November 10,2011, The just closed 7th Wuhan China Optical Valley Opto-electronic exhibition and forum attracted full support of local government and 518 exhibitors including 155 overseas exhibitors. From November 2nd to 5th, in the center of Wuhan Optical valley, Wuhan showed her capability, her dream, and her dedication in the opto-electronic industry to the world.

This year, the exhibition was set up into 8 sections, including optical communication, laser and infrared, optical electronic display, LED lighting, optics and optics components, consumer opto electronic, medicine opto electronic, and earth/space information section. Including Fiberhome, HG group, and YOFC, all local optical communication giants attended the show.

Since 1970s, Wuhan has become one of the optical communication research centers in mainland China. Wuhan Telecom Research Institute became the base of optical system development. Wuhan Telecom Device was the first optical component company in mainland China. YOFC was the first fiber and cable manufacturer, and Accelink became the first public optical component company. Because the history and resources in this field, local government announced they would become China optical valley in year 2000.  But compared to Shenzhen, Shanghai and other seaside cities, Wuhan's developing pace is a little slow, at the same time, many talented engineers left Wuhan for companies in Shenzhen and Shanghai. Recently, because of the new central development policy and more expensive commercial environment in seaside cities, Wuhan attracted more attention. People began to come back to Wuhan. This year's show is a good representation of this trend.

HG Group is a state-hold public company. Within the group, transceiver company HG Genuine and Laser manufacturer HG Laser are two most famous companies. In this year, HG group is the largest exhibitor and attracts large attention from both government officials and public media.

Raycus Laser is a new start up company which focuses on fiber laser products. The company announced them the 3rd fiber laser manufacturer around the world after IPG and SPI. Some other local component companies also showed their new technology advancement. Yilut demonstrated their full series PLC products. Fode, a former connector manufacturer introduced their 10G products. Among all these new products, the most attractive is YOFC's fiber rod which is 2meter long and with 185mm diameter. This self developed fiber rod demonstrated YOFC's advanced technology. Also during this exhibition, YOFC announced their phase 9 expanding project successfully finished and introduced new bend insensitive multi-mode fiber. According to YOFC, the phase 9 expanding increases their manufacturing ability by 66% to 25million KM, becomes the No. 1 fiber manufacturer around the world. "We are already the No.1 fiber manufacturer in volume, next step, we want to become the strongest fiber manufacturer in the world. " Said by Mr. Zhang Mu, VP of YOFC.

Although there are really some attractions this year, the show is still far less a successful commercial show. You can easily feel the influence of local government. There are also some disorders both in the exhibition and in the forum. For the exhibitors, several important local companies like Fiberhome, WTD and Accelink did not show their best (maybe because they have less connection with local government than with central government.) Many overseas exhibitors also experienced very few traffic.

According to Wuhan local media, Huawei has decided to move its optical communication department to Wuhan. Huawei has purchased  1200 Mu area in Wuhan. In 5 years, Huawei's Wuhan Research center will have 30,000 employees. By that time, Wuhan will be a real China Optical Valley.