Visitors take pictures in front of the robots in the 3rd China (Mianyang) Science and Technology City International High-Tech Expo in Mianyang, Sichuan province, on Friday. [Photo by Huang Zhiling/www.ttav89.com]

Visitors to the 3rd China (Mianyang) Science and Technology City International High-Tech Expo in Mianyang, Sichuan province, were intrigued by a honeycomb made with a 3D printer.

They tend to ask Wang Shujuan, owner of the artificially made honeycomb, why she does not use wood as the honeycomb in keeping bees for honey. The young scholar, fresh from her overseas studies, replies that excessive use of wood would have an adverse impact on the environment.

"Honeycombs which are produced with 3D printing are made from new materials and are biodegradable," replies the holder of a master's degree in mass communications at Deakin University in Australia who has bee-keeping bases in her home county of Qingchuan in the northernmost part of Sichuan.

The honeycomb is only one of many high-tech products in the four-day 3rd China (Mianyang) Science and Technology City International High-Tech Expo which started on September 17.

Visitors can see the new-generation Beidou navigation satellite, Long March II F carrier rocket, a driving simulator of the domestically made C919 large plane and a white house where they can see the differences in the house before and after an earthquake.

Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Sichuan provincial government, the expo has a total exhibition area of 80,000 square meters with 819 exhibitors, 27 of which are Fortune 500 firms.

"The exhibitors are from 47 countries and regions and exhibit products involving information security and the Internet of Things as well as 3D printing, robots and new-energy cars," said Zhang Jinming, deputy Party chief of Mianyang.

Mianyang, the second largest city in Sichuan, is the country's only science and technology city approved by the central government in the year 2000.

Last year, its GDP was nearly 106 billion yuan ($17 billion). Nearly 7 percent of the money found its way into scientific research and development.