Starting this year, the Shanghai Science and Technology Festival will be held annually instead of once every two years.

Founded in 1991 by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, the event this year will take place from May 20 to 27 and bears the theme "Innovation: Marching into the age of becoming a global technological innovation hub".

The main venue of the event this year is the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Visitors can take part in some 1,000 activities during the festival, including forums, contests and interactive carnivals for children.

One of the highlights will be the Belt and Road technology art exhibition. Representatives from the science industry in seven countries – the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Malaysia, Singapore and China – will be exhibiting interactive experiments.

Well-known scientists from home and abroad, as well as the core management team of C919, China’s first homemade large passenger aircraft which embarked on its virgin test flight on May 5, will grace the red carpet on the opening day of the festival.

He Qi contributed to this story.