BEIJING, Sept. 12 -- Opening day of the Sixth China Beijing International High-Tech Expo (CHITEC) yesterday coincided with the Chinese traditional moon festival and resulted in contracts among domestic and foreign investors worth $650 million, reported China's People's Daily Online (PD). The PD article said participants at the expo, being held through Sept. 15 at the Beijing Exhibition Hall, have already initiated 45 projects in "environment protection, energy, traffic, crop cultivation and aquaculture, intensive processing of agriculture, education, tourism and processing. Rich fruits were reaped at the time of celebrating this traditional Chinese festival." CHITEC, originally scheduled for last spring, was postponed due to travel restrictions resulting from the SARS epidemic. The expo is jointly hosted by several ministries and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality. The organizer is the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-Council. "If you want to have a 'chat' with the latest developed intelligence robot for welcoming guests named 'qingqing,' or if you want to have a picture with China's most famous cloned sheep 'yangyang' and if you want to have a look at the wonderful Shuguang-2000 super server, you can go straight to the Beijing Exhibition Hall on Monday," the PD reported. The expo has on exhibit nearly 1000 high-tech discoveries in the fields of biology, information, automation, new materials and energy. In the exhibition area for intelligence robots, visitors can see robots for football games, car manufacturing and firefighting, the PD said. "China began to implement its national high-technology research and development program in 1986, and the exhibition shows that the program has made great contributions to the country's economic development, defense building and social development," the PD reported. "The government has funded over 6900 high-tech development projects and has decided to put another 15 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) into the field within five years," it said. For more information, visit: www.hightechbj.com/english/index.php-nav_class=000