Global Times: Walking into the venue of the Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, before it officially kicks off on Wednesday, visitors are greeted by piano-playing robots. As their mechanical fingers rise and fall on the keys, the melody of Jay Chou’s “Blue and White Porcelain” echoes gently through the exhibition hall. This scene of human-machine collaboration has become an intuitive display of technology at the venue.
This is one of the many experience areas of the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting organized with advanced technology, allowing attendees to feel the practical application of technological innovation up close. The 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting will be held in Beijing on March 25 till March 29.
In the press center experience area, a range of new technologies and equipment are displayed in an orderly manner, covering multiple fields such as digital interaction, intelligent equipment and livelihood-related technologies.
A 3D printing solution provided by a tech company at the scene showcased core technologies such as high-speed multi-color printing and intelligent calibration, which enable customized production, integrating industrial-grade technology into consumer-grade applications.
The glass-free 3D exhibition area presents clear and layered three-dimensional visual effects without the need for any equipment, providing an intuitive and immersive experience; in addition, AR glasses from tech company LLVISION, with a lightweight body of only 49 grams, support real-time translation of more than 100 languages, with a full-sentence translation delay of only 0.5 seconds and a battery life of up to 8 hours, offering a convenient and efficient solution for cross-language communication.
The technology plus health section also features a wide range of exhibits. At the scene, equipment such as photoelectric shooting equipment and VR sports experiences bring technological achievements closer to daily life, attracting attendees to line up and try them.
In addition to the piano robot’s performance, the Global Times reporter also saw another group of robots performing melody of “Jasmine Flower” with piano and drums in the main exhibition hall.
The performance robots had clear divisions of labor, responsible for playing the piano, drums, and dancing, respectively. They cooperated smoothly and fully performed the piece of music, intuitively demonstrating the technical level of multi-agent collaborative control.
Liu Shu, a staff member from Beijing-based Linkerbot – the manufacturer of the robot that was playing “Blue and White Porcelain” – told the Global Times that their robot band members are capable of playing drums, piano, suona, and more, delivering live performances using real instruments.
In the hall of the Zhongguancun Forum Annual Meeting, the Global Times reporter also observed the full operation process of a fully autonomous robot cafeteria. With the Zhiyuan AI brain as the core, the cafeteria coordinates multiple robots from a Chinese robotics company to jointly carry out tasks such as beverage preparation. The whole process has a high degree of automation and fast response speed, and a beverage can be prepared within a few minutes.
“I believe that only through such deep integration of mass entrepreneurship and innovation can our technology truly emerge from the laboratory, no longer just cold data and papers, but something visible and tangible to the people. Only then can we create truly warm products that serve the public,” a staff member at the robot cafeteria told the Global Times.
The Global Times learned that this year’s forum takes “Full Integration Between Technological and Industrial Innovation” as its annual theme and is expected to attract thousands of guests from more than 100 countries and regions. The forum has five major sections, namely forums, achievement releases, technology transactions, cutting-edge competitions, and supporting activities.
