People's Daily - August 8, 2026

"Striving to Enhance the Capacity to Safeguard Food, Energy, and Resource Security" (The People's Commitment of the General Secretary)

By: 本报记者 邓剑洋 王云杉

Development and security are the two wings of one body, the twin wheels driving forward. General Secretary Xi Jinping deeply grasps the times and the trends, perceives dangers and opportunities, and clearly puts forward that “we must adhere to the mutual promotion of high-quality development and high-level security, and strive to enhance the capacity to guarantee food, energy, and resource security.”

On July 30, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The meeting demanded “coordinating development and security” and “doing a good job in agricultural production to secure the autumn harvest and the annual grain harvest.”

Holding steadily and firmly the 两个饭碗 “two rice bowls” (两个饭碗) of food and energy, General Secretary Xi Jinping is 念兹在兹 (niàn zī zài zī - “ever mindful of this,” always keeps it in mind).

In June this year, during an inspection in Dezhou, Shandong, the General Secretary stressed: “Ensuring stable supply of grain and other important agricultural products is the top priority of agricultural production.” In March this year, during an inspection in Xiongan New Area, Hebei, the General Secretary pointed out: “The energy issue is a strategic issue in development.”

One investigation after another, one meeting after another, one deployment after another — they manifest strategic sobriety, strategic confidence, and strategic initiative.

The “ballast stone” is more stable, reflecting the bottom-line thinking of 安不忘危 (ān bù wàng wēi - “in peace do not forget danger,” be prepared for danger in times of peace) and 见微知著 (jiàn wēi zhī zhù - “see the signs and know the outcome,” discern the whole from small clues).

From “The Chinese people’s rice bowl must at all times be firmly held in our own hands” to “The energy rice bowl must be firmly held in our own hands,” regarding holding steadily and firmly the 两个饭碗 “two rice bowls,” General Secretary Xi Jinping has deep plans and far-reaching thoughts, “coordinating development and security, improving the ability to scientifically foresee changes, promptly detect risks, and effectively respond to challenges.”

“Food and energy security are the most pressing challenges in the global development field.” This consistent and high level of importance is engraved in the footprints of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s journey.

Who will feed China? “One seed” contains the answer.

Just after arriving in Liangjiahe (梁家河), the young Comrade Xi Jinping was sent to a seed production station to learn improved variety breeding. “The farmers say, ‘A good son needs a good mother, good seeds yield more grain,’ and ‘If you don’t select seeds when farming, you’ll exhaust yourself and end up with nothing.’”

In April 2022, during an inspection in Hainan, the General Secretary entered the Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory (崖州湾种子实验室) and emphasized “Seed sources must be made independent and controllable, and seed industry science and technology must be self-reliant and self-strengthening.”

With what to light up China? “One kilowatt-hour” contains a lesson.

In 2004, when inspecting the construction project of a thermal power plant in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Comrade Xi Jinping stressed: “From a long-term perspective, we must also consider adjustments to the power structure and vigorously develop clean energy,” and further put forward the requirement of developing a diversified energy supply system.

In 2014, from the overall height of ensuring national energy security, General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively proposed a new energy security strategy of “四个革命、一个合作” “Four Reforms, One Cooperation” (四个革命、一个合作), clarifying the strategic direction of China’s energy development.

Since the new era, under the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping, China’s “两个饭碗” “two rice bowls” have been held more steadily. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, grain output jumped to a new level of 1.4 trillion jin. This year, summer grain output exceeded 300 billion jin for the first time. Currently, China has built the world’s largest power supply system.

The “livelihood net” is denser, reflecting the sincere and original aspiration of 人民至上 (rén mín zhì shàng - “people first,” putting the people above all else) and regarding people’s livelihood as paramount.

The “两个饭碗” “two rice bowls” are connected to the “livelihood net.” “Energy security and safety concern the national economy and people’s livelihood” — General Secretary Xi Jinping is always concerned.

Currently, the international situation is interwoven with turbulence and change. China anchors its goals, strengthens its confidence, and concentrates on handling its own affairs well. China’s energy supply is abundant, effectively meeting various energy demands.

“Always put protecting farmers’ interests first,” “Let the broad masses of farmers share in the achievements of rural reform and development.” In the first half of this year, the added value of agriculture (crop farming) increased by 3.6% year-on-year.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2022, during an inspection and research visit to Shanxi Ruiguang Thermal Power Co., Ltd. (山西瑞光热电有限责任公司), General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Power and heat supply concern the overall situation of economic development and social stability, and are major issues related to people’s livelihood.”

From the continuous improvement in the effectiveness of policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers, to the steadily enhanced resilience of the energy production, supply, storage, and sales system, the sincerity and persistence of “人民至上” “people first” remain unchanged.

The “power source” is stronger, demonstrating the development determination of advancing steadily amid stability and moving forward with composure.

“Coordinate high-quality development and high-level security.” The “两个饭碗” “two rice bowls” carry significant weight. General Secretary Xi Jinping keeps the long term in mind and plans clearly.

In December 2020, at the Central Conference on Rural Work, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Building high-standard farmland is an important lever; we must unswervingly persist in it, raise construction standards and quality, and truly achieve stable yields despite drought or flood, high and stable yields.”

In September 2021, during an inspection in Yulin, Shaanxi, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “In the next stage of development, as an energy source, the amount of coal must be controlled. We must follow the direction of green and low-carbon development, benchmark against the goals and tasks of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and take the path of transformation and upgrading.”

From “letting farmers use the best technology to produce the best grain” to “vigorously promoting the high-quality development of new energy in China,” under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the momentum of high-quality development has become more surging.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, anchoring the development goals of enhancing food security guarantee capacity and strengthening energy and resource supply guarantee, we must accurately fill short boards to comprehensively improve security guarantee capacity.

Holding steadily and firmly the 两个饭碗 “two rice bowls,” the great practice of Chinese-style modernization proceeds with swift and steady steps, moving forward steadily and reaching far.

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Firmly grasp tasks that benefit many and affect the whole system.

By: 本报记者 白剑峰 申少铁 陆凡冰

On August 8, China welcomed the eighteenth National Fitness Day.

One person’s health is the foundation of personal conduct; the people’s health is the cornerstone of nation-building.

Since the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has always adhered to putting the people first and life first, placed safeguarding the people’s health in a strategic position of priority development, elevated nationwide fitness and Healthy China to national strategies, and promoted the deep integration of nationwide fitness with the people’s health.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Building a Healthy China is a systemic project. Facing the people’s growing diversified health needs, we must highlight key points, firmly grasp those tasks that benefit a wide range of people and that affect the whole situation when a single link is moved (牵一发而动全身), concentrate strength and resources on perfecting the public health system, building a high-quality and efficient medical service system, advocating a healthy and civilized lifestyle, and take effective measures to promote progress, constantly achieving new results.”

A health “report card” for a large country with a population of over 1.4 billion reveals the livelihood foundation of Healthy China and marks the quality of Chinese-style modernization—

It has built the world’s largest medical service, traditional medicine, disease prevention and control, and medical security system, with the people’s health level continuously improving; the average life expectancy has reached 79.25 years, and major health indicators have entered the ranks of countries with upper-middle income and a population over 100 million; over 1.1 million medical and health institutions cover urban and rural areas, and more than 90% of residents can reach the nearest medical service point within 15 minutes.

Healthy China advances with firm strides. The people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security is constantly strengthened; there are more smiles and more warmth in their hearts.

Perfecting the public health system

At the First People’s Hospital of Xiangshan County (象山县), Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, Mr. Zhang, who suffers from chronic disease, was assessed by a doctor during a follow-up visit as a high-risk group for pneumococcal infection. Immediately, the doctor wrote a “vaccine prescription.” With this prescription, Mr. Zhang completed the vaccination within the hospital.

Clinical doctors have become the “health gatekeepers” for residents, binding together “treating illness” and “preventing disease.” This is a microcosm of China’s promotion of medical-prevention coordination and medical-prevention integration (医防协同、医防融合).

People’s security is the cornerstone of national security. In recent years, China has achieved remarkable results in disease prevention and control, and the public health system has become more complete, providing a strong guarantee for safeguarding the people’s health.

“In the past, when bringing a child for vaccination, I had to bring a paper vaccination certificate and find out the vaccination point address and working hours in advance; if I wasn’t careful, I’d make a wasted trip. Now it’s convenient. Opening my phone, the vaccination point location and vaccine stock are clear at a glance. After vaccination, an electronic vaccination certificate is directly generated. It’s so hassle-free!” Recently, Wang Ling (王玲) of Dongsheng District (东胜区), Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, easily completed her child’s vaccination with the help of a “vaccine electronic map” on her phone.

China has improved the vaccination service system. The state provides free vaccines that can prevent 16 diseases. The vaccination rate of the national immunization program for age-appropriate children remains above 90%, and the reported incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, and meningococcal meningitis has dropped to historically low levels. Vaccination services have moved from the “paper certificate” era to the “electronic certificate” era. This year, it is expected that national vaccination information will be interconnected, making it more convenient for children to enter school and kindergarten. The layout of vaccination units has been optimized, and policies such as time-slot appointments and weekend vaccinations have been introduced to meet the diverse vaccination needs of the population.

In July 2025, a cluster outbreak of chikungunya fever occurred in Foshan, Guangdong. A doctor at a community health service center, with high vigilance and professional judgment, first detected and reported the outbreak signs, effectively triggering the “sentinel” mechanism for infectious disease surveillance, winning a valuable “window period” for successfully blocking the spread of the epidemic.

The relevant person in charge of the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration (国家疾控局) stated that China has woven a sensitive infectious disease surveillance and early warning network. Currently, the infectious disease surveillance system covers 84,000 medical institutions nationwide, 1,323 sentinel hospitals, 39,000 pathogen microbiology laboratories, and 1,752 vector and sewage monitoring sites. Monitoring channels have been expanded from fever clinics and sentinel hospitals to pathogen microbiology laboratories, vector organisms, and urban sewage monitoring sites. At the same time, a national infectious disease intelligent surveillance and early warning front-end software has been deployed and applied in medical institutions; currently, 48,000 have been formally applied, and the construction of an intelligent multi-point trigger surveillance and early warning system has achieved initial results.

Lines of public health defense, layers of disease prevention and control networks, protect the life safety and health of hundreds of millions of people.

Building a high-quality and efficient medical service system

Access to medical care for illness is the people’s aspiration for a better life and is also what General Secretary Xi Jinping has in mind.

Recently, Grandpa Liu of Majiaying Village (马家营村), Xiguocheng Town (西郭城镇), Julu County (巨鹿县), Xingtai City, Hebei Province, suddenly suffered right-sided limb movement disorder and was rushed by his family to Xiguocheng Town Health Center. After a head computed tomography (CT) scan, it was found that Grandpa Liu had a cerebral infarction. The health center quickly activated the treatment mechanism and linked up with Julu County Hospital through the green channel of a compact county-wide medical community (紧密型县域医共体). Under remote guidance from county hospital experts, doctors at the health center performed intravenous thrombolysis, and Grandpa Liu quickly turned from danger to safety without sequelae. He said: “The doctors at our doorstep are really reliable!”

Primary-level medical and health institutions are the “nerve endings” of Healthy China construction and also the “first line of defense” for protecting the people’s health. In recent years, China has comprehensively advanced the construction of compact county-wide medical communities, further enhancing primary-level medical service capacity. A total of 2,199 counties (cities, districts) have built compact county-wide medical communities, and 81 cities have piloted compact city-wide medical groups. Monitoring shows that in 2025, within compact county-wide medical communities, the proportion of primary-level outpatient visits exceeded 63%.

National medical centers and national regional medical centers are being built to promote the expansion and下沉 (sinking) of high-quality medical resources and their balanced regional distribution. Up to now, China has set up national medical centers in 13 professional categories and national regional medical centers for children and mental illness, and has launched 125 national regional medical center construction projects. High-quality medical resources are closer to the people at the grassroots, and the phenomenon of cross-provincial medical visits has markedly improved.

“I have caught up with a good time. Having a baby can be reimbursed so much. If I don’t choose self-funded items, medical insurance can reimburse everything.” Recently, Ms. Wang, an employee in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, gave birth vaginally to a baby at Shanxi Children’s Hospital (Shanxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital). Her total hospitalization medical expenses this time exceeded 5,000 yuan, with medical insurance reimbursing over 4,000 yuan and the medical insurance personal account paying over 700 yuan.

In July this year, Taiyuan City introduced a new maternity insurance policy: medical expenses of insured employees for hospitalization childbirth that meet the medical insurance’s “three directories” (drugs, services, and materials) are reimbursed by maternity insurance at 100%. Up to now, 28 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and 278 pooling regions have basically achieved “no out-of-pocket payment” for hospitalization childbirth within the policy scope, making “having a baby basically costs nothing” a reality.

The National Healthcare Security Administration (国家医保局) continues to advance the construction of a “1+3+N” multi-level medical security system, with the three basic medical security systems—basic medical insurance, major illness insurance, and medical assistance—further consolidated and enhanced. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the cumulative expenditure of the medical insurance fund exceeded 13 trillion yuan, benefiting nearly 20 billion medical visits, effectively reducing the burden of medical expenses on the people.

Advocating a healthy and civilized lifestyle

“Finally succeeded in losing weight!” Standing on the scale, Ms. Chen in Beijing sighed with emotion. Two years ago, her weight exceeded 100 kilograms, and obesity became a lingering worry for her. In March last year, Peking Union Medical College Hospital opened a “weight management joint clinic,” with doctors from clinical nutrition, endocrinology, and traditional Chinese medicine departments seeing patients together. On a whim, she made an appointment with a specialist. After a joint consultation by multiple specialists, the doctors tailored a treatment plan for her combining traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and medication, and issued a “health management prescription” with requirements from daily diet to exercise duration. Now, her weight indicators are close to normal, and she feels exceptionally cheerful.

In June 2024, the National Health Commission (国家卫生健康委) and other departments launched a three-year “Weight Management Year” campaign, which received positive responses from the whole society. Currently, over 5,500 secondary and tertiary medical institutions nationwide have set up healthy weight management clinics. The National Health Commission requires that by this year, all tertiary general public hospitals provide healthy weight management outpatient services.

Building a Healthy China requires not only that the people can get medical treatment and afford it, but also that the people do not get sick or get sick less.

From “the state calling on you to lose weight” to carrying out the nationwide healthy lifestyle action, from preventing “little chubby kids” and “little glasses” to building a “multi-disease co-prevention” system for common student diseases and infectious diseases… China has established a concept of comprehensive health and macro health (大卫生、大健康), actively advocates a healthy and civilized lifestyle, and reduces the occurrence of diseases from the source.

Everyone is the first person responsible for their own health. In 2025, the Healthy China special actions increased from 15 to 18, with the addition of the healthy weight management action, the healthy village construction action, and the traditional Chinese medicine health promotion action, clarifying the responsibilities of government, society, and individuals in health promotion. In 2025, the health literacy level of Chinese residents rose to 33.69%. The “15th Five-Year Plan for National Health” proposes that by 2030, the health literacy level of residents will reach 40%.

“In the past, every household had simple dry latrines. When it rained, feet were covered in mud. Now the toilet is clean and hygienic, with no odor.” Mo Wenqing (莫文庆), a villager in Nalang Village (那廊村), Jiangxi Town (江西镇), Jiangnan District (江南区), Nanning City, Guangxi, pointed to the toilet behind his house. Now, every household in the village has a sanitary toilet, with three-chamber septic tanks for sealed treatment.

Small toilets are connected to big people’s livelihood; the “toilet revolution” is related to big health. By the end of 2025, the national penetration rate of sanitary toilets in rural areas reached about 77%, the national rural domestic sewage treatment rate reached 55%, the proportion of administrative villages where rural domestic waste is collected, transported, and treated remained above 90%, and the national rural tap water penetration rate reached 96%. The urban and rural living environment has markedly improved.

The patriotic health campaign has been deeply carried out, mobilizing the whole society to participate extensively. The creation of national healthy cities and towns has been launched, promoting the normalization of the patriotic health campaign and consolidating the social defense line against infectious diseases. About two-thirds of cities and over 40% of counties (cities) have been designated national health cities and national health counties (cities).

Nationwide fitness concerns the people’s happiness and the nation’s future. The “2025 National Fitness Activity Status Survey Report” shows that the proportion of Chinese residents aged 7 and above who regularly participate in physical exercise has reached 38.52%. The “15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sports Powerhouse” proposes that by 2030, the per capita sports venue area will reach about 4 square meters, and the proportion of people who regularly participate in physical exercise will reach about 40%.

Smart wristbands record steps, AI fitness mirrors correct movements; “Internet + fitness” has become a new trend. Sports parks are built under viaducts, abandoned factory buildings are transformed into sports parks; a “15-minute fitness circle” spreads across urban and rural areas.

As the macro health concept takes root, Healthy China is full of vitality. The deep integration of nationwide fitness with the people’s health makes more people physically stronger and mentally stronger.

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“When key tasks are done well, the construction of Healthy China can be solidly advanced.”

“Building a Healthy China by 2035 is a strategic decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The ‘15th Five-Year Plan’ period is a critical time to achieve this goal; we must plan comprehensively, push forward urgently, and strive to achieve decisive progress.”

“Health is the most important indicator of a happy life. Health is 1, and everything else is the 0 after it. Without the 1, no amount of 0s has any meaning.”

Healthy China: jointly built and shared. Engraving the “1” deeper and deeper, writing more and more “0s”—adding points to the people’s health, adding weight to the people’s happiness—the health foundation of Chinese-style modernization will become more solid, and the livelihood background will become more distinct.

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National electricity load hits record high four times

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — Reporter Wang Yunshan (王云杉) learned from the National Energy Administration (国家能源局): On August 7, the national electricity load set a new historical high for the fourth time since the start of summer, reaching 1.557 billion kilowatts, an increase of approximately 4.8 million kilowatts over the previous record-high figure. Since July 29, the national electricity load has continued to operate at a high level. The National Energy Administration and other departments have strengthened coordinated dispatch and made all-out efforts to ensure power supply for welcoming the peak and passing the summer.

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Revenue of Designated-Size Cultural Enterprises Up 4.6% Year on Year

From our correspondent in Beijing, August 7 (Reporter Liu Zhiqiang (刘志强)): The reporter learned from the National Bureau of Statistics (国家统计局) that in the first half of this year, enterprises above designated size in the culture and related industries across the country achieved operating revenue of 7.2026 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.6% compared with the same period last year. By sector, the core cultural sector achieved operating revenue of 5.0472 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%. Among them, three major industry categories—cultural investment and operation, news information services, and creative design services—achieved relatively rapid revenue growth, with growth rates of 10.0%, 9.2%, and 9.2% respectively.

In the first half of the year, 16 small industry categories with relatively distinct characteristics of new cultural business forms achieved operating revenue of 3.5239 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.6%. Among them, six small industry categories—digital publishing, copyright and cultural software services, intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles for entertainment manufacturing, internet advertising services, other cultural digital content services, and other internet information services—achieved double-digit growth in operating revenue.

In the first half of the year, the cultural service industry achieved operating revenue of 4.3235 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%.

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Understanding New Era China Through 'Three Time Scales'

By: 任 平

Gaining time means seizing the initiative.
"By the middle of this century, we will comprehensively build a modern socialist power and achieve the Second Centenary Goal. Time waits for no one! History waits for no one!" Listening to General Secretary Xi Jinping's solemn declaration at the ceremony marking the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, I feel 心潮澎湃 (xīn cháo péng pài - "heart tide surging," emotionally stirred).

At the Spring Festival reception in 2020, the General Secretary pointed out: "Time belongs to the strivers! History belongs to the strivers! To realize the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we must race against time and advance with history."

The contemplation and grasp of time run through every aspect of General Secretary Xi Jinping's governance, and are reflected in the vivid practice of hundreds of millions of people 只争朝夕 (zhǐ zhēng zhāo xī - "seize the morning and evening," make full use of time without delay) and living up to their youth without regret.

Having traversed a past of suffering and glory, moving through a present of 日新月异 (rì xīn yuè yì - "daily renewal, monthly change," rapid change), and advancing toward a bright and grand future, the Chinese people have always maintained a sense of time: 惜时如金 (xī shí rú jīn - "cherishing time like gold," valuing time extremely) and 时不我待 (shí bù wǒ dài - "time waits not for me," one must not delay).

"Keeping pace with the trend of development, always staying at the forefront of the times" — this fine quality of the Communist Party of China reflects the time perspective of a major party and a major country, and becomes a unique lens for decoding how a new chapter of historical greatness is created on the new journey of the new era.

Let us, from the "three time marks," gain a deeper understanding of why China in the new era is bound to create new historical brilliance.

From the old nation's new destiny to the original aspiration and mission, we see a striving China that pursues national prosperity, national rejuvenation, and people's happiness.

The Bell and Drum Towers of Beijing recently conducted bell-striking tests, the distant sound of the bells echoing for a long time. More than a hundred years ago, the bayonets of the Eight-Power Allied Forces cut a gash on the large drum, slashing through the illusion of the "Celestial Empire."

"Not as good in instruments," "not as good in systems," "not as good in thought and culture"... The Chinese nation had been delayed too long by various 内忧外患 (nèi yōu wài huàn - "internal worries and external troubles," domestic trouble and foreign invasion), as if "the passage of time had nothing to do with our China alone."

The mission to catch up with the world and surpass the times historically fell upon the shoulders of the Chinese Communists. For the once-stagnant country, "time began."

The automobile symbolizes speed and also witnesses efficiency. In 1958, workers at the First Automobile Works labored day and night for 33 days, hand-hammering out the first high-end sedan of New China, the "Red Flag." Today, at the Hongqi prosperous factory area of FAW, industrial robot arms move up and down, and a new energy vehicle rolls off the assembly line in less than a minute.

Roads measure space and also gauge time. Before the founding of New China, traveling by land from Xining, Qinghai to Lhasa, Tibet generally took half a year to a year. After the Qinghai-Tibet Highway was opened to traffic, it took three to seven days. In 2006, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was fully opened, reducing the time to about 20 hours. In 2023, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway entered the high-speed train era, further shortening the time.

Being in a "compressed time and space" — is this not another form of time "relativity"?

"In the shortest possible time to lift the entire country out of poverty, in the shortest possible time to enable China to stand among the developed countries..." The two "shortest possible time" phrases reveal an "extraordinary sense of urgency and sense of the era."

The new era is the era of strivers. The miracle of lifting nearly 100 million poor people out of poverty in eight years was created by "calculating by the hour, by the minute and second." The control of air pollution was once regarded by foreign observers as "impossible to change without 30 to 50 years," yet in China today, "APEC blue" has become 司空见惯 (sī kōng jiàn guàn - "common sight," accustomed to). The operating mileage of China's high-speed railway has exceeded 50,000 kilometers, and it has only been over eight years since the "Fuxing" bullet train was put into operation...

"Only we Chinese Communists have achieved this." In the autumn of 2020, during an inspection tour in Guangdong, General Secretary Xi Jinping stopped in front of the relevant planning map of the "Founding Strategy" and sighed with emotion.

Taking only a few decades to accomplish the industrialization process that took Western developed countries several hundred years, successfully embarking on the Chinese path to modernization, and realizing the old nation's new destiny of the Chinese nation — "Ten thousand years is too long, seize every minute and every second."

The aspiring nation and the advancing China have accumulated a mighty force like a thousand rivers surging and ten thousand valleys converging, making the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation unstoppable.

Where has the time gone?

In the solemn historical responsibility. "The Chinese nation has accumulated energy for too long. It must burst forth to realize the great Chinese dream. This is the historical mission of our generation."

From "renewing daily, renewing again" to innovation and creation, we see an innovative country that wins advantages, seizes the initiative, and wins the future.

In Wuhan, Hubei, the second-generation liquid-nitrogen low-temperature calcium optical clock has been successfully developed; if it runs continuously for about 72 billion years, the error will not exceed one second.

The precise measurement of time reflects the unremitting pursuit of perfection and is also a distinctive feature of innovative China forging excellence.

In the vast space, "Tianzhou" and "Tiangong" complete precise docking, akin to shooting an arrow from Beijing and hitting the eye of a needle in Shanghai at high speed. From the "first show" taking nearly 44 hours to creating a world record of 1 hour 57 minutes, China's space rendezvous and docking technology leads the world.

Scientific and technological innovation is the "key variable" in the century-long transformation. Seizing this 千载难逢 (qiān zǎi nán féng - "a thousand years hard to encounter," very rare) historical opportunity, today's China presses the fast-forward button for development and accelerates time.

Beijing Yizhuang, National Information Technology Innovation Park. Bionic robots that imitate 80% of human expressions are 栩栩如生 (xǔ xǔ rú shēng - "vividly alive," lifelike); dexterous hands with 38 degrees of freedom move freely... On the eve of this year's Spring Festival, General Secretary Xi Jinping made a special visit: "Coming here today to learn on-site has broadened my horizons. After seeing this, I have even more confidence in the country's scientific and technological innovation."

Confidence is in the present.

In one second, the "Lingsheng" supercomputer performs computing equivalent to 7 billion people computing continuously for nearly 10 years; in four hours, all parts for a new energy vehicle can be assembled; in 24 hours, China produces more than 1.5 billion chips... "Innovation and creation have given birth to new quality productive forces," supporting a self-reliant and self-strengthening China.

Confidence is in the future.

In 50 minutes and 26 seconds, the "Flash" robot won the half-marathon championship, breaking the human record. This year is regarded as the "first year of mass production of humanoid robots," and the output of China's humanoid robots is expected to exceed 100,000 units. "We stand at the source of creating the future, so we should establish a forward-looking awareness and dare to be the trendsetters of the times."

Chinese civilization is a civilization with outstanding innovation; the Chinese people are a people with great creative spirit. Coordinating two overall situations and basing ourselves on a critical period, "we must walk ahead of time and become the trendsetters of the times."

Where has the time gone?

In the trend of the times. "Historical opportunities often 稍纵即逝 (shāo zòng jí shì - "slight relax and it vanishes," fleeting). We are facing an important historical opportunity to advance scientific and technological innovation. 机不可失 (jī bù kě shī - "opportunity must not be missed"), 时不再来 (shí bù zài lái - "time will not come again"). We must firmly seize it."

From "the great time history of humanity" to "the great historical time of the Chinese nation," we see an empowering major country that injects stability and certainty into the world.

At the beginning of this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the "Doomsday Clock" forward by 4 seconds to warn of the threats of nuclear weapons, the uncertainty brought by disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, and the impact of climate change.

The world turns its eyes to "Beijing time."

"Ensure that artificial intelligence always remains under human control," "Make artificial intelligence, this thousand-li horse, run both fast and steady"... At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the High-level Meeting on Global Governance of AI, China gave a response of the times: "Develop in the direction of upward and good, benefiting humanity."

The timeline of China's development always aligns with the timeline of human civilization.

In 2017, at the United Nations Office at Geneva. In response to "What's wrong with the world? What should we do?" China offered its solution — "Build a community with a shared future for mankind and achieve shared and win-win cooperation," illuminating the path of human development.

In 2021, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. "Building a moderately prosperous society in all respects on the land of China and historically solving the problem of absolute poverty" — China's poverty reduction experience has continuously strengthened the confidence and ability of developing countries to lift themselves out of poverty.

In 2025, the "Shanghai Cooperation Organization+" meeting. The Global Governance Initiative 应运而生 (yìng yùn ér shēng - "arise at the opportune moment," emerge as the times require), joining the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative to form a system of public goods that China provides to the world in response to global challenges.

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Standing on the right side of history and on the side of human civilization and progress, China will always be a force for peace, stability, and progress in the world.

Time will not forget this sincerity. In the 1960s and 1970s, when China's own economy was very difficult, it sent more than 50,000 engineering personnel to assist in the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway. More than half a century later, the Tanzania-Zambia Railway revitalization project has entered full construction, and transportation time may be shortened by nearly two-thirds. It is still China that extends a hand of cooperation.

Walk on the righteous path and engage in just cause. Whether in hardship or affluence, the stance of "fulfilling the responsibility of a major country and a major party" remains unchanged, and the true character of "providing new opportunities for the world with China's new development" never changes.

Where has the time gone?

In the future and fate of humanity. "At all times, we must take the people's heart as our heart, take the world's benefit as our benefit, and make unremitting efforts to enhance the welfare of the people."

Observing time, reflecting on the present, and planning for the future, our understanding of time "is measured in hundreds and thousands of years."

The time scale points to the dimension of development. From it, we can better understand today's China — "dreams come true one after another," "full of vitality and vigor," "carrying forward the national spirit," "closely connected with the world"; we can also better grasp how to strive for tomorrow's China — 脚踏实地 (jiǎo tà shí dì - "stand on solid ground," down-to-earth) and 埋头苦干 (mái tóu kǔ gàn - "bury head and work hard," immerse oneself in hard work), 同舟共济 (tóng zhōu gòng jì - "cross river in same boat," pull together in times of trouble) and 众志成城 (zhòng zhì chéng chéng - "unity of will is a fortress," unity is strength), "living up to the times and living up to youth."

Along the broad road of Chinese-style modernization, heading towards the grand goal of building a strong country and rejuvenating the nation, we will inevitably create new historical brilliance in the ever-changing time.

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Shared Manufacturing Enables Production "Group Orders" (New Economic Orientation · New Trends in Manufacturing)

Shared manufacturing is a new business type and new model in which advanced manufacturing and modern services are deeply integrated. It gathers dispersed and idle production resources, allowing raw materials, equipment, technology, talent, and data to flow within a broader scope.

Recently, the Politburo of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (中共中央政治局) emphasized at a meeting that it is important to actively promote breakthroughs in frontier technologies and the development of future industries, strive to build emerging pillar industries, and continuously promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. From robot factories in future industries, to testing platforms in emerging industries, to painting production lines in traditional industries, shared manufacturing is increasingly empowering the modern industrial system, helping to solve production difficulties, and promoting industrial coordination, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement.

— Editor

Shared factory, robot mass production is no longer difficult.

By our reporter Wang Haonan (王昊男)

On the production line, rows of humanoid robots are slightly lifted, about to be assembled, with staff occasionally moving in to cooperate... At the Lingyi Intelligent Manufacturing Embodied Intelligence Super Factory (领益智造具身智能超级工厂) located in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (北京经济技术开发区), a scene resembling a science fiction movie has become reality.

For humanoid robots to move from laboratory technology to large-scale commercial use, mass production capacity is the "touchstone". "Key components, joint module production, whole machine assembly, whole machine testing... the factory provides a one-stop solution for the entire chain," introduced factory manager Wang Dajian (汪达舰). The factory started construction in February this year, the first batch of robots officially rolled off the line in April, and now has the capacity for large-scale production and delivery. "This year, production capacity of 10,000 units can be achieved."

On the component assembly line, engineer Liu Feng (刘峰) is performing precision assembly on the head of a robot. On the display screen above, the "Standard Operating Instruction" clearly marks the detailed process of each assembly step. "Data such as torque and batch number for each step are recorded in real time, making the quality of the entire chain from parts to the whole machine traceable," Liu Feng said.

Having many prototypes but difficulty in mass production is a problem currently faced by many humanoid robot companies. Beijing Yuanluo Technology Co., Ltd. (北京源络科技有限公司), founded in 2023, is one such company. Its robot products have entered application verification at institutions such as Huada Intelligent Manufacturing (华大智造) and are expanding into broader commercial and industrial scenarios.

"As a startup, the cost of building our own factory is too high. During batch production, we also need a professional production line to ensure the reliability and quality of robot products," said Xie Zheng (谢铮), co-founder of Yuanluo Technology, as a customer of the embodied intelligence factory. The company has received orders for several hundred units this year, and robots have entered the mass production stage.

The production line of the embodied intelligence factory adopts a flexible intelligent layout, enabling compatible production and quick changeover for different manufacturers, models, and components. "It adapts to the industrial characteristics of humanoid robots: multiple specifications, small batches, and fast iteration," Wang Dajian said.

"The embodied intelligence factory uses large-scale manufacturing capability to open up the 'last mile' of humanoid robots from the laboratory to commercialization," said Ma Ning (马宁), deputy director of the Robot and Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Bureau of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (北京经济技术开发区机器人和智能制造产业局). He believes that the factory's deep cooperation with embodied intelligent robot companies, jointly optimizing product design and process precision, has effectively promoted the coordination of the innovation chain, industrial chain, and supply chain. "It can not only solve the pain point of stable batch production of robots and reduce manufacturing costs, but also further improve the consistency and reliability of robot products, allowing robots to accelerate into application scenarios."

Relying on relevant policies for embodied intelligent robots, Lingyi Intelligent Manufacturing has also deepened cooperation with the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (北京人形机器人创新中心). Technological innovation and model innovation support and promote each other. The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area is accelerating the formation of an embodied intelligent whole-machine manufacturing system that gathers links and resources such as pilot production verification, scale manufacturing, and full-chain supply of components. "Our goal is to achieve an annual production capacity of 500,000 units by 2030, building an industry-leading intelligent and automated robot factory," Wang Dajian said.

Shared inspection: one-button testing for new energy and new materials.

By our reporter Wang Yongzhan (王永战)

In the laboratory of Sichuan Weishijie Inspection and Testing Co., Ltd. (四川微世界检验检测有限公司), experimenters place silicon-carbon anode material into the instrument. "It is expected that enterprises can get test results within 24 hours," said company general manager Hu Yunlong (胡云龙).

Meishan Xitan Lithium New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (眉山矽碳锂新能源科技有限公司) is a tech startup engaged in the research and development of silicon-carbon anode materials, with a large number of testing needs. In the past, the enterprise had to send samples to Chengdu for testing, which took a week in total, time-consuming and labor-intensive. "With the Meishan City Inspection and Testing Shared Service Platform (眉山市检验检测共享服务平台), we can find professional testing institutions nearby, and the entire testing cycle is less than 36 hours," said enterprise head Ding Chaobo (丁朝波).

Inspection and testing are key to manufacturing quality control, and there is a large demand from enterprises in industries such as new energy and new materials. In the past, many local enterprises suffered from difficulty in finding reliable local testing institutions, and the cost of sending samples elsewhere was too high. "At the same time, some enterprises have long-idle inspection and testing equipment, and some professional testing institutions lack stable customers," said Wei Pingchuan (魏平川), chief engineer of the Meishan City Market Supervision Bureau (眉山市市场监管局).

One side has demand, the other side has capability; the key is the matching of resources and information. In 2024, the Meishan City Market Supervision Bureau conducted research and investigation around inspection and testing needs, forming a "list of enterprise inspection and testing needs" and a "list of inspection and testing capabilities" in the jurisdiction, and built an inspection and testing shared service platform combining online and offline. Online, they developed the "Park Easy Inspection" (园易检) mini-program, setting up ports for enterprise users, testing institutions, market supervision and management, etc., attracting professional testing institutions and enterprises to join. Users can "one-click" find testing institutions or provide testing services. Offline, they integrated to form the city's statutory testing institution base, the Meishan High-tech Zone (眉山高新区) testing base, and the city's new energy and new materials integration innovation center testing base, providing professional testing services.

Through the shared service platform, information barriers between supply and demand are broken, and production resources begin to flow.

Sichuan Jinxiangsairui Chemical Co., Ltd. (四川金象赛瑞化工股份有限公司) has 63 testing devices and the capability to test 20 chemical products. Previously, a new energy enterprise needed to use liquid ammonia testing equipment for medium composition analysis but had not found a suitable testing institution for a long time. Through the inspection and testing shared service platform, the enterprise found Jinxiangsairui Company and used their idle equipment, solving a 燃眉之急 (rán méi zhī jí - "eyebrows on fire," an urgent situation).

On the shared service platform, Jinxiangsairui Company published physical and chemical analysis testing services, which can test total nitrogen, available phosphorus content, etc. It has provided external testing services 15 times, making the allocation of production factors such as equipment, talent, and technology more efficient. "We have also sent three senior engineers to join the platform's expert team to serve testing needs," said Guo Zhiqiang (郭志强), head of the Special Equipment Management Office at Jinxiangsairui Company.

Resource sharing benefits enterprises. The Meishan City Inspection and Testing Shared Service Platform has integrated more than 1,600 devices and instruments, gathered testing resources from 51 leading enterprises, attracted 11 professional and statutory testing institutions to join, possesses the capability for more than 5,000 types of inspection and testing services, and has responded to over 8,000 inspection and testing demands. "Sharing high-quality testing resources better serves the development of the new energy and new materials industry," Wei Pingchuan said.

Shared painting: easier production of auto parts.

By our reporter Wang Pei (王沛)

In the Luzhong Environmental Protection Industrial Park (鲁中环保产业园), Xintai City (新泰市), Tai'an City, Shandong Province, batches of auto parts that have undergone surface pretreatment are transported into the shared painting center.

"If it weren't for this painting center, we wouldn't have settled here so quickly," said Dai Zhenhua (代振华), head of Shandong Ailongsen Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (山东艾龙森汽车科技有限公司).

Ailongsen Company comes from Changzhou, Jiangsu, focusing on the production of automotive adhesive films and interior and exterior trims. Recently, orders have grown, and expanding production capacity is 迫在眉睫 (pò zài méi jié - "pressing on the eyebrows and eyelashes," extremely urgent). "Interior painting is very difficult; it must be both environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing. If the painting is not done well, it can easily affect the anti-corrosion performance and service life of the car body, making it a difficult link in the production chain," frankly said Liu Lvjun (刘绿军), head of the Development Planning Department of Changzhou Ailongsen New Material Technology Group (常州艾龙森新材料科技集团). Coating production lines require large investment and high environmental standards; it is difficult for enterprises to build independently on their own.

When Ailongsen Company was scouting for a new factory site, it was precisely this shared painting center that attracted them.

"In traditional painting, the utilization rate of paint is less than 50%, and much of it cannot meet environmental requirements. More environmentally friendly high-end coating is the future trend," introduced Guo Min (郭敏), deputy general manager of Tai'an Lebang Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. (泰安乐邦环保科技有限公司). The company specializes in environmentally friendly coating technology and has been granted 9 invention patents and 34 utility model patents.

With good technology, it must be put to use and shared up and down the industrial chain. The local government assisted Lebang in building the first shared painting center in central Shandong. "With advanced recycling technology, the comprehensive utilization rate of paint can reach over 85%," Guo Min said. Xintai has 227 automotive industry enterprises, and shared painting has helped solve common problems for the automotive and machinery industries in the region.

In traditional manufacturing models, the procurement and maintenance costs of high-value equipment are high, causing many small and medium-sized enterprises to 望而却步 (wàng ér què bù - "see and retreat," to shrink back at the sight). Building shared platforms around common manufacturing links in industrial clusters, and centrally configuring production equipment and resources that are highly versatile, high in purchase cost, and high in technical content, is conducive to achieving intensive configuration and coordinated upgrading of upstream and downstream industries.

"Previously, we did painting ourselves, with heavy equipment investment but low pass rate. Now products are sent to the shared painting center for centralized operation, and the pass rate has increased to over 95%," said the head of a crane machinery enterprise in Yangliu Town (羊流镇), Xintai.

Recently, the shared painting center has been further upgraded. Relying on the centralized coating service platform, it provides a "one-stop" service from paint customization and painting processing to environmental treatment for enterprises such as auto parts and construction machinery. Lebang has signed contracts with 37 customers, and through the shared model, it has reduced operating costs for chain enterprises by about 15%.

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Synergistic Development to Energize Industries (Quick Comment)

By: 刘温馨

Shared manufacturing achieves precise matching of supply and demand through collaborative sharing, promotes efficient docking of orders, production capacity, and technology. This not only helps small and medium-sized enterprises obtain key resources at lower cost and higher efficiency, but also enhances the resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain, injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

To promote the further development of shared manufacturing, efforts must be made in "integration" to push for more manufacturing resources to be opened and shared, encourage leading enterprises, industrial parks, and platform enterprises to build shared manufacturing service platforms, and promote efficient flow of factors such as equipment, technology, and data; efforts must be made in "intelligence" to raise the level, accelerate the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and the industrial internet, making supply-demand matching more precise and production collaboration more efficient; efforts must be made in "trust" to work on accelerating the formulation of shared manufacturing standards, improving the service system, and resolving enterprises' concerns of "daring not to share, unwilling to share."

China's manufacturing industry is moving from "big and complete" to "refined and strong," and shared manufacturing is an important exploration. Looking to the future, we must gather innovative forces through resource sharing, stimulate industrial vitality through coordinated development, enable more small enterprises to connect with large industries, and promote the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse to burst forth with new momentum.

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Cosmetics Can Now Be "Customized to Your Skin" (Information Service Desk)

By: 本报记者 申少铁

Many people who care about their appearance desire to have their own exclusive cosmetics. Today, this dream is being realized at an accelerated pace.

In July this year, the National Medical Products Administration (国家药监局) expanded the second phase of the pilot program for personalized cosmetic services to 23 provinces, further meeting consumers' personalized and diversified demands for cosmetics. Currently, in the 23 pilot provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, Tianjin, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, and Hunan, dozens of pilot cosmetic enterprises have launched personalized services.

Personalized cosmetic services refer to services in which a cosmetics filer or a domestic agent authorized by an overseas filer, at its business premises such as专卖店 (specialty stores) or直营店 (direct-sale stores), carries out on-site small-batch simple blending and repackaging of two or more filed ordinary cosmetics based on the consumer's personalized needs.

Where can consumers access personalized cosmetic services?

Consumers can experience the services at the specialty stores or direct-sale stores of pilot enterprises in pilot provinces. Non-pilot stores do not yet possess the relevant service qualifications. Currently, most pilot brands have set up "personalized service" sections on their WeChat public accounts and official brand websites, where consumers can book services online; some offline pilot stores of certain brands support on-site booking. It is worth noting that when booking, consumers need to specify their skin type and skincare needs in advance so that the store can prepare the adapted filed cosmetic blending ingredients ahead of time.

The general process for personalized cosmetic services is: first, a skin test is conducted, using professional instruments to scan indicators such as skin tone, elasticity, moisture content, and skin barrier; then, the system matches an exclusive formula plan based on the test results; finally, small-batch blending or repackaging is carried out on site. For example, at the Beijing Tongrentang (北京同仁堂) Cosmetics Personalized Service Skincare Experience Center, consumers only need to sit in front of a skin tester, place their head and face in the designated position, and soon various scan results will appear on the computer, comprehensively reflecting over 30 indicators and providing an exclusive skincare plan. The experience center provides personalized products based on the skin test results. After placing an order, consumers receive cosmetics that are "customized according to skin measurement (量肤定制)".

What personalized cosmetic services can consumers choose from?

According to the notice on carrying out the second phase pilot work for personalized cosmetic services issued by the National Medical Products Administration, the personalized services are limited to ordinary cosmetics filed by the pilot enterprise. Each product can be fully traced through its batch number or serial number, and they do not include children's cosmetics, eye-care cosmetics, or cosmetics using new raw materials. Pilot enterprises must hold a cosmetics production license, have a good social credit record, a complete quality management system, and have not been penalized for cosmetic quality safety issues in the past three years.

Are personalized cosmetic services safe and reliable?

The National Medical Products Administration encourages provincial drug regulatory authorities participating in the pilot to actively explore innovative personalized service pilot models, establish a whole-process supervision system for personalized services, and effectively prevent quality safety risks. For example, the Shandong Provincial Drug Administration (山东省药监局) requires pilot enterprises to incorporate their stores into their own quality management systems, conduct safety assessments of personalized service products, and strictly implement systems for personnel management, store quality management, product traceability, and product recall, ensuring that personalized services are safe, reliable, and guaranteed in quality.

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China's foreign trade in goods up 17.3% in first seven months

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) – (Reporter Ouyang Jie (欧阳洁)) According to customs statistics, in the first seven months of this year, China’s total value of goods trade imports and exports was 30.13 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.3%. Among them, exports were 17.44 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14%; imports were 12.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%.

From the perspective of trading partners, in the first seven months, the total trade value between China and ASEAN was 5.14 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%; the total trade value between China and the EU was 3.67 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. During the same period, China’s total imports and exports with countries jointly building the Belt and Road (一带一路) were 15.36 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.5%.

From the perspective of foreign trade entities, in the first seven months, private enterprises’ imports and exports were 17.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%; foreign-invested enterprises’ imports and exports were 8.78 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%.

From the perspective of key commodities, in terms of exports, in the first seven months, China exported mechanical and electrical products worth 11.12 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.2%; labor-intensive products worth 2.37 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%; agricultural products worth 429.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%. In terms of imports, in the first seven months, China imported mechanical and electrical products worth 5.31 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.7%.

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National Fitness: Joy in the Streets and Alleys

This August 8 marks China's 18th National Fitness Day (全民健身日). In recent years, the concept of national fitness has become ever more 深入人心 (shēn rù rén xīn - "to penetrate deeply into people's hearts," to be deeply embraced by the public), and national fitness venues and facilities have continued to increase.

In Jieyuan Subdistrict (芥园街道), Hongqiao District (红桥区), Tianjin, a wrestling-ground pocket park enjoys considerable popularity. On the competition field, people spar and compete with one another, and in every move and stance the traditional flavor of Chinese-style wrestling is fully displayed, while a strong atmosphere of national fitness surges through the streets and lanes.

The photos above were all taken by Xinhua News Agency reporter Sun Fanyue (孙凡越).

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China's foreign exchange reserves stand at $3.4188 trillion

Beijing, August 7 (Reporter Ge Mengchao (葛孟超)) — Data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show that as of the end of July, China’s foreign exchange reserve scale stood at $3,418.8 billion, an increase of $2.5 billion from the end of June, representing a rise of 0.07%.
In July, under the influence of factors such as the global macro situation and the monetary policies of major economies, the US dollar index fell, and the prices of major global financial assets showed mixed gains and losses. The combined effects of exchange rate conversion and asset price changes and other factors led to an increase in the scale of foreign exchange reserves for the month. China’s economy is displaying a development trend in which momentum is shifting toward the new and structure is moving toward optimization, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality, which is conducive to maintaining the basic stability of the foreign exchange reserve scale.

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In H1, above-scale light industry achieved revenue of 11.2 trillion yuan

Beijing, August 7 (Reporter Han Xin (韩鑫)) — The China National Light Industry Council (中国轻工业联合会) recently released data showing: in the first half of the year, the added value of light industry above designated size increased by 5.0% year-on-year, achieving operating revenue of 11.2 trillion yuan.

Since the beginning of the year, the optimized implementation of the consumer goods trade-in policy has driven consumption quality improvement and upgrading. In the first half of the year, retail sales of 11 categories of light industrial goods reached 4,328.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. Among them, retail sales of high energy-efficiency grade household appliances grew by over 30%, and retail sales of wearable smart devices (including smart glasses) grew by over one time.

In the first half of the year, exports of light industrial goods amounted to 487.04 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, accelerating by 0.9 percentage points compared to the first five months, with exports of seven industries growing by over 10%. Among them, household appliance exports increased by 13% year-on-year, and battery and parts exports increased by 38.6% year-on-year.

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"Chinese+" Helps Nepal Cultivate Interdisciplinary Talent

By: 本报记者 李 墨

China and Nepal are connected by mountains and rivers, and their friendly exchanges have a long history 源远流长 (yuǎn yuǎn liú cháng - “source distant, flow long,” long-standing). As exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in various fields such as people-to-people and cultural ties, economy and trade continue to deepen and expand, the “Chinese language fever” in Nepal continues to heat up. Chinese language education has broken through the boundaries of traditional language classrooms, deeply integrating with professional vocational education in fields such as traditional Chinese medicine, tourism services, engineering technology, etc., not only opening new growth paths for local youth but also becoming a bridge to promote China-Nepal cultural exchanges and expand bilateral pragmatic cooperation.

“Chinese + Traditional Chinese Medicine”——
“Studying at the Confucius Institute has enhanced my professional confidence”

In a classroom at the Kathmandu University Confucius Institute (加德满都大学孔子学院), Chinese teacher Qiu Guangmin (邱广民) is explaining the concept of “vital qi” (正气) in traditional Chinese medicine theory to Nepalese students. He combines blackboard writing with gestures to explain the health concept embodied in “when vital qi is preserved within, pathogenic factors cannot invade.” The students are focused, occasionally exchanging questions of interest with the teacher.

In recent years, TCM therapies such as acupuncture and massage, along with TCM concepts, have received increasing attention in Nepal. The Kathmandu University Confucius Institute combines Chinese language teaching with the popularization of basic TCM knowledge, offering training courses for local health industry practitioners and TCM enthusiasts, providing a platform for learning and interaction.

Krishna Kumar Dangol (克里希纳·库马尔·丹戈尔) is a healthcare professional with experience in acupuncture therapy. He found that Nepalese traditional medicine and TCM share many similarities in diagnostic and treatment approaches, which inspired his desire to deeply learn Chinese and study original TCM texts. “Chinese is the key to opening the treasure trove of TCM and promoting deep dialogue between the traditional medicines of the two countries,” Dangol told the reporter. Studying at the Confucius Institute not only improved his language ability but also gave him a preliminary understanding of basic TCM knowledge and concepts. “I will combine Chinese and professional knowledge to actively contribute to the development of Nepal’s healthcare sector.”

“We always emphasize 学以致用 (xué yǐ zhì yòng – “learn in order to practice,”) and mutual learning among civilizations.” Li Shuangcheng (李双成), dean of the Kathmandu University Confucius Institute, introduced that while providing systematic Chinese language education, the institute closely integrates local health needs and cultural background, cooperates with the Chinese medical team assisting Nepal, and offers courses such as TCM cultural theory learning and observation experiences, guiding students to understand the essence of TCM through comparison and integration, and providing support for their academic exchanges, practical cooperation, and innovation and entrepreneurship in related fields.

Sushil Man Shrestha (苏希尔·曼·什雷斯塔) is engaged in yoga teaching and naturopathy work. In the process of learning Chinese, he deeply realized that TCM can integrate and complement Nepal’s local health preservation traditions, 相得益彰 (xiāng dé yì zhāng – “each benefits from the other’s presence,” complement each other). “Studying at the Confucius Institute has enhanced my professional confidence and expanded my career development path.”

“Chinese + Vocational Education”——
“Bringing significant competitive advantages to students”

In recent years, the Tribhuvan University Confucius Institute (特里布文大学孔子学院) has actively promoted “Chinese + vocational education.” “The relevant measures closely align with local needs, enabling students to effectively enhance their vocational abilities while mastering language skills,” said Zhang Xingnian (张兴年), dean of the Tribhuvan University Confucius Institute.

“Combining Chinese with majors such as tourism, commerce, law, and engineering can bring significant competitive advantages to students,” said Rajan (拉赞特), a volunteer teacher at the Tribhuvan University Confucius Institute. “As cooperation between the two countries deepens in various fields, talents who are both proficient in Chinese and professionally competent are becoming an indispensable force in promoting bilateral exchanges.”

Currently, the Tribhuvan University Confucius Institute is further integrating teaching resources, continuously promoting the “Chinese + vocational qualification certificate” training project, and building the Chinese language class at Bhaktapur City Kuober College (巴德岗市阔博学院) into a distinctive brand for the engineering field. In addition, the institute has reached a consensus with the China-aided Nepal Civil Service Hospital to jointly open a “Chinese + medicine” training class to cultivate bilingual talents who understand both medical knowledge and Chinese.

Last year, the first Chinese language workshop emerged in Nepal 应运而生 (yìng yùn ér shēng – “arise at the opportune moment,”). The workshop is jointly built by Zhengzhou Electric Power College (郑州电力高等专科学校) and the Overseas Business Department of Sinohydro Bureau 11 (中国水利水电第十一工程局), aiming to cultivate local high-quality professional technical and management talents through a combination of Chinese language education and electric power vocational skills training.

Shortly after its opening, the Nepal Chinese Language Workshop held an online training class, targeting 161 Nepalese employees from four project departments of China Power Construction Group (中国电力建设集团有限公司). The course includes both basic to professional language courses and practical content such as electric power engineering professional technology and safety management. The teaching team is composed of professional teachers from Zhengzhou Electric Power College and technical experts from China Power Construction, adopting a teaching model that combines “online theoretical learning + offline practical guidance,” achieving real-time interactive communication between China and Nepal through an online platform.

Recently, the Nepal Chinese Language Workshop jointly organized a training class with China Power Construction, and 10 frontline employees from the China Power Construction Nepal hydropower project participated in an 11-day training. This training covered Chinese courses and practical training such as electric safety sensory experience and drone inspection. The curriculum closely aligns with the needs of frontline positions in Nepal’s electric power projects, providing support for promoting the localization of corporate talent development.

“Chinese + Cultural Experience”——
“Broadening the employment channels for local youth”

In May this year, the eighth Nepal Tourism Talents Chinese Training Class officially opened in Kathmandu, with 57 trainees undertaking systematic learning of Chinese and knowledge related to cultural tourism over a six-month training period. “Chinese plays an increasingly important role in Nepal’s tourism promotion and related industry development,” said Ramkrishna Lamichhane (拉姆克里什纳·拉米恰恩), director of the Nepal Tourism Board. The training class project has achieved significant results, helping Nepal’s tourism industry improve its ability and level to serve the Chinese-speaking market.

“The training class has so far cultivated nearly 300 composite talents for Nepal’s tourism industry who possess both professional skills and Chinese communication abilities,” said Harish (哈利仕), project leader and chairman of the Nepal China Cultural and Educational Association (尼泊尔中国文化教育协会). The training class is not a simple language course but a comprehensive project. Over six months, trainees not only learn Chinese but also gain an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture, experience traditional arts such as paper-cutting, calligraphy and painting, and learn Chinese cultural knowledge. The association also organizes trainees to visit the Chinese Cultural Center and Confucius Institutes, make field visits to departments related to Chinese tourists’ entry and exit such as Nepal’s Immigration Department and Customs, and arranges activities such as tasting Chinese food and cultural exchanges. This immersive training model of “Chinese learning + cultural experience + industry awareness” ensures that trainees can apply what they have learned and quickly adapt to the needs of future job positions.

This project is widely welcomed in Nepal. The project plans to enroll about 40 trainees each year, but the number of applicants often reaches nearly 100. The trainees generally pass the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) levels 2 to 4. Many choose to go to China for further study after graduation, and a large number of graduates enter Chinese companies to work or become excellent tour guides serving Chinese tourists.

“The project not only broadens the employment channels for local youth but also opens up more possibilities for their career paths,” Harish said. As cooperation between the two countries continues to deepen and solidify, such educational cooperation projects, which use language as a medium, vocational education as a foundation, and friendship as the soul, will continue to cultivate more composite talents for Nepal that meet the needs of the times, contributing to building an even closer Nepal-China community with a shared future.

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Creating an Open and Inclusive Environment for International Industrial Cooperation (International Forum)

By: 王雪坤

Using the name of “overcapacity” (产能过剩) to practice protectionism is in essence moving against the trend; it not only damages the stability and smoothness of global production and supply chains, but will eventually backfire on one’s own development.

In recent years, some countries and economies have continuously hyped the so-called “overcapacity”, using this as a pretext to continuously escalate economic and trade restrictions against China. Recently, China’s Ministry of Commerce (商务部) released the document China’s Position on the So-Called ‘Overcapacity’ Issue (关于所谓“产能过剩”问题的中方立场), comprehensively clarifying the relevant facts, explaining the true source of China’s industrial competitiveness, and putting forward China’s concepts and initiatives. Facts have fully proven that what the development of China’s modern industries brings to the world is not a shock, but opportunities.

To view the so-called “overcapacity” issue, it is necessary to 正本清源 (zhèng běn qīng yuán – “rectify the root and clear the source,” to fundamentally clarify matters) and consider it comprehensively and objectively from a broader perspective. From a historical dimension, the global industrial center of gravity has undergone many major changes. Since the First Industrial Revolution, Britain and the United States successively became world industrial centers. In 1880, Britain’s industrial output accounted for 22.9% of the global total; in 1953, the United States’ industrial output accounted for as high as 44.7% of the global total. After World War II, the global industry underwent several transfers and adjustments, gradually forming three major regional production and manufacturing centers in North America, Europe, and East Asia, with the combined manufacturing value-added of these three accounting for 72% of the global share.

From a theoretical dimension, the concept of “overcapacity” is a dynamic phenomenon of the market economy; it is closely related to changes in supply and demand, and is also affected by the industry life cycle, always being in a dynamic cycle of “balance—imbalance—rebalancing”. Overall, the balance of capacity supply and demand is relative, while imbalance is common. Especially in the process of technological change, old and new capacity undergo spontaneous adjustment through market mechanisms, and the supply-demand pattern continuously returns to dynamic equilibrium.

From the practice of international trade, more exports and large surpluses do not equate to overcapacity. A country’s manufacturing industry simultaneously faces domestic and international markets, and also procures raw materials, parts, and production equipment from the global market. Countries have both trade surpluses and deficits — this is a basic fact of international trade development. The global industrial chain is essentially a division of labor and collaboration among multiple countries; the final trade value contains value inputs from multiple countries. A country’s exports and surplus are the result of the combined effect of the global industrial division of labor and supply-demand structure. One cannot use the market size of a certain country to measure overcapacity; a surplus does not mean overcapacity. Traditional manufacturing powers such as Britain, the United States, Japan, and Germany have all maintained trade surpluses for a long time. Germany and Japan’s current account surplus as a share of GDP has exceeded 6% for many years.

From the actual domestic capacity situation, the “overcapacity” situation of different economies and different industries should be measured according to different development stages and development levels. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that the overall manufacturing capacity utilization rate in the United States is 75.7%, and the capacity utilization rates for textile and leather manufacturing, automobiles and parts, primary metals, furniture and related products, and communication equipment are all below 70%, already below the conventional reasonable level of manufacturing operation. The latest data on capacity utilization rates for 725 industries released by the 27 EU member states shows that as many as 169 industries have rates below 70%. Capacity utilization rates cannot be used as an absolute criterion to determine whether there is overcapacity in different economies and different industries.

In today’s world, countries are a community of interests that are interdependent and deeply integrated. Openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation are the only correct choice. Only by adhering to free trade and promoting full competition can we form the optimal solution for the global capacity pattern and let the fruits of development benefit all countries. It is necessary to jointly grasp the opportunities of the new round of industrial revolution and technological transformation, break through growth bottlenecks by sharing the dividends of science and technology; promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, reduce barriers to trade exchanges, remove obstacles to investment cooperation, promote full market competition, and stimulate enterprise vitality; strengthen multilateral and bilateral industrial policy dialogues, adhere to openness and transparency, strengthen industrial policy exchanges and discussions within the framework of the WTO, adopt more coordinated and effective measures, and better gather the synergy for world economic growth; practice true multilateralism, advance WTO reform with the times, and promote the global economic governance system to develop in a more just and reasonable direction.

Economic globalization is an irreversible historical trend, and international industrial cooperation is an important driving force for world economic prosperity. Using the name of “overcapacity” to practice protectionism is in essence moving against the trend; it not only damages the stability and smoothness of global production and supply chains, but will eventually backfire on one’s own development. China will always adhere to the basic state policy of opening up, create more opportunities for the world through its own high-quality industrial development, work with all countries to maintain a good international industrial cooperation environment, and join hands to promote the steady and long-term development of the world economy.

(The author is the Dean of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (国际贸易经济合作研究院) of the Ministry of Commerce.)

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2026 "Chinese Bridge" Final Held in Pyongyang for DPRK Division

Pyongyang, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Liu Rong) On August 6, the final of the 2026 "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition (汉语桥) DPRK section was held at Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies (平壤外国语大学). Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Wang Yajun (王亚军) and diplomats from the embassy, responsible persons from relevant departments such as the Ministry of Education of the DPRK (朝鲜教育省) and Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, attended the final. Two hundred teachers and students of the university watched the competition on site or through video link.

Wang Yajun stated that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Proficiency Competition. Over the past 25 years, DPRK students have achieved outstanding results many times. He expressed the hope that the new generation of DPRK students will use language as a bridge to inject youthful impetus into the development of China-DPRK relations and better benefit the people of both countries.

Hong Kyong-sop (洪敬燮), president of Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies, stated that since the university began Chinese language education in 1952, it has trained generation after generation of outstanding Chinese language talent, contributing to the development of the DPRK-China traditional friendship. The university will take the "Chinese Bridge" competition as an opportunity to further strengthen exchange and cooperation with the Chinese side.

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Where there is a road, there is opportunity for development (China-Kyrgyzstan media joint interview on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation)

By: 本报记者 屈 佩 曲 颂

Setting out southward from the village of Barskoon on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, the car drove all the way toward the Bedel border crossing (别迭里口岸) on the Kyrgyz-China border, bumping along rugged mountain roads. Outside the window, the mountains and river valleys stretched on without end — 连绵不绝 (lián mián bù jué - "continuous and unbroken," stretching on without end). Along the way, multiple road sections were busy with roadbed paving, bridge erection, and other operations.

On August 6, the joint China–Kyrgyzstan media interview team on high-quality co-construction of the Belt and Road (一带一路) visited the Barskoon–Bedel highway project undertaken by China Road and Bridge Corporation (中国路桥). The highway has a total length of 161.4 kilometers and is designed with 2 extra-long tunnels and 50 bridges. It is expected to be completed in 2030 and will fill the gap in the cross-border transport trunk route in southeastern Kyrgyzstan. The transport distance for entering Kyrgyzstan from Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, will be shortened by about 500 kilometers, and freight time can be saved by about 12 hours.

Here, the scene of opening roads through mountains and building bridges across waters — 逢山开路、遇水架桥 (féng shān kāi lù, yù shuǐ jià qiáo - "open roads when meeting mountains, build bridges when meeting waters," to surmount all obstacles and forge ahead) — is vividly presented. The project passes through high mountains, canyons, and frozen ground. The average elevation along the entire line exceeds 3,000 meters; the mountaintops are snow-covered year-round; the area is cold at high altitude and oxygen-deficient; the geological conditions are complex; and construction is very difficult. Some construction access roads are less than 3 meters wide at their narrowest points, and one section of the winding mountain road has as many as 32 consecutive sharp curves.

After an hour and a half of bumpy travel, the interview team arrived at the construction site of the Suyok Tunnel (苏耀克隧道), which is at an elevation of over 3,800 meters, where the temperature was only 8 degrees Celsius. The Suyok Tunnel is the key controlling project of the highway, and construction inside the tunnel proceeds year-round without interruption. Cai Yu (蔡煜), deputy general manager of the Kyrgyzstan office of China Road and Bridge Corporation and project commander, said that although this tunnel has a total length of only 5 kilometers, achieving the breakthrough will take five years. "Crossing the Tianshan Mountains is by no means easy. As long as there is a development need, we will do our utmost to build the road well."

Mukhtar, a quality supervisor from the Kyrgyz side who was inspecting the site, told reporters: "The Chinese enterprise organizes construction scientifically and adopts techniques suited to the local environment, such as frozen-ground treatment, slope protection, snow-prevention shed tunnels, and excavation of extra-long tunnels at high altitude and in extreme cold. The project quality is first-rate."

"Where there is a road, there are development opportunities." Akylbek Musabayev, director of the national administration responsible for this project under Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Transport and Communications, pointed at the mountains and said, "This area not only contains abundant mineral resources but also possesses magnificent natural scenery. Once the road is completed, it will further facilitate Kyrgyz-China economic and trade exchanges, promote economic development along the route, and will also attract more domestic and foreign tourists. Chinese tourists can enter through the Bedel border crossing in the morning, and by noon they can already be touring Lake Issyk-Kul at leisure."

Yulia Skorobogatova, a reporter from the Kabar National News Agency, said that this was her first time at a high-altitude highway construction site. The scale of the project was extremely impressive, and the dedication of the Chinese team was admirable. "When the highway opens to traffic, we must come back to report." Nazgul Abdrazakova, a reporter from the Bishkek Evening News, took up the conversation: "By then, we will be able to travel along this road to China."

(This newspaper, Barskoon, Kyrgyzstan, August 7)

Layout design: Zhang Danfeng (张丹峰)

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Let the Ancient "Bricks and Stones" Tell China's Story

By: 本报记者 徐 馨

A pipa solo of the piece "Spring Silkworm" extolled the life song of the silkworm spinning silk, revealed the weathered beauty of the ancient Silk Road, and echoed the spirit of diversity and inclusiveness... At the "Heavenly Land of Abundance: Sichuan Han Dynasty Pictorial Art Exhibition" currently being held at the Berlin Chinese Cultural Center, besides the rich display of Han dynasty pictorial bricks and pictorial stones, there were also activities such as folk music performances, hanfu and virtual reality experiences, rubbing experiences, and Sichuan cuisine tasting.

Sichuan Han dynasty pictorial bricks and pictorial stones are known as "an encyclopedia of the Ba-Shu region of the Han dynasty carved on bricks and stones." The exhibition is divided into five major sections: agricultural production, urban life, carriage and horse travel, education and entertainment, and cosmology and views on life. At the exhibition venue, visitors either took photos, studied the exhibit descriptions, or exchanged remarks in low voices. Numerous exquisite rubbings presented the ancient Chinese people's labor and travel, banquets and hundred-acts entertainments, and the myriad scenes of urban life before the eyes.

The exhibition also specially displayed several lifelike replicas of pottery figurines. Wolfgang Röhr, former German Consul General in Shanghai, paused for a long time while viewing the exhibition. "What personally impressed me most was the drum-beating storyteller figurine — over the past few decades, I have seen this image many times. The exquisite skill and joyful expression shown in this sculpture resonate with us across a thousand years."

Julie Noth, director of the Institute of Art History at Freie Universität Berlin, is an expert on Han dynasty history and pictorial art. In her view, this exhibition presents the holistic perspective of ancient Chinese people on life, the universe, and society. She especially liked the film about Dujiangyan at the exhibition. "Dujiangyan not only reflects an extremely high level of engineering skill but also laid the material foundation for the prosperity of the local society. 'Harmony' is still an ideal pursued by China today. This exhibition organized by the Berlin Chinese Cultural Center gives us an opportunity to appreciate the unique charm of Chinese civilization," Noth told reporters.

It is reported that this exhibition is co-organized and curated by the Berlin Chinese Cultural Center and the Sichuan Museum, and will run until September 20. He Wenbo (何文波), deputy director of the Berlin Chinese Cultural Center, stated that the exhibition opens a unique window for overseas audiences to understand ancient Chinese civilization. Xiang Hepin (向和频), Party Secretary of the Sichuan Museum and Vice President of the Chinese Museums Association, expressed the hope of using cultural relics as a medium to continuously deepen cultural exchanges and inject vitality into Sino-German friendly relations.

"This exhibition organized by the Berlin Chinese Cultural Center is commendable. It brings Chinese music, performing arts, film, sculpture, and painting to Berlin, and echoes the rich and diverse cultural landscape of the Berlin region, together with the activities of the Confucius Institute at Freie Universität Berlin," Röhr said.

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Central Banks of China and Malaysia Renew Bilateral Local Currency Swap Agreement

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 7 (reporters Ren Jun (任军), Wu Yu (吴雨)) — A reporter learned from the People's Bank of China on August 7 that recently the People's Bank of China and Bank Negara Malaysia renewed their bilateral local currency swap agreement. The swap size has been expanded from the original 180 billion yuan / 110 billion Malaysian ringgit to 220 billion yuan / 130 billion Malaysian ringgit. The agreement has a validity period of five years and may be extended upon mutual agreement.

The People's Bank of China stated that the two sides' renewal of the bilateral local currency swap agreement and the expansion of its scale will help further deepen monetary and financial cooperation between the two countries, expand the use of local currencies between China and Malaysia, promote the facilitation of bilateral trade and investment, and safeguard the stability of financial markets.

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Japan's ruling authorities should stop playing with fire on nuclear issues

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian, when answering a reporter's question on July 7 regarding the Japanese mainstream public's clear anti-nuclear stance, stated that Japan's ruling authorities should heed the voice of the people, stop playing with fire on nuclear issues, and not repeat the mistake of misjudging the historical trend and betraying the public will for peace.

A reporter asked: According to reports, the latest opinion poll by the Japan Association for Public Opinion Research shows that 76% of Japanese people believe that the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" of "not possessing, not manufacturing, and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons" should be upheld. At the same time, 77% of the public oppose the "nuclear-sharing" concept that would allow the United States to deploy nuclear weapons in Japan. What is China's comment on this?

Lin Jian stated that nearly 80% of Japanese people demand adherence to the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" and oppose "nuclear sharing," which fully reflects the clear anti-nuclear stance of Japanese mainstream public opinion, and reflects the Japanese people's cherishing of the hard-won peace and prosperity. Officials of Japan's ruling authorities openly hype the "nuclear option" and attempt to break through the "Three Non-Nuclear Principles," exposing the increasingly膨胀 (expanding) political and military ambitions of Japan's right-wing forces, which amounts to a gamble with the future of more than 100 million Japanese people.

"Popular sentiment cannot be defied. Japan's ruling authorities should heed the voice of the people, earnestly fulfill their international legal obligations not to accept, manufacture, possess, or proliferate nuclear weapons, stop playing with fire on nuclear issues, and not repeat the mistake of misjudging the historical trend and betraying the public will for peace," Lin Jian said.

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A Warm "Diagnosis" Without Prescriptions (Striving for the 15th Five-Year Plan: On-the-Ground Reports)

By: 本报记者 窦 皓

Improve the care system for elderly people with disabilities and dementia.
— Excerpted from the Outline of the "15th Five-Year Plan" (十五五规划纲要)

In the morning, Hu Tao (胡涛), a physician in the rehabilitation department of the Wenhui Street Community Health Service Center (文晖街道社区卫生服务中心) in Gongshu District (拱墅区), Hangzhou, Zhejiang, arrived at the Boyang Nursing Home (博养养老院) within its jurisdiction. This time his task was not diagnosis and treatment, but to conduct an elderly capability assessment (老年人能力评估) for Grandpa Wang, an 83-year-old retired teacher.

Previously, Grandpa Wang had fallen at home. After surgery and discharge from the hospital, his family sent him here to receive professional nursing care. According to relevant policy provisions, eligible disabled elderly people may apply for an elderly care service consumption subsidy (养老服务消费补贴) of up to 800 yuan per month. The "application form" for receiving this subsidy is the result of the elderly capability assessment.

"Grandpa Wang, we've come to see you." As soon as he entered the room, Hu Tao greeted Grandpa Wang with a smile. Grandpa Wang was half-leaning against the headboard. Hearing the movement, he wanted to sit up, but because of the knee deformity he could not exert strength, and his body only moved slightly.

"Lie back down. Today I'm here to chat with you." Hu Tao sat down by the bed and observed his surroundings: on the bedside table, medications for high blood pressure, heart disease, and osteoporosis were laid out in a row. Beneath the mattress, an incontinence pad was faintly visible. Hu Tao opened his phone and completed Grandpa Wang's basic information in the elderly capability assessment system, while also checking the option "requires great assistance or is completely dependent on others" in the mobility assessment.

In the subsequent conversation, Hu Tao reminded the old man to button up his coat. Grandpa Wang pinched the button with his trembling left hand, aligned it with the buttonhole, and took a full half minute to finish. Seeing this, Hu Tao silently selected "requires great assistance or is completely dependent on others" under the "whether help is needed for dressing" item in the system.

"The moment I enter the room, the capability assessment has already begun. An elderly person who cannot move about freely cannot score high in the assessment of activities of daily living," Hu Tao said.

Walking on level ground, the ability to go up and down stairs, whether help is needed with eating... The assessment of activities of daily living is divided into multiple items, all of which require Hu Tao to make judgments based on conversation and observation.

Half an hour later, the assessment—covering multiple dimensions, including sensory perception and communication ability, cognitive ability, and activities of daily living, and comprising more than 20 items—was completed. The score assigned by the system showed that Grandpa Wang was at severe disability Level II. The family members signed to confirm the assessment result. After the back-end review is approved, the subsidy will be paid directly into the account. The 100 yuan assessment fee this time was also fully waived according to policy.

"You should accompany the old man out to bask in the sun and look at the flowers and plants." While organizing the assessment materials, Hu Tao did not forget to remind the family members. He often says that, unlike the "medical prescriptions" of the community health service center, what he writes are "life prescriptions" one after another.

Ten minutes later, the review was approved. "Use your phone to log in to the 'Civil Affairs Link' (民政通) WeChat mini-program, tap 'Elderly Care Service Consumption Subsidy Program,' and select the corresponding service in the elderly care institution where you are staying..." Hu Tao taught the family members how to operate it hands-on.

"The end of the assessment means the beginning of the guarantee." Song Yaqin (宋亚琴), deputy director of the Gongshu District Community Health Service Management Center (拱墅区社区卫生服务管理中心), said that up to now, Gongshu District has completed capability assessments for more than 2,000 elderly people and, based on the assessment results, community health service centers carry out graded and categorized health services for the elderly.

Data show that as of the end of 2025, the number of people in Zhejiang Province holding elderly capability assessor skill certificates was 1,930. "Assessment reports are crucial for targeted elderly care services for different elderly people. We hope that through our own efforts, more elderly people can receive more suitable and more considerate care," Hu Tao said.

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Professional Competence Assessment Makes Elderly Care Security More Considerate (Editor's Note)

By: 张雪妍

Speaking of elderly ability assessors, perhaps many people still feel a bit unfamiliar. In the rehabilitation doctor Hu Tao (胡涛), we clearly see the appearance and value of this profession.

Their main mission is to provide measurement and assessment of health conditions such as daily living ability, cognitive ability, and mental state for elderly people in need. These professionals are well-versed in medical knowledge and also master assessment standards, enabling them to accurately judge the disability level of the elderly from daily details.

They are like a bridge, connecting on one side various policies that benefit the people, and on the other side the needs of thousands of elderly people. The “life prescriptions” they issue are not only the basis for Grandpa Wang and other elderly people to apply for subsidies, but also make nursing care in elder care homes more targeted.

The high-quality development of elderly care services requires both a policy safety net and professional support. When more and more assessors like Hu Tao work on the front line, using 细致入微 (xì zhì rù wēi - “meticulous to the minutest detail”) assessments to understand needs, elderly care security will become more considerate and warm.

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Firmly grasp tasks with broad benefits and pivotal impact.

By: 本报记者 白剑峰 申少铁 陆凡冰

On August 8, our country ushers in the eighteenth National Fitness Day.

One person's health is the foundation of establishing oneself; the people's health is the foundation of establishing the nation.

Since the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has always adhered to putting the people first and life first, placed the protection of the people's health in the strategic position of priority development, elevated national fitness and Healthy China to national strategies, and promoted the deep integration of national fitness and the people's health.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Building a Healthy China is a systemic project. Facing the growing diversified health and hygiene needs of the people, we must highlight key points, firmly grasp those tasks that benefit a wide range of people and affect the whole system when one part is touched, concentrate strength and resources on improving the public health system, building a high-quality and efficient medical service system, advocating healthy and civilized lifestyles, and take effective measures to promote them, continuously achieving new results."

A health "report card" of a major country with a population of over 1.4 billion illuminates the livelihood foundation of Healthy China and marks the quality of Chinese-style modernization—

It has built the world's largest medical service, traditional medicine, disease prevention and control, and medical security system, with the people's health level continuously improving; the average life expectancy has reached 79.25 years, and major health indicators have entered the forefront of countries with upper-middle income and populations exceeding 100 million; over 1.1 million medical and health institutions cover urban and rural areas, and more than 90% of residents can reach the nearest medical service point within 15 minutes.

Healthy China moves forward with a resolute pace. The people's sense of gain, happiness, and security continue to strengthen, with more smiles and warmer hearts.

Improve the public health system

At the First People's Hospital of Xiangshan County (象山县第一人民医院), Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, Mr. Zhang, who suffers from a chronic disease, was assessed by a doctor during a follow-up examination as a high-risk group for pneumococcal infection. Immediately, the doctor issued a "vaccine prescription." With this prescription, Mr. Zhang completed the vaccination within the hospital.

Clinical doctors become the "health gatekeepers" of residents, binding "treatment" and "disease prevention" together. This is a microcosm of our country's promotion of medical-prevention coordination and medical-prevention integration.

People's security is the cornerstone of national security. In recent years, our country's disease prevention and control have achieved notable results, the public health system has been further improved, providing strong guarantees for safeguarding the people's health.

"In the past, when bringing a child for vaccination, I had to bring a paper vaccination certificate, and I also had to inquire about the vaccination site address and working hours in advance; one slip and I would make a wasted trip. Now it is convenient. When I open my phone, the location of the vaccination site and the vaccine inventory are clear at a glance. After vaccination, an electronic vaccination certificate is generated directly. It is such a relief!" Recently, Wang Ling of Dongsheng District (东胜区), Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, easily completed her child's vaccination with the help of the "vaccine electronic map" on her mobile phone.

Our country improves the vaccination service system. The state provides vaccines free of charge that can prevent 16 diseases. The vaccination rate of the national immunization program for children of appropriate age remains above 90%. The reported incidence rates of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, hepatitis A, Japanese encephalitis, and meningococcal meningitis have fallen to historically low levels. Vaccination services have moved from the "paper certificate" era to the "electronic certificate" era. This year, it is expected that national vaccination information will be interconnected, making it more convenient for children to enter school and kindergarten. Optimize the layout of vaccination units, introduce policies such as time-slot appointments and weekend vaccination to meet the diverse vaccination needs of the masses.

In July 2025, a cluster outbreak of Chikungunya fever occurred in Foshan, Guangdong. A doctor at a community health service center, with a high degree of vigilance and professional judgment, first detected and reported the signs of the outbreak, effectively triggering the "sentinel" mechanism for infectious disease surveillance, winning a precious "window period" for successfully blocking the spread of the epidemic.

A relevant person in charge of the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration (国家疾控局) stated that our country has woven a sensitive infectious disease surveillance and early warning network. Currently, the infectious disease surveillance system covers 84,000 medical institutions nationwide, 1,323 sentinel hospitals, 39,000 pathogen microbiology laboratories, and 1,752 vector and sewage monitoring sites. Surveillance channels have expanded from fever clinics and sentinel hospitals to pathogen microbiology laboratories, vector organisms, and urban sewage monitoring sites. At the same time, a national infectious disease intelligent surveillance and early warning front-end software is being deployed and applied in medical institutions. Currently, 48,000 have been formally applied, and the construction of an intelligent multi-point trigger surveillance and early warning system has achieved initial results.

Layers of public health defense lines, and networks of disease prevention and control, protect the life safety and health of hundreds of millions of people.

Build a high-quality and efficient medical service system

Ensuring that the sick can be treated is the people's aspiration for a better life and is also what General Secretary Xi Jinping has at heart.

Recently, Uncle Liu from Majiaying Village (马家营村), Xiguocheng Town (西郭城镇), Julu County (巨鹿县), Xingtai City, Hebei Province, suddenly developed right limb movement disorder and was rushed by his family to the Xiguocheng Town Health Center. After a head computed tomography (CT) scan, it was found that Uncle Liu had a cerebral infarction. The health center quickly activated the treatment mechanism, linking with Julu County Hospital through the green channel of the compact county-level medical community (紧密型县域医共体). Under the remote guidance of county hospital experts, doctors at the health center performed intravenous thrombolytic therapy, and Uncle Liu quickly turned from danger to safety without any sequelae. He said: "The doctors at our doorstep are really reliable!"

Primary-level medical and health institutions are the "nerve endings" of Healthy China construction and also the "first line of defense" for safeguarding the masses' health. In recent years, our country has comprehensively promoted the construction of compact county-level medical communities, further enhancing the capacity of primary-level medical services. A total of 2,199 counties (cities, districts) have built compact county-level medical communities, and 81 cities have piloted compact urban medical groups. Monitoring shows that in 2025, within compact county-level medical communities, the proportion of primary-level diagnosis and treatment visits exceeded 63%.

Build national medical centers and national regional medical centers, promote the expansion and sinking of high-quality medical resources and balanced regional distribution. As of now, our country has established national medical centers in 13 professional categories and national regional medical centers for children and mental diseases, carrying out 125 national regional medical center construction projects. High-quality medical resources are closer to primary-level people, and the phenomenon of seeking medical treatment across provinces has significantly improved.

"I have come at a good time. Giving birth can originally be reimbursed so much. If I don't choose self-funded items, medical insurance can fully reimburse." Recently, Ms. Wang, an employee in Taiyuan City, Shanxi, gave birth to a baby vaginally at Shanxi Provincial Children's Hospital (Shanxi Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital). Her total medical expenses for this hospitalization exceeded 5,000 yuan, with medical insurance reimbursement of over 4,000 yuan, and medical insurance personal account payment of over 700 yuan.

In July this year, Taiyuan City introduced a new maternity insurance policy. Medical expenses for insured employees' hospital deliveries that conform to the medical insurance "three directories" are reimbursed by maternity insurance at 100%. As of now, 28 provinces and 278 coordinated regions have basically achieved "zero out-of-pocket" for individual policy-covered hospital deliveries, making "basically no cost for having a baby" a reality.

The National Healthcare Security Administration (国家医保局) continues to promote the construction of a "1+3+N" multi-tiered medical security system, with the three basic medical security systems of basic medical insurance, serious illness insurance, and medical assistance further consolidated and improved. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the cumulative expenditure of the medical insurance fund exceeded 13 trillion yuan, benefiting nearly 20 billion medical visits, effectively reducing the burden of medical treatment on the masses.

Advocate healthy and civilized lifestyles

"I finally succeeded in losing weight!" Standing on the scale, Ms. Chen from Beijing was filled with emotion. Two years ago, her weight exceeded 100 kilograms, and obesity became a lingering worry. In March last year, Peking Union Medical College Hospital opened a "Weight Management Joint Clinic," staffed by doctors from the Clinical Nutrition Department, Endocrinology Department, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Department. On a whim, she booked an expert appointment. After a joint consultation by multiple specialists, the doctors tailored a treatment plan combining traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and medication for her, and issued a "Health Management Prescription," with requirements from daily diet to exercise duration. Now, her weight indicators are close to normal, and she feels especially happy.

In June 2024, the National Health Commission (国家卫生健康委) and other departments launched a three-year "Weight Management Year" activity, which received an enthusiastic response from the whole society. Currently, over 5,500 secondary and tertiary medical institutions nationwide have established healthy weight management clinics. The National Health Commission requires that all tertiary general public hospitals provide healthy weight management clinic services this year.

Building a Healthy China requires not only ensuring that the masses can see a doctor and afford medical treatment, but also ensuring that the masses do not get sick or get sick less.

From "the state calling on you to lose weight" to carrying out the National Healthy Lifestyle Action, from preventing "little chubby kids" and "little glasses" to building a system of "multi-disease co-prevention" for common diseases and infectious diseases among students... our country establishes the concept of big health and big hygiene, actively advocates healthy and civilized lifestyles, and reduces the occurrence of diseases at the source.

Everyone is the first person responsible for their own health. In 2025, the Healthy China special actions increased from 15 to 18, adding the Healthy Weight Management Action, Healthy Rural Construction Action, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Promotion Action, clarifying the responsibilities of the government, society, and individuals in health promotion. In 2025, the health literacy level of our country's residents rose to 33.69%. The "National Health '15th Five-Year Plan'" proposes that by 2030, the health literacy level of residents will reach 40%.

"In the past, every household had a simple dry latrine; when it rained, feet were covered in mud. Now the toilet is clean and hygienic, with no odor." Mo Wenqing, a villager from Nalang Village (那廊村), Jiangxi Town, Jiangnan District, Nanning City, Guangxi, pointed to the toilet behind his house. Now, every household in the village has a sanitary toilet, with three-chamber septic tanks for sealed treatment.

Small toilets are connected to big livelihoods, and the "Toilet Revolution" is related to big health. As of the end of 2025, the nationwide rural sanitary toilet penetration rate reached about 77%, the nationwide rural domestic sewage treatment rate reached 55%, the proportion of administrative villages where rural domestic garbage is collected, transported, and treated remained above 90%, the nationwide rural tap water penetration rate reached 96%, and the urban and rural living environment has significantly improved.

Deeply carry out the Patriotic Health Campaign, widely mobilize the whole society to participate, launch the creation of national health towns and cities, promote the normalization of the Patriotic Health Campaign, and strengthen the social defense line for infectious disease prevention and control. About two-thirds of cities and over 40% of counties (cities) have become national health cities and national health counties (cities).

National fitness concerns the happiness of the people and the future of the nation. The "2025 National Fitness Activity Status Survey Report" shows that the proportion of residents aged 7 and above who regularly participate in physical exercise has reached 38.52%. The "Sports Power Construction '15th Five-Year Plan'" proposes that by 2030, the per capita sports venue area will reach about 4 square meters, and the proportion of people regularly participating in physical exercise will reach about 40%.

Smart wristbands record steps, AI fitness mirrors correct movements, "Internet + fitness" becomes a new trend; sports parks are built under viaducts, abandoned factories are transformed into sports parks, and "15-minute fitness circles" are spread across urban and rural areas.

With the concept of big health taking root, Healthy China is full of vitality. The deep integration of national fitness and the people's health makes more people physically stronger and mentally stronger.

*** ***

"When key work is done well, the construction of Healthy China can be solidly advanced."

"Building a Healthy China by 2035 is a strategic decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The '15th Five-Year Plan' period is a critical period for achieving this goal. It is necessary to plan comprehensively, accelerate progress, and strive for decisive progress."

"Health is the most important indicator of a happy life. Health is 1, and everything else is the zeros behind it. Without the 1, no matter how many zeros, it is meaningless."

Healthy China, jointly built and shared. Deepen the '1' more and more, write more and more '0's, add points to the people's health, add weight to the people's happiness, the health foundation of Chinese-style modernization will become more solid, and the livelihood foundation will become more distinct.

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Effectively Reduce Teachers' Non-Educational Workload

By: 本报记者 吴 丹 丁雅诵

A light click of the mouse, a simple operation — in just ten minutes, a statistical table compiling students’ honor certificates and academic records can be automatically generated. Tang Chen (唐晨), a Chinese language teacher at Wanghaiyuan Middle School in Weihai City, Shandong Province, remarked with emotion: “In the past, manual sorting took two hours; now the time saved allows me to devote myself more deeply to teaching and to accompanying my students.”

Let data run more, let teachers run less; social affairs entering schools are subject to a white list (白名单); activities may no longer be assessed through check-in record-keeping, form-filling summaries, or the like… In recent years, the Ministry of Education has implemented and carried out the spirit of the Party Central Committee on rectifying formalism and reducing burdens at the grassroots level, treating the reduction of non-educational and non-teaching task burdens on primary and secondary school teachers as an important political task. Adhering to classified governance and addressing both symptoms and root causes, local governments have actively explored and taken initiative. A burden-reduction campaign aimed at returning time to teachers and allowing education to return to its essence is being solidly advanced nationwide.

Teacher burden reduction begins with institutions.

In 2025, the Education Powerhouse Construction Planning Outline (2024–2035) (教育强国建设规划纲要（2024—2035年）) explicitly states: “Reduce teachers’ non-educational and non-teaching task burdens.” In the same year, the Notice on Several Measures to Further Reduce Non-Educational and Non-Teaching Burdens on Primary and Secondary School Teachers (关于进一步减轻中小学教师非教育教学负担若干措施的通知) proposed eight rectification measures, specifying that the total number of provincial “white lists” is generally controlled within ten items, that each school shall have no more than six campus-entry activities per semester, and other provisions, to promote the standardization and long-term effectiveness of teacher burden reduction.

Under the top-level design, local governments have successively introduced real and tough measures. Jiangsu Province has deeply studied the degree of relevance of various activities to education and teaching, as well as their suitability for students’ age stages and cognitive levels, and scientifically reduced the number of social affairs entering schools. Sichuan Province has built and applied a digital platform for teacher professional development, effectively avoiding duplicate selection of teachers for training, and has coordinated and standardized the situation of transferring or borrowing primary and secondary school teachers. Yunnan Province has incorporated teacher burden reduction into the supervision content of each spring and fall semester, conducting one comprehensive supervision per semester. From institutional design to implementation and execution, from approval review to process supervision, a burden-reduction work network covering before, during, and after events has gradually taken shape.

The most intuitive feeling for Zhang Chunmei (张春梅), a teacher at Nantong Primary School in Wansheng Economic Development Zone, Chongqing, is: the number of applications requiring check-ins on her phone has decreased by five; the school’s weekly meetings have been merged into two short meetings; and those task notifications unrelated to teaching, such as “mountain and river patrols” and “fire prevention duty,” have never appeared again.

“In the past, the school had to welcome seven or eight waves of inspections each semester covering safety, teaching, moral education, logistics, etc., and each time we had to prepare different ledgers, display boards, and compiled materials. Now it’s ‘enter once to inspect multiple matters,’ with on-the-spot feedback on supervision items,” said Luo Dezhong (罗德中), Deputy Secretary of the Education Work Committee of Wansheng Economic Development Zone. In 2025, the average reduction in non-teaching burdens for teachers in Wansheng Economic Development Zone exceeded 40%.

So that teachers can settle down and root themselves firmly at the three-foot podium, burden-reduction measures are reflected in every aspect.

Improving the “white list” system — Hainan Province, following the principle of “all entries must be reviewed, total quantity unchanged, dynamic adjustment,” updates the “white list” of social affairs entering schools each year, intensifies the investigation and exposure of typical problems, and resolutely curbs the entry of irrelevant affairs into schools.

Eliminating “formalism at the fingertips” (指尖上的形式主义) — Gansu Province has urged local governments to promptly clean up actions that require schools and teachers to download and register mobile phone apps for the sake of creating “digital political achievements,” and to prohibit the use of mobile apps for online “check-ins,” “follower-boosting,” “evaluations,” “quiz-answering,” “voting,” and other activities, so that teachers no longer have “phones ringing nonstop, always watching ‘groups.’”

Improving the guarantee mechanism for after-school services for teachers — Sichuan Province encourages arrangements for teachers to implement a “flexible commuting system” (弹性上下班制), explores flexible work models such as “time bank” (时间银行), and stipulates that after-school service conditions shall not be rigidly linked to teachers’ professional title evaluations or appraisals and awards, thus safeguarding teachers’ legitimate rights and interests…

From “overworked by paperwork” to “lightly equipped to educate,” from “besieged by forms” to “data legwork,” a series of measures has clarified the boundaries of powers and responsibilities, sending a clear signal that teachers should return to their role as educators.

Reducing burdens must also improve quality; while doing the “subtraction,” sustained efforts are also being made on the “addition.”

In recent years, the Ministry of Education has launched the “China Teacher” mini-program (中国教师小程序), built and continuously upgraded the National Teacher Management Information System, consolidated the achievement that “the average salary income level of compulsory education teachers is not lower than the average salary income level of local civil servants” (义务教育教师平均工资收入水平不低于当地公务员平均工资收入水平), and worked with multiple departments to strengthen housing security for rural teachers. Local governments, covering areas such as medical care, transportation, consumption, and tourism, have successively introduced various policies to respect and benefit teachers, bringing tangible welfare and genuine convenience to teachers.

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"Service for the People — Bringing Culture to the Grassroots" Campaign Launched

Our newspaper Nanchang, August 7 (Reporter Zhou Huan (周欢)) — From August 3 to 7, the Committee on Culture, Historical Data and Studies of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (全国政协文化文史和学习委员会) organized some members of the National Committee of the CPPCC and literary and art workers to go to Jiangxi to carry out the "Serve the People – Send Culture to the Grassroots" member duty activity (委员履职“服务为民——送文化下基层”活动).

This activity actively practices the people-centered development thought and the concept that "the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference serves the people," closely follows the themes of celebrating the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and commemorating the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and takes vigorously carrying forward the great founding spirit of the Party (伟大建党精神) and the great Long March spirit (伟大长征精神) as an important content of the member duty "serve the people" activity, aiming to allow high-quality cultural resources to directly reach the grassroots by carrying out diversified public cultural services deep at the grassroots level.

During the activity, the delegation went deep into Jinggangshan (井冈山), Yudu (于都), Ruijin (瑞金), and other places in Jiangxi, and presented three wonderful cultural performances for the masses in the old revolutionary base areas in the forms of singing, recitation, acrobatics, opera, etc., with a total of over 3,000 audience members on site. The activity also offered three "culture benefiting the people" (文化惠民) lectures, including The Great Long March Began Here (《伟大的长征从这里开始》), to the grassroots masses, and carried out book and calligraphy work donation activities. Some members of the National Committee of the CPPCC and literary and art workers also went to grassroots cultural units to conduct artistic guidance and exchange.

According to reports, "Send Culture to the Grassroots" is a traditional characteristic brand activity of the CPPCC National Committee, which has been continuously carried out for nearly 30 years and is deeply welcomed by the grassroots masses. Next, the Committee on Culture, Historical Data and Studies of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference will continuously enrich and improve the content and forms of the activity, bringing richer and more nourishing spiritual food to the masses in old revolutionary base areas, remote areas, ethnic areas, and other places.

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38th Hundred Flowers Awards for Popular Film Kicks Off

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporters Ren Shanshan (任姗姗) and Pan Junqiang (潘俊强)) The 38th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards series, hosted by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles (中国文联), the Beijing Municipal People's Government, and the China Film Association (中国影协), opened today at Chaoyang Park in Beijing.

The 38th Popular Film Hundred Flowers Awards series lasts for four days, encompassing a variety of exciting activities including the opening ceremony, the nominees commendation ceremony, the Hundred Flowers Film Exhibition, the Hundred Flowers Film Forum, a themed exhibition on film culture, public welfare and sympathy performances, the Chinese-language Youth Film Week, and the awards ceremony and closing ceremony.

The opening ceremony's artistic performance, themed "Return of the Hundred Flowers — Original Aspiration of Light and Shadow" (百花归来 光影初心), uses the narrative structure of "three letters" to connect the deep dialogue between film, the people, and the era. After the artistic performance, the opening film "Secret Archives" (密档) was screened.

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National Youth Girls' Football Ethnic Unity Friendship Tournament Kicks Off

Aksu, Xinjiang, August 7 (Reporters Yang Hao (杨昊) and Shang Rongzheng (尚嵘峥)) — The 2026 "Pomegranate Blossoms, Youth Blooms" (石榴花开 青春绽放) National Youth Girls' Football Ethnic Unity Friendship Tournament kicked off in Aksu, Xinjiang on the 5th. The tournament is jointly organized by the All-China Women's Federation, the National Ethnic Affairs Commission, and the General Administration of Sport of China. A total of 28 teams from across the country participate, with athletes from 17 ethnic groups, all of whom are enrolled students aged 12 to 14. Over the five-day competition period, girls from various ethnicities will compete together on the same field, making friends through the ball, building cohesion through the matches, and displaying youthful brilliance.

During the friendship tournament, the athletes will also take part in the 2026 "Pass on Good Family Traditions, Jointly Build the Dream of Family and Country" (传承好家风 共筑家国梦) demonstration activity for the learning and use of the standard spoken and written Chinese language by families in ethnic regions, and will travel to the Aksu Prefecture Cultural Museum (Museum) (阿克苏地区文博院（博物馆）), the Experience Hall for Forging a Strong Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation (铸牢中华民族共同体意识体验馆), and the Kekeya Memorial Hall (柯柯牙纪念馆) for study tours.

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Photo Report

Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, actively defended against Typhoon "White Dolphin" (白海豚), reinforced port facilities, required vessels working at sea to return to port for shelter, and comprehensively implemented relevant preventive measures. The picture shows a large number of fishing boats taking shelter at the Liandao Central Fishing Port (连岛中心渔港) Pier in Lianyungang City on August 7.

Wang Chun (王春) / People's Vision (人民视觉)

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Typhoon "Dolphin" to make landfall on Zhejiang-Fujian coast from September 9 to 10.

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Jiang Xuehong (蒋雪鸿)) On August 7, the reporter learned from the Central Meteorological Observatory (中央气象台) that this year's 13th typhoon, "White Dolphin," will make landfall in the coastal areas from Zhejiang to northern Fujian between the afternoon of the 9th and the morning of the 10th.

Forecasts show that starting from the 7th, wind forces along China's coastal sea surfaces will gradually increase, with wind forces in most of the East China Sea reaching Force 9 to 11. Starting from the 8th, wind forces in Zhejiang's inland areas will increase to Force 8 to 10. Taiwan Island, north-central Fujian, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, central and southern Anhui, eastern Hubei, eastern Hunan, and other areas will successively experience rainstorms to heavy rainstorms, among which northeastern Fujian, central and eastern Zhejiang, southern Anhui and the Dabie Mountains area, and other parts will experience extraordinary rainstorms.

On August 7, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (农业农村部) and the China Meteorological Administration (中国气象局) jointly issued a risk warning for farmland waterlogging and wind damage.

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Liu Wenxin (刘温馨)) On August 7, the Office of the National Committee for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Relief (国家防灾减灾救灾委员会办公室) and the Ministry of Emergency Management (应急管理部), in response to the impact of rainstorm and flood disasters in multiple areas of Shaanxi, and based on the disaster relief needs of the affected areas, on the basis of the previously allocated 65,000 pieces of central disaster relief materials, jointly with the National Food and Strategic Reserves Administration (国家粮食和物资储备局) allocated an additional 32,000 pieces of central disaster relief materials to Shaanxi, including tents, site lighting lamps, folding beds, folding tables and chairs, raincoats and rain boots, family emergency kits, etc., to support the local authorities in properly carrying out the emergency transfer and resettlement of affected people and disaster relief work.

On the afternoon of August 7, the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (国家防总) and the Ministry of Emergency Management organized multiple departments as well as Zhejiang, Fujian, and other potentially affected provinces for a joint consultation, assessed the development trend of Typhoon White Dolphin, and further studied and deployed typhoon prevention and response work. The National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters raised the Level IV emergency response for flood control and typhoon prevention targeting Zhejiang and Fujian to Level III at 16:00 on the 7th.

Through joint consultation and assessment with the Ministry of Natural Resources (自然资源部), the risk of geological disasters in most of Zhejiang and northern Fujian is high. In accordance with the National Emergency Plan for Sudden Geological Disasters and relevant regulations, the Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level IV national emergency response for geological disasters targeting Zhejiang and Fujian on August 7.

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Deng Jianyang (邓剑洋)) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Water Resources (水利部) that the Ministry of Water Resources activated a Level IV emergency response for flood defense targeting Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and Jiangxi at 18:00 on the 7th.

On the afternoon of August 7, the Ministry of Water Resources held a special consultation meeting, with video links to the basin management agencies of the Yangtze River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Haihe River, Pearl River, Songliao River, and Taihu Lake under the Ministry of Water Resources, analyzed and assessed the development situation and impact of this year's 13th typhoon, "White Dolphin," and systematically arranged and deployed defense work against typhoon rainstorms and floods.

Beijing, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Han Xin (韩鑫)) On August 7, the Ministry of Transport (交通运输部) raised the typhoon defense response to Level III. On August 7, the Ministry of Transport dispatched relevant regions and units in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian, etc., demanding resolute implementation of proactive defense measures, achieving "all that should stop must stop, all that should close must close, all that should evacuate must evacuate"; it is necessary to establish a vertically integrated information sharing and coordinated linkage mechanism, and do a good job of all defense measures throughout the entire process.

Fuzhou, August 7 (People's Daily) — (Reporter Fu Wen (付文)) At 16:00 on August 7, the Fujian Provincial Meteorological Observatory (福建省气象台) upgraded the typhoon warning to Level III, and the Fujian Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (福建省防指) upgraded the typhoon prevention emergency response to Level III. As of 12:00 on the 7th, all 115 water construction projects along the Fujian coast had been suspended, all 290 construction vessels had entered safe waters to take shelter from the wind, and 2 wind farms had stopped operation and maintenance. 19 passenger and ferry routes north of Quanzhou had suspended service.

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Xi Jinping Holds Talks with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam

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Embodied Intelligence: Growing in the Physical World

By: 郑南宁

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that artificial intelligence is a new engine of world economic growth and an accelerator for the conversion of old and new growth drivers, and that it is moving from the "digital world" toward the "physical world."

The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan lists embodied intelligence as one of the future industries. Moving from the laboratory to the production line, and then to more complex industry scenarios, artificial intelligence is undergoing an important transformation, developing into an intelligent form capable of continuous interaction, learning, and evolution in the physical world—embodied intelligence. Today, as artificial intelligence reshapes the paradigm of human production and daily life, how should we understand embodied intelligence? How will embodied intelligence affect the future?

In this installment of "Academicians Explain Science: Future Industries," Zheng Nanning (郑南宁), academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of Xi'an Jiaotong University's Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (人工智能与机器人研究所), is invited to interpret hot-button issues.

— Editor

One of the important development directions of artificial intelligence is to enable machines not only to process information and reason through complex problems, but also to flexibly complete various tasks in real and ever-changing environments.

From fine manipulation on industrial production lines, to autonomous walking on complex terrain, to dynamic movement in exhibition and performance environments... In recent years, robots have frequently appeared in all kinds of scenarios. Behind these capabilities, artificial intelligence is undergoing an important transformation: from being able to "compute" to being able to "act," and further developing into an intelligent form capable of continuous interaction, learning, and evolution in the physical world—embodied intelligence.

It should be made clear that embodied intelligence is not equivalent to humanoid robots; the humanoid form is only one of its carriers. The key lies in whether the intelligent system can truly enter real environments, form a closed loop of "perception—cognition—decision—action—feedback," continuously adjust its own behavior within this closed loop, and improve its internal models and strategies through learning. Therefore, the criterion for evaluating embodied intelligence lies not in whether the form "resembles a human," but in whether it can truly solve problems in the real world.

What is embodied intelligence?

Understanding the world like an infant

One of the most intuitive ways to understand embodied intelligence is to return to the process by which an infant comes to know the world.

Infants do not first learn concepts or language; rather, they build their understanding of the world through constant touching, grasping, falling, and trying again. An infant's cognition is not detached from the body; it gradually takes shape through the interaction between body and environment: vision provides spatial structure, touch provides physical feedback, and motor experience constantly revises predictions about the world.

Intelligence is not a computational process that exists only in the "brain"; it is the product of the interaction between body and environment. Therefore, the body is not merely a tool for executing instructions but a component of the cognitive system, participating in the entire process of perception, understanding, and action. This structural characteristic of "the body's participation in cognition" constitutes the connotation of embodied intelligence.

An embodied intelligence system usually consists of three parts: the perception system (vision, touch, force sensing, etc.) is responsible for acquiring environmental information; the decision-making system is responsible for forming understanding and planning; and the execution system (physical entities such as robotic arms and mobile platforms) is responsible for acting on the physical world. The three form a closed loop, enabling the system to learn in action rather than relying solely on offline data training.

Compared with this mechanism, the "data-driven intelligence" represented by large language models shows obvious differences. Current large models are more like "intelligent agents in a study," mainly adept at language generation and knowledge expression, but they do not directly act on the physical world. The real world, however, is highly uncertain—changes in illumination, occlusion interference, material differences, and environmental disturbances all require the system to possess sustained adaptive capability. Embodied intelligence is not a simple extension of existing models; rather, it impels us to re-examine the roles of the body, action, and environment in the formation of intelligence.

Embodied intelligence did not emerge only today. In the National High-Tech Research and Development Program (863 Program), implemented by China in 1986, the automation theme already explicitly proposed developing precision assembly robots, underwater operation robots, and robots for operation in complex and harsh environments. These robots all had to face real environments and complete closed-loop operations; they were precisely the prototypes of early embodied intelligence.

Only in recent years, with advances in algorithms, improvements in computing power, and the increasing abundance of multimodal data, has this direction truly acquired the conditions for large-scale engineering implementation.

How do capabilities evolve?

From "understanding the world" to "changing the world"

For embodied intelligence to make machines truly "enter the world and act within the world," a variety of capabilities are needed, which can be summarized from four aspects:

— Formation of the world model. The system needs to construct a simulable environment internally, enabling it to predict and deduce before acting, thereby assessing the results that different decisions may bring. This capability shifts intelligent systems from passive response to proactive decision-making with foresight.

— Multimodal representation capability. Information sources in the real world are highly heterogeneous, including various forms such as vision, language, touch, and sound. Embodied intelligence needs to integrate this information into a unified semantic space, thereby forming holistic understanding.

— Causal reasoning capability. Current large models mainly learn on the basis of statistical correlations, and their grasp of causal structures remains limited. Therefore, judgments made by models sometimes appear reasonable in language but do not hold in the physical world. This is also one of the sources of artificial intelligence hallucination. Embodied intelligence must further establish a stable causal chain of "action—result" before it can operate reliably in complex environments.

— Integrated capability of generation and action. With the development of generative artificial intelligence, end-to-end systems that model vision, language, and action in a unified way are gradually emerging, enabling robots to generate action strategies according to natural language instructions, put them into action through control systems and actuators, and continuously revise them according to environmental feedback.

Within this framework, current systems still have certain limitations: many models remain at the stage of processing in a single information domain, making it difficult to achieve cross-modal unification in the true sense. Therefore, a more cutting-edge direction is taking shape—promoting the fusion modeling of the three domains of "information—physics—cognition"—so that intelligent systems can gradually acquire an overall cognitive structure closer to that of humans, thereby forming a deep understanding of the world and supporting their closed loop of reasoning and action in physical environments. This direction also represents an important path for embodied intelligence to develop to a higher level, but its realization still faces challenges in many respects: first, the black-box problem—the interpretability of model decision-making processes is insufficient; second, the contradiction between computing power and deployment—large models are difficult to run in real time on edge devices; third, the industrial ecosystem is not yet mature—the standard system and interface specifications are still in an evolutionary stage.

At the same time, the development of embodied intelligence also depends on two fundamental conditions: first, high-quality multimodal data as "fuel"; second, high-fidelity simulation environments as a "training ground." Training through simulation and then transferring to the real world has become an important technical path, but how to narrow the gap between simulation and reality still urgently needs to be solved.

How will it affect the future?

From the "laboratory" to the "application field"

The value of embodied intelligence must ultimately be reflected in real-world applications.

In the field of industrial manufacturing, an important trend is taking shape: intelligent systems are shifting from execution tools to intent-driven systems. In such systems, process parameters can directly enter the intelligent model to analyze the space for optimization in the production process; the system can play the role of a "digital inspection engineer," conducting real-time monitoring of product quality and participating in production scheduling; through sensors and digital twin technology, the entire production process can be synchronously mapped in virtual space, realizing full-process visualization and traceability.

At present, the manufacturing system is moving from single-point automation to a full-process closed loop. This structural change is, in essence, the form in which embodied intelligence lands in the industrial system.

In the fields of healthcare and rehabilitation, intelligent systems are becoming important auxiliary tools for doctors, participating in minimally invasive surgery, rehabilitation training, and the like. In urban governance and public safety, drones and ground robots perform infrastructure inspection tasks in coordination, replacing manual work in high-risk environments such as bridges, power grids, and pipelines. In family scenarios, embodied intelligence is gradually entering daily life, undertaking functions such as companion care, education, and basic housekeeping services. In the field of transportation, autonomous driving systems perceive the environment, construct world models, perform path planning, and control vehicle motion—they are currently one of the forms of embodied intelligence closest to large-scale application.

The essence of embodied intelligence is not to make machines "resemble humans," but to enable intelligence to truly enter the real world and form sustained learning and adaptive capabilities in complex, uncertain environments. From data-driven large models to embodied intelligence oriented toward the physical world, artificial intelligence is undergoing a continuous evolutionary process from the symbolic world and the data world to the real world, moving further from "understanding the world" to "growing in the world."

China has formed a sound pattern of coordinated development of policy guidance, technological breakthroughs, and industrial application in the field of embodied intelligence, but it still needs to improve in basic theory, original innovation, and the open-source ecosystem. As a highly interdisciplinary frontier direction, embodied intelligence requires long-term investment and sustained breakthroughs. Facing the future, embodied intelligence enables machines to both "understand the world" and "take action," and will profoundly change modes of production and ways of life, becoming an important force driving industrial transformation and social development.

(The author is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at Xi'an Jiaotong University; the article was compiled from an interview by Zhang Danhua (张丹华), a reporter for this newspaper.)

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Running a Marathon Is a Stress Test for Robots (Further Reading)

By: 陶 永

In the 2026 Beijing Yizhuang (亦庄) Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon Race, the champion result among the robot "athletes" has improved to 50 minutes and 26 seconds, surpassing the level of top human athletes and achieving the leap from being able to compete to being able to win.

What is the point of getting a pile of "iron lumps" to run a marathon? In fact, this is an extremely effective "stress test" for examining humanoid robots at the current stage.

The laboratory environment has constant temperature, level ground, and no interference, while on the real race course, there are slopes, curves, gravel roads, narrow alleys, debris on the road surface — whatever you fear, there it is — as well as dynamic obstacles from spectators. After running about 21 kilometers, in aspects such as the robot's joint endurance, motor heat dissipation, battery endurance, autonomous navigation, and system stability, as long as a shortcoming exists, it will be exposed. A humanoid robot involves integrated joints, servo motors, reducers, controllers, multimodal sensors, batteries, control algorithms, structural components, and more. If it can complete the race, this means the full-chain reliability from components to system integration.

The lower-limb locomotion capability of a humanoid robot is the important foundation for it to play a role in human living environments in the future. If we want humanoid robots to enter factories to carry goods, enter warehouses to conduct inspections, enter homes to do housework, and even enter disaster areas for rescue, they must first "walk steadily, run well, and not fall down."

Human living environments are highly unstructured: there are thresholds, there are steps, there are slopes, there are carpet edges, there are children's toys scattered all over the floor, and other complex dynamic scenes. If it cannot even finish running a relatively flat half-marathon course, on what basis should we believe a humanoid robot can stand steady in a messy living room? If it falls flat at a slight collision and cannot get up, how can it work in a crowded workshop?

There was a detail during the race: near the rest points, irregular obstacles such as paper cups and sponges were randomly scattered on the robot course, and most of the participating humanoid robots, relying on multimodal sensors and internal dynamic balance algorithms, were able to autonomously adjust their postures and pass through this obstacle section 有惊无险 (yǒu jīng wú xiǎn - "have alarm but no danger," to pass through danger safely). This ability, when placed in a factory, is "posture self-stabilization"; when placed in a home, it is "safe, does not harm people." What the half-marathon race achieves is not only speed, but even more so stability and adaptability.

The half-marathon is only the first step of the major test for humanoid robot deployment. Do not misunderstand: finishing the race does not mean the humanoid robot can take up its post and start working. Next, humanoid robots must face even more rigorous "vocational examinations": working continuously for 8 hours in a factory without recharging, autonomously avoiding obstacles and sorting goods in a warehouse, understanding vague instructions in the home and executing them safely... every step is harder than the marathon race. The marathon course is a cutting-edge display platform, and even more so, a technology validation platform. Only robots that can finish the half-marathon on the track today can possibly 站稳脚跟 (zhàn wěn jiǎo gēn - "stand firm on one's heels," to secure a firm foothold) in workshops, hospitals, and communities tomorrow.

(The author is an associate professor at Beihang University's School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation (机械工程及自动化学院) and the Embodied Intelligence Robot Research Institute (具身智能机器人研究院); the article was compiled from an interview by Wang Haonan (王昊男), a reporter of this newspaper.)

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Why Metal Accessories Are Not Allowed During MRI Scans (Science Talk)

By: 彭新华

In hospital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning rooms, people will always see warning signs reading "Beware of Strong Magnetic Field," and medical staff will also repeatedly remind people: "Please remove from your body all metal objects, magnetic cards, and other items." Many people will be curious — what is the scientific reason behind this? The answer lies hidden in the most fundamental property of the microscopic world: quantum spin.
　　The world we live in is composed of atoms, and the microscopic particles within atoms all possess this intrinsic property of quantum spin. The so-called intrinsic property refers to the basic properties of particles, just like mass and electric charge. For example, electrons, photons, or neutrons — their mass, electric charge, and quantum spin all have definite values; if these changed, they would no longer be electrons, photons, or neutrons. Therefore, quantum spin is not an actual rotation in the classical sense.
　　And the principle of MRI is precisely to detect the quantum spin states of hydrogen nuclei inside the human body. The human body is about 70% water, and each water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms; therefore, our bodies contain a large number of hydrogen-nucleus spin signals. By analyzing the distribution and changes of these hydrogen-nucleus spin states, clear images of human tissues can be reconstructed, providing a scientific basis for disease diagnosis.
　　However, the spin signals of hydrogen nuclei in the human body are extremely weak, and capturing them is inseparable from the help of a strong magnetic field. The circular device on a traditional MRI instrument is in fact a superconducting magnet, which provides a strong magnetic field far exceeding that of the Earth's magnetic field (equivalent to tens of thousands of times the Earth's magnetic field). In a strong magnetic field environment, the quantum spins of hydrogen nuclei become, as it were, "oriented" — the originally 杂乱无章 (zá luàn wú zhāng - "jumbled and without order," in disorder) spin states become arranged in an orderly manner, and the instrument can accurately capture their "traces."
　　Metal is the "intimate companion" of strong magnetic fields and also a source of interference for spin signals. In a strong magnetic field, metal will be strongly magnetized. In minor cases, it may produce displacement and vibration, affecting the acquisition of hydrogen-nucleus spin signals and causing blurred and distorted imaging; in severe cases, under the action of the powerful magnetic force, it will fly at high speed toward the magnet, not only damaging the instrument and equipment but also possibly striking the human body and causing accidental injury. In addition, implanted devices in the body such as cardiac pacemakers and metal stents will also lose their normal functions due to strong magnetic field interference, bringing great danger.
　　Does this mean that people with metal implants in their bodies can never undergo MRI examinations? Is it possible for us to complete MRI examinations of the human body under magnetic-field-free conditions?
　　Many research teams at home and abroad have all carried out explorations into this. At present, the research team at the University of Science and Technology of China (中国科学技术大学) has successfully developed a zero-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. The main component of this device is an atomic spin magnetometer, which can achieve detection of quantum spin states inside matter in a magnetic-field-free environment.
　　The zero-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer has already been able to image water inside metal containers, as well as to achieve preliminary imaging of human fingers and the human brain. This means that people with metal implants in their bodies may be able to smoothly complete MRI examinations in the future. Although the clarity of imaging with this technology is still far inferior to that of traditional MRI technology at the current stage, it possesses advantages such as low cost and no radiation, and will substantially reduce medical costs.
　　Quantum spin, a seemingly distant physical concept, has in fact long been integrated into our daily lives. We believe that as research on quantum spin continues to deepen, more new technological breakthroughs will emerge in the future to safeguard our health.
　　(The author is a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China; compiled by our newspaper reporter Li Junjie (李俊杰).)

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BESIII experiment proves existence of glueballs for first time

Beijing, Our Correspondent Wu Yuehui. On the 6th, reporters learned from the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院高能物理研究所) that the Beijing Spectrometer III (BESIII) International Collaboration led by Chinese researchers has for the first time proven the existence of a new type of material form — the glueball.

In nature, quarks rely on gluons to transmit the strong interaction force. The particularity of gluons is that they not only transmit forces, but also attract and entangle with each other. Therefore, gluons may gather together to form a completely new particle — the glueball. For half a century, experiments had never been able to find the glueball.

The Beijing Electron-Positron Collider can produce large quantities of the J/psi particle discovered by Ding Zhaozhong. The decay process of this particle is theoretically recognized as very favorable for the production of glueballs. In 2011, the BESIII collaboration discovered a new particle, X(2370), in the decay products of J/psi, suspected to be a glueball. In 2024, for the first time, using a sample of 10 billion J/psi particles, they precisely determined the spin and parity quantum numbers of the X(2370) particle, taking a key step toward confirming its true identity.

Recently, the research team jointly led by Professor Jin Shan (金山) of Nanjing University and Researcher Huang Yanping (黄燕萍) of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences made decisive progress. They discovered multiple new decay modes of the X(2370) particle and for the first time measured another of its key “identity characteristics” — the flavor singlet (味单态) property. The flavor singlet property is the most important characteristic of glueballs. Ordinary particles contain quarks of different “flavors,” while glueballs are composed of pure gluons and contain no “flavor” information, thus belonging exactly to the flavor singlet. At this point, BESIII has established a complete experimental evidence chain from mass, quantum numbers, to the flavor singlet, confirming that the main component of X(2370) is indeed the glueball.

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Underwater drilling robot, mobile deep-sea laboratory

By: 本报记者 姜晓丹

Below the deep sea lies a world of darkness and high pressure. On the seabed at a depth of 1,264 meters in the South China Sea, a robot shaped like an earthworm slowly drills into the stratum—it is China's first independently developed "seabed stratum spatial three-dimensional drilling and in-situ monitoring robot" (海底地层空间立体钻探与原位监测机器人), created by the China Geological Survey's Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (中国地质调查局广州海洋地质调查局). It successfully completed trial operations in waters 1,264 meters deep in the South China Sea, with all performance indicators fully meeting the standards, marking a key breakthrough for China in the fields of deep-sea exploration and stratum in-situ monitoring.

The deep sea is filled with opportunities and challenges; its strata contain strategic resources such as natural gas hydrates, deep-sea rare earths, and polymetallic nodules. However, the environment here is extremely complex: low temperature, high salinity, high pressure, and geological instability impose high requirements on equipment sealing and pressure resistance. In addition, there are many obstacles inside the seabed stratum, and the seabed topography is also very complicated. Once traditional equipment enters the stratum, it cannot receive satellite signals, let alone achieve precise, long-term in-situ monitoring. Faced with the urgent need for national resource security, the research team developed this robot with autonomous drilling and intelligent in-situ monitoring capabilities.

Seen on site, this "big fellow" is even more striking. Standing 2.5 meters tall and weighing 110 kilograms, its most eye-catching feature is its bionic multi-segment design—inspired by the way earthworms move through soil, enabling it to turn flexibly 360 degrees within the stratum. The research team integrated inertial navigation and magnetic beacon-assisted positioning technology to precisely determine the robot's position within the stratum, achieving a three-dimensional positioning error of less than 0.3 meters within a 200-meter range. In addition, the team tailored a set of algorithms for the robot's working environment, allowing it to autonomously advance toward a set target position, independently avoid obstacles such as rocks and biological remains, with an obstacle avoidance success rate of 99.5 percent. After bypassing an obstacle, the robot can replan an optimal forward route within two seconds.

"It is not only a drilling device, but also a movable deep-sea laboratory," said Zhu Yangtao (朱扬涛), an engineer at the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey. During this sea trial, the robot penetrated the target stratum and conducted in-situ real-time monitoring, successfully obtaining more than 2,000 sets of key data on methane concentration, dissolved oxygen, stratum structure, and other parameters, providing valuable first-hand materials for resource exploration and geological research in the South China Sea.

The team will continue to optimize the robot's comprehensive performance in the future, promote its application in scenarios such as natural gas hydrate trial production and deep-sea rare earth exploration, serve the national deep-sea scientific drilling strategy, and provide solid technical support for China's advance into the deep sea and the construction of a maritime power.

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China Delivers Arctic Sea Ice Forecasts via Maritime Communication Channels for First Time

Beijing, this newspaper (reporter Han Xin (韩鑫)) — The Beihai Navigation Support Center of the Ministry of Transport (交通运输部北海航海保障中心) recently released sea ice forecast information for the Arctic shipping route to the public. This is the first time China has pushed Arctic shipping route sea ice forecasts via maritime communication channels, marking a leapfrog development in China's Arctic maritime information services from real-time status broadcasting to dynamic forecasting. This move further improves the Arctic navigation information support system and provides strong support for the high-quality development of polar shipping.

The newly launched Arctic shipping route sea ice forecasts cover four major Arctic sea areas — the East Siberian Sea, the Laptev Sea, the Kara Sea, and the Barents Sea — as well as four navigable straits: the Bering Strait, Dmitry Laptev Strait, Vilkitsky Strait, and the Kara Strait. The forecast content includes important parameters such as sea ice thickness, sea ice extent, and sea ice drift speed, adopting a standard of 3-hour high temporal resolution and 10-kilometer high-precision spatial resolution, with updates completed once every 24 hours. This can provide key data support for polar-navigating vessels to make advance judgments, scientifically plan routes, and effectively avoid navigation risks.

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Editor: Cao Yiqing, Chen Yuanyuan, Chen Shihan

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Guard the Starting Point of the 'Red Ribbon' with Devotion (Red Tourism)

By: 本报记者 唐中科 王 丹

More than 90 years ago, a red army of over 86,000 men bid farewell to the Soviet area of southern Jiangxi and embarked on a long journey. Their footprints traced a "red ribbon" winding 25,000 li across the land of China, achieving an earth-shaking revolutionary feat and composing a magnificent epic that 气吞山河 (qì tūn shān hé - "spirit swallows mountains and rivers," of heroic and majestic spirit).

To integrate the Long March spirit into the bloodline, Ganzhou City in Jiangxi Province has built the Long March National Cultural Park across its entire jurisdiction,统筹推进 the protection and utilization of Long March sites. The Ganzhou section of the Long March National Cultural Park is based on a series of Long March historical facts — such as the departure of the Central Red Army on the Long March, the breakthrough of the first blockade line, and the guerrilla warfare waged by the troops who stayed behind in the base area after the main force broke through — stringing the scattered Long March sites and relics together like beads on a chain. Today, a number of Long March National Cultural Park projects have been opened and put into operation, allowing visitors to trace the footsteps of their predecessors through immersive experiences, so that the Long March spirit radiates new brilliance in the new era.

At the Yudu River, seeing the departure of those years

On the banks of the Yudu River, ancient camphor trees cast shade, and the mountains are layered with green. At the Shiwei Ferry Crossing in Luo'ao Township, Yudu County (于都县), Ganzhou City, a sculpture with the theme "military-civilian fish-and-water affection" is particularly eye-catching.

"Isn't this the scenery in my father's comic sketches?" In October 2023, Huang Wen, daughter of Huang Zhen, exclaimed during her visit here. Huang Zhen used paintings to record the Red Army's Long March, and this is the actual location of Huang Zhen's painting Crossing the Yudu River on a Starry Night. Ding Liangyue, Deputy Director of the Yudu Central Red Army Long March Assembly and Departure History Museum, led reporters to the newly renovated riverbank. There, the Gongjiang River (贡江) before them shimmered with rippling waves, flowing quietly. Back then, the 13th Division of the Fifth Red Army Corps successfully crossed the river at Shiwei Ferry on fishing boats organized by the local villagers.

At the bend of the ferry, an ancient camphor tree stood luxuriant and verdant, with 根深叶茂 (gēn shēn yè mào - "deep roots and lush leaves," deeply rooted and flourishing). The wind stirred the leaves, dappling the light and shadow, as if whispering the story of that time. "At that time, Huang Wen stayed at the ferry terminal for a long time. When she left, she wrapped a handful of red soil beside the ancient camphor tree in a handkerchief and took it back to Beijing," Ding Liangyue recalled vividly.

That year, the central leading organs and the main force of the Central Red Army — more than 86,000 people — crossed the Yudu River from eight major ferries, including the East Gate, South Gate, and West Gate of Yudu County town, the Shanfeng Dam of Zishan, the Mengkou, Liyu, and Shiwei of Luo'ao, and the Yuweng Bu of Jingshi, setting out on the long march. From then on, the ferries on the Yudu River became places where loved ones waited and watched. Today, these ferries have been carefully protected and repaired, with significant improvements to the surrounding environment and basic supporting facilities, making them key exhibition areas of the Ganzhou section of the Long March National Cultural Park.

To safeguard this history, Ganzhou established a special leading working group and an expert advisory group, formulated high-standard construction and protection plans, drew up a list of key projects, and set up mechanisms for project classification, expedited review, and fund guarantee to ensure high-quality implementation and results. At present, 22 key projects in the Ganzhou section of the Long March National Cultural Park have been completed and put into operation.

In the Shicheng Blocking Action Exhibition Park, the immersive film and live-action experience project "Twelve Days in Shicheng" (石城十二日) is extremely popular. Visitors move through the trenches, experiencing those 硝烟弥漫 (xiāo yān mí màn - "smoke of gunpowder fills the air," thick with the smoke of battle) 峥嵘岁月 (zhēng róng suì yuè - "eventful years," extraordinary times). The Red Ninth Army Corps Huichang Assembly and Departure Long March Historical Exhibition Hall uses a courtyard-group-style digital red culture exhibition model, attracting groups of citizens and tourists. After renovation and upgrading, the Dayu Meiling Three Chapters Memorial Hall (大余梅岭三章纪念馆) features red docents vividly explaining red stories, while visitors stop to listen and feel the power of the red tradition. One by one, the completed Long March National Cultural Park projects have transformed from static displays into interactive "red classrooms" that transcend time and space.

Making the Long March spirit more tangible and accessible

"Almost every visitor to Yudu will shed tears three times," said Zhong Min, Director of the Yudu County Red Resources Protection and Development Center. "We deliberately put tissues in the seats of the Long March Grand Theater in advance."

The Long March is a spiritual monument forged by countless revolutionary predecessors with their lives. During the construction of the Long March National Cultural Park, Yudu has been constantly thinking and exploring how to allow the Long March spirit to continue inspiring the masses, especially the younger generation, to strive on the new journey and make contributions in the new era.

The Long March Source Chorus "sings with their hearts," the Long March Source Lecture Group "lectures with meticulous care," the Long March Source Performance Troupe "performs with ingenuity," and the Long March Source Little Red Star Explanation Team "passes on with childlike sincerity." Yudu County has used the model of "descendants of Red Army members + propaganda backbone + volunteers" to create "light cavalry" teams that propagate innovative theories, tell the Long March story well, and sow the seeds of thought.

Using their spare time, the Long March Source Lecture Group spent three months creating and rehearsing the themed lecture "The Eternal Long March." Zhong Min, a descendant of a Red Army member, was responsible for the opening lecture. "Everyone carried a profound respect for the revolutionary predecessors, and with the sincerity of 'descendants of Red Army members telling the story of the Red Army, later generations of the Long March telling the story of the Long March,' they vividly narrated the stories of the revolutionary forebears, making the Long March spirit more tangible and accessible," Zhong Min said.

The lecture group's heartfelt narration recreated the story of Duan Guixiu, the widow of a Red Army martyr, who waited for her Red Army husband Wang Jinchang for more than 90 years, moving many listeners to tears. This is that "first shedding of tears."

The house lights dim, the prelude slowly opens. In the Long March Grand Theater, The First Crossing of the Long March takes the audience back to that passionate and burning era. "Since its premiere in March 2023, this literary and artistic work has been performed more than 700 times, attracting over 300,000 viewers nationwide. In the work, the intertwining of family and national feelings touches the tear ducts of many viewers," Zhong Min said.

At the Long March ferry in the Memorial Park for the Assembly and Departure Site of the Central Red Army Long March, the scene drama Farewell shows scenes such as a father sending off his son and a wife sending off her husband, restoring the farewell scenes of those years. These scenes are 催人泪下 (cuī rén lèi xià - "moves people to tears," deeply touching), leaving every member of the audience deeply moved.

Ganzhou's excavation and dissemination of the Long March spirit goes far beyond this — on a broader stage, a batch of literary and artistic works themed on the Long March have continuously emerged and been well received.

The large-scale Gannan tea-picking song-and-dance drama Eight Sons Join the Army and the Gannan tea-picking opera One Person's Long March both won the "Five One Project" Award of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. The two plays have been performed on tour hundreds of times in multiple locations. The animation Long March Vanguard has been broadcast on more than 100 TV channels and new media platforms, with cumulative clicks exceeding 100 million, and has signed contracts with five overseas platforms.

The Long March trail warms one local region

How to transform scattered red resources from "each fighting alone" to "region-wide coordinated action"? Ganzhou has created the "My Soviet Area Tour·Follow the Red Army+" red national defense education brand. Five routes, including "Follow the Red Army on the Long March," "Follow the Red Army in Counter-Encirclement and Suppression," and "Follow the Red Army to Learn Investigation," rely on the exhibition parks of the Long March National Cultural Park and the Long March hiking trails, turning "exhibition displays" into "interactive experiences" and "site visits" into "immersive classrooms." Since its release in June 2025, cumulative participation has exceeded 80,000 person-times.

Departing from Yudu County town, a 40-minute drive brings you to the Qilushan Red Army Long March Trail Demonstration Section. Just as we arrived at the entrance, more than 800 students from Shenzhen Foreign Language School were queuing up to enter.

"The river beneath our feet is called the Jinsha River (金沙河). In October 1934, after the Central Red Army crossed the Yudu River, 35,000 Red Army soldiers secretly marched from here, heading west, and broke through the enemy's first blockade line..." The speaker was docent Hu Shizhao, whose maternal grandfather was a scattered Red Army soldier. Growing up hearing the stories of the Long March, she has a special affection for the mountain path in front of her home that was traveled by revolutionary predecessors.

After the Red Army Long March trail was completed and opened to the public, the number of visitors gradually increased. Hu Shizhao resigned from her job as a kindergarten teacher and returned to her hometown to tell visitors about the red memories of this land. She also taught herself folk songs and dances to enrich her services. "In July this year, I took on more than 50 tour groups, and in 2026 I average more than 20 groups per month. This alone increases my monthly income by nearly 3,000 yuan," Hu Shizhao said with a smile.

Hu Shizhao's husband originally worked in Shenzhen, but has now returned to their hometown and opened a bed-and-breakfast. "Our B&B mainly receives individual tourists. On top of that, we sell agricultural products like camellia oil, dried bamboo shoots, mushrooms, and honey, which brings in an additional income of more than 2,000 yuan per month," Hu Shizhao said. "These agricultural products are very popular here, so we also help neighbors sell their products on consignment."

Today, docents like Hu Shizhao have grown into a team of 26 people in Qilushan Town (祁禄山镇). They tell the story of the Red Army Long March trail to visitors from all directions, and also plant the seeds of the Long March spirit in more and more people's hearts.

One docent team warmed up one red trail, and one red trail warmed up one local region.

"In recent years, we have focused on the Red Army Long March trail to make good use of the 'tourism + rural revitalization' article: building tourist roads, repairing revolutionary sites, improving supporting facilities, establishing the 'Chuxin Ji' red training base and forest B&Bs, and planning and organizing music festivals, mountain goods festivals, and hiking festivals, attracting more and more visitors to check in," said Liu Bingfa, a cadre of Qilushan Town. What gratified him even more was that red tourism not only increased the income of the village collective and villagers, but also brought about a change in their mental outlook: "Now many college students have returned to their hometowns to start businesses in red tourism." The transformation of Qilushan Town is a vivid footnote to Ganzhou's use of the Long March National Cultural Park construction to empower comprehensive rural revitalization.

"The integrated development of key projects of the Long March National Cultural Park has driven the growth of industries such as rural tourism, the B&B economy, and cultural and creative products. People in Ruijin, Yudu, Shicheng, Dayu, and other places have increased their income and become prosperous by participating in docent work and providing logistical services," said a relevant official from the Ganzhou Red Resources Protection and Development Center. Red resources have been transformed into an inexhaustible driving force in the new era, continuously inspiring local people, especially the young, to feel a sense of pride and responsibility for their hometown's red history.

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Unforgettable Bridges Over the Yudu River (Reporter's Notes)

By: 孟 扬

A single Yudu River, because of bridge upon bridge, has come to possess a power that reaches straight into people's hearts. The section of the Gong River that flows through Yudu (于都), Jiangxi, is called the Yudu River. Drawing near the bank and gazing into the distance, one sees that in the urban section of the Yudu River, five great bridges — named "Red Army," "Long March," "Assembly," "River Crossing," and "Victory" — rise in succession, spanning the two banks and linking up associations that transcend time and space. At Dongmen Ferry (东门渡口), the wave-light of the Yudu River shimmers, the water rolls in vast surges, gently washing over the ancient blue-brick steps that reach down to the water, holding up the floating-bridge scene not far from the shore, and rocking the time-scale within one's gaze. More than 90 years ago, more than 80,000 figures were reflected in this wave-light, writing this small city onto the opening page of history.

In October 1934, the autumn wind spread with the autumn water. At that time, the Yudu River was more than 600 meters wide, with deep water and swift waves. More than 86,000 men of the Central Red Army assembled at Yudu, quietly waiting to set out at eight main ferry crossings in the county town and in such places as Zishan (梓山), Luo'ao (罗坳), and Jingshi (靖石). Yudu became the starting point of the Long March, but the Yudu River had become "a difficult problem" in the strategic transfer — there was no bridge over the river.

Above their heads enemy planes circled; behind them, heavy troops were carrying out "encirclement and suppression." The great army had to cross at night — what was to be done?

Put up floating bridges.

At one call, the people of Yudu took down their door panels and bed boards and sent them to the ferry crossings; some even sent the only wooden boat in the family.

The historic street of Jianguo Road is not far from Dongmen Ferry. Following the signboard "Liu Ciyuan Residence (刘次垣民居)," we found this old house deep among the lanes. Behind its worn exterior, the Hakka architectural layout of southern Jiangxi is still preserved, but once inside, the hall, with its door leaves missing and partition walls removed, is nothing but an empty "frame." Stroking the surviving half of the wooden door, Liu Zhiming (刘志明), already past seventy, told the story handed down in his family. His grandfather Liu Zhisan (刘治三) had joined the Red Army guerrilla forces. To build the floating bridges, he was the first to "dismantle his home." The door panels and partition boards were carried away, and two of the six roof beams were sawn down as well. "Grandma said tearfully, 'If everything has been dismantled, how can the family still live in it?' Grandpa said, 'If the Red Army cannot cross the river, we won't even have a place to weep!'" During those days, Yudu town was 夜不闭户 (yè bù bì hù - "doors are not closed at night," an orderly society with doors left open), because "every family's door panels went to join the army," Liu Zhiming said with deep feeling.

At that time there was also Grandpa Zeng (曾大爷), already over seventy, who carried to the ferry the coffin wood he had painstakingly saved over many years. The Red Army soldiers could not bear to accept it and urged him to take it back. He said firmly, "You are giving even your lives — what are a few planks of mine compared with that?"

The floating bridges went up. More than 800 wooden boats were linked together to form the piers, and wooden planks of every kind were bound on top to piece together the deck. To keep the secret, in the space of four days the five floating bridges were erected at night and dismantled by day, fifteen times over. The people of Yudu were 守口如瓶 (shǒu kǒu rú píng - "guard the mouth like a sealed bottle," keeping absolute secrecy), not letting out the slightest breath of wind.

Beneath the st

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"I Tell Grandpa's Long March Story for Him"

By: 本报记者 王 丹

At Shiwu Ferry (石尾渡口), Luocun Town (罗坳镇), Yudu County (于都县), Jiangxi, 74-year-old Yang Dongcheng (杨东成) tremulously pulled out a thick stack of materials from the plastic bag he carried: color-printed route maps, old photographs, handwritten notes... Sweat trickled down his cheeks, and the Party membership emblem on his chest shone 熠熠生辉 (yì yì shēng huī - "shining brightly," glistening).

Yang Dongcheng is a native of Yudu County. He once served as principal of Cangqian Primary School (仓前小学), has 56 years of Party standing, and is also a descendant of the Red Army. His grandfather, Yang Luoxiang (杨罗孜), had been a soldier of the Red Third Corps (红三军团); after the Long March began in October 1934, all news of him ceased. What his family obtained after long and bitter waiting was only a Certificate of Revolutionary Martyr and a wooden plaque reading "Glorious Family of a Martyr."

In 2002, his father, on his deathbed, exhorted Yang Dongcheng: "The task I did not complete in my lifetime, you must carry on — go and see exactly where Grandfather fell." Just before this year's Qingming Festival, Yang Dongcheng finally received news and rushed to Xing'an (兴安) in Guangxi. In front of the Name Corridor of the Memorial Park for the Martyrs of the Red Army's Breakthrough of the Xiangjiang River (红军长征突破湘江烈士纪念碑园), he caressed his grandfather's name and sobbed 泣不成声 (qì bù chéng shēng - "weep so hard cannot form sound," sob uncontrollably): "Grandfather, I have finally found you!" Ninety years, three generations — a search spanning centuries had finally found an echo.

His father's former entrustment caused him, through day after day of turning pages and searching, to gradually draw close to that 波澜壮阔 (bō lán zhuàng kuò - "waves vast and magnificent," grand and stirring) history. Those yellowed newspapers, scattered historical materials, and the oral accounts of veterans — like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, they pieced together the story of the Long March, making him start from "finding Grandfather" and transform his yearning for a relative into reverence for Long March history.

Opening Yang Dongcheng's notebook of excerpts, the handwriting was neat and orderly; after each piece of historical material, the source was precisely annotated — which book, volume, page, and paragraph. "Historical materials must be rigorous; the source must be written clearly; only then does one have conviction when speaking." Yang Dongcheng's expression was solemn, as if what he held in his hands were not paper pages but weighty history itself.

Carrying this accumulation, after retirement Yang Dongcheng joined the Yudu Long March Source Propaganda Group (于都长征源宣讲团). He traveled year-round among townships, communities, schools, and factories, tailoring his propaganda to local conditions: in the townships, he told fellow villagers exactly which Red Army unit had marched past the village entrance back then; in factory workshops, he 绘声绘色 (huì shēng huì sè - "paint sound and color," vividly descriptive) described the scene on the day of departure by the Yudu River; facing children, he turned the Long March into warm stories one after another, making them listen with rapt attention... "I tell the Long March on behalf of my grandfather. In my propaganda, I feel as if I am conversing with Grandfather," Yang Dongcheng said.

Once, students from Yudu No. 5 Middle School retraced the Red Army's Long March trail; along the way several students injured their feet. Yang Dongcheng, distressed, urged them to rest, but the students instead comforted him: "Didn't you say, 'Is it bitter? Think of the Long March's 25,000 li.' Compared to the revolutionary forebears, what is this little injury?!" Seeing the Long March spirit take root and sprout in the children's hearts, Yang Dongcheng felt deeply gratified.

Relying on his solid research into historical materials, starting in 2024 Yang Dongcheng was invited to write red-history manuscripts at the Yudu Central Red Army Long March Departure History Museum (于都中央红军长征集结出发历史博物馆), clocking in every day on schedule. In the early evening, the afterglow of the setting sun spilled across the shimmering surface of the Yudu River; Yang Dongcheng closed his notebook and walked out of the museum. He said that whenever he saw the bright eyes of the children in the audience or heard the warm applause of the workers, he felt it was all worth it. "I will keep telling the story of the Long March, and tell it to more people!" The voice was very soft, yet 掷地有声 (zhì dì yǒu shēng - "throw to ground and have sound," powerful and resonant).

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Editor of this page: Meng Yang, Tang Zhongke, Liang Zeyu

Layout Design: Wang Zheping (汪哲平)

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Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Strives to Write a New Chapter in High-Quality Development and Modernization in Ethnic Regions

The world’s largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope, China’s Sky Eye (中国天眼), gazes into the vast universe; Libo, selected for the global “Natural City” platform, presents enchanting scenery; the circular production line of the Fuquan–Weng’an billion-yuan phosphorus chemical base operates in an orderly manner; the “Guizhou Village Horse” arena in Sandu Shui Autonomous County buzzes with crowds; the fragrance of Duyun Maojian tea wafts to the world… Located in central-southern Guizhou Province, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (黔南布依族苗族自治州) insists on taking high-quality development as the overarching task, focuses on the “Four New” goals and attacks the “Four Modernizations,” and strives to write a new chapter of high-quality development and modernization in ethnic regions, welcoming the 70th anniversary of the founding of Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.

Deeply cultivate the “2+4+4” modern industrial system and build growth poles for industrial development.
When industry thrives, the economy thrives; when industry is strong, the foundation is solid. Qiannan Prefecture has always adhered to the principle of “vigorously pursuing industries, focusing on industry” without wavering, deeply implementing the “rich mineral, precise mining” strategy, continuously strengthening the two leading industries of phosphorus-based chemicals and new energy battery materials, steadily expanding four key industries — green energy, resource processing, equipment manufacturing, and new building materials — and accelerating the cultivation of four specialty industries — health medicine, specialty foods, forest-based home furnishings, and light textile and garments — thus constructing a “2+4+4” modern industrial system, promoting a qualitative and reasonable quantitative increase in the prefecture’s industrialization.
Phosphorus-based chemicals have achieved breakthroughs in full-chain and multi-domain coupling and extension, and new energy battery materials have risen with the momentum. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the output value of the two leading industries reached 66.5 billion yuan, accounting for 54.4% of the total output value of industrial enterprises above designated size. Breakthroughs from zero were achieved both for enterprises with a hundred-billion output value and for national-level “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” “Little Giant” enterprises; innovative and “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” enterprises achieved a “double hundred” breakthrough; the number of industrial enterprises above designated size remained in the first echelon of the province. Two Class-D chemical parks were successfully established, and the total output value of the Fuquan–Weng’an billion-yuan phosphorus chemical industrial park exceeded 74 billion yuan. A total of 2,406 industrial projects were introduced, including 567 projects worth over 100 million yuan; a number of hundred-billion-level projects such as Yuneng and Wengfu–Jiangshan were successfully signed and implemented. Green development was deeply advanced, with 89 green manufacturing units established, ranking in the first echelon of the province.

String pearls into a chain, integrate resources, and build an all-for-one tourism pattern.
The landscapes of the world natural heritage sites attract visitors from all directions; intangible cultural heritage in ethnic villages radiates vitality; rural signature events ignite mass participation enthusiasm. Qiannan Prefecture insists on using culture to shape tourism and using tourism to highlight culture, solidly doing well the “three articles” of resources, tourists, and services, transforming ecological endowments and ethnic customs into tourism development advantages, promoting the linking and clustering of scattered tourism resources for collective development, and building an all-for-one tourism pattern led by flagship attractions and supported by multiple points.
The value of cultural and tourism brands continues to rise. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, relying on the three major IPs of Libo Xiaoqikong, China’s Sky Eye, and “Guizhou Village Horse” (贵州村马), Qiannan Prefecture, with the “Small Sky Horse” (小天马) tourism brand as the leading engine, broke through county boundaries and scenic area limitations; the network-wide dissemination volume continued to climb, making it an iconic brand for the deep integration of agriculture, culture, tourism, and sports. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the study tour reception volume at the China’s Sky Eye scenic area grew at an average annual rate of over 15%; more than 300 tourism formats were upgraded; 6 new national AAAA-level tourist attractions were added, achieving full coverage of AAAA-level scenic spots across all counties (cities). In 2025, the prefecture received 94.73 million tourist visits, with an average annual growth rate of 9.2% during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period. The acceleration of producer services toward specialization and high-end value chains was promoted, and the high-quality, diversified, and convenient development of consumer services was encouraged; the added value of the service industry grew at an average annual rate of 5.5%.

Thickly cultivate the fertile soil for science and technology and activate the development momentum of new quality productive forces.
From the establishment of major national scientific facilities like China’s Sky Eye to technical breakthroughs by small and medium-sized enterprises, the seeds of innovation are taking root, sprouting, blooming, and bearing fruit on the land of Qiannan. Qiannan Prefecture has always highlighted the leading role of scientific and technological innovation, developed new quality productive forces according to local conditions, relied on frontier astronomical research resources and phosphorus-lithium industrial technology advantages, closely aligned with industrial development needs, cultivated entities, built platforms, and promoted transformation, making scientific and technological innovation the main engine for industrial upgrading, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement.
During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, 287 industrial enterprises above designated size in Qiannan Prefecture carried out R&D activities; two national-level and seven provincial/ministerial-level science and technology innovation platforms were established; innovation cooperation platforms such as the Qiannan Prefecture Advanced Research Institute for Phosphorus Chemical and New Energy Storage Materials Industrial Technology and the Tsinghua University–Guizhou Shengwei Fuquan Chemical Co., Ltd. Joint Research Center for Phosphorus Resource Microchemical Technology were founded; 16 Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Progress Awards were won; the number of valid invention patents reached 966. Pingtang County, relying on China’s Sky Eye, has built a unique frontier innovation highland; the research team has explored a “Four-Output Quality Management Model” (四出质量管理模式). The digital industry and digital government affairs continue to improve; the output value of the Bainiaohe Digital Town in Huishui County and the Guizhou Digital Creative Industry Park steadily increases.

Cluster development of characteristic industries, consolidating the foundation for comprehensive rural revitalization.
Amid continuous mountain ranges, tea gardens show tender green, fruits and vegetables waft fragrance; characteristic planting and breeding industries spread across mountain villages and stockaded villages. Based on mountain resource endowments, Qiannan Prefecture deeply cultivates modern mountain-specific high-efficiency agriculture, constructs a “1+6” leading agricultural industry system, strictly adheres to the food security bottom line, strengthens the brands of characteristic agricultural products such as tea, rose-hips, and Chinese medicinal herbs, extends the deep processing chain, improves the benefit linkage mechanism, promotes agricultural quality and efficiency improvement and steady income growth for farmers, and continuously consolidates the foundation for comprehensive rural revitalization.
With the deep cultivation of the agricultural industry and the continuous improvement of the industrial chain, a number of brands with unique regional characteristics have emerged. Duyun Maojian tea-making techniques, as part of “Traditional Chinese Tea Making Techniques and Related Customs” (中国传统制茶技艺及其相关习俗), were inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity; its regional public brand value has steadily ranked among the top green teas nationwide. Changshun and Guiding successfully established national agricultural modernization demonstration zones. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, 44 new provincial-level and above agricultural leading enterprises were added; the prefecture’s agricultural product processing conversion rate rose to 67.8%; the scale of tea, live pigs, rose-hips and other industries ranked among the top in the province; the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery grew at an average annual rate of 5.1%; 57 “famous, special, excellent, and new” (名特优新) agricultural products were cultivated, ranking among the top in the province. Characteristic industries continue to expand, effectively driving nearby employment and stable income growth for people of all ethnic groups, laying a solid industrial foundation for advancing comprehensive rural revitalization.

Strictly guard the ecological bottom line and thickly cultivate the advantages of green development.
Green mountains layered in emerald, clear waters flowing long, blue skies constant — a sound ecological environment has become the bright background of Qiannan Prefecture. Qiannan Prefecture has always practiced the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, firmly safeguarding the two bottom lines of development and ecology, coordinating and advancing pollution control, ecological restoration, and green industrial transformation, continuing to fight the battles of blue skies, clear waters, and clean soil, promoting the realization of the value of ecological products, and thickening the lasting advantages of high-quality development.
Qiannan Prefecture’s green background becomes increasingly distinct. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the excellent water quality rate of national and provincial monitoring sections of the prefecture’s surface waters remained at 100%; the excellent ambient air quality rate in the 12 counties (cities) remained above 98%; a total of 698 square kilometers of rocky desertification control and 1,421 square kilometers of soil erosion control were completed; the river-chief and lake-chief systems and the forest-chief system were regularly implemented; the forest coverage rate reached over 68%; one national-level ecological civilization construction demonstration zone and one “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” practice and innovation base (“绿水青山就是金山银山”实践创新基地) were successfully established; Libo County was selected for the global “Natural City” platform; the Xiaoqikong Scenic Area became the province’s first “carbon-neutral” scenic area (碳中和景区).

Continuously improve people’s livelihood and well-being and consolidate the overall situation of ethnic unity.
In Qiannan Prefecture, 49 ethnic groups live and multiply; sons and daughters of all ethnic groups help each other and advance hand in hand, painting a picture of ethnic unity, coexistence, and common prosperity. Qiannan Prefecture insists on taking forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as the main line, deepening the demonstration creation of ethnic unity and progress, making precise efforts from five dimensions — space, culture, economy, society, and thought; earnestly handle practical matters concerning people’s livelihood, so that all ethnic groups, through living together, studying together, building together, sharing together, working together, and enjoying together, engage in extensive interaction, comprehensive exchange, and deep integration; the people’s sense of gain, happiness, and security continues to improve.
Focusing on the needs of all ethnic groups for a better life, Qiannan Prefecture continues to concentrate on improving people’s livelihood quality and efficiency, comprehensively filling livelihood shortcomings and enhancing people’s livelihood well-being, so that the fruits of development benefit people of all ethnicities. The various tasks of the ten practical livelihood matters at the prefectural level for 2026 are progressing in an orderly manner. In employment, various types of vocational skills training were conducted for 28,800 person-times, focusing on key areas and key groups; the employment task of 1,200 students in “order classes” (订单班) at prefecture-run higher vocational colleges was completed; 15 “youth hostels” (青年驿站) were created; 11,364 unemployed persons were re-employed, and 7,007 persons with employment difficulties found jobs. In education, 8 primary and secondary schools and kindergartens were newly built, expanded, or renovated; 400 sets of “accompanying-study apartments” (陪读公寓) were constructed, achieving full coverage in counties (cities) with demand. In healthcare, 7 county-level medical sub-centers were laid out and constructed; facilities and equipment in 225 village clinics were updated and maintained; 16 mobile medical examination vehicles for the convenience of the people were deployed; free physical examinations for people aged 65 and above across the prefecture exceeded 300,000 persons; high-quality medical resources were sunk to the grassroots level.

Seventy years of bearing hardships and braving winds and rains have painted a harmonious and beautiful picture; the “15th Five-Year Plan” sets sail, forging ahead on a new journey. Standing at a new starting point, the sons and daughters of all ethnic groups in Qiannan Prefecture will join hearts and hands, work hard and act pragmatically, and strive to write a new chapter of high-quality development and modernization in ethnic regions.

Data source: Publicity Department of the CPC Qiannan Prefectural Committee

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Editor's Note

Cultural relic safety during the flood season is an important issue in the protection of cultural relics. Especially in recent years, under the influence of global climate change, extreme weather events have occurred frequently, posing severe challenges to the safety of cultural relics. Starting July 1, China has fully entered the main flood season. This edition invites cultural relic protection workers from various regions to share their experiences and explorations in protecting cultural relics during the flood season.
——Editor

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Prehistoric Ancestors Had Strategies for Coping with Floods and Droughts

By: 刘建国

Water has played an extremely important role in the emergence, development, flourishing, and even decline of human civilization. Water is an essential resource that humans must rely on for survival and production, but at the same time it threatens human society in the form of natural disasters such as floods and droughts. In the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China, each year in early summer there is a plum rain season lasting about 40 days, during which severe flood disasters frequently occur. After the precipitation cloud belt moves northward in mid-July, under the control of the subtropical high, prolonged hot and dry weather with little rain often appears, severely impacting the survival of residents and the cultivation of rice and other crops. Numerous archaeological discoveries indicate that during the Neolithic period, when productivity levels were extremely low, prehistoric ancestors, in order to adapt to complex climate changes, continuously recognized and transformed the natural environment around their settlements, chose suitable settlement sites, and constructed water conservancy facilities to achieve flood control during the rainy season and irrigation during the dry season, thereby promoting the birth and development of early civilization.

The Liyang Plain (澧阳平原) is located in the northwestern part of Hunan Province, in the transitional zone from the northeastern edge of the Wuling Mountains to the Dongting Basin. It is surrounded by mountains on the west, south, and north, and opens eastward to Dongting Lake, forming an alluvial plain of the Li River (澧水), the Cen River (涔水), and the Dan River (澹水). The upstream drainage areas of the Cen and Dan Rivers are not large, and when flood disasters occur, water levels do not rise very high. Around 8000 years ago, the ancestors at the Pengtoushan site (彭头山遗址) chose to live on slightly higher terraces beside the Dan River to defend against flood disasters; the surrounding lowlands were used for cultivation, and water was diverted from the river channel for irrigation. At the Chengtoushan site (城头山遗址), polder (圩垸) type facilities began to appear roughly from 6000 years ago. The dike slopes on both sides were gentle, and the height developed from less than 1 meter to over 2 meters, surrounded by broad moats that connected to the Dan River channel for convenient water diversion and irrigation.

Around the Jijiiaocheng site (鸡叫城遗址), there exists a rather complex water network. In the southwestern part there is a triple ring moat structure, and at the center there are low polder facilities. Water diversion and drainage channels connect the Cen River with the ring moats around Jijiiaocheng, and multiple weir dams served the functions of flood drainage during the rainy season and irrigation during the dry season. However, the surrounding complex water network structure should be the result of continuous modification over thousands of years, and it is not yet possible to fully distinguish which ditches and channels were excavated and used during the Neolithic period.

There is also the Jianghan Plain (江汉平原). The prehistoric settlements here are all located at the junction zone between the edges of the plain and the foothills. The Longzui (龙嘴) and Xiaocheng (笑城) sites are both located at the transitional zone between the front ends of hillocks and the plain's lakes and marshes, at elevations of 29–32 meters. Today, during the rainy season, floods sometimes inundate areas below 30 meters in elevation, so both sites have been found to have relatively complete facilities similar to polders for flood control. The connections between the sites and the hillocks were all excavated into ponds. The Menbanwan site (门板湾遗址) is also located at the front end of a hillock, where ponds were excavated to store water during the rainy season, earth was piled into embankments for habitation, and the lowlands east of the embankments were used for rice cultivation.

The Qujialing site cluster (屈家岭遗址群) is located on top of a hillock. In the valley, two dams dating to about 5100 years ago have been discovered, with a spillway in the northern part, which effectively solved the problem of farmland irrigation.

The Shijiahe site cluster (石家河遗址群) was sited in an area at elevations of 30–46 meters, successfully avoiding the threat of flooding. Early ancestors probably used a household model to excavate ponds for water storage at the upper ends of small valleys, piling earth beside the ponds for habitation; the valley floors below the ponds were leveled into farmland, and during the dry season water was diverted from the ponds to irrigate the fields, forming a typical pattern of high storage and low irrigation (高蓄低灌). Over time and with population increase, the cultivated area of the small valleys could no longer meet demand. The groups in the southwestern part joined together to build a large reservoir, while the groups in the northeastern part constructed a 1800-meter water diversion project on the East River (东河), greatly expanding the irrigation scope and the capacity to respond to complex climate changes.

The ancient city of Liangzhu (良渚古城) embodies another kind of wisdom. The ancient city was sited in a relatively elevated area of low hills distributed on the plain. By connecting low mountains to form a closed city wall, the ancient city of Liangzhu was able to avoid the severe water disasters caused by the main stream of the East Tiaoxi River (东苕溪). A series of dam facilities were constructed at the northern mountain passes to defend against extraordinary flood disasters caused by typhoon landfalls, while also storing water for farmland irrigation. The outer water conservancy project was interconnected with the water network around the ancient city and within the city, fulfilling functions such as flood control, transportation, water regulation, and irrigation, fully demonstrating the extraordinary engineering design, organization, and implementation capabilities of the Liangzhu people. The siting of the water conservancy project was extremely rational, and during construction, the characteristics of the natural environment were skillfully utilized. By blocking the outlets of some valleys, the principle of minimal intervention was applied to maximize the effectiveness of water management, creating a brilliant prehistoric culture that endured for a millennium.

Water management is an important component of the development of agricultural civilization and is the prerequisite and guarantee for settlement safety and agricultural production. Water management models in different regions were adapted to local conditions, each with its own strengths, showcasing the wisdom and creative ability of prehistoric ancestors in adapting to climate and environmental changes. Only by understanding nature, transforming nature, and managing water sources so that water resources can meet people's needs can good agricultural harvests be obtained and the population continue to grow. Increased human power then makes it possible to build large-scale water conservancy facilities, transform larger natural environments, and respond to more intense climate changes and natural disasters. It is in this process that human civilization has been elevated, developed, and continuously advanced.

(Author's affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

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How cultural relic protection faces climate challenges

By: 黄 滋

Entering the 21st century, climate change has exerted a significant impact on China's cultural relic protection; such impacts are widespread across the country and urgently require serious attention. Changes in the water environment are the primary threat facing cultural relic protection, with harms covering various types of cultural relics such as wooden structures, earthen sites, and cave temples.

Global warming, combined with accelerated urbanization and increased area of impervious surfaces, has made the water environment problems facing cultural relic protection increasingly severe. In historic and culturally renowned cities such as Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Huzhou, as well as areas like the Shanghai Bund, due to the continuous elevation of surrounding terrain, cultural relic buildings have gradually become situated in low-lying zones, facing flooding or high-humidity distress every rainy season. Buildings such as the Shanghai Customs House (Jianghai Customs Building) have even experienced situations where indoor and outdoor floor levels are equal, exacerbating internal dampness. In Zhejiang's Zhuge Village, cultural relic buildings have seen outdoor floor elevations raised due to urbanization construction, causing capillary water rise that results in salt efflorescence and weathering at wall bases — a phenomenon that has appeared in many places.

Problems such as increased rainfall during the summer flood season and slower drainage can induce various types of biological damage. The combined effects of factors such as moisture, salinity, and temperature affect cultural relics in multiple ways. Hot and humid climates accelerate plant growth; excessively developed root systems easily pry apart surrounding stonework. This damage has appeared in both Suzhou gardens and Beijing gardens. In Jiaxing's Qi Garden, through monitoring with plaster cakes at 42 points, it was found that five points exhibited short-term continuous cracking, confirming the existence of such expansion damage.

Cave temples and stone carvings are similarly affected by plant growth. Both the Feilai Peak carvings in Hangzhou and the Dazu Rock Carvings in Chongqing suffer from problems such as dense vegetation leading to poor ventilation and a humid environment, which in turn fosters various biological damages. Coupled with the erosion of acid rain, the water damage problems faced by cave temples and stone carvings become even more complex.

Although some biofilms have a protective effect on cultural relics, most cause harm. Relevant research shows that certain biofilms promote bacterial growth, which in turn corrodes stone. Although such corrosion processes are relatively slow, they have intensified in recent years.

The types of wood decay have also increased. Prolonged rainfall leads to moisture saturation in outdoor soil and a rise in the groundwater table, with moisture continuously seeping indoors. Not only are wooden components easily corroded, but this also attracts insects such as termites, longhorn beetles, and carpenter bees to bore into the wood. This problem has become a key concern in cultural relic protection.

For cultural relics near rivers, the harm from water exhibits a dual nature: on the one hand, floods directly destroy cultural relics such as bridges; on the other hand, river channel drying can also cause problems. Upstream reservoir damming leads to downstream river channel desiccation, exposing mudflats and causing wood to rot upon contact with air. When subsequent floods strike, the load-bearing capacity and compressive strength of the damaged wood are reduced, making it more susceptible to being washed away. Additionally, wood originally protected by water immersion will also develop damage after moisture loss. Practice shows that underwater wood can be preserved for a long time, while alternating wet and dry conditions accelerate its decay. In some southern river dredging projects, it has been found that if the dredging time exceeds half a year, exposed wooden piles decay rapidly.

For the above problems, targeted countermeasures must be taken. First, optimize the environment around cultural relics, striving to maintain ventilation and dryness. Dense vegetation around cultural relic buildings needs to be cleared in a timely manner; for trees that cannot be removed, root restriction measures should be adopted, with isolation walls set according to root depth to prevent root systems from damaging the buildings, while simultaneously reducing the impact of plants on environmental ventilation through branch pruning.

Waterproofing and damp-proofing measures also need to be strengthened. For areas in cities where drainage ditches are difficult to excavate, moisture-proof and water-barrier belts can be installed at wall bases to form a wall water-stop system, blocking the capillary water rise path; carry out damp-proof treatment indoors to reduce moisture erosion.

Strengthen management of cultural relics such as bridges. For bridges with pile foundations, set up dams underneath to ensure that the pile foundations remain 20–30 centimeters below the water level at all times, avoiding exposure and decay of the pile foundations; river dredging and cultural relic maintenance projects in southern regions should be prioritized during winter construction; summer construction needs to shorten the construction period, using low-temperature environments to slow down wood corrosion.

Adopt methods such as fumigation to control pests. Powderpost beetles and other pests bore into wood through tiny holes that are difficult to detect. Experience from fumigation of export containers can be referenced to completely exterminate pests through fumigation, ensuring the safety of wooden structural cultural relics.

The impact of climate change on cultural relics presents a multi-dimensional and complex trend. Various problems are interwoven, posing continuous threats to different types of cultural relics such as wooden structures, cave temples and stone carvings, and bridges. Moreover, the scope of impact has gradually expanded from the south to the north, bringing severe challenges to cultural relic protection work. Only by fully recognizing the potential risks that climate change poses to cultural relics and continuously exploring suitable protection technologies and management models can we delay the deterioration process of cultural relics to the greatest extent and safeguard the cultural treasures that carry the historical memory of the nation.

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Chongqing protects cultural relics safely through flood season

By: 姜 峰

The Yangtze is vast and mighty, the Jialing surges and swells; they converge at Chaotianmen in Chongqing. Not far ahead as the river flows east, on the bank sits the Danzishi Cliff Carvings (弹子石摩崖造像), a national key cultural relic protection unit.

It is the summer flood season; the riverside Great Buddha is seen to have "put on" a "protective suit" — a high-strength, corrosion-resistant steel wire mesh, just like the Golden Bell Cover.

The Danzishi Cliff Carvings were built leaning on the mountain and facing the water, situated in a low-lying area along the Yangtze, and possess important hydrological value. "In the past, boat owners traveling on the river used to take the riverside Great Buddha as a 'measuring stick,' and summed up vivid folk sayings such as 'the Great Buddha washes his feet,' 'the Great Buddha washes his hands,' and 'the Great Buddha washes his face' to describe different water levels," said Hu Juan (胡娟), director of the Cultural Relics Management Office of Nan'an District (南岸区文物管理所), Chongqing, 如数家珍 (rú shǔ jiā zhēn - "like counting family treasures," to speak of something with intimate familiarity).

However, the river water and the floating objects carried downstream pose a direct threat to the carvings themselves and the cliff wall on which they depend. In view of this, in recent years the Nan'an District Cultural and Tourism Commission (南岸区文化旅游委) has carried out a protective mesh enclosure project on the Danzishi Cliff Carvings before the flood season. Cultural relic protection experts and engineering and technical personnel conducted on-site surveys and made a comprehensive assessment of the cliff wall structure, the distribution of the carvings, the current state of restoration works, and the surrounding hydrological conditions, and ultimately adopted a high-strength corrosion-resistant steel wire mesh with precisely calculated mesh opening sizes, which can both effectively intercept large floating objects such as trees and building debris and avoid causing secondary damage to the carvings themselves.

Continuing downstream, at Fuling District (涪陵区), Chongqing, where the Wu River joins the Yangtze, beneath the river waters there lies another world-famous hydrological cultural relic — the Baiheliang Inscriptions (白鹤梁题刻).

Walking into the Chongqing Baiheliang Underwater Museum, Liu Bin (刘彬), team leader of the equipment section, and his colleagues are inspecting the museum's drainage pipes. The Baiheliang Inscriptions are situated within a protection cover, inside which are 4,500 tons of purified Yangtze water, continuously circulating and purifying 24 hours a day. Monitoring daily changes in the Yangtze water level is one of Liu Bin's important tasks. "By observing the height and flow of the Yangtze water level, we carry out targeted water replenishment scheduling for the Baiheliang underwater protection cover, keeping the water pressure inside the cover always slightly higher than the water pressure of the external river water, maintaining a basically balanced pressure difference between the inside and outside of the protection cover, and effectively preventing turbid external river water from seeping into the cover," Liu Bin said.

Jiang Rui (蒋锐), curator of the Chongqing Baiheliang Underwater Museum, said that compared with routine inspections, flood season inspection standards are stricter and the frequency higher; the museum has also coordinated with maritime and waterway departments to set up dedicated navigation marks and, relying on an intelligent video surveillance system, has strengthened control over the waters of the no-navigation zone around the underwater protection structure.

Danzishi and Baiheliang are precisely a microcosm of Chongqing's 因地制宜 (yīn dì zhì yí - "according to the land, devise appropriate measures," to act according to local conditions) approach to protecting cultural relics safely through the flood season. Before the flood season, Chongqing's cultural relic system sorted out risk points in advance and carried out a dragnet-style screening of immovable cultural relics and museums vulnerable to floods, geological disasters, and mountain forest fires, forming three lists — "Statistics on Immovable Cultural Relics and Museums Threatened by Floods," "Statistics on Cultural Relic and Museum Units with Geological Disaster Risks," and "Statistics on Cultural Relic Protection Units at Municipal Level and Above Threatened by Forest Fires" — and urging responsible units and property owners to strengthen targeted prevention.

Chongqing treats the flood season as a key period every year, refines response measures for different types of risks, strictly implements duty and watchkeeping during extreme weather, and organizes staff members and people around the cultural relics to increase the frequency of on-site inspections of cultural relics, so that dangers are discovered early, reported early, and handled early. Since the flood season began, more than 12,000 cultural relic safety inspections have been carried out in total. During the two rounds of extreme rainfall since May 22 this year, the city issued 182 targeted warnings through a digitally empowered multi-agency linkage mechanism, promptly notifying district and county cultural relic departments to coordinate with towns and subdistricts, cultural relic management and use units, and property owners to do preventive work well in advance, effectively ensuring the safety of cultural relics.

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In the Storm, 'Corridor Bridge Stewards' Take Action

By: 窦 皓

“Ding——” The phone screen lit up, and an alert from the “Qingyuan County Cultural Relics Intelligent Supervision Platform (庆元县文物智慧监管平台)” popped up: the water level of Lanxi Bridge (兰溪桥) was rising faster and approaching the warning line. Chen Huacheng (陈化诚), who had already arrived, together with other cultural relic protection officers (文保员), watched the bridge closely, standing by at all times.

Chen Huacheng, director of the Cultural Relics Protection Institute of Qingyuan County (庆元县), Lishui, Zhejiang, is a native of Qingyuan County – 土生土长 (tǔ shēng tǔ zhǎng - “born and raised on the same soil,” native). From going to Tianjin to study cultural relic restoration and protection after graduating from high school, to returning to Qingyuan after graduation to become a cultural relic protection worker, he has guarded more than 100 covered bridges (廊桥) in the entire county.

Qingyuan County has long been known as “the home of Chinese covered bridges,” among which there are 21 wooden arch covered bridges. These ancient bridges, most built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, use not a single nail or rivet, relying solely on wooden beams laid transversely and longitudinally, supporting each other, extending section by section, and braiding into an arch – truly a miracle of ancient Chinese architectural craftsmanship. But Chen Huacheng understands better than anyone that this “miracle” has a fatal weakness. In 2006, super typhoon Saomai struck, and nine covered bridges in Qingyuan that had weathered centuries of wind and rain were destroyed by mountain floods, leaving not a single tile on the site.

“More than 20 covered bridges in the county are located at disaster-prone points over the years.” Chen Huacheng pointed at the map on the office wall, densely marked with red dots. Once the river exceeds the warning water level, the scouring and hollowing of the bridge foundation by the swift current, the violent impact of floating objects, and the prolonged soaking of the bottom of the covered house due to rising water can all cause centuries-old ancient bridges to 毁于一旦 (huǐ yú yī dàn - “destroyed in one morning,” to be ruined in an instant).

Every year before the flood season arrives, Chen Huacheng takes action in advance. He must not only inspect the bridge but also check whether there are accumulations in the upstream river channel or hidden dangers of mudslides. If there are, he must immediately organize removal. Since the start of the flood season, he and his team have transformed into “mountain patrollers,” driving hundreds of kilometers every day, shuttling between deep mountains and gorges.

In mid-June 2024, Qingyuan encountered the heaviest rainfall since the start of the plum rain season, and the flood emergency response was once raised to Level I. During that period, Chen Huacheng’s phone rang nonstop. He and the cultural relic protection officers stood 寸步不离 (cùn bù bù lí - “not leave an inch,” to stay very close) at the bridge head, using flashlights to inspect the bridge body repeatedly, record water levels, and report the situation. Taking advantage of the window when the rain briefly eased, he led the county Cultural Relics Protection Institute to jointly carry out a special operation with the county Forest Check Station and township forestry stations to remove risks and eliminate hazards around covered bridge cultural relics. “Dead trees and diseased trees easily fall during rainstorms; if they hit a covered bridge, the consequences would be unimaginable,” Chen Huacheng said.

In Qingyuan, there is also a group of “covered bridge butlers (廊桥管家).” In 2004, Qingyuan established a first-level covered bridge chief (一级廊桥长) and a second-level covered bridge chief (二级廊桥长) for each covered bridge, and the county government signed protection responsibility agreements with each township and cultural relic protection officer. The cultural relic protection officers conduct regular and irregular patrols, reporting problems promptly if found. Wang Jiawu (王家武), 75, is the guardian of Lanxi Bridge, a national key cultural relic protection unit. For nearly 30 years, he has walked across the bridge three or four times every day, and sometimes gets up even at night to take a turn. “When the weather is hot, many people come to escape the heat and cool off, so our patrols also increase,” Wang Jiawu said. When there are many people, he keeps a close watch nearby: “What covered bridges fear most is fire; cigarette butts are the focus of patrols.”

But relying solely on manpower ultimately has blind spots and limits. Starting in 2013, Chen Huacheng began promoting the installation of video surveillance equipment on the county’s covered bridges. In 2024, protection was upgraded again: Qingyuan County deployed a wisdom fire protection system (智慧消防系统) for Lanxi Bridge. Multi-spectral fire detectors cover the entire bridge, achieving precise detection through thermal imaging and intelligent algorithms. Once abnormal temperatures or smoke are detected, the system responds in seconds and automatically dispatches a task to the cultural relic protection officer.

What if a covered bridge is damaged in a flood? Chen Huacheng’s answer is: repair the old as it was old, and pass on the craftsmanship. The Houkeng Wooden Arch Covered Bridge (后坑木拱廊桥) protection project once won the “UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation.” The restoration process has always adhered to the method of “expert team + drawing data + on-site original components + inheritor experience,” balancing the consistency of traditional bridge-building techniques with cultural relic restoration principles. Over more than ten years, Chen Huacheng has presided over the restoration of more than 20 covered bridges, including Rulong Bridge (如龙桥) and Banluting Bridge (半路亭桥). Each time a bridge is restored, local elderly craftsmen are invited to teach apprentices on site, ensuring that the unique skill of “using not a single nail or rivet” has 后继有人 (hòu jì yǒu rén - “there are people to carry on,” to have qualified successors). “People engaged in cultural relic protection are like time mail carriers; covered bridges are letters handed over from the previous generation,” Chen Huacheng said. After the wind and rain, the covered bridge remains the same, and his guardianship is far from over.

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Climate change tests millennia-old cave temple preservation

By: 张正模

Since the start of this year’s flood season, many areas in the Northwest have experienced persistent heavy rainfall. The Mogao Caves were once temporarily closed, and the Maijishan Grottoes, the Bingling Temple Grottoes, and others were also successively temporarily closed to visitors.

The damage water inflicts on cave temples is both directly visible and long-term hidden, making it the “most fatal disease” of cave temples. The most direct damage comes from flooding and heavy rain scouring. Floodwaters, carrying sediment and debris, can directly destroy the cave temple artifacts themselves, the cliff structures, and auxiliary facilities. Persistent heavy rain can soften and dissolve the materials of cave temple artifacts, causing the loss of surface materials. Long-term waterlogging and immersion can cause stone carvings and murals to suffer severe erosion, accelerating the damage to the cultural relics.

If the impact of floods is the “open spear,” then the slow erosion of water is the “hidden arrow.” The drastic environmental changes triggered by the flood season can bring about broader, more persistent secondary disasters and chronic diseases. After rainwater seeps into the cliff body, it softens the rock mass, reducing the structural strength of the cliff, and inducing risks of loosening, falling, and collapse. Abundant precipitation during the flood season raises the groundwater table. Soluble salts in the soil migrate through the groundwater via capillary action to the cave walls. After the water evaporates, the salts continuously crystallize and expand, persistently causing stubborn diseases such as the efflorescence of the plaster layer and surface weathering of the artifacts. At the same time, the frequent alternation of wet and dry conditions, and drastic changes in temperature and humidity during the flood season, accelerate the aging and deterioration of artifact materials. A damp cave environment also fosters the growth of large amounts of moss, lichen, and other organisms, causing irreversible harm to the cultural relics.

Facing extreme weather, cave temples in various regions have adopted preventive measures tailored to local conditions in advance. At the Mogao Caves, a flood control project capable of withstanding a once-in-three-hundred-years flood has been built on the west bank of the Daquan River, acting as an “iron wall” protecting the thousand-year-old caves. Before the flood season each year, the river channel undergoes a systematic inspection and dredging to ensure unobstructed flood discharge paths. Each year, staff also conduct a comprehensive “physical examination” of the caves, cave eaves, rain shelters, temples, archways, pagodas, and cliff bodies, carrying out routine maintenance and preservation work. This encompasses multiple tasks including local restoration of murals and statues, inspection and repair of ancient building facilities, and treatment of cliff diseases, thereby enhancing the resilience of cultural relics against risks. Once the relative humidity inside a cave exceeds 67%, it can cause diseases such as the efflorescence of the plaster base layer and pigment flaking. Closing the cave is currently the most effective preventive measure. On June 24, as extreme rainfall caused relative humidity at the Mogao Caves to approach the critical threshold, the scenic area was promptly closed, thereby avoiding damage to the murals caused by a sharp rise in humidity.

The Maijishan Grottoes focus on the prevention and control of microbial diseases and mountain body safety, carrying out preventive conservation work in advance. Before this year’s flood season, staff cleared microbial hazards at several key caves. To date, no signs of microbial growth have appeared in these caves, showing significant protective effectiveness. In response to the risk of rockfalls from the mountain triggered by extreme precipitation, the scenic area was temporarily closed twice in July this year to ensure visitor safety.

The Bingling Temple Grottoes are adjacent to the Liujiaxia Reservoir and lie in a variable backwater area. Each flood season, heavy sediment silting occurs in the area in front of the caves, directly threatening their safety. In response, staff dug flood drainage channels in advance to clear the accumulated sediment. Regarding the issues of severe cliff face weathering and the risk of rockfalls easily triggered by rainwater erosion, local reinforcement of cliff sections and rockfall prevention treatment have been carried out. Staff have also covered the feet of the large seated Maitreya Buddha of the Tang Dynasty in Cave 171, which is at risk of rainwater dripping and erosion, to prevent damage by rainwater.

The rock mass of the Northern Cave Temple has relatively weak cementation. Long-term rainwater scouring has led to water seepage in the cliff body and dampness in the caves, with frequent occurrences of diseases such as efflorescence and weathering. To slow the rate of artifact deterioration, local authorities installed temporary rain shelters for the southern and northern sections of the caves in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Before this year’s flood season, staff conducted comprehensive risk hazard investigations, inspected and reinforced the rain shelter facilities, focused inspections on low-lying caves in front of the mountain, sealed off water seepage points, and prevented backflow of accumulated water. At the same time, they completed roof repairs on the opera stage, inspected and reinforced risk points of cliff instability one by one, and built a comprehensive safety line of defense.

Currently, the prevention and control of water damage in cave temples has shifted from post-disaster emergency repair and passive response to systematic, scientific, and normalized management. Cultural relic departments in various regions are establishing cross-departmental coordination and linkage mechanisms, building intelligent monitoring and early warning systems. They conduct real-time dynamic monitoring of core data including meteorological conditions, river water levels, cave temperature and humidity, and cliff stability, enabling advance deployment and precise implementation of measures. The flood prevention and protection work for cave temples in the Northwest has achieved a dual upgrade in both concept and model. A full-chain protection mechanism covering hazard investigation, intelligent monitoring, scientific prevention and control, and precise restoration is gradually taking shape, making every effort to protect these thousand-year-old cave temple treasures.

(By the Dunhuang Academy)

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Zhou Feiya, Zhao Cairu (Page Editors)

This edition's email: ysbjs@peopledaily.cn

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