Cool breezes and enjoyable scenery appear in autumn. The cluster venues of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) built by Shougang sparkle in the sun. The huge CIFTIS sign stands prominently on the towering coal bunker, and rows of coke ovens rise from the green fields, creating a spectacular sight. The rusty quenching towers correspond to the brand-new exhibition. A picture of perfect harmony between history and reality, industry and art, is being presented to the world. On September 2nd, eight special CIFTIS exhibitions appeared in Shougang Park, bringing a new experience for guests from all directions.

The CIFTIS venues in Shougang Park take the original coking plant and fourth blast furnace area in the northern industrial heritage park as the core, surrounded by other venues. The total area of the fair is about 49 hectares, including 15 exhibition halls which cover an area of about 94,000 m2. Among them, there are 13 steel structure exhibition halls and two large membrane structure exhibition halls which deeply integrate modern exhibition, industrial style and natural landscape, creating a new exhibition space with a unique landscape structure of “One Axis, Four Corridors and Multiple Points”. There are eight special exhibitions, namely cultural and tourism services, education services, health services, sports services, engineering consulting and construction services, telecommunications, computer and information services, financial services and supply chain and business services, as well as a special time-honored brand area, fully demonstrating new technologies, models and achievements in various fields under the development trends of digitalization, networking and intelligence.

Halls 1 to 3 form the cultural and tourism services section. This year, CIFTIS merged the cultural section and tourism section into the one cultural and tourism services section for the first time. It is the largest section in the whole exhibition space, covering a total area of 22,400 m2. Themed “Science and Technology Empowers New Culture and Tourism, and Creativity Leads to a New Life”, it has four exhibition areas, namely “New Energy of Culture”, “New Quality of Cultural Tourism”, “New Fashion Experience” and “Consumption in Action”, with eight units and 27 topics. These reflect bringing together innovation to lead new achievements, creating a new highland for industrial integration and providing new experiences for cultural consumption.

The education services section is located in Hall 4 and themed “Education Leads the Future”. With a total area of 3,300 m2, this exhibition hall is divided into four blocks: “Regional Education Cooperation”, “International Education Services”, “Intelligent Education” and “Comprehensive Services”. It builds an educational service display platform to fully display the policy orientation and development achievements of China's education opening up to the outside world, as well as the development trend of new educational service formats such as international cooperation in running schools in the new era. New technologies and products of intelligent education will also be unveiled in this special exhibition area. Hall 5 is the special exhibition area for health services, which shows the new pattern of health under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control. This year, CIFTIS set up a special topic on health services for the first time, which includes six sections: “Epidemic Prevention and Control”, “Medical Services”, “Scientific and Technological Innovation”, “Traditional Medicine”, “Elderly Health” and “International Medical Care”.

Halls 6, 7 and 14 are the sports services exhibition halls under the theme “Sports Make the City More Wonderful”. They have four highlights, namely “colorful display content, perfect supply and demand service mechanism, highlighting sports cultural elements and promoting the development of winter sports”. The Shougang booth is located in Hall 7. Taking the preparations for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games and Winter Paralympics Games as an opportunity, the sports services halls host the World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo for the first time this year, bringing the audience experiences and activities such as a real ice rink, virtual video (AR) skiing, snow house building and simulated cross-country skiing.

Hall 8 is the exhibition hall for engineering consultation and construction services, which will show the new products, achievements and kinetic energy of China's manufacturing and construction industry.

Hall 9 is the exhibition hall for telecommunications, computer and information services, mainly exhibiting communication service software and information technology over a total area of 9,600 m2. It has four sections: “5th Generation (5G) Mobile Communication Technology Services”, “Information Services”, “Ultra-high-definition Audiovisual Services” and “’Carbon Neutrality’ Green Technology Services”. Among them, in the 5G communication services sector, China Unicom, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Tower and other exhibitors will take people's life and work trajectories as clues to build a real-life interactive display space surrounding social production activities including family life, health care, financial consumption, social communication, education and entertainment, transportation and logistics, manufacturing and urban management, and other 5G application service scenarios.

Exhibition Halls 10 and 11 are the exhibition halls for financial services. The special exhibition forms a unique “1+1+1+N” exhibition structure, namely, “one special CIFTIS exhibition”, “one series of carnival activities”, “one BTV financial live broadcast” and “numerous forum summit activities”. Digital carnival activities mainly include the Digital Cash Shopping Festival, Digital Finance Show, “Finance + Culture” cross-border “thinking, enjoying and gathering”, a forum for famous financial experts and other themed activities.

In the Digital Finance Show, the latest financial scientific and technological achievements such as 5G + intelligent banking, self-service banking, cloud banking and AI intelligent robotics will be unveiled. Viewers can fully experience the services of the digital financial ecosystem through the VR digital exhibition hall, interactive games and live video broadcast. The Digital Cash Shopping Festival will work with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China to create an immersive experience of payment in digital cash. In addition, a “digital RMB avenue” will be set up on the spot, and products such as fashion catering, Beijing suburban folk customs and Beijing-style time-honored brands will be introduced, allowing consumers to experience the convenience of purchasing services with digital cash.

Halls 12 and 13 are the exhibition halls for supply chain and business services. Among them, the exhibition themes of Hall 12 are "Blockchain of Everything” and “Innovative Services". It has arranged five exhibition areas using the "1+4" mode, among which the central exhibition area is the “Beijing International Consumption Center City Exhibition”, while the other four are the “Life Service Supply Chain Exhibition”, “Manufacturing Supply Chain Exhibition”, “Business Services Exhibition” and “Comprehensive Supply Chain Exhibition”.

Hall 15 is the special time-honored brand area. Under the theme of “Traditional Food and Handicrafts”, it aims to provide the world with a taste of the unique charms of Beijing time-honored brands, while also helping traditional food and crafts stride towards the world stage. The layout of the exhibition area is planned in the form of cloisters, which can show the street view of “palace stores” and form a trading market with Beijing characteristics. In this market, the delicious snacks, tea, liquor and drinks, and technological features of old Beijing will be displayed one by one. At the same time, the historical stories of a hundred years ago will be retold with tradition and simplicity.

All exhibitors participating in the exhibition become the first batch of “visitors” of the venues of Shougang Park. The special exhibitions with their colorful highlights and unique industrial-style cluster venues complement each other, bringing people a new experience.

Wu You, Head of the Beijing Radio & Television Station booth located in the core area of Hall 1, was deeply impressed by the characteristics of Shougang’s industrial relics. He said that the deep integration of industrial relics and service trade culture in Shougang Park is incredible. As the Beijing Radio & Television Station has set up a live broadcast room on the roof of the sulfur removal plant in Shougang Park, they can overlook its unique industrial features and Olympic elements, leading the audience to experience the unique charm of CIFTIS.

Zhang Yonghui, Head of China Telecom’s booth in Hall 9, praised Shougang for the successful and distinctive use of its industrial relics. It has not only retained the industrial elements, but endowed them with fresh cultural connotations. At the same time, it has also provided an abundance of inspiration and materials for 5G applications. China Telecom will focus on displaying the new applications, markets and prospects brought by 5G during the exhibition. Zhan Yonghui said that he was very grateful to Shougang for providing a timely and thoughtful communication guarantee during the construction of the booth.

The booth of Youku, a large-scale video platform in China, is equipped with a number of audience experience activities. The on-site staff said that a lot of electronic equipment is placed at the booth, and Shougang provided a good power supply guarantee for the exhibition hall, creating favorable conditions for them to fully display the charms of their products. There is also a feeling of visiting the park while working in the venues of Shougang Park. The environment is pleasant, which makes people feel very good and relieves the tense work rhythm.

Halls 14 and 15 adopt large-scale assembly type tensioned membrane structures. The open membrane structure roof is like an open sail or unfolded wing which organically combines with the surrounding landscape, and the green space and industrial relics and complement each other, increasing visitors’ sense of travel. Liu Ying, the Head of the Keep Sports Technology booth in Hall 14, said that this is his second visit to Shougang Park. The last time was when he participated in the Beijing consumption season at the Three Blast Furnace Museum, and he experienced the charm of Shougang Park at night. This time, he came for the exhibition during the day and saw many industrial relics around the site, adding many modern and scientific elements, and creating a brand-new experience. He said that their booth is equipped with many interactive experiences that will make the audience feel great as they participate in the exhibition hall, as though they were truly exercising in an industrial park.

When CIFTIS comes to Shougang Park, digitalization collides with industrial style. In this immersive exhibition space, you can sense the continuation of industrial style and historical context. Shougang Park, with its history of 100 years, will surely bring you a unique and brand-new experience!