SHENZHEN has become one of the most advanced in China in application of digital technologies, according to experts attending the three-day digital city conference which concluded yesterday.

Shenzhen, the first city in China to launch e-government, had made prominent progress especially in economic, public service and urban planning fields, said Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Nearly 1,000 government officials from 31 provinces, 10,000 businesspeople and 100,000 residents attended the digital conference.

Booths at the Shenzhen Exhibition and Convention Center, which demonstrated Shenzhen’s digital technologies in urban administration, intelligent traffic, environmental monitoring and urban planning, attracted the most visitors.

“I ‘traveled’ virtually around the city in five minutes, and the three-dimensional simulation system is really vivid,” a student surnamed Chen from Shenzhen Middle School, said yesterday.

According to a staff member at Shenzhen’s urban planning bureau, visitors can see the city from different perspectives by inputting their location into the simulation system, which is mainly used in urban planning.

To enable residents to feel the application of digital technologies, the urban planning bureau, the organizer of the conference, invited residents to visit the bureau’s digital center, urban administration bureau and traffic control bureau.

A magic book using German technology became the center of interest at the urban planning bureau.

When you flip each page, it automatically introduces the city’s urban planning through three-dimensional illustrations and speakers.

Digital technology is also safeguarding the city’s gas pipelines.

“When you make a phone call, reporting possible gas leak at home or in public areas, the GIS (geographic information system) can simultaneously locate your position and send workers to solve the problem,” said Zhang Fang from the construction bureau’s gas pipeline administration department.