Transformation, Tianjin style

Liu Guangming, head of the center, said the Chinese team "has shown world peers how to develop the most powerful computing systems."

Although Tianhe-1A employs central processing units and graphic processing units by and large made in the United States, putting these components at the same time to maximize speed is much of the art of supercomputing.

The Tianhe supercomputing family is expected to not only process huge amounts of data -- for aerospace, oil mining, weather forecasting and bioengineering applications -- however also perform cloud research-related functions.

The proposed Yujiapu financial district

Binhai is pinning its service sector hopes largely on the proposed Yujiapu financial district. The local government hopes Binhai's own "Wall Street" will enliven financial businesses, logistics, outsourcing and creative industries, which have already attracted 91.78 billion yuan of investment in the first half of 2011.

Binhai's "Wall Street" calls to mind Tianjin of more than a century ago. Afterwards the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation opened its Tianjin head office in 1882, it was joined by 20 foreign banks.

Internet lab in the community

In an Internet lab in the community, an older man from Liaoning Province worked on technical designs with a web-linked computer.

"For free access to the Internet and other good facilities, I came here from hundreds of kilometers away to complete a paper on pipeline engineering," the retired technician said.