Close encounters of the 'Cloud' kind

Early this year, a gigantic silver object as large as thousands of cubic meters took off from the ground at a base in Shenzhen. Soaring to a height of some 4,000 meters, it provided Wi-Fi services for an area covering 8,000 square kilometers, and monitored and collected information on more than 2,100 ships plying off the coast.

The debut of the whale-like craft, named "Cloud" and developed by Shenzhen-based and Hong Kong-listed Kuang-Chi Science Ltd, marked the first successful commercial test flight of the airborne vehicle, which is capable of providing widespread Wi-Fi coverage over Shenzhen and Hong Kong, conducting ground monitoring and collecting big maritime data.

Cloud will be seen in action abroad - in the Democratic Republic of Congo - offering Internet service for the African nation. "Among the world's 7 billion population, about 4 billion still do not have Internet access," says Kuang-Chi Science Chairman Liu Ruopeng. "I hope our technology will help change their lives."