On June 22, 1910, the Belgian International Exposition finally ushered in the official opening of its Chinese venue.

When King Albert of Belgium and Prince Liu Ping of China appeared at the opening ceremony at the same time, tens of thousands of spectators enthusiastically waved the black, yellow and red Belgian flag and the Chinese flag of the red golden dragon.

The mystical Orient attracts curious Europeans, and the rich wallets of Europeans attract elegant merchants from the East.

The young prince invited the royal couple to visit the venue, and the beautiful Chinese prince and the majestic Belgian king walked side by side in the amazement, love, admiration and envy of the audience, and the goods from China were spread out in front of them.

Near the entrance of the venue, many Chinese-style booths were set up, mainly porcelain, embroidery, bean products, calligraphy and painting, kites, bamboo and other traditional goods, among which there were also many famous brand products such as West Lake Longjing tea, Du Jinsheng silk, Xuefang Jiang ham, etc., which had been well received in the previous World Expos.

King Albert seems to have developed a keen interest in Chinese kites, playing with a centipede kite for a long time, and the queen is stuck in front of an automatic waterwheel made of bamboo.

Seeing this, Liu Ping instructed his entourage: "Tell the person in charge of the stall that everything the king and queen like, and then all of them will be wrapped up and sent to the palace, and the account will be counted on my head." ”

The entourage obeyed the order, and Liu Ping walked to the king and his wife with a smile: "Your Majesty, Honorable King and Queen, there are more meaningful exhibits in front of you." ”

Indeed, if you only look at the booths at the entrance, you will inevitably give the impression that "China was such a simple, natural, and interesting agricultural country".

However, it only takes a few more steps to turn a corner, and what is presented to the unfamiliar audience is a grand scene that is enough to make people's hearts tremble, as if they have stepped into the future world of science fiction.

A freshly painted single-engine plane that appears to have two seats hangs from the ceiling, and a large three-engine plane with two open-air pilots and a closed cabin with three glass portholes on each side is parked on the ground.

Liu Ping personally introduced it to the king with pride: "Your Majesty, this is the 'Huofeng' multi-purpose aircraft and the 'Green Cloud' passenger plane manufactured by China's Beiyang Heavy Industry Group, the former can fly 400 kilometers with two crew members, and the latter can fly 1,000 kilometers with two crew members and 11 passengers, with a speed of 120 to 140 kilometers per hour, that is, it can fly from Amsterdam to London in three hours. ”

King Albert almost opened his mouth to swallow a watermelon, knowing that his country now has only two single-seater planes imported from the United States, purely a combination of wood, wire, canvas and engines, which look not much more complicated than a bicycle, and can only fly for a maximum of an hour at a time, and are in the air like a seagull that is injured and will fall at any time.

"Now I can finally understand why so many people would be fascinated by the yellow peril theory of that polio patient......"

King Albert wrote in his diary that day.

More of the king's amazement was yet to come.

"Your Majesty, look at this car, how expensive do you think it should be?" Liu Ping pointed to a black car on the booth and asked the king.

"Although it looks simple, cars are complex machines after all, and they cost two or three hundred pounds." The king replied in general terms.

"Your Majesty, this is the 'Jidian' car produced by China's Zhang's Jetta Automobile Company, which only sells for 70 pounds in the Chinese market, which is two to three times cheaper than the domestic price of cars made in Germany and the United States."

Without waiting for the king to react, Liu Ping pointed to a white sedan with an elegant and smooth appearance and noble and elegant interior and exterior decorations: "Of course, we also have a high-end Beiyang Heavy Industry 'Wang Hu II' car, please look here, now my country's royal family and high-ranking officials are using this as a special car." Your Majesty, on behalf of the Emperor of China, please allow me to present this car to the King and his wife as a testimony to the friendship between China and Belgium. ”

When the interpreter conveyed these words to the king, the king happily shook Liu Ping's hand: "On behalf of my family, I thank the warm and generous Chinese royal family, and wish your father and emperor good health and a long life." ”

"Your Highness, what is this?" The queen became interested in a white cabinet with a tail in the corner, which buzzed from time to time.

Liu Ping smiled earnestly, opened the cabinet door, and motioned for the queen to put her hand in.

The queen retracted her hand like an electric shock: "Oh my God, it's cold and cold, is there ice in it?" ”

"No, this is a 'refrigerator' made by our company Qiuxin Machinery, which uses electricity instead of ice cubes to keep it cold, you can use it to chill whiskey or make ice cream, and of course, it can also be used to preserve fresh foods such as raw meat. It's a small cold storage that's easy to house, and I have one in my own dormitory. Liu Ping showed a bright smile and white teeth to everyone - what a perfect advertising ambassador.

In another time and space history, the real refrigerator was invented in the 20s, and in 1920, an engineer named Willis Carlile of a lithographic printing shop in Brooklyn, New York, designed a new system that could control temperature and humidity. On this basis, some companies have improved and manufactured some smaller household refrigerators according to the needs of customers, at first, this is a noisy, leaky new invention, in fact, it is only an old mechanical "ice box" shell with a motor and a rotating belt, which makes it look like a test product.

In 1923, when Frekiddale was still a branch of General Motors, it introduced a new mechanical refrigerator component and assembled it into a refrigerator. Frekiddale refrigerators are designed to pack the "ice box" and refrigeration machinery part of the perishable food into a special cabinet. The device is quiet, convenient and compact. At this point, a new style of refrigerator was born with the ubiquitous brand name.

In this time and space, the company and the "NEWTIME" brand electrical appliances are destined to create a glorious history that makes the European and American industries linger.

As the group approached the next booth, a cool breeze blew in front of them, and a dozen "little windmills" of different sizes, heights, or exposed or encased in wire cages were spinning rapidly, and it was these small windmills that brought a pleasant cool breeze in early summer and June.

"Very beautiful electric fan, better than American products." The king nodded in approval.

In 1882, Huey Skatz-Hoira, the chief technician of the Krocarzkatzis Engine Plant in New York, USA, was the first to invent the commercial electric fan. The following year, the factory began mass production, and the electric fan at that time was a desktop electric fan with only two blades.

In 1908, the American Eco Engine and Electric Company successfully developed the world's first gear-driven electric fan that shook its head left and right. This kind of electric fan prevented unnecessary 360-degree rotor air supply, and became the mainstream of future sales.

The fans sent by China to the World Exposition are all produced by Huang's Dada Machinery Company, and are not only equipped with gear-driven left and right shaking heads, but also equipped with wind buttons and timers, and are also lightweight and simple in appearance, in addition to exhibiting various types of ceiling fans for large public facilities.

"I like bicycles very much, bicycles originated in Europe, but I didn't expect China to make such a good bicycle." The king sighed after seeing a batch of bicycles sent to the exhibition by Zhang's Rongxin company.

The queen stared at a two-wheeled bicycle that looked much bulkier than the ones in front of her, and wondered, "Why doesn't this bicycle have pedals?" ”

"My dear, I know it's called a 'motorcycle.'" The king gently put his arm around the queen's shoulders.

In 1885, the German Zeimler invented and manufactured the world's first motorcycle powered by a gasoline engine, at that time the frame and wheels of this original motorcycle were made of wood, the wheels were wrapped in iron sheets, and the engine was placed in a square wooden frame under the frame, and there were two small support wheels on each side of the wooden frame, which was used to prevent tipping when stationary. Therefore, the car is actually four-wheeled. The single-cylinder fan-cooled engine has a two-stage deceleration drive through belts and gears to drive the rear wheels forward. Its engine cylinder has a working volume of 264mL, a maximum power of 0.37kW, and a speed of only 12 kilometers per hour, which is not much faster than walking, and because there is no shock absorption device, it is a veritable "bone-shaking car" when driving on the stone streets of the 19th century.

After that, in 1903, Harry Company of the United States produced the "No. 1 market model" with a bicycle frame, and the engine cylinder working volume of the car was 409mL and the power was 2.94kW, but because it still failed to solve the shock absorption problem, it was finally entered into the museum.

Since then, with the emergence of a series of new inventions and new technologies, motorcycles have begun to have practical value, mass production in factories, and become commodities, which is the second generation of motorcycles, that is, motorcycles called commodity generation.

The "Lightning" motorcycle of Zhang's Rongxin company's completely independent intellectual property rights exhibited in China not only adopts pneumatic rubber tires, ball bearings, clutches and transmissions, front suspension suspension systems, spring seats and other world-recognized commodity motorcycle technology, but also has high performance and relatively low price, and has obtained a large number of orders in the military and political aspects in China, and has also become a fashionable transportation and racing tool for the middle and upper classes.

"Amazing, amazing." The king was left with admiration - especially when he saw the "Shennong" brand large agricultural crawler tractor of Beiyang Heavy Industry.

"It can work instead of fifty to a hundred horses." Liu Ping said proudly.

From 1881 to 1888, some British and American inventors, after many experiments, finally built a tracked car that could walk freely on soft fields and had great traction. It can also tow a variety of agricultural machinery such as ploughshares and ploughshares to plough and sow seeds in the field. This is the first crawler tractor. It was not until 1907 that a tracked tractor with an internal combustion engine was put into production.

The "Shennong" brand tractor sent by Beiyang Heavy Industry is improved on the basis of the "Tieniu" brand steam tractor that has been mass-produced before, which has stronger horsepower, better mobility, and can be equipped with more kinds of mechanized farm tools.

"It's a miracle, Napoleon, get up and see, your sleeping lion is awake,......" the king muttered to himself to his imaginary netherworld.