By Paul Carsten WUZHEN, China (Reuters) - China showed governments and the planet's biggest tech firms last week its vision for global Internet governance - clean, controlled and choreographed.

Public officials and firms worth $2.5 trillion in market value, from Apple Inc to Facebook Inc, got first-hand exposure in the postcard-perfect town of Wuzhen as China showcased its first 'World Internet Conference' (WIC).

"This place (Wuzhen) is crowded with tourists, who are perfectly orderly," Lu Wei, China's Internet czar and director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said at the opening ceremony. "Cyberspace should also be free and open, with rules to follow and always following the rule of law."

Many attendants saw China hosting the summit as a step forward. Yet for skeptics, the controlled environment of the summit reinforced industry concerns that Beijing's lip service to a "free and open" Internet rings hollow, with the government's iron grip on the online i