The ongoing aggressive investment and business duopoly between Alibaba and Tencent is perhaps nothing new to tech enthusiasts in Thailand, but China is not merely a market you should study to only understand who JD.com, Mobike or TaoBao are. Cutting-edge innovation in areas ranging from health, fashion, agriculture, and automotive that is rapidly changing, are fields that most people overlook.

Let’s take a look at China through each of its cities. Shanghai is home to major industries such as automotive, commerce, fashion and finance. Beijing is the capital city and the center of cultural, educational, political, and manufacturing sectors of China. Guangzhou is home to commerce, trade and is a shipping center, whereas Shenzhen is home to hi-tech industries. Here is a list of modern disruptive inventions run by Chinese startups in recent years:

1. The fastest electric racing car in the world 

Shanghai has long been China’s capital for the automobile industry.  From the immense development of the car industry in this region, the fastest electric racing car, Nio, was born. This car startup was founded by Li Bin, who in 2015, wanted to prove to the world that his company can produce the fastest electric car in the world within the shortest possible amount of time.

They went on to take part in Formula E, the equivalent electric car race of Formula 1, and just in the first season, Nio won the world title of the fastest electric car.

According to Li Bin, electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly and more capable of meeting the needs of autonomous driving. Both of these reasons are why electric vehicles are the future for China. Nio proved it was a legit race car later in 2017 when an autonomous version of the car completed the US version of the circuit at 250 km/h.

2. Smart glasses giving vision to the blind

Unlike Google Glass, Angeleye is a pair of extraordinary wearable tech that allows blind people to navigate their world through the use of AI and sensors, similar to that used in autonomous car. Not only can the smart glasses detect objects, but they can also recognize money bank notes, assist in text reading, recognize colours and distinguish different levels of light intensity.

Prior to this invention, many would assume that getting this type of tech and AI system to fit into a mere 45-gram pair of glasses would be be impossible. However Feng Xin Peng, the founder of Next VPU has proven the world wrong. The fact that Feng can fit this amount of power and a whole system of AI into a mobile phone and these perfect-fit glasses is an impressive phenomenon. This kind of deep learning would have been impossible a few years ago, especially when it came to having such technology fit in your pocket.

3. Connecting blockchain tech to fashion

Fashion can now literally be connected to technology. This has become a reality. BitSE is a Blockchain-as-a-service (Baas) hi-fashion wearable technology that connects clothes directly to your mobile phone. With a chip inside the cloth and with the aid of Near Field Communications (NFC), a garment can now offer more information. With just a scan, you can easily see how the garment would appear on different types of models, watch hidden videos, access special deals and upload selfies with your smartphone. Simply put, it is all about adding stories of the clothing for this generation of social media and mobile phones users.

With Shanghai being one of China’s most fashionable cities, Qian De Jun, the founder of BitSE, partnered with a hi-fashion brand Babyghost which then went on and became an outbreaking trend of the fashion industry in Shanghai. What makes this tech so revolutionary is not how it makes clothes so interactive in this digital era, but rather, in the way how all the useful information is stored, thanks to the utilization of blockchain. Through this, users can access information on who produced the cloth, where it was produced and where it was produced, including the operational process and factors such as eco-friendliness of the materials being used.

At last year’s Shanghai Fashion Week, 20 models walked the runway wearing Babyghost’s garments that told 20 different stories. By simply scanning the clothing piece, audience members received interactive information of the model who wore the clothes, the runway journey and the materials used in the making of the clothes. This really shows that blockchain can disrupt more than the finance industry.

4. A 3D printer that printed full-functioning houses in 3 days

One of the biggest 3D printing companies in China, Winsun is well-known around the world, especially for the 3D printed “Office of the Future” in Dubai and many other 3D printed houses in China. According to the founder of Winsun, Ma YiHe, constructing houses is painful and inefficient for the construction workers.

“Taking the hot weather, rough condition, dangerous environment, and time-consuming matter into account, why can’t building houses be easier like how cars or planes are manufactured by machines?”, says Ma YiHe.

The house shown above was printed by a 7-meter-tall 3D printer layer by layer. For the purpose of testing the quality and safety, the house had 28,000 kg of weight on it for one and a half days. There were a few cracks here and there, but the structure didn’t break – the 3D printed houses are actually three times stronger and more resistant than traditionally-built houses. In addition, thanks to the efficiency and the environmentally friendliness of materials used for 3D printing, costs can be reduced by up to 70%. From here, we can see the potential of 3D printing completely disrupting the manufacturing industry.

5. Nanotechnology and Augmented Reality (AR) to re-boot advertising display

Imagine the application of AR that turns ordinary glass, windows at shops or taxis into space for advertising. With nanotechnology, this is made possible. Inspired by Tom Cruise’s action movies, Chen Jia, the founder of Netcars Technology, launched a startup that conducts research dedicated for nanotechnology which leads to the design of AR optical technology, new telecommunication electronics and new material science. Other than advertising, the company also produces a smart vehicle info-system, a smart helmet and smart glasses.

6. Internet cars

Alibaba is one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world and has had a huge success in bringing everything online. Today, a startup founded by Alibaba, Banma, is also bridging cars to the Internet. The car is equipped with 4G and Wi-Fi, as well as its own operating system. It can do anything, from flying a drone to controlling anything on the Internet with the car. It can even talk to other cars, find a gas station, or even find a restaurant without the driver needing to use a phone. In the first year that it was launched, 5,000 cars were sold. Now, they’re selling 20,000 a month, while also expecting 6 million cars to adopt its operating system by 2023. As you can see, everything in China will go online, even cars – this marks the beginning of digital transformation across the automotive industry.