From July 28 to 29, a delegation from the Asia Simulation Federation — led by Secretary-General Jingnong Weng and Chief Strategist Weixi Gong, joined by Wen Zhang, Director of the Economic News Division of the Zhejiang Provincial Foreign Affairs Office — conducted an in-depth research visit to Taizhou. The itinerary connected smart factories, science and innovation service platforms, coastal cultural tourism sites, and local universities, opening a deep dialogue between industry-academia-research collaboration and the real economy.

Empowering high-quality regional economic development is a key strategic mission for the Asia Simulation Federation, and also a critical initiative through which China-based international science and technology organizations align with the national "15th Five-Year Plan" and serve the broader national development agenda. This research visit focused on four core tracks: digital twins, smart manufacturing, international industry-academia-research collaboration, and the digitalization of smart cultural tourism. The delegation went deep into the industrial front lines, conducting on-site research into the practical application of simulation technology and the current state of Taizhou's industrial internationalization. Through discussion and exchange, the two sides built consensus and jointly explored new pathways for multi-party collaboration to empower regional economic upgrading, achieving fruitful results.

This research visit was jointly planned by the Asia Simulation Federation, the Zhejiang Provincial Foreign Affairs Office, and the Taizhou Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, with the Taizhou Municipal Foreign Affairs Office coordinating the full itinerary and arranging dedicated staff to accompany the delegation throughout.

Visit Record: From "Traditional Manufacturing" to "Digital Smart Manufacturing" — Unlocking the Code to Industrial Upgrading

The first stop of the research visit was Wenling Leo Group Co., Ltd. As a leading publicly listed domestic pump manufacturer, Leo Group has committed to a dual-engine strategy of "smart manufacturing + digital marketing," building a modern smart factory centered on digital twin technology. The company holds more than 300 independently developed core patents, and its self-developed RPC liquid-cooled canned motor pump station ranks among the international technological frontier. Its permanent magnet synchronous motors and complete lines of industrial and residential smart pumps are exported worldwide, sold in more than 160 countries. The plant's automated, digitalized production lines run in an orderly fashion, making it a model example of industrial simulation and digital production-line modeling in practical application.

The delegation toured the 5G + digital twin production workshop, experiencing the fully intelligent production process firsthand: AI visual inspection precisely identifies minor product defects, AGV autonomous transport vehicles shuttle back and forth handling material logistics, and the simulation system continuously optimizes the production line layout, using digital modeling to anticipate equipment failures in advance. The delegation held discussions with the company's management and technical teams, exploring feasible approaches for the continued iteration of the smart factory's simulation systems.

On the 29th, the delegation traveled to Huangyan, known as "China's Hometown of Molds," to explore the transformative momentum behind its hundred-billion-yuan mold industry. Huangyan is home to more than 4,000 mold manufacturers and related upstream/downstream enterprises, including over 120 above-scale mold companies, covering the full industry chain from mold design, special steel materials, and CNC precision machining to surface treatment and mold trial testing — forming a complete, closed-loop industrial ecosystem. A workforce of 100,000 skilled industry craftsmen supports the sector, with the district's total mold industry output approaching RMB 30 billion in 2025. The itinerary included visits to Saihao Industrial, the Smart Mold Town Exhibition Hall, and the China (Huangyan) International Design & Innovation Bay.

Saihao Industrial specializes in high-end precision injection molds and is a well-known industry benchmark enterprise, serving as Vice President unit of the China Die & Mould Industry Association. The company's production floor has fully adopted an integrated CAD/CAE/CAM simulation design system, with five-axis linkage high-speed machining centers running at full capacity, and has built a comprehensive database for mold mechanics and injection-molding simulation. The company focuses on the R&D and manufacturing of precision molds for mid-to-high-end automobiles, with products supplied to domestic and international automakers including BYD, Geely, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen, with more than 60% of products exported to markets in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Backed by a provincial-level enterprise R&D center, technology center, and smart mold research institute, the company has charted an innovative development path of "accumulated experience → technical breakthroughs → industrial integration." The delegation gained a close-up understanding of the integration of precision manufacturing and digital simulation in practice, engaging in in-depth discussions on topics including independent innovation in core technologies, the promotion of domestic industrial software, and the joint development of international standards for the mold industry — generating many innovative ideas.

The delegation then visited the Smart Mold Town Exhibition Hall, a digital showcase window for Huangyan's mold industry that combines a mold industry museum, an industrial "brain" data center, a digital interactive experience zone, and a business negotiation space. As a key innovation hub along the Yongning River Science and Innovation Belt, its digital display screens vividly illustrate the symbiotic industrial ecosystem of "molds + auto parts + new materials + smart equipment."

The China (Huangyan) International Design & Innovation Bay was developed as an upgrade of the Huangyan Mold Industrial Design Base, a national-level public service demonstration platform for small and medium-sized enterprises. Having undergone three phases of renovation and upgrading, the park now brings together four major functional zones — industrial design, urban-industrial integration, youth-driven smart manufacturing, and innovation and entrepreneurship — cultivating a new business model that integrates "design + technology + culture." The delegation held discussions with the park's operating team, exploring pathways for industrial design to empower the transformation of traditional manufacturing. From the digital transformation of individual factories, to the coordinated upgrading of industrial clusters, to front-end innovation and design empowerment, Taizhou's complete and resilient mold industry supply chain provides fertile ground for the large-scale application of simulation technology in complex industrial settings.

The final stop of the research visit was Taizhou University, where a dedicated discussion forum was held. Representatives from Taizhou's Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism, and other municipal functional departments, along with representatives from the university, attended. All parties held in-depth discussions on topics including international industry-academia-research collaboration, tackling challenges in industrial digitalization, cultivating versatile industrial talent, and jointly building a public simulation cloud service platform for small and medium-sized enterprises, working together to continue providing intellectual support for the digital transformation of local manufacturing. All attendees agreed that this research visit and exchange would serve as an opportunity to establish a regular, long-term cooperation mechanism, promoting the local implementation and transformation of scientific and technological innovations in the field of simulation in Taizhou, and empowering the digital upgrading of Taizhou's manufacturing industry and its high-quality economic development.

Breaking New Ground in Cultural Tourism: Digital Twins Break Down Boundaries, Sketching a New Vision of Immersive Cultural Tourism

Amid the packed schedule of industrial research, the delegation visited Shitang in Wenling, experiencing the unique charm where a coastal fishing village meets digital cultural tourism. The local area continues to preserve its distinctive stone-house dwellings while cultivating a boutique homestay industry, forging a distinctive path where cultural heritage preservation and tourism development advance hand in hand. The delegation strolled through distinctive homestays and immersive cultural tourism spaces, exploring ways to balance the preservation of ancient fishing village culture with diverse tourism experiences, and envisioning the broad prospects for digital twin and simulation technology to empower innovative development in coastal cultural tourism.

OBSERVATION AND REFLECTIONS

This research visit spanned three areas — Wenling, Huangyan, and Jiaojiang — covering a diverse range of entities including leading manufacturing enterprises, distinctive industrial clusters, public science and innovation platforms, coastal cultural tourism sites, and local universities. From the on-the-ground application of digital twins on factory floors, to the development of regional public science and innovation platforms, to cutting-edge technology R&D at universities, the visit offered a comprehensive view of Taizhou's region-wide digital transformation strategy. This visit stands as a vivid example of provincial and municipal foreign affairs departments, grounded in the broader agenda of opening up, serving as a bridge to drive deep integration of international industry-academia-research collaboration. Over a compact and productive day and a half, all parties engaged in thorough communication and reached consensus on multiple areas of cooperation.

The Taizhou trip was not only an exercise in supply-demand matching and technical negotiation, but also a real-world validation of the Asia Simulation Federation's philosophy that "everything can be simulated, and simulation lights the way to the future." Simulation technology is no castle in the air — it is rooted in front-line production, solving real engineering challenges and translating into tangible industrial value. As a major manufacturing hub in Zhejiang Province, Taizhou boasts a well-developed industrial supply chain and rich industrial application scenarios, making it an excellent testing ground for the pilot implementation and continued iteration of simulation technology.

At the same time, the digitalization of cultural tourism continues to expand the boundaries of simulation technology's applications. Digital twin technology has long since moved beyond the virtual replication of industrial equipment, advancing toward the construction of entire immersive environments — a leap from "digitally replicating physical reality" to "digitally reconstructing immersive experience." This visit generated several areas of cooperative intent, forging an innovative new model in which foreign affairs institutions, local industry, and international science and technology organizations work together to empower the real economy — laying a solid foundation for regular, deeper cooperation going forward.

Looking to the long term, the key to translating cooperation into concrete outcomes lies in building a stable, long-term multi-party collaboration mechanism, opening up channels connecting cutting-edge international science and innovation resources with the transformation needs of local industry, and driving the deep integration of simulation technology into every link of the industrial chain — ensuring that cooperation does not remain merely at the proposal stage. This is not only an urgent practical question for the high-quality development of Taizhou's manufacturing sector, but also a challenge of the times shared by many cities across China as they advance digital-intelligent transformation.