Building Smart Cities: Lessons from China's Top 10 Smart Cities

Smart city is a smarter approach through the use of new technologies such as 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and other core areas to change the way governments, businesses and citizens interact with each other through areas such as livelihood, environmental protection, public safety, urban services, industrial and commercial activities to improve urban performance and create better urban life for people.

China is investing heavily in the digital transformation of its cities. With a top-down approach to urban development, the country can effectively bring together industries and resources to support the national goal of smart city development.

Cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, etc. have all made significant progress in addressing the challenges of urbanization and embracing technology to improve convenience and efficiency.

Today, nearly 4 billion people live in cities globally, with estimates that more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. This rapid urbanization increases waste management pressures, traffic pollution, and energy consumption, all of which have adverse impacts on the environment. With China being the world’s most populous country, addressing the impending pressures of urbanization is particularly important. And they are betting big on smart cities to alleviate the pressures of urbanization.

Smart cities see the adoption of data-sharing smart technologies including IoT to improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve the quality of life of city dwellers. And in 2011, China’s 12th Five-Year Plan announced its intention to develop “digital cities” across the country, with the central government playing a key role in their development and implementation.

Policymakers have redirected significant resources to accelerate technological innovation, including the development of 5G technology, artificial intelligence (AI), new energy vehicles, and cloud computing. In early 2020 alone, the Chinese government decided on a $1.4 trillion fiscal plan to support technological innovation in digital transformation and smart city development.

China is also leveraging its tech giants to support the development and implementation of smart cities. China’s homegrown tech giants are playing a key role in driving the modernization of city infrastructure, with companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, Didi Chuxing, Baidu, and Huawei already deploying their technologies toward the goal of developing smart cities.

Here are the top 10 smart cities in China and the unique ways they are implementing them.

1. Nanjing City

Topping the list of China’s top smart cities is Nanjing. As the 11th largest city in China by gross domestic product (GDP), Nanjing is well-positioned to expand smart infrastructure investments and initiatives.

One of the city’s first goals was to provide a transportation system for its 8 million residents, which includes 10,000 taxis, 7,000 buses, and 1 million private vehicles. To help manage the traffic, a next-generation smart transportation system was installed that uses sensors and radio frequency identification (RFID) chips to generate data on individual travel behavior, fares, road conditions, and area accessibility. Updated data is then sent directly to smartphones to improve congestion without the need to build new roads.

The city is now proposing to build the Nanjing Eco-High-Tech Island project in collaboration with Singapore to take advantage of Singapore's expertise in smart city planning.

This project represents Nanjing's future and aspiration to become a high-tech innovation development and practice center in areas such as IT services, ecological environmental services, modern service industry and modern agricultural service industry.

The highlight of the proposal is that the island would be low-carbon, with all commercial and residential buildings on the island running on renewable energy sources, primarily solar and hydrogen. Additionally, the proposal promises no factories or manufacturing plants would be built, thereby reducing air pollution.

2. Zhuhai City

Zhuhai has made a major effort to become a model smart city in China, spending at least $195 million since 2017 to promote innovation in its four key industries: semiconductors, AI, biomedicine, and new materials. Leveraging domestic tech giants including Huawei, Tencent, and ZTE, Zhuhai has integrated many technologies, big data, and AI into the real economy.

At the city level, Zhuhai seeks to deploy digital infrastructure under a “smart brain” powered by next-generation big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology. Numerous smart applications will also explore urban governance, digital economy, and cross-border cooperation, as well as optimize services for daily life. Furthermore, Zhuhai is currently leading in internet access; all villages and large islands with more than 20 households are covered by fiber optic and 4G networks.

3. Shenzhen City

As China's third most populous city, Shenzhen is also known as China's Silicon Valley because of its explosive growth in technology and software, with many of the country's tech giants such as Huawei and Tencent founded here.

Leveraging this relationship, Shenzhen has been able to apply AI and big data technology to a variety of sectors, such as transportation, healthcare, and social security. Some recent examples include traffic light management that matches real-time traffic conditions and cloud data that helps hospitals speed up the diagnosis of COVID-19 cases. Digital infrastructure will ultimately help the city determine where to focus and allocate resources to where they are most needed, effectively saving the government and companies billions of dollars each year.

4. Hangzhou City

Hangzhou, home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, has embraced the concept of a “cashless society,” where supermarkets, restaurants, and mobile payments are a part of everyday life. Alibaba’s AI-based City Brain system has been in place since 2016, monitoring traffic conditions and adjusting traffic lights to reduce travel times and even emergency vehicle response times.

City Brain uses AI to collect information from across Hangzhou, such as video from intersection cameras and GPS data on the locations of cars and buses operating in the city. The platform analyzes the information in real time and coordinates more than 1,000 road signals around the city with the aim of preventing or easing traffic congestion.

Since implementing City Brain, the city has increased its signal control capabilities by 15%, effectively reducing travel times by three minutes, no small feat. Emergency vehicles are also able to respond 50% faster on average. City Brain has also been deployed in many parking lots, enabling “park first, pay later” systems to ease congestion near major transport hubs and at hospitals where patients can be treated first and pay later.

5. Chongqing City

According to the Chongqing Big Data Application Development and Management Agency, the city has always been moving towards data integration. The city has optimized its service system to expand data from laws, regulations, standards, platforms, innovative applications, and data market development.

More than 800 data items have been made public by Chongqing, including 48 departments and agencies in various fields from market supervision, tax, justice, transportation, etc. But Chongqing's smart city brand comes from applying smart solutions to solve wastewater treatment problems and harmoniously combining natural elements with technology.

To solve the problem of wastewater treatment, the city government uses smart urban drainage solutions, with a network of sensors installed in pipes, allowing real-time data monitoring and making effective environmental forecasts.

The system is used to monitor, analyze and forecast the operating status of drainage systems, urban flood risks, impacts on natural geology as well as water reuse activities.

Through centralized data analysis software, authorities can protect people from flooding and limit pollution on the Yangtze River, Asia's longest river and a vital source of water for people.

Chongqing is also building Cloud Valley, a smart city project that uses 100% artificial intelligence in everything from public transportation to manufacturing, through a technology platform that allows seamless connection between the digital and real worlds.

The city uses sensors and connected devices to collect data on everything from residents’ eating habits to pollution levels. The project aims to make people more comfortable and efficient, with robots delivering coffee and office chairs tidied up after meetings.

Innovation and development are on the rise in Chongqing. As of the end of 2017, the city had more than 120 industrial robot enterprises operating and is now one of the country's leading robot industrial bases, with sales revenue reaching US$14 billion.

Chongqing also pays great attention to data sharing and integration; in September and October 2020, the city issued relevant measures to regulate the opening of public data related to data catalogs and system management. The city is also the first national 5G test site, paving the way for its role in China's rapidly developing smart industry.

6. Guangzhou City

There are more startups in the city of Guangzhou than anywhere else in China and it is one of the earliest adopters of smart programs and AI technology across government systems from weather forecasting to personal identification.

With the help of cloud data systems, government employees can easily access and use government resources, improving the efficiency of services. The city is also building more than 80,000 5G base stations and promoting the development of the automobile industry using the city's new energy sources to reduce carbon emissions.

Guangzhou aims to build more than 4,000 public charging stations, with more than 50,000 public charging points across the city to support the transition to new energy sources.

7. Beijing City

As the capital city, Beijing is looking to significantly improve the efficiency and convenience of public services, from transportation to social security. Accordingly, the city has introduced the Beijing Citizen Social Service Card, a virtual card that holds key information such as identification and health status.

As another cashless city, Beijing residents can pay for all sorts of services like public transport and goods using just their smartphones. Transportation is also greatly improved thanks to real-time simulation of road networks to analyze congestion points.

According to the plan, by 2025, a high-quality data-driven development model will be basically established, allowing Beijing to join the ranks of cities with advanced digital economies worldwide. By 2030, Beijing will develop into a digitally empowered major city with the added value of the digital economy accounting for a more significant proportion of the city's GDP.

The digital economy is closely linked to people's daily lives. Beijing will also comprehensively promote the intelligent transformation of city water, electricity, gas and heat meters, and build smart buildings and smart communities with high cognitive density.

In terms of medical care, Beijing plans to build a new medical service system integrating health management, disease diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation care, and elderly care services. The government will also promote the development and production of intelligent medical imaging equipment, surgical robots, rehabilitation robots, AI-assisted diagnosis systems, and other intelligent medical devices.

8. Tianjin City

Like Nanjing, the city of 15 million is also working with Singapore to develop and build an eco-city. Built on 30 square kilometers of reclaimed wetlands, the eco-city will rely on solar and geothermal energy for power generation and use waste heat from a nearby power plant for heating.

Half of the city’s water needs will be met through recycled or desalinated water. Green buildings will also house 350,000 residents. Minimizing environmental impact is key to the project, which will use technology to efficiently collect, sort and process waste, while the city will also deploy driverless public buses and smart bus stops to provide more convenient travel for the city’s growing population.

9. Shanghai City

Shanghai's reputation as one of the leading smart cities in China and the world is largely due to its Citizen Cloud app, which is considered the world's leading citizen data platform, based on cloud computing, AI and big data technology.

Through this app, Shanghai citizens can access 1,274 online public services such as birth and marriage registration, cultural services, education, tourism, social security, transportation, medical treatment, legal services and elderly care.

Citizens can also easily look up real-time traffic conditions and weather forecasts. This is also the easiest way for Shanghai residents to connect directly with authorities. There are currently 14.5 million people using the Citizen Cloud app. Every day, about 75,000 public services are processed through the platform. Resident information is shared by 39 government agencies connected to the platform.

Residents can also use it to store documents such as marriage certificates, ID cards, business and driving licenses, and residence permits. A common problem for Chinese cities is traffic congestion; for Shanghai, the city has built a traffic information framework that details everything from road traffic to public parking data. More than 1,600 LCD screens and more than 1,700 solar-powered electronic station signs are installed throughout the city, providing accurate arrival times for public transport.

10. Chengdu City

Often referred to as the home of the giant panda, Chengdu has also become a leader in China’s digital economy and was the first city to roll out a Gigabit Internet connection. To improve convenience, the city has widely adopted cashless systems, but they work a little differently than other cities like Beijing and Hangzhou.

Here, residents essentially “pay with their faces” by scanning QR codes and facial recognition on their smartphones when they purchase goods and services at stores. The entire process usually takes only 5 to 45 seconds. Smart applications and 5G networks are increasingly being used to handle public transport, transportation, education, healthcare, employment and commerce services.

In short, as a country undergoing rapid urbanization, urban issues are increasingly receiving attention in China. The country has been developing a trillion-dollar investment plan to create hundreds of smart cities across the country. With its existing advantages, success in the world's leading smart city construction projects is probably just a matter of time for this country./.