At Olympics, Beijing highlights tech leadership

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games adopted a series of cutting-edge digital technologies including digital simulation, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, 5G, 8K and glasses-free 3D, all of which expanded people's imaginations, senior official in the capital said on Friday.

"The opening ceremony of the Games in the past week gave people deep impressions about Beijing's fruitful scientific achievements and growth of the digital economy," Wang Lei, deputy director of Beijing's economy and information technology bureau, said at a news conference.

The added value of Beijing's digital economy reached 1.6 trillion yuan ($250 billion) over the last year, accounting for 40.4 percent of its GDP, the bureau said.

In 2021, Beijing's software and information service industry brought in revenue of 2.2 trillion yuan, doubling the level of 2018, when it surpassed 1 trillion yuan.

"The industrial scale of Beijing's software and information service accounts for 25.7 percent of the country, ranking first among provinces and cities in China," Wang said.

Beijing issued the action plan to accelerate the construction of its digital economy in August last year.

The plan proposes that Beijing focus on the world's cutting-edge technologies and future strategic requirements, as well as promote the deep integration of digital technology with the real economy.

To achieve the target, Beijing has supported the development of communication technologies including a new generation of information and communication networks, the integration of communication and artificial intelligence, the integration of satellite and ground networking and network security.

Beijing will also push forward its research and development of 6G-related high-end chips, core devices and simulation and verification platforms, under the plan.

Since the plan was issued, the city has achieved many results. For instance, it has taken the lead in realizing the technical connection of the whole 5G plus 8K industrial chain.

It is the first time in the history of the Olympics that 8K technology has been applied to report events on a large scale.

Beijing established the world's first city-level 8K broadcasting system, built 20 8K large screens and 200 8K large-size televisions in public areas to provide viewers with an immersive experience in watching sports events.