuzhen last September to set up the town’s first Makerspace.
The CIFC Wuzhen Financial Center in Ziye Road opened just a few months ago, but is already home to about 20 Internet companies. The center regularly holds innovation salons, road shows and seminars, creating an entrepreneurial atmosphere equal to that in Beijing, Shanghai or Hangzhou.
On December 10, 2015, a few days before the WIC, Wuzhen Internet Hospital, the first of its kind in China, issued the first digital prescription. The Internet thus makes it possible for patients to consult medical practitioners online and so avoid many formalities.
The small town has still greater ambitions, as manifest in the Wuzhen Theater Festival which has been held three times, and represents the highest level of Chinese performance art.
In the 1990s, writer and critic Mu Xin, longtime resident of New York, visited his hometown of Wuzhen, but was disappointed at the deterioration in its culture. In 2006, 79-year-old Mu Xin made another visit, but this time settled in the town and spent the last five years of his life there. “Today’s Wuzhen is better than yesterday’s,” he explained at the time. “The new generation has given sufficient space for art creation, which is why I’m back.”
