It’s a high profile conference, and is truly international, with half of its guest from outside of China, and featuring executives from companies like Google, Facebook, and Alibaba.

“We must strengthen communication, seek common grounds, and build a cyberspace that’s peaceful, secure, open and cooperative,” says Lu Wei, director of Chinese State Internet Information Office.

Over one thousand guests, descended on an ancient waterfront Chinese town for some trending topics.

Wuzhen village has fully geared up.

“We have prepared 1,208 rooms, including 371 rooms that are right in the local residents’ houses,” says Tang A’ming, conference staff.

Beneath the age-old exterior is a fully digitalized network. With 4G and WI-FI access readily available, and mega-bite bandwidth.

The village’s goal: to make Wuzhen a combination of technology and tradition, just like Davos in Switzerland.

“We’ve just supplied another automatic power generating vehicle, to ensure power in case of a blackout,” says Gu Leichun, from State Grid.

In a letter to the conference, President Xi Jinping said China is actively pushing forward the development of the Internet industry, and is willing to build a global Internet governing system that’s transparent and multilateral.