Young people embrace science and technology at Hangzhou innovation conference

A conference on technological innovation opened in Cloud Town in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on April 26, bringing together thousands of outstanding young scientists, entrepreneurs and creators from across the globe to share their thoughts on technology and the future.

Initiated by Wang Jian, founder of Alibaba Cloud Computing, and supported by many volunteers and organizations, the three-day non-profit event, entitled "2050 Conference", aims to gather young people from around the world to share their technological findings and discuss new ideas.

Meet-ups, forums and exhibitions of technological achievements in engineering technology, science, product creation, design, art, and aerospace, among other industries and fields, are held during the event.

Chu Longfei, co-founder of China's private rocket company LinkSpace, introduced a reusable rocket prototype – an 8.1-meter liquid-fueled RLV-T5 – in the conference's '10,000 exploration' area. The rocket just finished its second low-altitude recovery test flight in Shandong province.

"I want you all to know that in the near future, these rockets will be able to carry passengers and fly from China to the United States within an hour. Space tourism will become more than just a wild fantasy," Chu said with confidence.

The conference also saw a group of techies from over 10 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative share stories and seek business cooperation opportunities.

"In my hometown, it's difficult to find clean drinking water because of the lack of production equipment. When I was in college, the government gave me a $4 living allowance per day, a quarter of which was used to buy clean drinking water," said Michael from Tanzania.

To make water more affordable for college students in Tanzania, Michael, together with two classmates, opened a drinking water company after graduation and imported water purification equipment. As a result, over 3,000 students in local universities saw an 80 percent decrease in the cost of drinking water.

With the expansion of the company, Michael hopes to find partners to develop a more advanced drinking water management system.

Hangzhou is home to many of China's leading internet companies, including Alibaba and NetEase.