Photo taken on Nov 1, 2018 from the Baiyulan Plaza shows a view of the Lujiazui area in Pudong of Shanghai, east China. （FANGZHE / XINHUA）

SHANGHAI - Shanghai was named the world's "smartest city" on Wednesday at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), becoming the first Chinese city to win this award.

Since 2011, the award has taken place in Barcelona every November. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the award took place from Tuesday to Wednesday this year in Barcelona, Shanghai, and New York simultaneously, both online and offline

The World Smart City Awards are presented annually by SCEWC to promote diversity, inclusiveness, equality, safety, and collaboration.

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Shanghai won the City Award category at the SCEWC this year. Stockholm won the award last year.

Since 2011, the SCEWC has taken place in Barcelona every November. Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the SCEWC took place from Tuesday to Wednesday this year in Barcelona, Shanghai, and New York simultaneously, both online and offline.

Mao Huidong, CEO of the Smart City Expo World Congress and Tomorrow City in the Greater China area, said that the award is a comprehensive demonstration of the effectiveness and achievements of Shanghai's smart city construction in recent years.

At present, Shanghai has 31,400 5G outdoor base stations and 49,800 5G indoor small stations.

According to Shanghai's deputy mayor Wu Qing, Shanghai attaches great importance to the leading role of digitalization, networking, and intelligence in urban development. The city will further promote the digital transformation and strive to build a smart city that provides a sense of gain, happiness, and security to its residents. 

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