High-tech lends edge to urban planning

In 2012, the Hollywood movie starring John Cusack, the United States rescues people in a Chinese-made Noah's Ark-like ship, which settles on land once cataclysmic waters have receded.

In real life too, China has an eye on building futuristic infrastructure. Leading science-fiction writer Liu Cixin, 51, envisions the country's streets full of electric cars. Simultaneously, Liu pins his hope on relatively cleaner fuels - solar, wind and even nuclear - to take over thermal and coal energy in the decades ahead.

"Gasoline stations will be replaced by charging stops where cars will go to power their batteries," Liu says over the telephone from Yangquan city in northern Shanxi province.