Pavilion shows possibility of floating city

Shanghai - The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) Pavilion at Shanghai 2010 Expo has created concept models of ships using current technologies to show the possibility of living an entire life at sea.

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The CSSC Pavilion was one of a number of central government-led enterprise pavilions that on Tuesday launched a series of technology innovation concepts and gave examples of how technology will reshape life in the future.

Taking part in the program are the China Space Pavilion, the China Aviation Pavilion, CSSC Pavilion, the Oil Pavilion and Information and Communications Pavilion.

The CSSC Pavilion envisages a boat called the Expo Future, which will carry commercial enterprises, schools, hospitals and all other facilities needed to make a city function. The boat and the city will be powered by solar and wind energy.

Ships like the Expo Future could one day be the solution to an overpopulated planet suffering from a shortage of land.

While Expo Future presented the concept of a floating city, another model, Expo Greenland, deals with the issue of food for people living at sea.

The ship uses natural energy, water, greenhouses, farmland and food-processing plants to supply food to inhabitants of sister ships.

It is all tied together under a central control room to ensure that all links involved in the food supply chain have been taken into account.

All of those considerations are created based on the existing technologies, such as seawater desalination, filtration of wastewater, and solar and wind energy.

It means that "the connection between the land and food supply can be discharged", according to a spokesman for the CSSC Pavilion.

These are just two of the eight models created by the CSSC Pavilion. Others included those involving energy production, transportation and leisure.

Meanwhile, the State Grid Pavilion offered solutions to power and communication problems using technologies that will be up and running in China within a few years.

By using low-voltage fiber-optic cables, electricity can be added into the communications network, providing power as well as broadband network connection using the same infrastructure.

Outside the State Grid Pavilion, a large screen displays an "intelligent power meter" to tell visitors how much energy and money has been saved.

This intelligent power meter can be used in the near future to monitor energy use of home appliances, according to Teng Letian, director of the pavilion.

"It is a project that will need cooperation with appliances manufacturers," he said. Yuefu community in the Pudong area of Shanghai is being used as a testing area for the intelligence meter reading system, he added.