Researchers work at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, April 9, 2016. [Photo by Liu Junxi/Xinhua]

The once unknown riverside city of Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui province, has become a science and technology innovative hub by striving consistently on the road of reform and opening-up. 

Hefei's wisdom lay in its courage to invest in talents, despite the less prosperous economic reality of the late 1970s and 1980s. 

The city provided the best school buildings of the day for the University of Science and Technology of China, which, in later years, has in return empowered Hefei with numerous competent professionals. 

Local educational institutions have flourished since then, with 64 universities and institutes registered as settled in the city by 1985. 

Since those early days, Hefei has caught the attention of outsiders with varied scientific and technological breakthroughs. It was among the only three cities in China, along with Beijing and Shanghai, which were authorized to set up comprehensive national science centers in 2017, the highest recognition for its previous achievements.