From Grits to Chopsticks

Last week, we spent an afternoon visiting the South Asia Trade Fair being held in our city:This huge event moved to a massive purpose-built exhibition hall last year: Numerous guard stations were staffed to ensure the safety of guests:It was entirely too big to visit in a single day (with 5,000+ vendors), but we did get to see some interesting things.  In the business hall, there were a number of UAV (drone) manufacturers,scale-models of trains and high-efficiency public transit vehicles,3D printers,and the largest construction models of planned communities I’ve ever seen:The rest of the venue was filled with hundreds of retail sellers from all over the world.  Foods for sale included Chinese dates, pressed meat, dried squid, sea cucumbers, and fresh goose: I tasted the durian ice cream, proving the reality that if you mix something good into something bad, the result will still be bad:There were African skin creams, furs from Pakistan, beads from Myanmar, and Sri-Lankan gemstones:Of course, there were a few obvious copycat items: These booths would’ve seemed more legitimate if they’d spelled “general” correctly:But the main reason we went was to visit our students.  Some of our past students now represent trading companies, while current ones volunteer as interpreters and assistants: If you enjoy spending a day with a massive crowd, come for a visit during next year’s trade fair!  (to really appreciate it, look at this blog of the same event from three years ago:  http://www.robnetts.net/2013/06/trade-expo-2013/)

Trade Fair Addendum – for Techies Only!

If you’re one of “those people” (e.g. engineers, IT, etc) who enjoy technology-related stuff, here are a few more details about cool stuff at the trade fair.  Otherwise, click the big red “X” in the corner of your browser window now!

They did have some very crowded Virtual Reality (VR) exhibits, but this was about as close as we could get:

The popularity of this breakout technology probably says something about its future.  You could also stand in line to try out full-motion simulators (semi-VR?):UAV (drone) displays showed some pretty interesting commercial applications, like this purpose-built drone designed for “crop dusting” (a very dangerous job for manned aircraft): This big one is being manufactured here in Yunnan province:China has become a world leader in high-speed transit, and this exhibit was reaching out to municipalities seeking to build new mass-transit systems:Along with this child, I was particularly impressed by this “stored energy vehicle.”  It converts and stores up to 80% of the vehicle’s braking energy in “ultra-capacitors” with a 12 year service life (~ 1 million cycles):Such high efficiency allows the implementation of a low-noise, zero-emissions transit system without the need to install overhead catenary wires along the operating route.

3D printers were also being used to make intricate objects.  You could pay 300 RMB and have it produce a 3D image of yourself or your child:Not surprisingly, it was also being used to make historically significant images: