The much-anticipated permanent conference venue—Wuzhen Internet International Convention Center is unveiled. Designed by the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, Professor Wang Shu of the Chinese Academy of Arts, the architecture is a perfect combination of traditional and modern styles. Some 2.6 million Chinese South Yangtze River style tiles are used to decorate the facade and 51,000 cables are intertwined like a web to imply the Internet.

“It was very difficult to build.” Wang Shu drained his mind to adjust the possible visual abruptness that this large building might bring to a small town like Wuzhen, where residential houses are ancient and small. “To make the huge convention center compatible with the surroundings, special skills have to be used to make this gigantic building hide like a ‘stealth aircraft’ instead of standing out.”

“It’s interesting that Wuzhen has a relationship with the Internet,” said Wang Shu. The ancient water town is built among the all-connected waterways and the 80 more bridges. Such an alignment perfectly goes with the Internet concept of “connecting the world”. This implication is also borrowed to the design of the Convention Center, three buildings of which are built around the pond orienting to the south, east, and north. In Wang Shu’s design, there is a dock in the pond, where the rickety Wu Peng Chuan(boats with black shelters) can dock at any time. “The reception center serves as a sitting room of Wuzhen. It is also the COM port connecting the world.”