Summary: Tianjin is advancing urban renewal by revitalizing idle stock resources, such as the "Tangyuan" courtyard and the former Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool General Factory, now the "Jinyi PARK," while preserving historic buildings and industrial heritage. The article cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's February 2024 inspection remarks urging urban renewal actions and his December 2024 Central Economic Work Conference call to balance optimizing increments with revitalizing existing stock. Tianjin has revitalized over 16 million square meters of real estate, upgraded business formats at 274 commercial facilities, and generated over 66 billion yuan in revenue from stock resource revitalization in 2025. Institutional safeguards include the Tianjin Urban Renewal Regulations and a 2026 policy supporting redevelopment of inefficient land, resolving over 200 bottleneck issues since 2024. The city aims to follow Xi's guidance toward connotative development and high-quality growth in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Summary: Hubei is strengthening coordination between industry and employment, implementing the "Skills Revitalize Jingchu" project to match industrial transformation with job creation. The article cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's 2024 and 2018 inspection instructions on upgrading traditional industries and cultivating emerging ones, alongside strengthening employment services. New industries like artificial intelligence and life and health have surged, with Hubei surveying 210,000 enterprises and 5.7 million person-times to form a guidance catalog for employment matching. The province has completed 278,500 person-times of subsidized skills training this year, including project-based training tied to enterprise needs, and reshaped subsidy policy with employment rates as the orientation. Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hubei aims to expand employment absorption in services and emerging fields while promoting flexible and new forms of employment.
Summary: General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter on the 70th anniversary of China Media Group's "Little Trumpet" program, encouraging the implementation of the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and the creation of more excellent works that spread truth, goodness, and beauty for children. The letter inspired the program team and children's workers, who expressed commitment to deepening children's moral and aesthetic education and creating quality literary and artistic works. Various officials and educators, including host Zheng Jing, principal Ma Jun, and theater president Ge Dali, shared their resolve to carry forward traditions, integrate Chinese culture into education, and enrich children's spiritual lives. Others, such as Li Hui of the Communist Youth League and Yi Xuelei of Soong Ching Ling's former residence, emphasized forming a joint force to support children's growth and international communication. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok from September 2 to 4, co-chaired the 13th Meeting of the China-Russia Investment Cooperation Committee with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, and co-chaired the 23rd Meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. Ding conveyed President Xi Jinping's greetings to Putin and stated that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era has continued to deepen, with broad prospects for cooperation in Far East development. Putin asked Ding to convey his sincere greetings to Xi, noted the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, and said Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedented level. At the bilateral mechanism meetings, Ding called for deepening practical cooperation in investment and energy, while the Russian side expressed willingness to jointly implement the consensus of the two heads of state. At the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum, Ding read out Xi's congratulatory letter, and Igor Sechin, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety and President of Rosneft, read out Putin's congratulatory letter.
Summary: The steel trestle and drilling platform for the No. 32 main pier of the North Channel Bridge of the Oujiang River Road-Rail Bridge on the newly built Wenzhou-Fuzhou High-Speed Railway were fully completed on September 5, laying a solid foundation for the construction of the bridge's main waterborne structures. The photo was taken by Gu Jian'ao (Image China).
Summary: The Ministry of Education's Basic Education Department addressed public concerns over school uniform procurement, emphasizing voluntary purchase and prohibiting forced buying or profit-seeking. Procurement cycles cover three-year phases per school stage, with styles kept stable to reduce parental costs, and free uniforms provided for disadvantaged students. Safety standards, including mandatory national textile safety specifications and label requirements, must be met, with a "dual inspection" mechanism encouraged. Schools must involve student and parent representatives in selection, and local platforms like Quanzhou's "Quan Education" system ensure transparency. Substandard uniforms or forced purchases can be reported via local hotlines or letters and visits.
Summary: At the Eighth China Grain Trade Conference held in Changsha on September 5, it was reported that the total annual industrial output value of China's grain enterprises has exceeded 4 trillion yuan. There are currently 24,000 grain enterprises nationwide, with over one-third of provinces achieving output values exceeding 100 billion yuan. The grain processing chain has expanded, with wheat, soybeans, and corn yielding hundreds of product types each. The grain brand system includes 33 provincial-level and 117 city- and county-level regional public brands, supporting 1,313 enterprise brands and 4,211 grain and oil product brands.
Summary: China's software and information technology service industry performed well in the first seven months of this year, with software business revenue reaching 8.9785 trillion yuan, up 9.2% year-on-year, and software business exports reaching 40.61 billion US dollars, up 12.2%, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. By sector, software product revenue rose 6.3%, with basic software up 9.4% and industrial software up 8.4%; information technology services revenue increased 10%, including cloud computing and big data services up 12.3% and integrated circuit design up 21.5%; information security products and services revenue grew 6.2%.
Summary: The Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum opened on September 5 in Shenzhen, with Li Shulei, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department, delivering a keynote speech, and Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau and Guangdong Provincial Party Secretary, attending and delivering remarks. Participating guests said President Xi Jinping's proposition of building an Asia-Pacific community has guided efforts to build an open Asia-Pacific economy, and expressed confidence that China's hosting of the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting this "China Year" will yield fruitful results. They stressed that Asia-Pacific media must tell the story of openness and connectivity, report on cooperation progress, and build consensus on innovative development. The forum, themed "Building a Shared Path to Prosperity for the Asia-Pacific Community: Consensus and Action of the Media," was hosted by the Publicity Department, Xinhua News Agency, and the Guangdong Provincial Government, drawing over 400 representatives from more than 40 countries and regions. During the forum, 16 media outlets from China and abroad initiated the preparatory committee for the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Program.
Summary: The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held an experience exchange meeting in Hangzhou on improving the writing style in the theory sections of Party newspapers and Party journals. The meeting stressed that General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to writing style development and has issued important instructions on the matter. It called for persistent efforts to improve writing style, connect theory with practice, and enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of theoretical publicity. The meeting also emphasized content innovation, strengthening editorial and author teams, and promoting theories online to increase communication influence. The event was hosted by the Central Publicity Department, organized by the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee's Publicity Department and the Zhejiang Daily Press Group, with responsible comrades from relevant central units and regional publicity departments in attendance.
Summary: China's installed photovoltaic capacity reached 1.286 billion kilowatts by end-July, surpassing coal power for the first time to become the largest power source category, a milestone the China Electricity Council's Hao Yingjie called a landmark achievement in the green and low-carbon energy transition. Hao analyzed the significance as breaking the century-old pattern of coal power dominance, confirming the competitive advantage of China's photovoltaic industry chain, and demonstrating China's determination to advance the global low-carbon transition. The article highlights distributed photovoltaic projects like one in Yunnan's Gangba Village bringing stable income to the collective economy, and notes that over 8.3 million households nationwide have become distributed photovoltaic owners. It also details how coal power units in Ningxia's Tengger base perform peak-shaving to complement intermittent photovoltaic output, with Liu Zhiqiang of the China Electricity Council stressing that coal power will remain the main supporting power source in the short term. Liu emphasized the need to accelerate new-type power system construction, including pumped-storage and new-type energy storage, to transform photovoltaic capacity into stable supply and promote its shift from "depending on the weather" to "dispatchable and predictable."
Summary: The National Healthcare Security Administration issued the *Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Payment Management for Long-Term Care Insurance*, clarifying payment scope, methods, and standards, with pilot areas given about 3 years to transition. The fund may reimburse disability assessment expenses, long-term care service fees from designated institutions, and third-party management costs, while distinguishing payment scopes from basic medical insurance to avoid duplicate payments. Payment methods are set per person-time for assessments and per duration for nursing services, with home-based care paid hourly, institutional care by bed-day, and community care units determined by service circumstances. Payment standards are tiered by local economic development and service costs, with annual per-person fund limits capped at 50% of prior-year per capita disposable income in the coordinating region. The rules also mandate budget performance management, intelligent review, and supervision of assessment and nursing behaviors, with penalties including fund deductions for non-compliant services and a ban on third-party social forces managing or disbursing fund payments.
Summary: Farmers in Jing'an Township, Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, are collectively harvesting and transporting waxy corn seed ears at the local seed production base. The photo was taken by Yang Yongwei and distributed by Image China.
Summary: The article reports on how Fuxin County in Liaoning Province is using integrated water and fertilizer management, including drip irrigation, to protect crops like corn and soybeans from sustained high temperatures in a semi-arid region. Ma Liang, chairman of the Tongda Agricultural Machinery Cooperative, and veteran farmer Liu Baicheng initially doubted the technology, fearing high costs and complexity, but were persuaded by data from officials like Liang Qingfu, deputy director of the Fuxin Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. The system delivers precise water-soluble fertilizer directly to roots, saving 15% to 30% of water per mu, halving fertilizer use, and boosting corn yields by 30% to 2,300 jin per mu. In Wangfu Town, an intelligent control center and a complete irrigation network, managed by Mayor Liu Zili, enable remote monitoring and save nearly 100,000 tons of water annually. Fuxin City is expanding high-standard farmland construction, investing 1.735 billion yuan to add 216,800 mu of irrigated area and 72.9 million kilograms of grain production capacity.
Summary: Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok from September 2 to 4, co-chaired the 13th Meeting of the China-Russia Investment Cooperation Committee with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, and co-chaired the 23rd Meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. Ding conveyed President Xi Jinping's greetings to Putin and stated that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era has continued to deepen, with broad prospects for cooperation in Far East development. Putin asked Ding to convey his sincere greetings to Xi, noted the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, and said Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedented level. At the bilateral mechanism meetings, Ding called for deepening practical cooperation in investment and energy, while the Russian side expressed willingness to jointly implement the consensus of the two heads of state. At the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum, Ding read out Xi's congratulatory letter, and Igor Sechin, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety and President of Rosneft, read out Putin's congratulatory letter.
Summary: American friend Ronald Sakolsky, known as "Saikesi," reunited with Chinese desertification-control worker Yin Yuzhen after 26 years, traveling from Inner Mongolia to Henan and Beijing over ten days. Sakolsky, who donated $5,000 in 1999 that funded the "Saikesi Forest," wept repeatedly and embraced Yin, acknowledging his past doubt that her dream was "impossible" while she insisted it was "possible." Yin, who kept her word by planting 70,000 mu of forest in the Mu Us Sandy Land, hosted him with a feast and showed him the thriving trees, part of the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Forest Program. In Luoyang, he reunited with former students and colleagues, including Bai Fan, who emphasized passing on the Chinese-American friendship "from generation to generation." Sakolsky expressed hope that his son would carry on this bond with China, and the article highlights the enduring cross-Pacific friendship spanning over 11,000 kilometers.
Summary: The article, an international forum piece by the Dean of the Kyrgyz-China Institute at Kyrgyz National University, highlights the deepening comprehensive strategic partnership between Kyrgyzstan and China. It emphasizes President Xi Jinping's upcoming attendance at the 2026 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Bishkek and his state visit to Kyrgyzstan as significant for bilateral cooperation. The piece praises the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as a landmark project under Belt and Road cooperation, alongside energy and infrastructure projects like the Datka-Kemin transmission line. It outlines future cooperation potential in transport, industry, digital economy, and people-to-people exchanges. The author concludes that adhering to mutual respect and mutual benefit will elevate Kyrgyzstan-China relations to new heights.
Summary: The Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum was held in Shenzhen on September 5 as part of the "China Year" activities of APEC, with participants exchanging views on the theme "Building a Shared Path to a Prosperous Asia-Pacific Community: Media Consensus and Action." The article highlights President Xi Jinping's proposition of building an Asia-Pacific community and stresses the role of media in fostering regional openness, cooperation, and mutual understanding. It notes that sub-forums were held in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen, where discussions covered topics such as open innovation, digital and green transformation, and people-to-people exchanges. The piece also cites foreign participants, including Aman Haq of Pakistan Television and John Wallace of Australia's Asia-Pacific News Center, who praised China's development and called for more objective Western media coverage of China. The forum launched a preparatory committee for the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Program, ahead of the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting scheduled in Shenzhen in over two months.
Summary: During the Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum, international media guests visited Guangzhou and Foshan, experiencing China's intelligent manufacturing and green development firsthand. They praised China's urban rail transit, automated ports, and smart factories, with Vietnamese, Maldivian, Korean, Bangladeshi, and Philippine editors expressing admiration for the innovation and practical benefits. At the Guangzhou sub-forum, participants discussed "New Opportunities for Asia-Pacific Development through Open, Innovative Cooperation," focusing on Chinese modernization and the Greater Bay Area. American expert Steve Farr highlighted Guangzhou's evolution from an ancient trading port to a globally influential central city. The article emphasizes cross-border media collaboration as a means to bridge gaps and enhance mutual understanding.
Summary: The No. 2 tunnel north of Koshterbe on the Kyrgyzstan section of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway was successfully holed through, marking the first tunnel completed on that section and important progress for the project. Since full-line civil engineering construction began in June 2025, 27 tunnels have started construction, with one holed through, alongside 43 bridges, 88 subgrade sections, and infrastructure work at 20 stations. All large temporary roads and temporary power supply support projects along the Kyrgyzstan section have been completed and put into use. The railway is a landmark Belt and Road Initiative cooperation project personally promoted by the heads of state of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, running from Kashgar in China's Xinjiang via the Torugart Pass and Jalal-Abad to Andijan in eastern Uzbekistan. The total length exceeds 500 kilometers, with the Kyrgyzstan section spanning 304.84 kilometers.
Summary: A Chinese citizen stranded by a mudslide in Nepal's Rasuwa area was rescued on September 5 and transported to the Nepalese Army General Hospital in Kathmandu. Nepalese Army Medical Corps Director General Bhandari credited the citizen's physical condition and will to survive, and affirmed continued coordination with the Chinese side in rescue efforts. Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Zhang Maoming said the embassy has prioritized the safety of Chinese citizens and maintained close communication with Nepalese authorities since the disaster. China has dispatched tunnel rescue and DNA identification experts to assist Nepal's relief operations. The embassy will continue coordinating to ensure citizen safety and handle aftermath matters for those unaccounted for.
Summary: In the national gate area of Gyirong Port, rescue personnel worked amid ruins, with a five-star red flag planted on flat ground and flowers laid at its base by rescue teams. Police officer Nima of the Shigatse Border Management Detachment brought the flag into the core area on August 30, crawling through deep mud after jumping from a helicopter with the first assault team. Nima explained that "wherever there is a national flag, there is the national gate," and the flag was taken down and put back up daily until National Highway 216 reopened on September 2. Deputy station chief Gui Xinwei recalled Gyirong Port's role as Tibet's largest cargo port, with border trade exceeding 18 million yuan in the first half of 2026 and exports including apples, garlic, potatoes, and BYD new-energy vehicles. The article highlights the flag as a symbol of unity and resilience amid the disaster-stricken area.
Summary: The article reports on disaster-relief efforts in Jilong Town following a mudslide, focusing on three teams. Liu Mingyuan, temporary Party branch secretary of the China Railway South Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief Command, oversees the production of steel-reinforced gabion baskets to stabilize the reopened National Highway 216, with 1,959 baskets processed and 10,498 cubic meters of stone shipped as of September 5. Puqiong, general manager of the State Grid Gyirong County Power Supply Company, led a repair team of over 150 people that erected 54 utility poles and strung nearly 10 kilometers of conductor in 100 hours to restore power to the border-gate area. Dorje Tsering, director of the Internal Medicine Department of the Shigatse Municipal Tibetan Medicine Hospital, and other medical and psychological personnel provided care and counseling to 587 family members of the deceased and missing, with 70 professionals offering psychological assistance. The article also recounts how seven children mailed postcards to frontline workers, with one child writing "Hope the port has no 'trouble,'" and quotes psychological expert Wang Congyu on the importance of helping disaster-affected children feel that life can go on.
Summary: The article is a first-person dispatch from Gyirong town after tourists were evacuated following an earthquake, describing local volunteers and merchants providing free water, food, and charging services at a "love station" set up by the Gyirong Gansu-Qinghai Chamber of Commerce. The reporter interviews volunteers Ma Baoxiang, a post-2000 native of Gansu, and Ma Xilong, 32, also from Gansu, who explain the station has been staffed around the clock since August 28. Another volunteer, Ma Yiheiya from Qinghai, who has lived in Gyirong for over 30 years, says "This is my hometown now" and "We are all one family." The piece concludes with the reporter reflecting that the scene embodies "standing together through thick and thin" and "acting quietly without making a fuss."
Summary: The Ministry of Civil Affairs reported that charitable donations for Tibet's Gyirong mudslide disaster have exceeded 660 million yuan, with over 1.47 million person-times donating 50.16 million yuan through online public fundraising platforms. This year's "China Charity Day" marks the eleventh observance, and the Ministry will deploy nationwide publicity activities under the theme "Promoting Charity Culture, Practicing Charity for the People's Benefit."
Summary: On September 5, rescue personnel in the core disaster-affected area continued search and rescue operations and road maintenance work, as shown in a photo by People's Daily reporter Xu Yuyao.
Summary: General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter on the 70th anniversary of China Media Group's "Little Trumpet" program, encouraging the implementation of the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and the creation of more excellent works that spread truth, goodness, and beauty for children. The letter inspired the program team and children's workers, who expressed commitment to deepening children's moral and aesthetic education and creating quality literary and artistic works. Various officials and educators, including host Zheng Jing, principal Ma Jun, and theater president Ge Dali, shared their resolve to carry forward traditions, integrate Chinese culture into education, and enrich children's spiritual lives. Others, such as Li Hui of the Communist Youth League and Yi Xuelei of Soong Ching Ling's former residence, emphasized forming a joint force to support children's growth and international communication. The article does not mention the United States or U.S.-China relations.
Summary: Tianjin is advancing urban renewal by revitalizing idle stock resources, such as the "Tangyuan" courtyard and the former Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool General Factory, now the "Jinyi PARK," while preserving historic buildings and industrial heritage. The article cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's February 2024 inspection remarks urging urban renewal actions and his December 2024 Central Economic Work Conference call to balance optimizing increments with revitalizing existing stock. Tianjin has revitalized over 16 million square meters of real estate, upgraded business formats at 274 commercial facilities, and generated over 66 billion yuan in revenue from stock resource revitalization in 2025. Institutional safeguards include the Tianjin Urban Renewal Regulations and a 2026 policy supporting redevelopment of inefficient land, resolving over 200 bottleneck issues since 2024. The city aims to follow Xi's guidance toward connotative development and high-quality growth in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Summary: Hubei is strengthening coordination between industry and employment, implementing the "Skills Revitalize Jingchu" project to match industrial transformation with job creation. The article cites General Secretary Xi Jinping's 2024 and 2018 inspection instructions on upgrading traditional industries and cultivating emerging ones, alongside strengthening employment services. New industries like artificial intelligence and life and health have surged, with Hubei surveying 210,000 enterprises and 5.7 million person-times to form a guidance catalog for employment matching. The province has completed 278,500 person-times of subsidized skills training this year, including project-based training tied to enterprise needs, and reshaped subsidy policy with employment rates as the orientation. Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hubei aims to expand employment absorption in services and emerging fields while promoting flexible and new forms of employment.
Summary: The Ministry of Emergency Management dispatched rescue and relief operations for a mudslide and landslide in Shixia Group, Mingkeng Village, Gaoping Town, Suichuan County, Jiangxi Province, on September 5. It required all-out efforts to search for trapped personnel, verify casualties and missing persons, and dispatch communications support and engineering rescue teams. The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and Relief and the Ministry of Emergency Management activated Level IV national natural disaster and geological disaster emergency responses, sending a working group and an emergency survey team with slope radar to the scene. Local fire departments dispatched 41 vehicles and 224 personnel, while communications and reconnaissance drones were deployed.
Summary: In September 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote to representatives of national outstanding teachers, first proposing the distinctive educator spirit of China, encompassing ideals, moral sentiments, educational wisdom, diligence, benevolence, and cultural pursuit. The article features accounts from six teachers embodying this spirit, including Chen Jun of Nankai University, who leads a new energy battery team and emphasizes patriotism and innovation. Zhang Yan of Zhejiang University stresses leading by example in ideological and political education, while Ding Meizhen of Shanghai's Hongkou District shares her work in inclusive education for children with special needs. Yang Yang of Chongqing Vocational and Technical University of Industry discusses vocational training in the intelligent connected new energy vehicle field, and Yang Maoji of Qinghai describes using love to support disadvantaged students. Ma Yuchun of Tsinghua University highlights using MOOCs, including an English version, to share Chinese mathematical wisdom globally, such as the "Yang Hui triangle" and the Chinese remainder theorem.
Summary: The article marks Teachers' Day, celebrating educators' contributions and the nationwide campaign co-launched by the People's Daily and the Ministry of Education. It highlights examples of educators embodying the spirit of educators, including a Beihang University professor serving national defense, a 90-year-old "People's Educator" revising lecture notes, and a Zhejiang principal prioritizing life experience over scores. The piece urges daily respect for teachers and education, calling for trust, rationality, and tolerance in society. It concludes that every teacher's dedication on the three-foot podium strengthens the cause of national rejuvenation.
Summary: The article highlights Hong Kong's thriving tourism and mega-event scene in 2026, citing data showing 31.22 million visitor arrivals from January to July, an 11 percent year-on-year increase. It details the success of the Hong Kong Book Fair, food expos, and sports events like the 2026 Hong Kong Football Gala and World Fencing Championships, which drew large crowds and boosted consumption. Cultural programs, including Kunqu Opera and acrobatic performances, are also showcased as part of the "Chinese Culture Festival 2026." The HKSAR Government expects over 100 more mega events in the second half of the year, projecting 1.85 million visitors and HK$5.9 billion in consumption. The piece underscores how these activities, from panda birthdays to international matches, enhance Hong Kong's appeal to tourists.
Summary: The article, authored by Guan Canghai, criticizes the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities for fabricating "risks" about the mainland, including distorting the "Regulations of the State Council on the Administration of Exit and Entry" to claim Taiwanese compatriots, especially in tech and semiconductor industries, face dangers traveling there. It argues the DPP uses suppression, intimidation, and rumor-mongering—such as stigmatizing Xiaohongshu and Amap—to obstruct cross-strait exchanges and create a "chilling effect" out of fear that Taiwanese people will recognize mainland development. The piece cites 2.85 million Taiwanese visits to the mainland in the first half of the year, up 24.9%, and anecdotes of reunions and warm welcomes as rebuttals to the alleged risks. It asserts the DPP's "absurd logic" of smearing anything mainland-related has become a laughingstock, and advises the DPP to stop political manipulation and accept the trend of growing cross-strait closeness.
Summary: The musical *Tide Rises in the Greater Bay Area* (*Chao Qi Da Wan*), performed at the 7th National Ethnic Minority Arts Festival, was staged at the Beijing Tianqiao Theater. Set against Macao's development since its return to the motherland and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it tells stories of ordinary people striving to realize their dreams. The production showcases the spirit of Macao's youth actively integrating into the country's overall development and shouldering the mission of the times, as well as the vibrant vitality of the new era's Greater Bay Area construction. The photo, taken by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua, shows performers in the musical.
Summary: The article condemns the Japanese government for denying its colonial crimes and challenging the postwar international order on the 81st anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. It details Japan's 50-year occupation of Taiwan, including massacres, economic exploitation, the "Kominka" movement, and forced labor, asserting this history must not be erased. It highlights that approximately 650,000 Taiwan compatriots died resisting Japanese rule, demonstrating their patriotism alongside mainland compatriots. The piece concludes that exposing these colonial truths defends historical justice and serves as a lesson for the future. The author is identified as a member of the Academic Division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Summary: A Macau media senior delegation visited Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang in Yunnan, organized by the All-China Journalists Association under the theme "Yunnan and Macau United in Heart · Media Gathering in Yunnan," to experience firsthand the region's rapid developments. Delegation members toured the Dounan International Flower Industrial Park, Yunnan Xiaguan Tuocha (Group) Co., Ltd., the Yunnan Military Academy History Museum, and the site of the National Southwestern Associated University, with He Qunchong of Macau Cable TV marveling at the depth of the flower supply chain and Li Zisong of Macau Lotus TV praising the university's motto of "Fortitude, firmness, excellence, and perseverance." In Lijiang, the delegation visited the Lijiang Converged Media Center, where Director Hong Guochen introduced AI-assisted content production, and delegation head Lu Bo, President of Macau Daily News, expressed hope for cooperation in content co-creation and cultural exchange. Li Cuiping of Teledifusão de Macau noted the vast improvement in Kunming's metro system since her 2014 visit and suggested Macau and Yunnan could learn from each other on preserving historical character while fostering economic development. Tian Yuhong of the All-China Journalists Association encouraged the delegation to tell the story of Yunnan's development in the new era, with media outlets like Macau Daily News and Hou Kong Daily already publishing reports on the visit.
Summary: The article reports on the resurgence of night schools across China as a fashionable lifestyle for contemporary youth, offering courses from traditional music and dance to AI and vocational skills. It highlights cases like Hu Siqi in Hangzhou and He Xiuqing in Beijing, who attend night schools for spiritual fulfillment and social connection, with the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center reporting that post-80s and post-90s students account for more than half of enrollment. The piece also details how night schools are aligning with youth employment needs, citing examples like Sun Jiawei in Jiashan County obtaining an electrician certificate and Zeng Xuemei in Hangzhou using training to grow her dessert shop. It discusses operational models, such as Shanghai's Pudong New Area introducing market forces and Zhejiang's "public welfare + low-cost + market" approach, with Hu Xianzhong of the Communist Youth League stating night schools help break social isolation and stimulate youthful momentum for realizing the Chinese Dream. The article concludes that night schools serve as a microcosm of building a learning society, allowing individual growth and urban development to achieve each other.
Summary: The article reflects on the importance of reading after reports that a foreign AI company destructively scanned paper books for training data, sparking controversy. It argues that while AI can efficiently extract answers, reading is a spiritual journey and intellectual dialogue that cannot be outsourced without losing thinking ability and joy. The piece emphasizes that reading cultivates character, value rationality, and a sound personality, which are essential in an age of efficiency and instrumental reason. It warns that relying on AI for answers may lead to hollowed-out minds and a loss of independent judgment, citing Einstein and Confucian teachings. The author concludes that morality and wisdom, bestowed by reading, remain indispensable treasures for human civilization, even as book forms evolve.
Summary: The article describes Jalaid Banner's four-season "Stars of the People" cultural brand, which brings farmer and herder performers onto local stages with seasonal themes. Deputy publicity head Han Jing said the initiative aims to shift cultural creation and expression from government-led output to mass participation, with 1,168 sessions held in 2025 and over 5,000 ordinary people performing. The banner supports this through professional pairing with Ulan Muqir art troupe members, a talent reserve database of over 2,000 rural cultural talents, and upgraded grassroots venues. Shi Jian, chairman of Jalaid Banner Hualü Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd., noted the brand integrates performers into scenic area operations and folk custom work. Four study tour routes drew 165,000 tourist visits in 2025, and intangible cultural heritage training helped 352 pastoral-area women find nearby employment.
Summary: The article highlights the legacy of battlefield art correspondents in Chinese fine arts, who used sketches to document war and rally support during national crises, from the anti-Japanese resistance to the Korean War. It details figures like Shen Yiqian, Li Hua, and Shao Yu, whose works captured soldiers' bravery and atrocities, with later examples like Chen Yuxian sketching at border fronts in the late 1970s. Chen's lifelong training and prolific output, including Long March illustrations and ink-wash figure paintings, established a distinctive style that fused Western realism with Chinese tradition. The piece concludes that while peacetime lacks gunpowder, the mission to record the times and honor heroes through art endures, urging new generations of artists to serve the motherland.
Summary: The author, a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, reflects on his 70-year artistic journey, from an apprentice at the Guangzhou Palace Lantern Craft Factory to a meticulous heavy-color painter. He argues that the problem with contemporary Chinese painting lies not in the formal distinction between "meticulous" and "freehand," but in the depth of the creator's "heart," rejecting the notion that meticulous painting lacks poetic quality. He cites historical works like Gu Kaizhi's "Nymph of the Luo River" and Zhao Ji's "Auspicious Cranes" as examples of meticulous paintings permeated with poetic sentiment. He emphasizes that line and color must achieve symbiosis in meticulous heavy-color creation, and that tradition serves as a foundation, not a shackle, for artistic growth. He concludes by affirming his lifelong commitment to meticulous heavy-color painting and his dedication to teaching and creation.
Summary: The article discusses the cultural and aesthetic significance of the frog button, a traditional Chinese garment fastener, in the context of the rising "New Chinese Style." It traces the button's evolution from ancient rope knots through the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, highlighting its practical and decorative roles. The author emphasizes the button's embodiment of craftsmanship, ritual, and Eastern aesthetics, including meanings of unity, auspiciousness, and restraint. In contemporary times, the frog button is being repurposed into accessories and integrated into modern fashion, contributing to China's own fashion knowledge system. The piece is authored by the Deputy Dean of the School of Fashion Communication at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology.
Summary: The article discusses Shen Zhou's *Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain"*, a Ming dynasty painting now in the Shanghai Museum, and analyzes its artistic style and symbolic motifs. It describes how Shen Zhou blends academic court brushwork with literati painting traditions to depict Xie An's reclusive life, drawing on classical allusions. The piece also notes the painting's spiritual resonance with later owners and figures like Weng Tonghe, who found in it a shared theme of balancing withdrawal from and engagement with the world. It concludes that the painting's deeper meaning lies in the Chinese conviction of cultivating oneself when unable to help the world and aiding the world when in power.
Summary: The article is a photo report featuring the oil painting *Hani Rice Terraces* by Zhang Lujiang. No officials, statements, or U.S.-related content are mentioned.
Summary: The author, Dean of the School of Industrial Design at the China Academy of Art, reflects on the 2026 World Robot Conference, noting that bystanders instinctively stepped back from a home companion robot, revealing a gap between technological logic and the logic of life. To bridge this, the author proposes a "flexible interface" in robot design, addressing form, scenario, and relationship to make machines acceptable and integrable into daily life. Examples include soft-material health-care robots, urban inspection robots designed for "coexisting with the people," and the "Jacquard Bean" companion robot that builds emotional bonds. The author argues that high technology requires high aesthetics and high emotion, drawing a parallel to how new energy vehicles succeeded through flexible, emotional elements. Ultimately, design aesthetics should reduce the physical and emotional distance between people and robots, guided by Chinese values of appropriateness and restraint.
By: 本报记者 武卫政 李家鼎
In the early autumn season, "Tangyuan" (樘院) at No. 5 Dali Road, Heping District, Tianjin, welcomed many visitors. Accompanied by a photographer, Armenian student Shira posed for photos against the gray bricks and dark tiles, saying, "The Chinese-style courtyard has deepened my understanding of this city — the more I understand it, the more I love it!"
In the Five Avenues historical and cultural district, "Tangyuan" is a distinctive Chinese traditional building, yet it once sat idle for nearly 20 years. To transform "dormant resources" into "active assets," Tianjin Urban Construction Investment Group organized the repair and protection of the building itself, introducing dining, leisure, art performance, and other business formats. In the two-plus years since opening, it has attracted nearly 3 million visitors cumulatively, with operating revenue exceeding 18 million yuan.
In February 2024, during his inspection of Tianjin, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Actively implement urban renewal actions, enhance development potential, optimize development space, and continuously improve the city's business formats, functions, and quality." In December of the same year, at the Central Economic Work Conference, the General Secretary pointed out: "We must properly balance the relationship between optimizing increments and revitalizing existing stock, comprehensively improving the efficiency of resource allocation."
To thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, Tianjin has made the high-quality advancement of urban renewal a key lever in its urban modernization drive, making vigorous efforts to revitalize the city's existing stock resources, and striving to optimize increments and improve quality in the process of revitalizing stock.
Balancing revitalization and protection, preserving the city's memory.
Red-brick factory buildings stand in the sunlight, old machine tools have been transformed into landscape installations... The "Jinyi PARK" (津一PARK) park, formerly the Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool General Factory, has attracted many citizens and tourists for sightseeing and leisure. Relying on this industrial heritage site, the park has cumulatively received millions of visitors.
How did the once-silent industrial "rust belt" transform into a cultural "show belt" carrying the city's memory?
"We do not engage in indiscriminate large-scale demolition and construction (大拆大建, da chai da jian - "big, demolish, big, build"); we adhere to protection-oriented development," said the relevant person in charge of Tianjin TEDA Urban Renewal Construction and Development Co., Ltd. The project developer has established complete archives for 194 buildings, 12 distinctive structures, and 53 machine tool installations; during construction, low-damage reinforcement techniques were innovatively applied, using high-ductility concrete to repair mottled brick walls.
Possessing a wealth of existing stock resources such as industrial heritage sites and historic-style buildings, Tianjin adheres to protection first, restoring old buildings to their original appearance (修旧如旧, xiu jiu ru jiu - "repair, old, as, old"), and adaptive reuse, gradually building a layered, categorized, city-wide coordinated protection and revitalization system. To date, Tianjin has cumulatively revitalized over 16 million square meters of various types of real estate.
Promoting business format upgrades, ensuring revitalization is effective.
On every holiday, Jili Building in Heping District is bustling. Yang Lu, a 22-year-old citizen, went out with friends and spent most of the day browsing, saying, "Anime merchandise, trendy toys, second-hand boutique items... there's always something new to discover every time!"
This veteran shopping mall, carrying the memories of Tianjin citizens, once fell into an operational trough several years ago.
Using stock renewal to force business format transformation. Tianjin State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd. led the building's renovation, focusing on trendy toys and cultural creativity, first-store openings, and nighttime consumption, systematically reshaping the building's circulation routes, scene experiences, and commercial formats. Today, Jili Building's sales per square meter have grown by nearly 200%; average daily foot traffic has reached 16,000 visits, a significant increase compared to before the renovation.
Linking "scenic areas, campuses, neighborhoods, and communities," Tianmei Art District has revitalized idle buildings to create a new space for trendy art consumption; Jinwan Plaza has become a diversified urban cluster integrating performances and consumption experiences... Tianjin has focused on improving the match between existing stock space and market demand. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it cumulatively promoted the completion of business format upgrades for 274 commercial facilities covering over 2.4 million square meters. In 2025, Tianjin's revitalization of existing stock resources and assets generated revenue exceeding 66 billion yuan.
Strengthening institutional safeguards, jointly clearing bottlenecks.
In May this year, the Tianjin Artificial Intelligence Sensor Industrial Park in Jinnan District opened, with the first batch of 10 enterprises signing contracts on site. "After the project is fully operational, annual output value is expected to reach 2.2 billion yuan, creating more than 3,000 jobs," said Xu Dongwei, director of the Jinnan District Development and Reform Commission. This 146-mu industrial land had been idle for more than 10 years; the original rights holder was mired in debt with complex ownership disputes, and traditional acquisition, storage, and transfer paths were all unworkable.
Market-based means broke the deadlock. Led by a district-owned state enterprise in Jinnan District, a professional operator was introduced, equity restructuring was lawfully completed, and real estate registration procedures were simultaneously finalized. With statutory rights and responsibilities throughout the entire process and a closed-loop workflow, the land parcel was successfully revitalized.
"As one of the first national pilot cities for redevelopment of inefficient land, we are actively exploring policy and institutional safeguards for revitalizing existing stock resources," introduced Chen Yong, director of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources. The Tianjin Urban Renewal Regulations, the supporting policy for promoting the redevelopment of inefficient land and revitalizing existing stock resources (2026 edition), and other documents have been successively issued, setting rules and clarifying pathways for the revitalization of all categories of existing stock resources, including inefficient land, old factory buildings, and historic-style buildings. Since 2024, Tianjin has cumulatively resolved more than 200 bottleneck issues in revitalization work, such as certificate processing and ownership changes.
Following the direction charted by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Tianjin is unswervingly taking the path of connotative development, coordinating the revitalization and utilization of existing stock resources with urban renewal, continuously enhancing the city's development potential and staying power, and striving to deliver a new answer sheet of high-quality development in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 田豆豆
In early September, tower cranes stood tall at the construction site of the Nanhu Training Hall of Central China Normal University. Zhang Fei, who in previous years had always worked at high altitudes, now sat in an operating room facing six large screens. With a slight turn of the control lever, the tower crane simultaneously hoisted building materials, rising and moving to the designated position.
Zhang Fei was originally a migrant worker from Huanggang, Hubei. In July of last year, he participated in hands-on training for the intelligent centralized control system for tower cranes at China Construction Third Engineering Bureau. After completing the course, he passed the recruitment examination and became a "5G tower crane" operator. "With new technology, it's easier to find a job, and my wages have increased too."
In November 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection of Hubei: "Adhere to making steady progress in all directions (齐头并进, qi tou bing jin - "even, head; even, head") in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the cultivation and growth of emerging and future industries." In April 2018, the General Secretary pointed out during his inspection of Hubei: "Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, accelerate the development of emerging industries, and strengthen new momentum for economic development" and "strengthen all-round employment services."
Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions, Hubei has implemented the "Skills Revitalize Jingchu" project, transforming from "industry first, employment follows" to "integrated planning and synchronous growth of industry and employment," matching the transformation of the industrial structure, and taking multiple measures to promote high-quality and full employment.
Industry and employment grow in tandem——
In recent years, Hubei's emerging industries have developed rapidly. In the first half of this year, the added value of Hubei's high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 36.8 percent year on year.
New industries give rise to new occupations, and demand for jobs in fields such as artificial intelligence and life and health has surged. Opening this year's Hubei guidance catalog of occupations (types of work) in urgent and short supply of skilled talent for key industries, many new occupations such as industrial robot system operators, artificial intelligence trainers, and network and information security administrators are included.
Precise guidance stems from solid research. Starting in 2025, Hubei has used a combination of online and offline methods to survey and map 210,000 enterprises and 5.7 million person-times, forming a guidance catalog to guide all localities in making employment matches.
There is both proactive guidance and door-to-door service. Hubei not only conducts pre-assessments of labor demand before major projects land, but also has 1,592 service specialists entering more than a thousand key enterprises to proactively identify labor gaps, deliver policies to their doorsteps, and organize targeted recruitment, cumulatively helping to resolve the employment of 84,400 people.
This year, Hubei will collect and release 1 million job positions suitable for college graduates, hold successive special campaigns of "One Hundred Counties Enter One Hundred Universities Linking Ten Thousand Enterprises," and organize 2,000 campus recruitment and employment service activities of various types.
The talent chain is embedded in the industrial chain——
Who knows best what skilled talent new industries need? The front line does.
Inside the Central China Artificial Intelligence Data Annotation Center of Jiangnan Science and Technology Innovation Park in Dianjun District, Yichang City, about 200 data annotators were busily at work, and Xiong Mingjie was one of them.
"We use markers of different colors and shapes to annotate elements such as motor vehicles, non-motor vehicles, and human bodies in images, so that autonomous vehicles can clearly recognize them." After graduating from a junior college, Xiong Mingjie heard that data annotators were needed here, so he enrolled in the "enterprise-customized" skills training at the Yichang Dandelion Vocational Training School in the park, and immediately took up a post at an enterprise in the park after completing the training.
Carrying out project-based training oriented to enterprise needs has delivered a large number of new-occupation talents such as industrial robot system operators and artificial intelligence trainers to the front line of Yichang's emerging industries. Last year, Yichang carried out 56,000 person-times of subsidized training, of which project-based training accounted for 13,000 person-times.
Workers gain skills, skills increase income, and enterprises increase efficiency. As of the end of July, Hubei had completed 278,500 person-times of subsidized skills training this year. It has implemented an action to enhance artificial intelligence technology skills, carrying out special training for new quality productive forces of no fewer than 100,000 person-times each year, cultivating new-type skilled talent for emerging and future industries.
Policies provide solid support——
On the test flight field, trainees remotely controlled various types of drones soaring up and down; in the practical training base, trainees skillfully operated robotic arms... From April to May this year, Wuchang Vocational College held skills training classes for drone pilots and industrial robot system operators specifically for key groups such as urban registered unemployed persons.
"The new policy this year requires that if the employment and entrepreneurship rate after project-based training is below 30 percent, the subsidy standard is halved; if it reaches 70 percent, the subsidy can be doubled at most. The policy guides us to go to enterprises to learn and visit, and to cultivate industrial talent precisely for enterprises," said Fang Xudong, deputy dean of the School of Vocational and Continuing Education at Wuchang Vocational College.
To guide unemployed groups to transfer to jobs in key industries, Hubei has deepened reform, incorporating occupations (types of work) needed by key industries such as artificial intelligence, the low-altitude economy, new energy vehicles, optoelectronic information, and modern services into the subsidy catalog, reshaping subsidy policy with the employment rate as the orientation. For occupations (types of work) included in the annual urgent and short-supply list, the unemployment insurance skills upgrade subsidy is implemented at the highest standard of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Striving forward into the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hubei is thoroughly implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, continuing to make the promotion of high-quality and full employment a priority goal of economic and social development, strengthening the coordination of industry and employment, letting employment "grow" on industry, implementing the plan to promote employment through advanced manufacturing, expanding the main channel of employment absorption in the service industry, tapping the employment potential of emerging fields, and promoting the healthy development of flexible employment and new forms of employment.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 刘 阳
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the launch of the "Little Trumpet" (Xiaolaba) program of China Media Group, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter expressing his congratulations, encouraging everyone to "implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, keep pace with the pulse of the times, deeply cultivate the fertile soil of children's culture, and create with heart and soul more excellent works that spread truth, goodness, and beauty and are loved by children, making greater contributions to cultivating socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor."
General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter has greatly inspired and encouraged the "Little Trumpet" program team and the vast number of workers in children's affairs. Everyone expressed that they will make every effort to do a good job in children's moral and aesthetic education, create more excellent children's literary and artistic works, pool the consensus and strength of the whole society, and help children and young people strive upward, toward goodness, and grow into talents.
Implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education
General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter fully reflects the Party Central Committee's warm concern for hundreds of millions of children and its high regard for children's literary and artistic work.
"Little Trumpet" first aired on September 4, 1956, and is the first radio program in New China specially created for preschool children. It has now become a brand program integrating radio, television, new media, and campus broadcasting stations.
Zheng Jing (broadcast name: Sister Zheng Jing), host of the "Little Trumpet" program, said: "As a host who has told stories on 'Little Trumpet' for 30 years, I feel deeply honored. We must carry forward the fine traditions and let the classic sound of 'da di da,' which has spanned several generations, continue to accompany the healthy growth of a new generation of children."
Listening to "Little Trumpet" is a warm childhood memory for Yu Li, a teacher at Urumqi South Road Kindergarten in Xuhui District, Shanghai. "'Little Trumpet' helped me understand kindness and bravery, and this warmth is also deeply imprinted in my memory. I will strive to plant the seeds of truth, goodness, and beauty in the hearts of children."
Wang Weibo, director of the Beijing Cultural Center, said: "We must bear in mind the entrustment, implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, deeply cultivate literary and artistic creation for young people and universal aesthetic education, and contribute to cultivating socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor."
Ma Jun, principal of Hujialou Central Primary School in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said that in deeply studying and implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important congratulatory letter, we should use forms that children love and enjoy to integrate the excellent traditional Chinese culture into daily education and teaching, enlightening wisdom and nourishing the heart.
"As an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage skills, I will strive to deeply cultivate the fertile soil of children's culture." Li Mei, inheritor of the Beijing Fanlihua (turned-over flower) making technique, said, "We have designed hands-on experience courses so that children can feel the charm of the excellent traditional Chinese culture through practical activities, promoting the passing down of old crafts from generation to generation."
Create excellent works with heart and soul
Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment, everyone expressed that they should create more children's literary and artistic works with substance and childlike charm, and use the best spiritual nourishment to nurture the healthy growth of children.
"General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter has made me more determined to create good stories for children." Li Ling, former deputy editor-in-chief of Beijing Children's Publishing House, said, "I started listening to 'Little Trumpet' when I was 4 years old. After retirement, I continue to listen to 'Little Trumpet' with my grandson. In the future, I will continue writing continuously and tirelessly (笔耕不辍, bi geng bu e - "pen, plow, not, stop") and create more good works."
Tang Hongbo, head of the General Education Section of the Education and Sports Bureau of Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province, said: "We will deepen the 'Art Nurtures Beauty' initiative, rely on digital empowerment to create brand activities such as campus art festivals integrating online and offline, opera entering campuses, and intangible cultural heritage inheritance workshops, so that aesthetic education permeates campuses and cultural confidence takes root and grows in children's hearts."
Ge Dali, president of the China National Theatre for Children, said that the theater deeply cultivates children's literary and artistic creation and continuously polishes excellent dramatic works with thoughtful content, childlike expression, and genuine appeal to children. "We must adhere to making art benefit the people and educating through beauty, promote high-quality children's theater to step out of the theater and go to the grassroots, and deliver more high-quality works to the vast number of children and young people."
Yang Chengcheng, council member of the Children's Work Committee of the China Film Association and film director, said: "We need excellent children's cultural carriers like 'Little Trumpet,' and we also need more excellent children's books and children's films to continuously enrich the spiritual world of children and young people."
Duan Jiaqiang, general manager of CITIC Press Group, said: "We will deeply cultivate the three major fields of excellent traditional Chinese culture, children's science popularization, and children's literature, integrate the themes of the times into the creation of children's books, and let good books spread truth, goodness, and beauty and nourish the spiritual world of children and young people."
Hai Fei, former president of China Children's Press and Publication House and children's literature writer, said: "We must follow the direction pointed out by General Secretary Xi Jinping, publish more excellent reading materials, and strive to open up a new situation in the development of the children's book publishing industry."
Help children and young people grow into talents
Earnest expectations are inspiring and motivating people to move forward (催人奋进, cui ren fen jin - "urge, person, strive, advance"). Everyone expressed that the growth and development of children and young people is a systematic project that requires all parties to work in the same direction and form a joint force.
"Literature and art can enlighten the soul. General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter points out the direction for children's literary and artistic undertakings and children's literary and artistic education." Mai Feng, principal of Huangchenggen Primary School in Xicheng District, Beijing, said, "We will deeply cultivate the fertile soil of campus arts and sports, and let truth, goodness, and beauty fill the spiritual world of children."
"We will solidly advance the six major projects of the Young Pioneers on the new journey—'Sowing, Strengthening Seedlings, Safeguarding, Strengthening Teachers, Building Foundations, and Gathering Strength'—extensively carry out healthy and uplifting cultural and artistic practice activities, better educate people through culture, enlighten wisdom and nourish the heart, and lead the vast number of Young Pioneers to run the historical relay race well on the new journey. This is our glorious mission and task." Li Hui, director of the Youth Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and executive deputy director of the National Young Pioneers Working Committee, said.
Yi Xuelei, director of the Management Center of the Former Residence of Soong Ching Ling, said: "We must bear in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment, continue to give play to our distinctive advantages, and strive to cultivate more young envoys in the field of international communication."
"We will design more educational activities that fit the cognitive characteristics of young people, promote the strengthening of care and protection for minors, and let every child grow up healthily and develop comprehensively in an environment full of care." He Ling, professor in the Department of Youth Work at the Central School of the Communist Youth League, said.
(Reporters Zhang He, Wu Dan, Wang Jue, Geng Lei, Zheng Hai'ou, Ding Yasong, He Siqi, Yang Hao, and Li Zhuo'er of this newspaper participated in the writing and reporting)
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Vladivostok, September 5) (Reporters Wang Zuokui, Wang Huihui) From September 2 to 4 local time, Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, co-chaired the 13th Meeting of the China-Russia Investment Cooperation Committee with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, co-chaired the 23rd Meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, and attended the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum.
When meeting with Putin, Ding Xuexiang conveyed the cordial greetings of President Xi Jinping. Ding Xuexiang stated that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era has continued to deepen and solidify. The reason the China-Russia relationship can remain unshakable amid an international situation characterized by both change and instability (变乱交织, bian luan jiao zhi - "change, chaos, interweave") lies in the helm-steering and navigation of the two heads of state. China is willing to work with Russia to implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, deepen the integration of mutual interests with solid measures, and continuously consolidate the foundation for the China-Russia relationship to develop toward higher quality. China and Russia have broad prospects and great potential for strengthening cooperation in Far East development. The two sides should continue to make good use of the "Northeast-Far East" cooperation mechanism and relevant policy support, strengthen the strategic alignment between China's Northeast revitalization and Russia's Far East development, further elevate the scale and level of cooperation, and let the results of mutually beneficial and win-win (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual benefit, win-win") cooperation benefit the peoples of both countries more and better.
Putin asked Ding Xuexiang to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping and welcomed Ding Xuexiang to Russia to attend the 11th Eastern Economic Forum. Putin stated that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. Thanks to the joint efforts of the two countries, Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedented (前所未有, qian suo wei you - "before, what, not, have") level, and cooperation in various fields has made positive progress. Russia is willing to strengthen strategic coordination with China and push the bilateral relationship to a higher level.
When chairing the bilateral mechanism meetings on China-Russia investment and energy, Ding Xuexiang stated that the two sides should, in accordance with the new blueprint drawn up by the two heads of state, continuously deepen and expand practical cooperation in the investment and energy fields and better achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Cooperation in the investment field should strengthen planning and policy guidance, promote the implementation of key projects with visible results, and expand the breadth and depth of cooperation. Cooperation in the energy field should continue to consolidate existing cooperation achievements, actively lay out new fields and new directions, and jointly promote the transformation of the global energy governance system.
The Russian side spoke highly of the level of development of Russia-China relations and the achievements of practical cooperation. It expressed willingness to work with China to jointly implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, fully leverage the guiding and coordinating role of the investment and energy cooperation committees, strengthen strategic alignment and project construction, and benefit the two countries and their peoples through high-quality cooperation.
The two sides summarized and reviewed the achievements of bilateral investment and energy cooperation and exchanged views on deepening cooperation in the next step. After the meetings, Ding Xuexiang signed meeting minutes with Manturov and Novak respectively.
At the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum, Ding Xuexiang read out President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech. Ding Xuexiang stated that China-Russia energy cooperation has traversed an extraordinary journey. Leadership by heads of state is the greatest advantage in the development of the China-Russia comprehensive energy partnership, mutual benefit and win-win is the fundamental driving force, and jointly responding to challenges is a distinctive feature. The two sides should deeply summarize, uphold, and carry forward these valuable experiences, and work hand in hand to promote China-Russia energy cooperation toward maintaining steady progress to achieve long-term success (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady, reach, far").
Igor Sechin, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety and President of Rosneft, read out President Putin's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech. Novak also delivered a speech.
Return to TopOn September 5, the steel trestle and drilling platform for the No. 32 main pier of the North Channel Bridge of the Oujiang River Road-Rail Bridge on the newly built Wenzhou-Fuzhou High-Speed Railway were fully completed, laying a solid foundation (奠定坚实基础, dian ding jian shi ji chu - "lay, establish; solid, firm; foundation, base") for the construction of the bridge's main waterborne structures.
Photo by Gu Jian'ao (Image China)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 吴 丹
In recent times, school uniform procurement work in primary and secondary schools across various regions has been launched one after another. The quality of school uniforms is related to student health, and parents are highly concerned. How is school uniform quality guaranteed? How can parents participate in supervision? A reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Basic Education Department of the Ministry of Education.
Clarifying the Rules
Reader concern: Is it mandatory to buy school uniforms? Will styles be changed frequently, increasing the financial burden on parents?
First, the purchasing principle: voluntary purchase, decided independently by students and parents.
This year, the Ministry of Education, together with relevant departments, has continued to advance the "three rectifications" of campus meals, teaching auxiliary materials, and school uniforms in primary and secondary schools. In March, the new version of the negative list for standardized management of basic education was released, strictly prohibiting forced purchase of school uniforms and the use of school uniform purchases to seek profit or infringe upon the interests of the masses.
The relevant person in charge introduced that schools should conduct in-depth deliberation and fully communicate with the parent committee to determine whether to adopt school uniforms. It is strictly prohibited to select and purchase school uniforms without collective decision-making, and it is not allowed to set wearing thresholds on grounds such as campus activities or personal appearance.
Next, the frequency of purchase: generally speaking, school uniform procurement covers a period of 3 years per phase, namely grades one to three in primary school, grades four to six in primary school, the junior high school stage, and the senior high school stage, with procurement conducted in the starting grade of each phase. Graduating grades do not organize school uniform procurement.
"Once a style is adopted, it should remain relatively stable to reduce repeated expenditures by parents," the relevant person in charge stated. For students from families with financial difficulties, children of martyrs, orphans, disabled children, and others, measures should be taken to provide school uniforms free of charge.
Strictly Guarding the Gate
Reader concern: How can we choose good school uniforms and ensure they are safe and qualified?
When selecting school uniforms, safety is the key standard. Please keep these 3 procurement tips in mind—
Tip one: Recognize the standards. The mandatory national standards "Basic Safety Technical Specifications for National Textile Products" and "Safety Technical Specifications for Infant and Children's Textile Products" strictly control formaldehyde, decomposable carcinogenic dyes, pH value, and other factors; the recommended national standard "School Uniforms for Primary and Secondary School Students" refines indicators such as the cotton fiber content of next-to-skin fabrics and shrinkage rate. When procuring school uniforms, the above standards should be specified in the contract, strictly adhering to the quality bottom line.
Tip two: Check the labels. Starting July 1, the newly revised "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of the Quality of Fiber Products" was officially implemented, clearly stipulating that student uniforms "shall be labeled with fiber composition and content, and safety category."
"School uniforms must have complete finished garment qualification labels and a quality inspection qualification report for this batch of finished garments issued by a statutory inspection institution," the relevant person in charge reminded. When receiving school uniforms, the procurement unit should check the quality inspection report and quality labels. When students and parents purchase on their own, they can proactively check the product quality labels.
Tip three: Rely on mechanisms. Implement the "dual inspection" mechanism. On the basis of the inspection conducted by the supplying enterprise, procurement units are encouraged to conduct a second inspection in light of actual circumstances.
Strengthening Supervision
Reader concern: If substandard school uniforms or forced purchases are discovered, how should they be reported?
According to requirements, the school uniform selection organization established by the school should be mainly composed of student and parent representatives, and parents who are willing can participate as representatives in all aspects of school uniform selection.
Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, relies on the "Quan Education" smart cloud platform to build a school uniform procurement filing and inquiry system, making the entire procurement chain perfectly clear and easy to understand (一目了然, yi mu liang ran - "one, eye, clear, understand") and traceable; Lixin County, Bozhou City, Anhui Province, has built school uniform supermarkets where parent, student, and teacher representatives can select fabric materials on site...
The relevant person in charge reminded that if school uniforms with incomplete label markings or substandard quality are received, one can contact the school or enterprise for return or exchange; if substandard school uniforms are discovered or forced purchases are encountered, problems can be truthfully reported through channels such as the local school uniform procurement reporting hotline or letters and visits.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Changsha, September 5) (Reporters Ouyang Jie, Yang Xun) The reporter learned from the Eighth China Grain Trade Conference held in Changsha City, Hunan Province on September 5 that the total annual industrial output value of China's grain enterprises has exceeded 4 trillion yuan.
At present, there are 24,000 grain enterprises nationwide, with an annual industrial output value exceeding 4 trillion yuan, and more than one-third of provinces have an output value exceeding 100 billion yuan. The grain processing chain continues to extend, with wheat capable of being deeply processed into more than 600 types of products, soybeans derivable into more than 210 types of products, and corn convertible into more than 100 types of high-value-added products. The grain brand system is being accelerated in its cultivation, with a total of 33 provincial-level regional public brands and 117 city- and county-level grain regional public brands formed, driving the development of 1,313 high-quality enterprise brands and 4,211 high-quality grain and oil product brands.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 5) (Reporters Wang Zheng, Liu Wenxin) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: In the first seven months of this year, China's software and information technology service industry has been operating well. Among them, software business revenue reached 8.9785 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%; software business exports reached 40.61 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 12.2%.
By sector, in the first seven months, revenue from software products increased by 6.3% year-on-year, of which revenue from basic software products increased by 9.4% year-on-year, and revenue from industrial software products increased by 8.4% year-on-year; revenue from information technology services increased by 10% year-on-year, of which combined revenue from cloud computing and big data services increased by 12.3% year-on-year, and revenue from integrated circuit design increased by 21.5% year-on-year; revenue from information security products and services increased by 6.2% year-on-year.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Shenzhen, September 5) (Reporters Chen Shangwen, Cheng Yuanzhou) The Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum opened on September 5 in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Li Shulei, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, attended and delivered remarks.
Participating guests believed that President Xi Jinping's major proposition of building an Asia-Pacific community has provided important guidance for jointly building an open Asia-Pacific economy and promoting common prosperity in the Asia-Pacific. This year marks the "China Year" of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and China will host the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting. It is believed that with the support of all parties, the meeting will achieve fruitful results (丰硕成果, feng shuo cheng gu - "abundant, fruitful, results") and push Asia-Pacific cooperation to a new level.
Participating guests stated that development and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific cannot be separated from the active participation of Asia-Pacific media. It is necessary to tell the story of Asia-Pacific openness and connectivity well, report comprehensively on the progress and results of cooperation in various fields across the Asia-Pacific, and foster a sound public opinion environment for Asia-Pacific openness and development. It is necessary to actively publicize the series of APEC outcomes, explain and interpret the policy measures of all parties supporting scientific and technological innovation, and build regional consensus on Asia-Pacific innovative development. It is necessary to carry out in-depth practical cooperation in joint interviews, technological innovation, and talent cultivation, and to use media exchanges to pass on civilization, spread culture, and convey friendship, promoting mutual understanding and affinity among the peoples of the Asia-Pacific.
The forum, themed "Building a Shared Path to Prosperity for the Asia-Pacific Community: Consensus and Action of the Media," was hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, Xinhua News Agency, and the People's Government of Guangdong Province, and organized by the People's Government of Shenzhen Municipality. More than 400 representatives from over 40 countries and regions, as well as United Nations agencies and international organizations, attended. During the forum, 16 media outlets from China and abroad initiated the establishment of the preparatory committee for the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Program.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Hangzhou, September 5) On the 5th, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened an experience exchange meeting in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, on improving the style of writing in the theory sections of Party newspapers and Party journals.
The meeting pointed out that the theory sections of Party newspapers and Party journals are important positions for publicizing the Party's innovative theories and important windows for reflecting and observing the style of writing. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of writing style and has on many occasions issued important instructions and put forward clear requirements for improving the style of writing. It is necessary to deeply study and comprehend General Secretary Xi Jinping's relevant important expositions, adhere to a problem-oriented and results-oriented approach, make persistent and unremitting effort (持之以恒, chi zhi yi heng - "hold, continue, with, constant") to improve the style of writing and transform the style of work, continuously raise the quality and level of theoretical publicity, and continue to promote the Party's innovative theories "flying into the homes of ordinary people."
The meeting emphasized that it is necessary to adhere to connecting theory with practice (理论联系实际, li lun lian xi shi ji - "theory, connect, practical, reality"), be adept at discovering real problems and studying real problems from vivid practice, promptly respond to the concerns of cadres and the masses, and strive to enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of theoretical publicity. It is necessary to focus on content innovation, making efforts in such aspects as academic foundations, practical orientation, international perspective, and historical dimension, deepen the systematic and scholarly research and interpretation of the Party's innovative theories, and produce more theoretical works with ideological and academic quality, persuasiveness, and appeal. It is necessary to highlight practical results and actual effectiveness, strengthen innovation in communication concepts, methods, and means, promote theories going online, enhance the effectiveness of external communication, and continuously increase communication influence. It is necessary to strengthen the building of the editorial and author teams, improve the mechanism of running newspapers and journals with open doors, stimulate the innovation and creativity of talent, cultivate writing experts who are learned and skilled in writing, and better support the high-quality development of the theory sections of Party newspapers and Party journals.
The meeting was hosted by the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and organized by the Publicity Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and the Zhejiang Daily Press Group. Responsible comrades from relevant central units, the publicity departments of Party committees in various regions, and key Party newspapers and Party journals attended the meeting.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王云杉 秦瑞杰
Air conditioners in homes blow cool breezes, electric vehicles speed along the roads, and computing power centers operate at high speed... Behind much of this production and daily life, green electricity converted from sunlight is quietly contributing.
The latest data from the National Energy Administration shows: as of the end of July this year, China's installed photovoltaic power generation capacity reached 1.286 billion kilowatts, of which centralized photovoltaic capacity was 704 million kilowatts and distributed photovoltaic capacity was 582 million kilowatts. Photovoltaic installed capacity for the first time surpassed coal power (coal power installed capacity was 1.285 billion kilowatts), becoming the largest power source category in China's installed capacity.
"This is another important phased progress and landmark achievement in China's green and low-carbon energy transition, following the historic drop of coal power's share of power generation to below 50% in the first half of the year," said Hao Yingjie, Secretary-General of the China Electricity Council.
New energy accelerating its shift from supplementary energy to the mainstay of installed capacity
How should we view the significance of this milestone of photovoltaic installed capacity surpassing coal power? Hao Yingjie analyzed it from three aspects.
This marks that, under China's energy resource endowment conditions, the pattern in which coal power has served as the largest power source since the birth of the electric power industry a century ago has been broken, new energy is accelerating its shift from supplementary energy to the mainstay of installed capacity, and a new-type power system with new energy as the main body is being constructed at an accelerated pace.
This confirms the competitive advantage of China's entire photovoltaic industry chain. Component manufacturing technology is developing in many different areas simultaneously (多点开花, duo dian kai hua - "many, points, bloom"), crystalline silicon cell conversion efficiency leads globally, and research and development of next-generation technologies such as perovskite cells is advancing at an accelerated pace... China has formed the world's most complete and most competitive photovoltaic industry chain, with photovoltaic module output accounting for approximately 80% of the global total. At the same time, large-scale domestic installation and application has further unleashed economies of scale, driving photovoltaic technology iteration and upgrading, and consolidating China's global leading position in photovoltaic manufacturing, technical standards, and engineering construction.
This demonstrates China's firm determination to advance the global low-carbon energy transition. Looking at the world, 1.286 billion kilowatts of photovoltaic installed capacity ranks first among individual countries globally, making China the country with the largest scale of photovoltaic application in the world. Achieving the major accomplishment of photovoltaic power surpassing coal power will better provide referenceable Chinese solutions and Chinese experience for developing countries in advancing their energy transitions.
In recent years, China's power installed capacity landscape has achieved multiple "leapfrogs"—
At the end of June 2023, renewable energy installed capacity for the first time surpassed coal power;
At the end of the first quarter of 2025, the combined installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power surpassed thermal power;
At the end of July 2026, photovoltaic power generation installed capacity historically surpassed coal power, becoming the largest power source.
"One achievement after another has consolidated the electric power foundation for realizing the 'dual carbon' goals," Hao Yingjie said. The electric power industry is a key area of carbon emissions. The continued growth of photovoltaic installed capacity will continuously reduce the industry's carbon emission intensity, expand green electricity supply capacity, and provide clean power support for the electrification upgrading of industries such as industry and transportation.
Empowering all various industries and trades, promoting green transformation
In Gangba Village, Wangzishu Township, Longchuan County, Yunnan, on the rooftop of Gangba Primary School, dark blue photovoltaic panels are spread out in a staggered arrangement.
"Previously, the village's income mainly came from raising sheep, which was unstable. Now, the rooftops can earn money just by basking in the sun," said Dao Dingzhou, Party organization secretary of Gangba Village. Gangba Village had a weak industrial foundation, and the implementation of the distributed photovoltaic project changed the situation of having no stable industry and no fixed income, bringing more than 24,000 yuan in stable annual income growth to the collective economy.
Kang Dingsheng, the new energy and energy storage service specialist in the Power Grid Planning Department of China Southern Power Grid Yunnan Dehong Power Supply Bureau, introduced that the Gangba Village project has a total installed capacity of 50 kilowatts, was connected to the grid and put into operation at the end of 2025, and is expected to generate approximately 74,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, turning sunlight into "green wealth" in the hands of villagers.
At present, photovoltaic power is continuously integrating into diverse scenarios such as villages, factories, and deserts, gradually moving beyond the single function of "power generation" and evolving into a comprehensive value carrier that empowers all various industries and trades and promotes green transformation.
On the distributed side, with the advancement of the "Thousands of Households Bathed in Sunlight Action," more than 8.3 million households nationwide have become distributed photovoltaic owners. Rooftop photovoltaics and assistance power stations are becoming "sunshine banks" that strengthen villages and enrich the people.
On the centralized side, in the "desert, Gobi, and barren land" areas of the northwest, photovoltaic arrays effectively reduce surface wind speed and decrease water evaporation, creating favorable conditions for vegetation growth beneath the panels, allowing energy production and ecological restoration to complement each other to enhance one another's excellence. From the beginning of 2025 to the end of April this year, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, and other provinces added 8,758 kilowatts of new photovoltaic installed capacity and treated 2.3 million mu of desertified land.
On the integration and convergence side, with the help of new scenarios such as integrated photovoltaic-storage-charging-swapping, zero-carbon parks, zero-carbon factories, and building-integrated photovoltaics, photovoltaic power generation is deeply integrating and developing with transportation, industry, construction, and other fields, providing strong support for building a green, low-carbon, and more resilient new-type energy supply and consumption system.
The "15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development" clarifies that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the "Three Norths" wind and photovoltaic power base will add more than 370 million kilowatts of new installed capacity, and distributed new energy nationwide will add more than 300 million kilowatts of new installed capacity, promoting diversified development in multiple scenarios and intensive composite utilization of space for distributed new energy.
According to forecasts, investment in the photovoltaic industry over the next five years is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan, with broad space for growth.
Promoting the transformation of photovoltaics toward "dispatchable and predictable"
In Zhongwei City, Ningxia, on the southeastern edge of the Tengger Desert, photovoltaic panels stretch into the distance. In the evening, as the sunlight slants slightly, the power generation curve steadily declines. A few kilometers away, four 660-megawatt coal-fired units at the Guoneng Ningxia Tengger Zhongwei Power Plant stand side by side, ready to "fill in" at any time.
In January this year, Unit No. 4 was the first to pass the 168-hour full-load trial operation, marking the official transition to commercial operation of the first batch, first plant, and first unit of peak-shaving power sources supporting the "desert, Gobi, and barren land" new energy large base in the country.
Photovoltaic power "depends on the weather," with output fluctuating daily; coal power, on the other hand, undertakes the peak-shaving task, smoothing out new energy fluctuations and safeguarding stable power transmission through ultra-high-voltage corridors.
Xiao Zhongtu, Deputy General Manager of China Energy Ningxia Zhongwei Thermal Power Co., Ltd., introduced: "When photovoltaics generate at full capacity at noon, coal power compresses its load to the minimum, giving way to green electricity; in the morning and evening when photovoltaics are not generating, coal power quickly steps up to fill the gap in external transmission." As of May this year, the 3 million kilowatts of Zhongwei photovoltaic projects already connected to the grid under the Ningxia Tengger "desert, Gobi, and barren land" new energy large base had transmitted 3.99 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Hunan.
Photovoltaic power has "climbed to the top" to become the largest power source, but the "advance" of photovoltaics does not mean the "retreat" of coal power. Liu Zhiqiang, Deputy Director of the Planning and Development Department of the China Electricity Council, stated that from a practical perspective, installed capacity does not equal actual power generation capacity or electricity output. Photovoltaic power generation is constrained by the alternation of day and night and meteorological conditions, exhibiting significant intermittency and volatility, with utilization hours far lower than coal power. In the short term, coal power will remain China's main supporting power source, playing the role of safeguarding system security.
How can the advantage in installed capacity be transformed into stable and reliable power supply capacity? The key lies in accelerating the construction of a new-type power system, including accelerating the large-scale construction of pumped-storage hydropower and new-type energy storage, and striving to enhance the system's flexible regulation capacity.
Liu Zhiqiang believes that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of a new-type grid platform with coordinated development of main, distribution, and micro grids, and strengthen the large grid's capacity to accept, allocate, and regulate new energy; enhance the reliable substitution capacity of new energy, and through technological innovation and system optimization, gradually improve the confidence output and peak power generation capacity of photovoltaic power, explore diversified development models such as photovoltaic-storage integration, photovoltaic-thermal complementarity, and photovoltaic hydrogen production, and promote the transformation of photovoltaics from "depending on the weather" to "dispatchable and predictable."
(Xue Ziyi participated in the reporting)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 孙秀艳
Payment management for long-term care insurance is a key link in ensuring that insured persons enjoy quality services and maintaining the safe and stable operation of the fund, and it plays an important guiding role in the healthy development of the long-term care service market. As the long-term care insurance system gradually develops, various localities have initially formed long-term care insurance payment management mechanisms suited to local conditions in their earlier explorations, but differences still exist in terms of payment scope, payment methods, and payment standard management, which to a certain extent affect the fair enjoyment of benefits by the public and also make it difficult to effectively guide the standardized development of the long-term care service market.
The National Healthcare Security Administration recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Doing a Good Job in Payment Management for Long-Term Care Insurance, which sorts out and clarifies the relevant policies and key elements of long-term care insurance payment management, and requires pilot areas to use a period of about 3 years to gradually transition, ensuring the stable continuation of benefits for insured persons.
Relevant nursing service expenses that meet the catalog may be reimbursed in accordance with regulations
The Guiding Opinions first clarify the payment scope. The long-term care insurance fund may reimburse the expenses of disability level assessment institutions for conducting disability assessments, the long-term care service fees provided by designated long-term care service institutions, and the relevant expenses for management handled by third-party institutions.
The expenses for disability assessment will be shared by the fund and individuals according to actual circumstances, to prevent insured persons from applying at will or undergoing excessive assessments. Generally speaking, the expenses for an insured person's first successful disability assessment, as well as the expenses for regular follow-up assessments conducted in accordance with regulations, are paid by the long-term care insurance fund.
The payment scope for long-term care service expenses is determined in accordance with the National Catalog of Long-Term Care Insurance Service Items, and relevant nursing service expenses that meet the catalog may be reimbursed in accordance with regulations. Nursing service expenses that exceed the payment scope shall be paid by insured persons individually or through other channels. The payment scopes and circumstances of basic medical insurance and long-term care insurance are clearly distinguished, and in principle the two systems shall not make duplicate payments.
Reasonably determine the billing unit for service duration by distinguishing different service types
The Guiding Opinions clarify that assessment services are mainly paid per person-time, and nursing services are mainly paid per duration. The billing unit for service duration is reasonably determined by distinguishing different service types; in principle, home-based nursing services are paid by the hour, institutional nursing services are paid by bed-day, and community nursing services determine the payment unit according to the specific circumstances under which services are provided.
As demographic conditions change and the system develops, the national level will also uniformly explore adopting payment methods such as payment by fixed amount or by item for intelligent services and supportive assistive devices included in the long-term care insurance payment scope.
The Guiding Opinions clarify that payment standards for long-term care insurance shall be reasonably determined and dynamically adjusted based on the fund's support capacity, the basic security needs of insured persons, and the supply of long-term care services.
Nursing service payment standards are set in tiers based on the level of local economic development, the average social wage, the cost level of relevant industries, and the professional skills of nursing service personnel such as long-term care nurses. Service duration limits are comprehensively determined based on the annual expenditure budget of the long-term care insurance fund for nursing services, the number of persons enjoying benefits, nursing service payment standards, and payment ratios, and are adjusted in light of the type of insurance coverage. In principle, the service duration of a single item shall not exceed the upper limit of service duration recommended in the service item catalog. The insured person's annual maximum payment limit from the fund shall not exceed 50% of the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents in the previous year in the coordinating region.
All localities shall make overall plans for home-based, institutional, community, and other forms of nursing services, do a good job of comparing and linking the bed-day payment standard with the hourly payment standard, and encourage the use of home-based and community nursing services. Provincial medical security departments shall coordinate the relative uniformity of benefit levels such as nursing service payment standards and payment durations among the coordinating regions within the province, avoiding excessively large differences, and encourage provinces with the conditions to unify the payment standards for assessment services within the province.
Establish a fund operation monitoring and risk prevention mechanism
The Guiding Opinions require the scientific preparation of the annual budget for the long-term care insurance fund, strengthening budget performance management, doing a good job of fund accounting, and establishing a fund operation monitoring and risk prevention mechanism.
Performance assessment of designated assessment institutions, designated long-term care service institutions, and social force handling institutions shall be strengthened. Intelligent review in handling shall be strengthened to effectively improve the efficiency of review and disbursement. Where assessment services are not implemented in accordance with regulations, and the assessment pass rate is extremely high or extremely low levels (畸高畸低, ji gao ji di - "abnormally high, abnormally low"); where nursing services are not implemented in accordance with the nursing service plan or fail to meet the requirements of the service item catalog; and where social force handling institutions fail to manage in accordance with regulations, the fund will deduct a certain proportion until refusing payment. Payment from the long-term care insurance fund shall not be managed or disbursed on behalf of others by third-party social forces.
The Guiding Opinions clarify that supervision shall be strengthened with focus on disability level assessment behaviors, nursing service behaviors, and the participation of social forces in handling and management services for long-term care insurance, and the use of the long-term care insurance fund shall be gradually incorporated into the scope of routine supervision such as unannounced inspections, daily supervision, social supervision, and intelligent supervision, with exploration of extending supervision to individuals. Research and exploration shall be conducted on a credit management system suited to the characteristics of long-term care insurance. At the same time, dynamic monitoring of the service fee prices charged by designated long-term care service institutions and the assessment fee prices charged by assessment institutions shall be strengthened to protect the legitimate rights and interests of insured persons.
In addition, a service quality evaluation mechanism for designated long-term care service institutions and a cost control incentive and constraint mechanism shall be established and improved, linking evaluation results with fee payment and agreement renewal, so as to guide relevant institutions to standardize their service behaviors.
Return to TopRecently, at the waxy corn seed production base in Jing'an Township, Ganzhou District, Zhangye City, Gansu Province, farmers are collectively harvesting and transporting waxy corn seed ears.
Photo by Yang Yongwei (Image China)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 辛 阳
Fuxin Mongolian Autonomous County, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, is located in a semi-arid region. For a period of time, it has experienced high-temperature weather, with heat waves rolling over the fields, and crop growth facing a severe test.
Walking through the fields, a reporter saw drip irrigation pipelines continuously delivering "nutritious meals" to crops such as corn and soybeans.
Ma Liang, chairman of the Tongda Agricultural Machinery Cooperative in Fuxin County, squatted at the edge of the field and touched the drip irrigation pipeline that had just been buried. "Having farmed for over a decade, what I fear most is sustained high temperatures. The fields dry out badly, and during the critical growth period crops lack water and fertilizer, leaving people running around in circles in anxiety (团团转, tuan tuan zhuan - "circle, circle, turn")."
In earlier years, farmers used flood irrigation, and much of the water ran off along the furrows; evaporation was even faster during high temperatures. Chemical fertilizer was spread on the soil surface, and before crops could absorb it, it was rendered ineffective by the sun, and a single rain washed mostly or nearly all (七七八八, qi qi ba ba - "seven, seven, eight, eight") of it away. After a year of hard work, the harvest was still not guaranteed. "I heard that integrated water and fertilizer management can save water and increase yields, but I had doubts in my mind. I was afraid the equipment would be expensive and the technology difficult, so I didn't dare to roll it out on a large scale and only dared to use a small plot for a trial," Ma Liang said.
This was also a concern shared by many local veteran farmers. Liu Baicheng, a farmer in Wangfu Town, Fuxin County, who has farmed for 40 years, used to rely on carrying water by hand and spreading fertilizer manually to tend his crops during high-temperature and drought periods in earlier years. "There were piles of machines and pipes that I couldn't understand or repair. What I feared even more was that the investment would show no results—I couldn't afford the loss."
In Halaha Village, Wangfu Town, Liang Qingfu, deputy director of the Fuxin Municipal Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, led professional technical personnel to inspect crop growth plot by plot, using data to dispel farmers' doubts. "This year there was a period of sustained high temperatures. Relying on integrated water and fertilizer management, precisely formulated water-soluble fertilizer reaches the crop roots directly through the drip emitters—nothing is wasted, and high-temperature evaporation losses are also reduced," Liang Qingfu said.
Liang Qingfu pushed aside the soil layer, revealing the drip emitters buried at the roots: "For the entire growth period of corn, we schedule 6 water applications and 6 fertilizer applications, which is equivalent to feeding nutritious meals according to the growth rhythm. Even in sustained high temperatures, crops can drink enough water and get enough fertilizer. Compared with flood irrigation, each mu saves 15% to 30% of water, fertilizer use is halved, and the corn yield in demonstration fields has steadily reached 2,300 jin per mu, an increase of 30% over traditional plots."
In the soybean planting area of the per-unit yield increase project zone, the per-unit yield increase project is playing a key role in resisting high temperatures and drought. In 2025, Fuxin County newly built 50,000 mu of soybean per-unit yield increase fields and consolidated and upgraded 100,000 mu of demonstration plots, integrating seed coating, wide-row dense planting, and shallow-buried drip irrigation technologies. One water and fertilizer control system can cover 150 to 200 mu of farmland, saving 50 to 100 cubic meters of water per mu and reducing chemical fertilizer application by 2 to 3 kilograms per mu, with an average soybean yield increase of 75 kilograms per mu in the project zone. In the past, soybeans lodged and lacked water and fertilizer during high temperatures; now, a complete set of agronomic solutions resolves these problems one by one, and the contiguous soybean fields, nourished by drip irrigation, are growing vigorously.
At the intelligent control center of the high-standard farmland demonstration zone in Wangfu Town, the electronic screen displays field conditions in real time: drones transmit images of crop growth, and soil moisture, water and fertilizer consumption, and pest and disease monitoring points are immediately obvious at a glance (一目了然, yi mu le ran - "one, eye, then, clearly"). Without needing to go to the fields, one can grasp crop growth conditions in real time. Town Mayor Liu Zili, pointing at the pipeline distribution map, explained that the demonstration zone has built a complete irrigation and drainage network relying on a water plant, reservoirs, and a hundred tube wells, and has completed 17 high-efficiency water-saving irrigation systems, laying 2.6 kilometers of main water supply pipes and 7 kilometers of lined drainage channels, achieving the "integration of six networks" of planting, water, roads, electricity, forestry, and information. The entire system is remotely controlled online, the irrigation water utilization rate has increased by 10%, and the demonstration zone can save nearly 100,000 tons of water annually. Even in the face of sustained high temperatures and drought, its capacity for drought resistance and disaster prevention has been greatly enhanced.
"With a tap on the screen, water and fertilizer are automatically delivered to the field, and crops 'drink and eat' as needed. Agricultural technicians teach the operation hands-on, dedicated personnel follow up on routine equipment maintenance, and the new technology is easy to master." Standing beside the drip irrigation pipeline and looking at the robust corn plants, Liu Baicheng was full of emotion: "The method is simple, and the harvest is secure."
In response to the subsequent maintenance and management of field facilities, relevant departments plan to establish a special maintenance fund, clarify the property rights of field equipment, and establish a long-term operation and maintenance mechanism to ensure the stable long-term operation of the drip irrigation system, so that water-saving irrigation technology can continue to play its role in drought resistance and yield increase.
As an important commercial grain base in China, Fuxin City has sown more than 5.6 million mu of grain this year, and is intensively advancing the construction of 699,300 mu of high-standard farmland, with a total investment of 1.735 billion yuan, covering 101 villages in 32 townships. After the project is completed, it will add 216,800 mu of newly qualified irrigated area, of which 105,200 mu will be high-efficiency water-saving irrigation, saving 3.9132 million cubic meters of water annually, adding 72.9 million kilograms of grain production capacity, and benefiting 54,300 farming households.
Return to Top(Xinhua News Agency, Vladivostok, September 5) (Reporters Wang Zuokui, Wang Huihui) From September 2 to 4 local time, Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, co-chaired the 13th Meeting of the China-Russia Investment Cooperation Committee with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, co-chaired the 23rd Meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, and attended the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum.
When meeting with Putin, Ding Xuexiang conveyed the cordial greetings of President Xi Jinping. Ding Xuexiang stated that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era has continued to deepen and solidify. The reason the China-Russia relationship can remain unshakable amid an international situation characterized by both change and instability (变乱交织, bian luan jiao zhi - "change, chaos, interweave") lies in the helm-steering and navigation of the two heads of state. China is willing to work with Russia to implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, deepen the integration of mutual interests with solid measures, and continuously consolidate the foundation for the China-Russia relationship to develop toward higher quality. China and Russia have broad prospects and great potential for strengthening cooperation in Far East development. The two sides should continue to make good use of the "Northeast-Far East" cooperation mechanism and relevant policy support, strengthen the strategic alignment between China's Northeast revitalization and Russia's Far East development, further elevate the scale and level of cooperation, and let the results of mutually beneficial and win-win (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual benefit, win-win") cooperation benefit the peoples of both countries more and better.
Putin asked Ding Xuexiang to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping and welcomed Ding Xuexiang to Russia to attend the 11th Eastern Economic Forum. Putin stated that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. Thanks to the joint efforts of the two countries, Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedented (前所未有, qian suo wei you - "before, what, not, have") level, and cooperation in various fields has made positive progress. Russia is willing to strengthen strategic coordination with China and push the bilateral relationship to a higher level.
When chairing the bilateral mechanism meetings on China-Russia investment and energy, Ding Xuexiang stated that the two sides should, in accordance with the new blueprint drawn up by the two heads of state, continuously deepen and expand practical cooperation in the investment and energy fields and better achieve mutual benefit and win-win results. Cooperation in the investment field should strengthen planning and policy guidance, promote the implementation of key projects with visible results, and expand the breadth and depth of cooperation. Cooperation in the energy field should continue to consolidate existing cooperation achievements, actively lay out new fields and new directions, and jointly promote the transformation of the global energy governance system.
The Russian side spoke highly of the level of development of Russia-China relations and the achievements of practical cooperation. It expressed willingness to work with China to jointly implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, fully leverage the guiding and coordinating role of the investment and energy cooperation committees, strengthen strategic alignment and project construction, and benefit the two countries and their peoples through high-quality cooperation.
The two sides summarized and reviewed the achievements of bilateral investment and energy cooperation and exchanged views on deepening cooperation in the next step. After the meetings, Ding Xuexiang signed meeting minutes with Manturov and Novak respectively.
At the opening ceremony of the 8th China-Russia Energy Business Forum, Ding Xuexiang read out President Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech. Ding Xuexiang stated that China-Russia energy cooperation has traversed an extraordinary journey. Leadership by heads of state is the greatest advantage in the development of the China-Russia comprehensive energy partnership, mutual benefit and win-win is the fundamental driving force, and jointly responding to challenges is a distinctive feature. The two sides should deeply summarize, uphold, and carry forward these valuable experiences, and work hand in hand to promote China-Russia energy cooperation toward maintaining steady progress to achieve long-term success (行稳致远, xing wen zhi yuan - "walk, steady, reach, far").
Igor Sechin, Secretary of the Presidential Commission on the Strategy for Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex and Environmental Safety and President of Rosneft, read out President Putin's congratulatory letter and delivered a speech. Novak also delivered a speech.
Return to TopBy: 《环球人物》记者 陈佳莉 冯 璐 许 晔
From August 23 to September 1, ten days; from Inner Mongolia to Henan and then to Beijing, approximately 2,600 kilometers. During these days and this journey, the reporter followed the footsteps of 67-year-old American friend Ronald Sakolsky, witnessing him shed tears countless times and embrace Chinese desertification-control worker Yin Yuzhen in tight hugs countless times.
Let us turn the hands of time back to an earlier period. From the $5,000 donation in 1999 to the 50,000 tall and straight green trees of today, it is 26 years of desertification control and forest growth; cast the gaze further afield, from Pittsburgh, United States, to China's Mu Us Sandy Land, it is a friendship spanning more than 11,000 kilometers across both shores of the Pacific.
Over the long years, Yin Yuzhen remembered his name as "Saikesi," and through the "nationwide search for a person" method of the mobile internet era, she finally found him on the other side of the ocean. Across time and mountains and seas, they were finally reunited. Countless people laughed and cried together with them, witnessing this reunion.
"Do not neglect even small acts of kindness"
On August 24, the car sped along the road to Yin Yuzhen's home. A smooth, straight asphalt road led directly to the doorstep, and on both sides of the road, greenery filled the view.
Looking at the shade of green trees outside the car window, "Saikesi" kept saying "unbelievable." He shared with Yin Yuzhen a detail he had never told anyone — when he first came to see her in 2000, after the plane landed in Hohhot, someone came to pick him up by car. The car passed through one village after another, and when it drove out of the last village, he looked into the distance and saw nothing but endless yellow sand all around; after driving another hour and a half in the desert, all he could see was still only barren desert. At that moment, he even briefly thought he had been kidnapped. Then the car stopped in the middle of the sandy land, and Yin Yuzhen suddenly emerged from a low-lying hole in the sand.
He saw this thin Chinese woman tie up saplings with hemp rope and carry them bundle after bundle into the sandy land. She had no mechanized tools at all, only a shovel and a carrying pole. "Saikesi" asked where the water came from, and Yin Yuzhen said: "From a very far place, carried over bucket by bucket, then poured on ladle by ladle." Under her demonstration, "Saikesi" planted some trees together with her. Holding these short, thin saplings only as thick as a finger, the usually talkative "Saikesi" fell silent. He felt that this sandy land could never become a forest.
"That day I told Yin Yuzhen that her dream of controlling desertification and planting forests was 'impossible,' but she always firmly believed it was 'possible.' Now, she has won, and I willingly punish myself with a drink, apologizing for the prejudice of those years." "Saikesi" said with tears in his eyes.
When he was young, "Saikesi" was already a person prone to tears. He was originally a high school history teacher in Plum Borough near Pittsburgh. In the summer of 1999, because of a Sino-American cooperation project, he traveled across the ocean to China's "ancient capital of thirteen dynasties," becoming an English foreign teacher at Luoyang Foreign Language School in Henan, teaching for one year. On an October night, he saw a report about Yin Yuzhen on the television news. Amidst the swirling yellow sand, a Chinese rural woman planted trees shovel by shovel, shouting the oath "I would rather die of exhaustion planting trees than let the sand bully me to death." This story moved him to tears.
Having just arrived in China, he had only recently learned the ancient saying "do not neglect even small acts of kindness." He immediately took action, writing emails to dozens of American charitable foundations to raise donations for Yin Yuzhen's desertification-control and afforestation cause. At first, these emails went unanswered, like stones dropped into the sea, but he did not give up. Finally, a charitable organization in Boston replied, willing to provide an unconditional donation of $5,000. After completing all the procedures, the donation was smoothly delivered into Yin Yuzhen's hands, and all of it was used to purchase saplings.
In the blink of an eye, the next spring arrived. The school informed him that classes would be suspended for a week to go to another place. He asked where and what for, and Bai Fan, the then vice principal who knew him very well, said: "I can't tell you, you would cry." And so, he came to the Mu Us Sandy Land. When he first saw the "wedding room" of Yin Yuzhen and her husband Bai Wanxiang, half-buried in the sand, tears immediately flowed down. At the donation ceremony the next day, he was invited to give a speech, and one sentence he still insists on to this day: "There is only one Earth, it is the common home of all humanity, and everyone should cherish it."
In July 2026, when "Saikesi" recalled this past event to the reporter at his home in the United States, he said with deep emotion: "That year I taught in China may have been the year I gained the most touching experiences in my life." But this "record" has now been broken by himself. Ten days of reunion, countless hot tears — when he saw Yin Yuzhen again after 26 years, he cried; when they planted a tree of friendship together again, he cried; when he sat on the high sand ridge, unable to bear saying goodbye, he also cried...
And amid the tears there was much laughter. When Yin Yuzhen's grandchildren gathered around and asked him in English with smiles, "What is the name of this guest who has come from afar?", he smiled and told the children, "My Chinese name is Long Fu"; when he saw the "Saikesi Forest" standing tall against the wind, he smiled and spread his arms to embrace the big tree; when the room was filled with a feast for the eyes with a wide variety of beautiful things of melons, fruits, and vegetables, he smiled and exclaimed "Wow!" again and again...
"We Chinese people keep our word"
"Let's go!"
On August 21, three days before "Saikesi" arrived, the reporter was at Yin Yuzhen's home, accompanying her as she busied herself preparing for this long-awaited reunion. Using English she had just learned, she invited everyone into her family vegetable garden.
Yin Yuzhen revised the menu for entertaining "Saikesi" several times. Besides vegetables, there would also be a pig slaughtered and a sheep slaughtered, and the ostriches raised at home had just laid several huge eggs, which, paired with boiled corn, would make an authentic sandy-land feast. Of course, the most special item was the hand-pulled noodles she made herself. "Dumplings for departure, noodles for arrival," compared to the bowl she used to entertain "Saikesi" 26 years ago, "this time we'll put in lots more meat."
Even the clothes she would wear for the meeting were chosen several times. One in "desert green," one in "China red," Yin Yuzhen could not make up her mind and asked the reporter: "Which one do you think looks better? I just want to show my best side."
After thinking for a moment, she beamed with joy: "Should I let him see me at first glance, or let him look for me? Let me think... let him look for me, after all, I searched for him for a full 26 years."
Everyone bent over laughing. The laughter passed through the courtyard, the vegetable garden, and the chicken coop, echoing among the trees.
Of course, what she most wanted to show "Saikesi" was that forest created with the $5,000, which she had named the "Saikesi Forest." "I must prove it to him, I can't let his money be wasted. We Chinese people keep our word, and when we do things, you can trust us."
Yin Yuzhen's persistence in keeping one's word as if it were worth a thousand pieces of gold is exactly the same as her father Yin Fengjun's.
In the 1970s, Yin Fengjun was herding cattle and walked into the desert, where he fainted. Fortunately, Bai Da and his son Bai Wanxiang saved his life. Old man Bai said his greatest worry was that "his son might not be able to find a wife." Yin Fengjun, grateful for the life-saving kindness, promised to help arrange a marriage for Old Bai's son. In 1985, Old Bai had already passed away, but Yin Fengjun still kept his promise and, with a "hard heart," married his daughter into the desert.
At the wedding, Yin Yuzhen looked at that "wedding room" in utter despair: half-buried in the sand, one had to bend down to enter, and in the room of less than 10 square meters, the kang was spread with dry grass, and sand was everywhere in the pots, bowls, and utensils. She could not help but burst into loud crying and barely ate for seven days and seven nights. Her husband Bai Wanxiang just silently accompanied her by her side, without saying a word.
Yin Yuzhen, born into a farming family, had been stubborn since childhood. Once she understood that controlling desertification was the only way to change the situation, the couple's "battle between humans and sand" began.
The only valuable thing in the family, a three-legged female goat, was sold in exchange for 600 saplings. They helped people collect manure, not asking for wages, only in exchange for saplings. The couple lived frugally all year round, and apart from what was needed to barely feed themselves, all their income was invested in planting trees and controlling desertification.
Yin Yuzhen let the reporter feel her back, as solid as a steel plate. In those years, carrying more than 100 jin of saplings on her back, she would plunge into the desert, and how many times, when she was about to climb to the top of a sand ridge, would a strong wind fling her, sending her rolling down the sand slope and crashing heavily to the ground. "It was risking my life, using my very life."
Today, on the 70,000 mu of land in the Mu Us Sandy Land, there are not only graceful poplars, Chinese pines, and Mongolian pines, but also tough and flexible Salix psammophila growing in connected clusters, Hedysarum laeve adorned with delicate flowers swaying in the wind, Artemisia desertorum crouching on the sand dunes, and Haloxylon ammodendron standing tall in the sand hollows...
These 70,000 mu of forest land are part of the world's largest forestry ecological project — the "Three-North" Shelterbelt Forest Program. With policy support and the efforts of desertification-control workers like Yin Yuzhen, the forest coverage rate of the Mu Us Sandy Land has increased from about 2% in the 1950s to about 30%, and the vegetation coverage rate has reached 80%.
"Pass on this bond with China forever"
On August 27, leaving the Mu Us Sandy Land, "Saikesi" invited Yin Yuzhen to go to Luoyang together, to see the starting point of all his China stories.
Here, he was affectionately called "S" by everyone — in August 1999, he came to Luoyang Foreign Language School. In the initial impression of the teachers and students, he did not have much hair, was not tall, but had a loud voice; when he was teaching, his voice could be heard even outside the classroom. His full name was difficult to pronounce, so the teachers and students called him "S."
"'S' returning to Luoyang means coming home; he must not shed tears anymore, we want to make him laugh." Bai Fan, who now serves as Party Committee Secretary and General Principal of Luoyang No. 2 Foreign Language School Education Group, told the reporter this wish. Sure enough, at the airport pickup, a surprise came — a pair of hands covered "Saikesi's" eyes from behind.
"Guess who I am?"
"Zhai!" "Saikesi" immediately recognized the voice — it was his old colleague Zhai Guanjun! He turned around, embraced him, and laughed heartily.
The second surprise was hidden in the school kitchen. Zhai Guanjun invited him to make fermented soybean noodle soup together, while Yin Yuzhen and Bai Fan made boiled meatball soup together, both Luoyang flavors that "Saikesi" loved.
But the tears ultimately could not be held back.
The moment he walked into the classroom, "Saikesi's" eyes reddened — the students he had taught 26 years ago had come back from all corners of the country, sitting neatly in rows, shouting in unison: "'S', don't cry, smile!" But how could he stop his tears.
"I remember those times playing basketball at night, I remember when I fired the starting gun at the sports meet... I have never forgotten you. It is precisely because of this bond that I have never felt lonely all these years." Wearing a specially chosen short-sleeved shirt printed with the words "Never forgotten, never lonely," he choked up and said, "Seeing every one of you, I know that I have fulfilled my responsibility. I once planted seeds in your hearts, and now they have grown into towering trees."
After returning to the United States in 2000, until his retirement in 2020, "Saikesi" showed American students photos of Yin Yuzhen every year and told them the story of her planting trees in the desert. In his classroom stood a life-size replica terracotta warrior, with Chinese calligraphy and paintings hung on the walls and Chinese porcelain displayed — gifts from Chinese friends, all appearing in the history classes of American children. In July this year, a Pittsburgh television station interviewed "Saikesi," and the television station reporter happened to have graduated from the American middle school where he taught and had seen his terracotta warrior and desert photos.
Bai Fan invited "Saikesi" to also plant a tree on the campus. In June this year, Yin Yuzhen came to Luoyang and planted a tree together with the students, and gave an ideological and political lesson. Bai Fan has already planned to tell the story of these two trees to generation after generation of students, starting from that unforgettable 1999 — "The friendship between the Chinese and American peoples, passed down from generation to generation, with endless and continuous growth."
Standing beside the newly planted tree, "Saikesi" expressed a wish: "I hope that everyone who hears this story will plant another tree, to make the world more beautiful." Also, "My youngest son also works in education, and he is currently taking the exam for a principal's qualification certificate. If he gets it as he wishes, I will have him take the replica terracotta warrior to the new school, to pass on this bond with China forever."
The new tree takes root in the soil. It will grow into a new story, waiting for the wind to come, waiting for the rain to fall, waiting for generation after generation of people to pass by and hear this friendship across time and mountains and seas singing among the branches and leaves.
(Xu Chenjing and Feng Qunxing also contributed to this article)
Return to TopBy: 索菲亚·阿帕耶娃
Adhering to mutual respect and mutual benefit, and continuously translating political trust into tangible outcomes of practical cooperation, Kyrgyzstan-China relations will surely continue to ascend to new heights.
In recent years, relations between Kyrgyzstan and China have continued to deepen and solidify. The comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in the new era has been consolidated and developed, political mutual trust has continued to deepen, and practical cooperation has continued to expand. For Kyrgyzstan, China is an important neighbor and major trading partner. The interactions between the two countries have a long and continuous history, with the ancient Silk Road bearing witness to millennia of exchanges between the two sides. Today, increasingly close transport connectivity and economic cooperation have made the bonds between the two even stronger. President Xi Jinping's attendance at the 2026 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Bishkek and his state visit to Kyrgyzstan are of great significance for promoting cooperation among SCO member states and advancing Kyrgyzstan-China cooperation.
Kyrgyzstan-China practical cooperation is flourishing in many different areas and advancing on all fronts. The ancient Silk Road promoted the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations through the interchange of goods and the exchange of ideas. Today, under the framework of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, a series of practical projects—including modern infrastructure construction, enhanced regional connectivity, and people-to-people exchanges—have been successively implemented, carrying forward the spirit of the ancient Silk Road. Cooperation in such fields as transportation, energy, investment, industry, education, and digital technology has been solidly advanced, with the scale of cooperation continuously expanding and the quality of cooperation steadily improving, injecting inexhaustible momentum into maintaining steady progress to achieve long-term success in bilateral relations.
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway is a landmark achievement of deepening Kyrgyzstan-China practical cooperation. In June 2024, following the signing of the relevant intergovernmental agreement, this project entered the implementation stage and became an important component of Belt and Road cooperation. This railway is not merely an upgrade of transport infrastructure, but a strategic corridor for enhancing the economic competitiveness of Central Asian countries. Once completed, the project will open a brand-new overland transport corridor between China and Central Asia, helping Kyrgyzstan fully unleash its geographical advantages. The comprehensive benefits brought by the railway extend far beyond the transport dimension: logistics centers, warehousing facilities, supporting services, and processing industries will emerge along the route, fostering a new industrial ecosystem and creating a large number of employment opportunities. Relying on this important fulcrum, Kyrgyzstan will be able to integrate more deeply into regional industrial chains and, by expanding production, processing, and exports, effectively translate its geographical and transport advantages into development momentum.
Cooperation in the energy sector is of great significance to Kyrgyzstan. Ensuring electricity supply is crucial not only to the country's economic growth and industrial cultivation, but also directly affects the improvement of people's livelihoods and the normal functioning of society. Projects such as the Datka-Kemin power transmission and transformation project, the second north-south highway, and the renovation of the Bishkek thermal power plant have been successively implemented, addressing shortcomings in Kyrgyzstan's economic and social development from multiple dimensions, including power grid upgrading and urban energy security. Stable energy supply, combined with the synergistic effect of transport and energy projects, not only drives employment expansion and supports the development of processing and manufacturing industries, but also helps enterprises reduce operating costs and enhance the market competitiveness of their products, providing solid and systematic support for the country's sustainable economic development.
Looking ahead, Kyrgyzstan and China still have broad space for cooperation and can tap the potential for cooperation in key areas. In terms of transport and logistics, the two countries will take the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway as an opportunity to coordinate the development of highways, railways, ports, and logistics hubs, and promote the efficient interconnection of various transport corridors. In industrial cooperation, on the basis of expanding the scale of trade, efforts should be made to attract investment in advantageous fields such as agricultural product processing, light industry, and modern logistics, and to bring more high-quality products to broader markets.
The prospects for digital economy cooperation between the two countries are broad, and e-commerce, digital logistics, cross-border payments, and digital talent cultivation are expected to become new growth points for cooperation. Kyrgyzstan possesses exceptional natural and cultural resources, while China has a super-large market. The facilitation of people-to-people exchanges will continue to drive tourism, education, and cultural exchanges, continuously enhancing mutual understanding and affinity between the peoples of the two countries and consolidating the popular foundation for the long-term development of bilateral relations. During Kyrgyzstan's presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, maintaining regional security and stability, expanding economic cooperation, accelerating digital transformation, advancing sustainable development, and deepening people-to-people exchanges have been listed as important work priorities. On the multilateral platform of the SCO, Kyrgyzstan and China will join hands to deepen collaboration and jointly promote regional prosperity and development.
Kyrgyzstan and China are jointly paving a modern "Silk Road" that connects the two countries and faces the future. This is not only a physical extension of railways, highways, and energy networks, but also an exchange and integration across industrial, digital, and people-to-people dimensions. Adhering to mutual respect and mutual benefit, and continuously translating political trust into tangible outcomes of practical cooperation, Kyrgyzstan-China relations will surely continue to ascend to new heights, bring more benefits to the peoples of the two countries, and make new contributions to promoting connectivity in Central Asia and achieving shared prosperity.
(The author is the Dean of the Kyrgyz-China Institute at Kyrgyz National University.)
Return to TopInjecting positive energy into enhancing mutual understanding among the people of the region, fostering a sound public opinion environment for Asia-Pacific openness and development, and consolidating the foundation of social and public support
On September 5, the Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum was held in Shenzhen, Guangdong. This forum is an important component of the series of activities of the "China Year" of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Participants engaged in in-depth exchanges around the theme "Building a Shared Path to a Prosperous Asia-Pacific Community: Media Consensus and Action," injecting positive energy into enhancing mutual understanding among the people of the region, fostering a sound public opinion environment for Asia-Pacific openness and development, and consolidating the foundation of social and public support.
President Xi Jinping put forward the major proposition of building an Asia-Pacific community, providing important guidance for jointly building an open Asia-Pacific economy and promoting the common prosperity of the Asia-Pacific. The development and cooperation of the Asia-Pacific region cannot be separated from the active participation of Asia-Pacific media. Before the opening of the forum, four sub-forums were held respectively in Guangzhou, Dongguan, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen. Participants engaged in in-depth exchanges on topics such as new opportunities for Asia-Pacific development through open, innovative cooperation; new pathways for Asia-Pacific transformation through digitalization, intelligence, and green development; a new vision for Asia-Pacific people-to-people and cultural exchanges based on equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness; and the Shenzhen story of Chinese modernization. From jointly maintaining the stability and smooth flow of regional industrial and supply chains, to jointly building a fair and reasonable global artificial intelligence governance system, and to enhancing mutual understanding through exchanges among civilizations, the discussions gathered broad consensus on addressing development challenges through openness and cooperation, demonstrating the deep foundation and vigorous vitality of Asia-Pacific cooperation.
Promoting development through openness and prosperity through cooperation is China's consistent position in participating in Asia-Pacific cooperation. APEC is the first regional economic cooperation organization that China joined after its reform and opening up. It has witnessed the mutual empowerment of China and Asia-Pacific regional economies and written a vivid chapter of development and prosperity. On the eve of the forum's opening, participants visited Guangzhou, Foshan, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, and other places, experiencing firsthand China's sincerity and commitment to promoting Asia-Pacific openness and cooperation through high-quality development. At the exhibition hall of BYD's headquarters in Shenzhen, inside a low-temperature chamber simulating an extreme cold environment of minus 30 degrees Celsius, a display vehicle covered with ice crystals could still charge normally. Aman Haq, Director of International Relations at Pakistan Television, exclaimed, "It feels like stepping into a world of the future." The close and efficient division of labor and collaboration within the industrial chain in the two-hour commuting circle of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area provides a "Bay Area solution" worthy of reference for deepening Asia-Pacific regional cooperation. At the Guangzhou Nansha International Logistics Center, China's largest port-side cold chain warehouse cluster, the circulation scenario in which fresh products from small and medium-sized farmers in the Asia-Pacific region are efficiently delivered to Chinese family dining tables allowed all parties to intuitively feel the opening-up dividends of China's huge market... China's development has benefited from the Asia-Pacific, and it also uses its own development to repay and benefit the Asia-Pacific. As John Wallace, Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific News Center in Australia, said, many Western people do not understand the real China. He hopes Western media will report on China more objectively, and China's continued development will also benefit the people of all countries in the world.
To tell the story of Asia-Pacific openness, connectivity, cooperation, and win-win outcomes well, it is necessary to follow the trend of technological transformation, and more importantly, to adhere to content as the foundation and deepen media collaboration. As the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation advances deeply, the media landscape and public opinion ecosystem are undergoing profound changes. However, no matter how communication technologies iterate or how diverse product forms become, high-quality content has always been an important support that is deeply touching and resonating with people (直抵人心, zhi di ren xin - "straight, reach, human, heart"). In recent years, from major cooperation projects jointly built with Chinese participation, such as the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway and the Chancay Port, benefiting local livelihoods, to China's green innovation practices helping regional economies' energy transformation, more and more Asia-Pacific media have turned their lenses to the front line and focused their writing on people's livelihoods, vividly telling the cooperative stories of China and Asia-Pacific regional economies achieving success through mutual support (相互成就, xiang hu cheng jiu - "mutually, achieve, success") and common development. During the forum, all parties jointly initiated the establishment of the preparatory committee for the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Program, building an institutionalized platform for media to deepen the exchange and mutual learning of high-quality content and jointly create high-quality news reports, and also opening up new space for enhancing the communication power and influence of Asia-Pacific media.
In a little over two months, the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting will be held in Shenzhen. It is believed that with the support of all parties, the meeting will achieve fruitful results and make new and greater contributions to promoting the building of an open, vibrant, resilient, and peaceful Asia-Pacific community.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 王云娜 人民网记者 王雅蝶
"Clean carriages, spacious seats, extremely fast!" Riding the 160-kilometer-per-hour Guangzhou Metro Line 18, Bui Minh Giang, editor-in-chief of Vietnam's Tien Phong newspaper, truly experienced the "China speed" of urban rail transit. In his view, outstanding modern technology and mature construction concepts have woven together the extending in all directions (四通八达, si tong ba da - "four, connect, eight, reach") transportation network of China, and also provided Vietnam with a practical model to learn from.
From September 3 to 4, some guests attending the Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum visited Guangzhou and Foshan. They traveled through underground rail transit, visited automated terminals, and toured intelligent manufacturing factories, experiencing up close the surging momentum of innovation-driven, open-minded progress.
Arriving at the fully automated Phase IV terminal of Nansha Port Area of Guangzhou Port, an "Asia-Pacific Green Port," driverless intelligent guided vehicles moved back and forth in an orderly manner, while oceangoing giant ships docked for loading and unloading. The scene before them left Aminath Namza, chairperson of Maldives Public Service Media, in awe. "Guangzhou is an excellent window for observing global trade. Trade exchanges benefit many parties, and the ultimate goal is to create a better life for the people," she said.
At Midea's Shunde Industrial Park for microwave ovens, the exquisite and practical "small but beautiful" designs caught the eye of Wang Haina, editor-in-chief of South Korea's Asia Today under Asia News Group. "A single microwave oven can make the cooking process simplifying complex matters (化繁为简, hua fan wei jian - "transform, complex, into, simple"). Behind this is the hard power of China's intelligent manufacturing empowering a better life at home. I hope more foreigners will come to China and see for themselves."
At Guangdong Jingyi Furniture Co., Ltd., ergonomic chairs of all kinds were a feast for the eyes (琳琅满目, lin lang man mu - "jade, luster, fill, eye"). "Let me try it!" Shamsuddin Iliyus, editor-in-chief of Bangladesh's Climate Watch, sat down, lightly touched a button, and a 10-minute back acupressure massage immediately started. "The chair is so comfortable, I want to buy one. China's intelligent manufacturing is full of momentum and renowned worldwide. Foshan's furniture industry's continuous innovation is a vivid microcosm of the manufacturing development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and it also brings inspiration to the global industry," Iliyus said.
"This on-site visit has shown me the true face of China's emerging industries and green development, and has also given me a deeper appreciation of the value of cross-border media collaboration. Through exchanges, we can bridge gaps and enhance mutual understanding," said Ao Zhi, editor-in-chief of Philippine Dragon News Network.
"In the era of artificial intelligence, the media bears a heavy responsibility. Only by upholding the truth, conveying conscience, and dissolving confrontation and prejudice can we build consensus and work together toward shared prosperity," Namza said.
On September 3, the Guangzhou sub-forum of the Asia-Pacific Media High-Level Forum was held. Chinese and foreign guests from government departments, mainstream media, experts and scholars, and business representatives of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation economies engaged in dialogue around the theme "New Opportunities for Asia-Pacific Development through Open, Innovative Cooperation," focusing on Chinese modernization, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the vivid practice of Guangzhou's high-level opening up.
Steve Farr, executive director of the Secretariat of the Guangzhou International Sister-City University Alliance and an American expert at Guangzhou University, said that from an ancient trading port to an important hub of industrial innovation, international trade, and cross-border investment, Guangzhou has grown into a highly influential central city in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even the world.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Bishkek, September 5) (Reporter Li Qiang) The reporter learned on the 5th from the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway Co., Ltd.: the No. 2 tunnel north of Koshterbe on the Kyrgyzstan section of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway was successfully holed through recently. This is the first tunnel holed through on the Kyrgyzstan section of the project, marking important progress in the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project.
The person in charge of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway project introduced that since the start of full-line civil engineering construction on the Kyrgyzstan section of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway in June 2025, 27 tunnels have started construction, of which 1 has been holed through; 43 bridges and 88 subgrade sections have started construction; and infrastructure construction at 20 stations has also been fully launched. In addition, all large temporary roads and temporary power supply support projects along the Kyrgyzstan section of the railway have been completed and put into use, providing support for construction.
The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway is a landmark project of Belt and Road Initiative cooperation personally promoted by the heads of state of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The project starts from Kashgar in China's Xinjiang, enters Kyrgyzstan via the Torugart Pass, then continues west through the Kyrgyz border city of Jalal-Abad, and ends at the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan. The railway has a total length of more than 500 kilometers, of which the Kyrgyzstan section is 304.84 kilometers long.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Kathmandu, September 5) (Reporter Li Mo) On September 5 local time, a Chinese citizen stranded by a mudslide disaster in the Rasuwa area of northern Nepal was successfully rescued and immediately transported to the Nepalese Army General Hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, for treatment.
Director General of the Nepalese Army Medical Corps Bhandari said that when the disaster struck, the Chinese citizen was trapped at the top of a tunnel and had a support point he could grip; his good physical condition and strong will to survive helped him endure the ordeal. Bhandari stated that the Nepalese side will continue to maintain coordination and cooperation with the Chinese side and make every effort to carry out disaster rescue work.
Zhang Maoming, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, said that the Chinese Embassy in Nepal has always attached great importance to the safety of Chinese citizens in Nepal. Since the mudslide disaster occurred, the embassy has maintained close communication and coordination with the Nepalese side and relevant Chinese departments, making every effort to search for and rescue affected Chinese citizens. The Chinese side has dispatched tunnel rescue experts and DNA identification experts to Nepal to assist the Nepalese side in carrying out disaster relief work. Going forward, the embassy will continue to maintain close communication and coordination with the Nepalese side, make every effort to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens in Nepal, and properly handle the aftermath matters concerning persons who remain unaccounted for.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 刘温馨 徐驭尧
In the national gate area of Gyirong Port, large machinery was working amid the ruins, and rescue personnel were moving back and forth rapidly (往来穿梭, wang lai chuan suo - "go and come, shuttle through"). A five-star red flag stood on a stretch of relatively flat ground, fluttering in the wind. At the foot of the flagpole were laid flowers brought by the various rescue teams that had entered the disaster-stricken core area in recent days.
This national flag was brought in on August 30 by Nima, a police officer of the Shigatse Border Management Detachment of the Tibet Entry-Exit Border Inspection General Station, together with his colleagues.
That day, Nima entered the core area of Gyirong Port by helicopter with the first assault team. Among their gear, in addition to rescue equipment, they also carried a national flag.
The helicopter hovered at a position not far above the ground. As soon as the cabin door opened, the airflow generated by the rotor blades rushed at them, and even breathing required turning one's face aside. Nima jumped down, and before his feet had even steadied, his whole body began to sink. The mud first submerged his ankles, then his calves, and continued up past his knees, and he was still sinking.
Nima tried to stand up but could not keep his footing. The harder he struggled, the deeper he sank. He simply lay down flat, supporting himself with his knees and elbows, and crawled forward bit by bit. With every crawl, his knees sank into the mud, and when he pulled them out, there was a "glug" sound as he brought up half a leg of black sludge.
The other police officers also jumped down one by one, and they lined up in a row on the mud. Supplies were strapped to their bodies, life-detection instruments were shielded with their arms, and they half-dragged, half-carried their way toward the mountainside. "At the time there was no other thought in my mind, only the wish to reach the destination as quickly as possible," Nima said.
That day there was no road in the mud. With their own knees, they forcibly "pressed" out a path.
Nima's thinking in bringing in this national flag was very simple: "In our hearts, wherever there is a national flag, there is the national gate."
Keeping this national flag safe was not easy. Every afternoon, helicopters would enter this area, and the airflow would roll the flag up. Ye Yi, a police officer of the Shigatse Border Management Detachment, recalled that after they came in, every morning at first light they would put the flag up, and in the afternoon before the helicopters arrived they would take it down, then put it back up after the helicopters had left. On August 31 and September 1, this was repeated over and over.
On September 2, the damaged section of National Highway 216 was successfully reopened to traffic, and rescue personnel, supplies, and some equipment were able to enter the disaster-stricken core area via the land route. Since then, this national flag has never been taken down again.
Gui Xinwei, deputy station chief of the Gyirong Entry-Exit Border Inspection Station of the Tibet Entry-Exit Border Inspection General Station, has worked here for more than two years. In his memory, Gyirong Port was the busiest of Tibet's several ports. After Zhangmu Port suspended operations in 2015 due to the impact of Nepal's "4·25" major earthquake, Gyirong Port gradually became Tibet's largest cargo port. In the first half of 2026, the border residents' mutual trade volume at Gyirong Port exceeded 18 million yuan, with heavy flows of people and vehicles and brisk border trade. In the joint inspection building, border inspection, customs, port management, and People's Liberation Army personnel stood guard side by side; not far outside the building was the boundary marker, a popular spot for tourists to visit.
"Apples, garlic, and potatoes leave the country from here, and in recent years, new-energy vehicles represented by BYD have also driven out of the country from here," Gui Xinwei recalled.
Now, the national gate area has become a stretch of ruins, covered everywhere with broken stones and mud. Large machinery is working here, and rescue personnel come and go. The touch of red of the national flag is the brightest color within sight.
The national flag flutters in the wind, gathering together the strength of everyone.
Return to TopLiu Mingyuan, temporary Party branch secretary of the China Railway South Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief Command
"Nailing the road back onto the earth"
People's Daily reporter Xu Yuyao
In the dead of night in Jilong Town, a temporary processing yard blazes with light. Welding sparks bloom one after another; steel bars are bent into skeletons in the firelight, then cinched tight with binding wire. Workers crouch beside gabion baskets, hands never stopping, while finished products stacked nearby have already been lined up into rows of gray "big cages." This is the position Liu Mingyuan, temporary Party branch secretary of the China Railway South Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief Command, values most — the steel-reinforced gabion basket processing yard.
After National Highway 216 was reopened, the bigger challenge was "stability": a road temporarily filled in on soft soil would collapse again after heavy vehicles ran on it for ten days or half a month. "What we have to do is nail the road back onto the earth," Liu Mingyuan said. By filling and loading steel-reinforced gabion baskets, the temporary road that was reopened can be made more stable.
After the disaster struck, the China Railway South Emergency Rescue and Disaster Relief Command simultaneously mobilized two project departments within a 500-kilometer radius; excavators, loaders, and dump trucks set out overnight. It also transferred 1,000 tons of high-specification steel bars and nearly 100 steel workers from Lhasa, working around the clock without pause.
Liu Mingyuan visits three sites a day — the processing yard, the quarry site, and the filling site — watching the data change: as of September 5, a cumulative total of 1,959 steel-reinforced gabion baskets had been processed and transported, 10,498 cubic meters of stone had been loaded and shipped, and 10,066 cubic meters of quarry surface had been cleared. Geotextile fabric, steel road plates, and other materials were also trucked in from Lhasa, load after load, to the disaster-relief front line.
There is still a risk point — on the four-to-five-hundred-meter slope right beside the border gate.
After the mudslide, the mountain body was loosened by rain erosion, and broken rocks could fall at any moment. "To guard against secondary disasters, we plan to lay protective netting against the mountain body to ensure road safety," Liu Mingyuan said with emotion. "If the road can be opened, and people and supplies can get through, that matters more than anything."
Under the lights, rows of steel-reinforced gabion baskets lie heavily beside the roadbed, like gray ridges. The road to the border gate is being nailed, inch by inch, back onto the earth.
Power emergency repair team
"Wherever the road reaches, electric power will be guaranteed there"
People's Daily reporter Xian Gan
At 8 p.m. on September 5, as the sky darkened, three high-power searchlights switched on simultaneously in the border-gate area of Gyirong Port in Tibet, instantly illuminating the rescue site.
"While National Highway 216 was being repaired, we fought on in rotating shifts without rest, and on the night of September 3 we opened a temporary power supply line to the border-gate area and restored electricity," said Puqiong, general manager of the State Grid Gyirong County Power Supply Company.
At around 10 a.m. on August 26, after the mudslide disaster struck, the Gyirong County Power Supply Company received information from the higher-level dispatch department at the first moment. "The line diagram showed abnormal operation at the end of the 10-kilovolt line in the Resuo Bridge direction, and everyone thought it must be that something had happened in the port direction," Puqiong said.
"The damaged road section was full of mud; vehicles couldn't move, and with each step the mud came up to the knees." At a little past 11 a.m., Puqiong and his colleagues drove the repair vehicle to a point 3 kilometers from the border-gate area and found it hard to continue further. Everyone parked the repair vehicle nearby and began work, ensuring lighting for the temporary command post.
Soon, a repair team of more than 150 people gathered in Gyirong from the surrounding areas of Nyalam, Tingri, Saga, and elsewhere.
Nai Jiucunzhen is a driver for the Nyalam County Power Supply Company. After coming to Gyirong to provide support, whether carrying equipment or assisting with erection work, he always charged to the front. His left palm was injured, and over several days, the stitched wound split open again and again during the support work.
"Our work area is right next to the road-repair worksite, with a rockfall cliff on the left and the rolling Gyirong Zangbo River on the right," said Mima, head of the Operations and Maintenance Class One of the Gyirong County Power Supply Company, who has held the front line throughout. "Everyone holds to one conviction: wherever the road reaches, electric power will be guaranteed there."
The first utility pole was erected at noon on August 30; by September 3, all 54 utility poles had been erected and nearly 10 kilometers of transmission conductor had been strung... In a full 100 hours, the repair team overcame risks including landslides and frequent rockfalls and successfully completed the task of securing the power supply for the border-gate area.
Medical and psychological assistance team
"Striving to help them find the courage to live again"
People's Daily reporters Song Haoxin and Qiongda Zhuoga
"Does it hurt?" "Is it a little easier?"
At a little past 8 p.m., at the resettlement site for family members of missing persons in Jilong Town, Dorje Tsering, director of the Internal Medicine Department of the Shigatse Municipal Tibetan Medicine Hospital, stood beside an elderly grandmother, gently pressing acupoints on her head while asking in a low voice. The elderly grandmother kept her eyes closed, and her originally tense emotions gradually relaxed.
After the disaster struck, Dorje Tsering rushed from downtown Shigatse to Jilong Town at the first moment. At the resettlement site, every evening he and his colleagues visited room by room, providing diagnosis and treatment for family members of missing persons who needed it.
Local Party members and cadres have also held fast at the resettlement site, promptly responding to the demands of the families of the deceased and missing.
"At our resettlement site there is a mother with two children, the youngest only 8 months old. We deliver meals directly to her room every day, and supplies such as milk powder and diapers are all available." Gezhen, deputy mayor of Jilong Town, is on standby at the resettlement site 24 hours a day.
After the disaster, local authorities proactively contacted the families of the deceased and missing, patiently and meticulously receiving and comforting them, and promptly responding to their concerns. A total of 587 family members were received and resettled, involving the families of 253 domestic deceased and missing persons. At the same time, 70 professional personnel were arranged to provide psychological counseling for the families of the deceased and missing; a cumulative total of 1,107 person-times have been comforted, and more than 1,220 cadres were organized to provide service support.
At a resettlement site in Jilong Town, a psychological assistance expert group dispatched by the National Health Commission conducted visits, communicating face to face with the families of the deceased and missing and providing psychological assistance.
Li Yuchen, a member of the psychological assistance expert group and associate professor at the Mental Health Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, told reporters that for the families of the deceased and missing, the loss of a sense of security is the most obvious feeling. "There is still a long road ahead in the days to come. Our role is to strive to help them find the courage to live again."
The children who mailed postcards
"Hope the port has no 'trouble'"
People's Daily reporter Shi Pengfei
After the rain, Jilong Town gradually returned to tranquility.
The reporter came to the town's "Sky Above Tibet" themed post office and found people coming here to mail postcards. Post office staff member Gusang Dunzhu told the reporter a story from a few days earlier.
On August 30, seven children came to the post office, saying they wanted to mail postcards to the police, doctors, soldiers, and firefighters on the front line. Among them, the oldest had just started first grade of elementary school, and the youngest was still in the top class of kindergarten.
The children wrote carefully and deliberately (一笔一画, yi bi yi hua - "one, stroke, one, stroke"), taking it seriously. When they made a mistake, they blacked out the character with their pen.
Gesang Yangjin wrote especially slowly — writing, erasing, writing again — "I am very sad after the flood came! Go, port! Hope the port is safe and sound! Hope the port has no 'trouble (matter)'!"
The young Gesang Yangjin still cannot distinguish between a flood and a mudslide, and even wrote "trouble" as "trouble" with the wrong character. Gusang Dunzhu said with emotion: "But the children's wish that everyone at the port be safe cannot be wrong."
The 26-year-old Gusang Dunzhu is from Shannan, Tibet, and once studied at Xizang Minzu University in Xianyang, Shaanxi, where he joined the Party in his junior year. Since the disaster struck, he has held fast in Jilong Town, ensuring that postal and telecommunications services remain unblocked.
During the interview, Gusang Dunzhu told the reporter that compared with before the disaster, far fewer people have come to the post office to mail postcards these days; more of those coming are personnel engaged in emergency rescue and disaster relief on the front line.
The postcards they chose mostly feature a photo of the port's joint inspection building on the cover. One postcard already mailed has written on the back: "The place in the photo has become a thing of the past; cherish the present." Another bears the words: "Mountains and rivers may be wounded, but faith and hope will not."
Wang Congyu, associate professor at People's Public Security University of China and a psychological expert, said: "For disaster-affected people, especially children, the key to psychological reconstruction is to help them feel again — that life can go on, and the future is still worth looking forward to."
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 琼达卓嘎
September 5, overcast
After the tourists were evacuated, the town of Gyirong became much quieter. I walked along the main street, and firefighters and police were still on duty at their respective posts. Most of the shops along the street had opened their doors, and many doorways had notes posted reading "Free water and food provided."
Several red tents were also set up on the street, and the people under the tents wore vests with printed lettering — some were handing out bottled water, others were registering information. They were all volunteers.
The owner of a Sichuan restaurant stood at the door, calling out to anyone passing by in rescue gear: "Come in and have a hot meal."
One of the tents was just a street away from where I was staying. In the past few days, I had gone to the front line early every morning and returned late at night, so I hadn't paid much attention. Passing by today, I saw several young people talking with Nepalese border residents and local people, which made me curious.
I walked over and chatted with them. One of the young men was named Ma Baoxiang, born after 2000, from Gansu, who ran a shop in Gyirong town. Since August 28, he and his fellow townsmen had spontaneously set up this love station. "I can't help much at the front line, so I thought I'd offer some love here." The tent was staffed around the clock, mainly providing boiled water and instant food, and phone charging was also available.
Beside him, a slightly older volunteer named Ma Xilong, 32, also from Gansu, pointed at the tent and told me that the love station was organized by the Gyirong Gansu-Qinghai Chamber of Commerce. The chamber had more than 40 households and over 70 people, all merchants from Gansu and Qinghai doing business here.
As we were talking, an older brother walked over carrying a kettle. His name was Ma Yiheiya, from Qinghai, who had lived in Gyirong for more than 30 years. "This is my hometown now. Since disaster has struck, I want to do my part too. We are all one family."
I stood there listening. Everyone came from different places, but no one drew any lines between "you" and "me." A Tibetan elder sister walked over, said a few words to Ma Baoxiang, who smiled and replied, then took a few packs of instant noodles from the box and handed them over.
Back at my lodging, I stood by the window and looked across the street. The lights in the tent had come on, and people were coming and going. Standing together through thick and thin (风雨同舟, feng yu tong zhou - "wind, rain, same, boat") — this is probably what it looks like. Acting quietly without making a fuss (不声不响, bu sheng bu xiang - "not, sound, not, cry"), each doing what they can.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 5) (Reporter Wu Chuqi) September 5 this year marks China's eleventh "China Charity Day." A reporter learned from the Ministry of Civil Affairs: since the mudslide disaster in Gyirong, Tibet, all sectors of society have rushed to provide emergency assistance and offered their love.
According to incomplete statistics, as of now, charitable donations have exceeded 660 million yuan; among them, over 1.47 million person-times have donated 50.16 million yuan to relevant public fundraising charity projects through the online public fundraising service platform.
This year's "China Charity Day," the Ministry of Civil Affairs will deploy and carry out publicity activities nationwide under the theme of "Promoting Charity Culture, Practicing Charity for the People's Benefit."
Return to TopOn September 5, in the core disaster-affected area, rescue personnel continued to carry out search and rescue operations, road maintenance, and other work.
Photo by People's Daily reporter Xu Yuyao
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 刘 阳
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the launch of the "Little Trumpet" (Xiaolaba) program of China Media Group, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter expressing his congratulations, encouraging everyone to "implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, keep pace with the pulse of the times, deeply cultivate the fertile soil of children's culture, and create with heart and soul more excellent works that spread truth, goodness, and beauty and are loved by children, making greater contributions to cultivating socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor."
General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter has greatly inspired and encouraged the "Little Trumpet" program team and the vast number of workers in children's affairs. Everyone expressed that they will make every effort to do a good job in children's moral and aesthetic education, create more excellent children's literary and artistic works, pool the consensus and strength of the whole society, and help children and young people strive upward, toward goodness, and grow into talents.
Implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education
General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter fully reflects the Party Central Committee's warm concern for hundreds of millions of children and its high regard for children's literary and artistic work.
"Little Trumpet" first aired on September 4, 1956, and is the first radio program in New China specially created for preschool children. It has now become a brand program integrating radio, television, new media, and campus broadcasting stations.
Zheng Jing (broadcast name: Sister Zheng Jing), host of the "Little Trumpet" program, said: "As a host who has told stories on 'Little Trumpet' for 30 years, I feel deeply honored. We must carry forward the fine traditions and let the classic sound of 'da di da,' which has spanned several generations, continue to accompany the healthy growth of a new generation of children."
Listening to "Little Trumpet" is a warm childhood memory for Yu Li, a teacher at Urumqi South Road Kindergarten in Xuhui District, Shanghai. "'Little Trumpet' helped me understand kindness and bravery, and this warmth is also deeply imprinted in my memory. I will strive to plant the seeds of truth, goodness, and beauty in the hearts of children."
Wang Weibo, director of the Beijing Cultural Center, said: "We must bear in mind the entrustment, implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, deeply cultivate literary and artistic creation for young people and universal aesthetic education, and contribute to cultivating socialist builders and successors who develop comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor."
Ma Jun, principal of Hujialou Central Primary School in Chaoyang District, Beijing, said that in deeply studying and implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important congratulatory letter, we should use forms that children love and enjoy to integrate the excellent traditional Chinese culture into daily education and teaching, enlightening wisdom and nourishing the heart.
"As an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage skills, I will strive to deeply cultivate the fertile soil of children's culture." Li Mei, inheritor of the Beijing Fanlihua (turned-over flower) making technique, said, "We have designed hands-on experience courses so that children can feel the charm of the excellent traditional Chinese culture through practical activities, promoting the passing down of old crafts from generation to generation."
Create excellent works with heart and soul
Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment, everyone expressed that they should create more children's literary and artistic works with substance and childlike charm, and use the best spiritual nourishment to nurture the healthy growth of children.
"General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter has made me more determined to create good stories for children." Li Ling, former deputy editor-in-chief of Beijing Children's Publishing House, said, "I started listening to 'Little Trumpet' when I was 4 years old. After retirement, I continue to listen to 'Little Trumpet' with my grandson. In the future, I will continue writing continuously and tirelessly (笔耕不辍, bi geng bu e - "pen, plow, not, stop") and create more good works."
Tang Hongbo, head of the General Education Section of the Education and Sports Bureau of Shengzhou City, Zhejiang Province, said: "We will deepen the 'Art Nurtures Beauty' initiative, rely on digital empowerment to create brand activities such as campus art festivals integrating online and offline, opera entering campuses, and intangible cultural heritage inheritance workshops, so that aesthetic education permeates campuses and cultural confidence takes root and grows in children's hearts."
Ge Dali, president of the China National Theatre for Children, said that the theater deeply cultivates children's literary and artistic creation and continuously polishes excellent dramatic works with thoughtful content, childlike expression, and genuine appeal to children. "We must adhere to making art benefit the people and educating through beauty, promote high-quality children's theater to step out of the theater and go to the grassroots, and deliver more high-quality works to the vast number of children and young people."
Yang Chengcheng, council member of the Children's Work Committee of the China Film Association and film director, said: "We need excellent children's cultural carriers like 'Little Trumpet,' and we also need more excellent children's books and children's films to continuously enrich the spiritual world of children and young people."
Duan Jiaqiang, general manager of CITIC Press Group, said: "We will deeply cultivate the three major fields of excellent traditional Chinese culture, children's science popularization, and children's literature, integrate the themes of the times into the creation of children's books, and let good books spread truth, goodness, and beauty and nourish the spiritual world of children and young people."
Hai Fei, former president of China Children's Press and Publication House and children's literature writer, said: "We must follow the direction pointed out by General Secretary Xi Jinping, publish more excellent reading materials, and strive to open up a new situation in the development of the children's book publishing industry."
Help children and young people grow into talents
Earnest expectations are inspiring and motivating people to move forward (催人奋进, cui ren fen jin - "urge, person, strive, advance"). Everyone expressed that the growth and development of children and young people is a systematic project that requires all parties to work in the same direction and form a joint force.
"Literature and art can enlighten the soul. General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter points out the direction for children's literary and artistic undertakings and children's literary and artistic education." Mai Feng, principal of Huangchenggen Primary School in Xicheng District, Beijing, said, "We will deeply cultivate the fertile soil of campus arts and sports, and let truth, goodness, and beauty fill the spiritual world of children."
"We will solidly advance the six major projects of the Young Pioneers on the new journey—'Sowing, Strengthening Seedlings, Safeguarding, Strengthening Teachers, Building Foundations, and Gathering Strength'—extensively carry out healthy and uplifting cultural and artistic practice activities, better educate people through culture, enlighten wisdom and nourish the heart, and lead the vast number of Young Pioneers to run the historical relay race well on the new journey. This is our glorious mission and task." Li Hui, director of the Youth Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and executive deputy director of the National Young Pioneers Working Committee, said.
Yi Xuelei, director of the Management Center of the Former Residence of Soong Ching Ling, said: "We must bear in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest entrustment, continue to give play to our distinctive advantages, and strive to cultivate more young envoys in the field of international communication."
"We will design more educational activities that fit the cognitive characteristics of young people, promote the strengthening of care and protection for minors, and let every child grow up healthily and develop comprehensively in an environment full of care." He Ling, professor in the Department of Youth Work at the Central School of the Communist Youth League, said.
(Reporters Zhang He, Wu Dan, Wang Jue, Geng Lei, Zheng Hai'ou, Ding Yasong, He Siqi, Yang Hao, and Li Zhuo'er of this newspaper participated in the writing and reporting)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 武卫政 李家鼎
In the early autumn season, "Tangyuan" (樘院) at No. 5 Dali Road, Heping District, Tianjin, welcomed many visitors. Accompanied by a photographer, Armenian student Shira posed for photos against the gray bricks and dark tiles, saying, "The Chinese-style courtyard has deepened my understanding of this city — the more I understand it, the more I love it!"
In the Five Avenues historical and cultural district, "Tangyuan" is a distinctive Chinese traditional building, yet it once sat idle for nearly 20 years. To transform "dormant resources" into "active assets," Tianjin Urban Construction Investment Group organized the repair and protection of the building itself, introducing dining, leisure, art performance, and other business formats. In the two-plus years since opening, it has attracted nearly 3 million visitors cumulatively, with operating revenue exceeding 18 million yuan.
In February 2024, during his inspection of Tianjin, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Actively implement urban renewal actions, enhance development potential, optimize development space, and continuously improve the city's business formats, functions, and quality." In December of the same year, at the Central Economic Work Conference, the General Secretary pointed out: "We must properly balance the relationship between optimizing increments and revitalizing existing stock, comprehensively improving the efficiency of resource allocation."
To thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, Tianjin has made the high-quality advancement of urban renewal a key lever in its urban modernization drive, making vigorous efforts to revitalize the city's existing stock resources, and striving to optimize increments and improve quality in the process of revitalizing stock.
Balancing revitalization and protection, preserving the city's memory.
Red-brick factory buildings stand in the sunlight, old machine tools have been transformed into landscape installations... The "Jinyi PARK" (津一PARK) park, formerly the Tianjin No. 1 Machine Tool General Factory, has attracted many citizens and tourists for sightseeing and leisure. Relying on this industrial heritage site, the park has cumulatively received millions of visitors.
How did the once-silent industrial "rust belt" transform into a cultural "show belt" carrying the city's memory?
"We do not engage in indiscriminate large-scale demolition and construction (大拆大建, da chai da jian - "big, demolish, big, build"); we adhere to protection-oriented development," said the relevant person in charge of Tianjin TEDA Urban Renewal Construction and Development Co., Ltd. The project developer has established complete archives for 194 buildings, 12 distinctive structures, and 53 machine tool installations; during construction, low-damage reinforcement techniques were innovatively applied, using high-ductility concrete to repair mottled brick walls.
Possessing a wealth of existing stock resources such as industrial heritage sites and historic-style buildings, Tianjin adheres to protection first, restoring old buildings to their original appearance (修旧如旧, xiu jiu ru jiu - "repair, old, as, old"), and adaptive reuse, gradually building a layered, categorized, city-wide coordinated protection and revitalization system. To date, Tianjin has cumulatively revitalized over 16 million square meters of various types of real estate.
Promoting business format upgrades, ensuring revitalization is effective.
On every holiday, Jili Building in Heping District is bustling. Yang Lu, a 22-year-old citizen, went out with friends and spent most of the day browsing, saying, "Anime merchandise, trendy toys, second-hand boutique items... there's always something new to discover every time!"
This veteran shopping mall, carrying the memories of Tianjin citizens, once fell into an operational trough several years ago.
Using stock renewal to force business format transformation. Tianjin State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd. led the building's renovation, focusing on trendy toys and cultural creativity, first-store openings, and nighttime consumption, systematically reshaping the building's circulation routes, scene experiences, and commercial formats. Today, Jili Building's sales per square meter have grown by nearly 200%; average daily foot traffic has reached 16,000 visits, a significant increase compared to before the renovation.
Linking "scenic areas, campuses, neighborhoods, and communities," Tianmei Art District has revitalized idle buildings to create a new space for trendy art consumption; Jinwan Plaza has become a diversified urban cluster integrating performances and consumption experiences... Tianjin has focused on improving the match between existing stock space and market demand. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, it cumulatively promoted the completion of business format upgrades for 274 commercial facilities covering over 2.4 million square meters. In 2025, Tianjin's revitalization of existing stock resources and assets generated revenue exceeding 66 billion yuan.
Strengthening institutional safeguards, jointly clearing bottlenecks.
In May this year, the Tianjin Artificial Intelligence Sensor Industrial Park in Jinnan District opened, with the first batch of 10 enterprises signing contracts on site. "After the project is fully operational, annual output value is expected to reach 2.2 billion yuan, creating more than 3,000 jobs," said Xu Dongwei, director of the Jinnan District Development and Reform Commission. This 146-mu industrial land had been idle for more than 10 years; the original rights holder was mired in debt with complex ownership disputes, and traditional acquisition, storage, and transfer paths were all unworkable.
Market-based means broke the deadlock. Led by a district-owned state enterprise in Jinnan District, a professional operator was introduced, equity restructuring was lawfully completed, and real estate registration procedures were simultaneously finalized. With statutory rights and responsibilities throughout the entire process and a closed-loop workflow, the land parcel was successfully revitalized.
"As one of the first national pilot cities for redevelopment of inefficient land, we are actively exploring policy and institutional safeguards for revitalizing existing stock resources," introduced Chen Yong, director of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources. The Tianjin Urban Renewal Regulations, the supporting policy for promoting the redevelopment of inefficient land and revitalizing existing stock resources (2026 edition), and other documents have been successively issued, setting rules and clarifying pathways for the revitalization of all categories of existing stock resources, including inefficient land, old factory buildings, and historic-style buildings. Since 2024, Tianjin has cumulatively resolved more than 200 bottleneck issues in revitalization work, such as certificate processing and ownership changes.
Following the direction charted by General Secretary Xi Jinping, Tianjin is unswervingly taking the path of connotative development, coordinating the revitalization and utilization of existing stock resources with urban renewal, continuously enhancing the city's development potential and staying power, and striving to deliver a new answer sheet of high-quality development in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 田豆豆
In early September, tower cranes stood tall at the construction site of the Nanhu Training Hall of Central China Normal University. Zhang Fei, who in previous years had always worked at high altitudes, now sat in an operating room facing six large screens. With a slight turn of the control lever, the tower crane simultaneously hoisted building materials, rising and moving to the designated position.
Zhang Fei was originally a migrant worker from Huanggang, Hubei. In July of last year, he participated in hands-on training for the intelligent centralized control system for tower cranes at China Construction Third Engineering Bureau. After completing the course, he passed the recruitment examination and became a "5G tower crane" operator. "With new technology, it's easier to find a job, and my wages have increased too."
In November 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during his inspection of Hubei: "Adhere to making steady progress in all directions (齐头并进, qi tou bing jin - "even, head; even, head") in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the cultivation and growth of emerging and future industries." In April 2018, the General Secretary pointed out during his inspection of Hubei: "Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, accelerate the development of emerging industries, and strengthen new momentum for economic development" and "strengthen all-round employment services."
Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions, Hubei has implemented the "Skills Revitalize Jingchu" project, transforming from "industry first, employment follows" to "integrated planning and synchronous growth of industry and employment," matching the transformation of the industrial structure, and taking multiple measures to promote high-quality and full employment.
Industry and employment grow in tandem——
In recent years, Hubei's emerging industries have developed rapidly. In the first half of this year, the added value of Hubei's high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 36.8 percent year on year.
New industries give rise to new occupations, and demand for jobs in fields such as artificial intelligence and life and health has surged. Opening this year's Hubei guidance catalog of occupations (types of work) in urgent and short supply of skilled talent for key industries, many new occupations such as industrial robot system operators, artificial intelligence trainers, and network and information security administrators are included.
Precise guidance stems from solid research. Starting in 2025, Hubei has used a combination of online and offline methods to survey and map 210,000 enterprises and 5.7 million person-times, forming a guidance catalog to guide all localities in making employment matches.
There is both proactive guidance and door-to-door service. Hubei not only conducts pre-assessments of labor demand before major projects land, but also has 1,592 service specialists entering more than a thousand key enterprises to proactively identify labor gaps, deliver policies to their doorsteps, and organize targeted recruitment, cumulatively helping to resolve the employment of 84,400 people.
This year, Hubei will collect and release 1 million job positions suitable for college graduates, hold successive special campaigns of "One Hundred Counties Enter One Hundred Universities Linking Ten Thousand Enterprises," and organize 2,000 campus recruitment and employment service activities of various types.
The talent chain is embedded in the industrial chain——
Who knows best what skilled talent new industries need? The front line does.
Inside the Central China Artificial Intelligence Data Annotation Center of Jiangnan Science and Technology Innovation Park in Dianjun District, Yichang City, about 200 data annotators were busily at work, and Xiong Mingjie was one of them.
"We use markers of different colors and shapes to annotate elements such as motor vehicles, non-motor vehicles, and human bodies in images, so that autonomous vehicles can clearly recognize them." After graduating from a junior college, Xiong Mingjie heard that data annotators were needed here, so he enrolled in the "enterprise-customized" skills training at the Yichang Dandelion Vocational Training School in the park, and immediately took up a post at an enterprise in the park after completing the training.
Carrying out project-based training oriented to enterprise needs has delivered a large number of new-occupation talents such as industrial robot system operators and artificial intelligence trainers to the front line of Yichang's emerging industries. Last year, Yichang carried out 56,000 person-times of subsidized training, of which project-based training accounted for 13,000 person-times.
Workers gain skills, skills increase income, and enterprises increase efficiency. As of the end of July, Hubei had completed 278,500 person-times of subsidized skills training this year. It has implemented an action to enhance artificial intelligence technology skills, carrying out special training for new quality productive forces of no fewer than 100,000 person-times each year, cultivating new-type skilled talent for emerging and future industries.
Policies provide solid support——
On the test flight field, trainees remotely controlled various types of drones soaring up and down; in the practical training base, trainees skillfully operated robotic arms... From April to May this year, Wuchang Vocational College held skills training classes for drone pilots and industrial robot system operators specifically for key groups such as urban registered unemployed persons.
"The new policy this year requires that if the employment and entrepreneurship rate after project-based training is below 30 percent, the subsidy standard is halved; if it reaches 70 percent, the subsidy can be doubled at most. The policy guides us to go to enterprises to learn and visit, and to cultivate industrial talent precisely for enterprises," said Fang Xudong, deputy dean of the School of Vocational and Continuing Education at Wuchang Vocational College.
To guide unemployed groups to transfer to jobs in key industries, Hubei has deepened reform, incorporating occupations (types of work) needed by key industries such as artificial intelligence, the low-altitude economy, new energy vehicles, optoelectronic information, and modern services into the subsidy catalog, reshaping subsidy policy with the employment rate as the orientation. For occupations (types of work) included in the annual urgent and short-supply list, the unemployment insurance skills upgrade subsidy is implemented at the highest standard of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Striving forward into the 15th Five-Year Plan, Hubei is thoroughly implementing the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, continuing to make the promotion of high-quality and full employment a priority goal of economic and social development, strengthening the coordination of industry and employment, letting employment "grow" on industry, implementing the plan to promote employment through advanced manufacturing, expanding the main channel of employment absorption in the service industry, tapping the employment potential of emerging fields, and promoting the healthy development of flexible employment and new forms of employment.
Return to Top(People's Daily, Beijing, September 5) (Reporter Liu Wenxin) On September 5, a mudslide and landslide occurred in Shixia Group, Mingkeng Village, Gaoping Town, Suichuan County, Jiangxi Province. The Ministry of Emergency Management immediately dispatched and deployed rescue and disaster-relief operations, requiring all-out efforts to search for and rescue trapped personnel, verify and clarify the number of casualties and missing persons, dispatch nearby communications support and engineering rescue teams and equipment, organize rescue personnel to advance into the disaster area as soon as possible, strengthen hydrological and geological disaster monitoring and early warning, carry out rescue operations scientifically, and strictly prevent secondary disasters.
The National Commission for Disaster Reduction and Relief and the Ministry of Emergency Management activated a Level IV national natural disaster relief emergency response, activated a Level IV national geological disaster emergency response, dispatched a working group to rush to the scene to guide rescue and disposal operations, and dispatched the National Work Safety Rescue Team's emergency survey team carrying equipment such as slope radar to rush to the scene to participate in the rescue. Local fire departments have dispatched 41 vehicles and 224 personnel to the scene for disposal, and surrounding communications and reconnaissance drones have taken off and are heading to the scene.
Return to TopIn September 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote to representatives of national outstanding teachers, first proposing the distinctive educator spirit of China — the ideal and conviction of bearing the nation in one's heart and serving the country with utmost sincerity, the moral sentiment of words serving as models for scholars and conduct serving as examples for the world, the educational wisdom of enlightening the mind, nourishing the heart, and teaching students according to their individual needs (因材施教, yin cai shi jiao - "cause, talent, apply, teach"), the diligent attitude of studying diligently, acting earnestly, seeking truth, and innovating, the benevolent heart of delighting in teaching, loving students, and willingly dedicating oneself, and the pursuit of promoting the Way by embracing the world and transforming people through culture.
Teachers are like light; though subtle, it reaches far. The educator spirit is vividly embodied in the daily life of every teacher: in the late nights of preparing each lesson, in each heartfelt conversation with students, in the perseverance and breakthroughs when facing confusion. As the 42nd Teachers' Day approaches, in this issue of the Education section, we listen together to the accounts of six teachers, and in their true and plain words, feel the warmth and strength of the educator spirit.
— Edi tor
The ideal and conviction of bearing the nation in one's heart and serving the country with utmost sincerity
The "Three Questions on Patriotism" are the spiritual foundation
Chen Jun
I am a teacher at Nankai University and also a scientific researcher exploring the field of new energy batteries. From the moment I stepped onto the Nankai campus, the resounding "Three Questions on Patriotism" — "Are you Chinese? Do you love China? Are you willing China to be good?" — were imprinted on my heart. They are my spiritual foundation and the source of strength for me to lead my team in tackling difficulties and overcoming challenges.
Core technologies in key fields cannot be bought, begged, or demanded. Batteries are the heart of electric vehicles, the source of power, the foundation of energy storage, and the wings of low-altitude aviation. The continuous innovation and technological iteration of batteries are an urgent need for developing major national equipment, embodied intelligent robots, and other new quality productive forces. Anchored on the world's scientific and technological frontiers and the national energy strategic needs, my team and I have launched one assault after another.
In 2025, our new energy battery teacher team was selected as a "National University Huang Danian-style Teacher Team." Guided by "bearing the nation in one's heart and serving the country with utmost sincerity," young teachers under 45 account for two-thirds of the team, and nearly 80 percent are members of the Communist Party of China, deeply engaged in the front lines of teaching, research, and education.
Innovation depends on talent. In 2019, we established a special class in new energy science and engineering, with young teachers as the main body, compiled textbooks in the field of "new energy science and engineering," and used big data, digital media, the internet, and other technologies to build digital textbooks and knowledge graphs, making the textbooks and teaching methods more attractive.
We encourage young people to take on major responsibilities and dare to venture into "uncharted territory." Driven by interest, the team's young teachers and students jointly tackle key problems. Starting from source innovation in electrolytes, they broke the inherent understanding of oxygen-coordinated electrolytes, discovered a new fluorine-coordinated mechanism, and created new electrolytes and lithium battery systems — the results are inspiring.
Many students said at graduation: "Teacher, what truly influenced us was not just the knowledge imparted in the classroom, but also opening a window that let us see and understand the outside world, learn to understand the nation's needs, and continuously explore and pursue."
What we hope to pass on to students is precisely this kind of family-country sentiment, global vision, practical ability, and innovative spirit, enabling them to grow into pillars of talent for Chinese modernization.
(The author is Executive Vice President of Nankai University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
The moral sentiment of words serving as models for scholars and conduct serving as examples for the world
Being a role model for students through every word and deed
Zhang Yan
I am a teacher of ideological and political theory courses, having taught for nearly 20 years. How to teach ideological and political courses well, and how to make ideological and political education truly enter students' hearts? My answer is: a teacher should enlighten with words and set an example with deeds, helping students find the course of their lives.
Only when students are close to their teacher can they believe in their teacher's Way. I often tell my students, "Whatever I ask you to do, I will do first myself."
My graduate students and I have a habit we have maintained for many years: every working day at 8:30 a.m., we take turns giving an online reading sharing session of about 15 minutes. I participate fully every time, widely recommending books, and commenting on students' sharing from the perspectives of research viewpoints, use of literature, and argumentation logic.
One student told me: "Every week I have the opportunity to discuss with my teacher, exercise academic thinking, and explore life topics — I have gained a lot." The student's words made me feel that a teacher's words and deeds are powerful — when I do what I say, students are convinced; when I practice what I preach, students are willing to follow.
Facing choices about the future, students often have the troubles of growing up. So I tell them the stories of their predecessors at Zhejiang University.
During the war-torn years of Zhejiang University's westward relocation, Mr. Zhu Kezhen led the entire faculty and student body through arduous journeys, insisting on holding classes in broken temples and ancestral halls, embodying what "conviction" means; Mr. Chang Shuhong, seeing Dunhuang cultural relics lost abroad, could not sleep at night, gave up a comfortable life, and resolutely decided to return to China to guard the thousand-year cultural lineage... When I tell these stories, many students' eyes well up with tears.
What gratifies me is that among the graduates I have taught, some have long been rooted in grassroots townships, some have spread China's fine traditional culture to all parts of the world... Through their respective choices and perseverance, they have told me that a teacher's every word and deed is never silent; they will eventually echo in students' lives and illuminate more people. As a teacher, only by continuously cultivating virtue and cultivating oneself, and achieving unity of knowledge and action (知行合一, zhi xing he yi - "know, do, combine, one"), can one truly become a guide for students.
(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Zhejiang University)
The educational wisdom of enlightening the mind, nourishing the heart, and teaching students according to their individual needs
Becoming confidants of the children
Ding Meizhen
Having worked in inclusive education for 25 years, I am committed to one thing: making those children who are a little different seen, understood, and illuminated.
Once, a principal made an urgent call: a first-grade new student was screaming in the classroom, and the teachers had no way to handle it. I rushed over immediately. After assessment, I found that this child was extremely sensitive to high-frequency sounds — like the rustling of turning pages, the humming of fluorescent light ballasts, the sound of air conditioner outdoor units running. These sounds, which ordinary people take for granted, were unbearable torment in his ears.
I told the teacher to gently hug him from behind and soothe him little by little with steady strength. Slowly, the student calmed down. Subsequently, we customized noise-canceling headphones and a desensitization plan for him. A month later, he was able to sit quietly in the classroom and listen to lessons.
This incident made me realize that many of the "problem behaviors" we perceive are actually pain that children cannot express. We must become confidants of these silent children.
So we built a cloud support platform where teachers in regular schools can call the special education center with one click, and we immediately conduct observation and assessment in the cloud and provide support.
For some children's growth, being "understood" alone is not enough; they also need our trust and companionship year after year.
Xiao Tang is a child with Down syndrome. I still remember the day of new student registration, when his mother asked: "Can my child go to school together with ordinary children?" Behind this worry is a parent's expectation of quality inclusive education.
We customized an individualized education plan for Xiao Tang, accompanied him in language rehabilitation, and gradually integrated him into the group. Last year, Xiao Tang told me that he had stood on the stage of the United Nations and told his story to the world in English. He said: "I want to tell everyone that being different can also be wonderful."
On the road to quality education, not one can be left behind. Helping every child in need become a better version of themselves — this is our conviction and the value of inclusive education.
(The author is Director of the Special Education Guidance Center of Hongkou District, Shanghai, and Vice Principal of Miyun School, Hongkou District)
The diligent attitude of studying diligently, acting earnestly, seeking truth, and innovating
Guarding the original aspiration of vocational education with craftsmanship
Yang Yang
I am a vocational education teacher. At first, I thought this job was not difficult — just explain the textbook clearly. However, the moment I truly walked into the workshop, I realized that this path was far more difficult than I had imagined.
The first time I taught "changing a tire," when I lifted the wheel, my legs were trembling, my whole body was swaying, and I almost cried. How could I teach students when I was like this myself?
So I immersed myself in the training room, "wrestling" with wheels weighing thirty or forty jin. For a whole week, my clothes were wet then dry, dry then wet, leaving patches of sweat stains; my palms blistered, and at night the pain kept me awake...
When I walked into the workshop again, among a group of boys a head taller than me, a series of movements — mounting the machine, pressing the tire, prying the tire — were done in one continuous motion without interruption (一气呵成, yi qi he cheng - "one, breath, complete, achieve"), and everyone was stunned. After class, a student slipped me a note that read: "Sister Yang, we admire you. From now on, we'll study hard with you!"
At that moment, my nose tingled and my heart felt especially warm. In the more than ten years since, accompanying students in the workshop to adjust equipment and crawling under vehicles to troubleshoot faults have become my daily routine.
With the rapid development of the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry, I led my team to devote ourselves to the high-skilled talent cluster cultivation plan in the new energy vehicle field and undertook the construction of digital textbooks for experimental courses.
At the beginning, what lay before us was an "uncharted territory": no materials, no experience, no templates, no standards. What to do?
Over two years, we made more than 100 trips to enterprises, learning on the job at the production front line. On countless nights, everyone buried themselves at their desks, transforming practical materials into teaching content, deliberating over every word and sentence. Because we understand that the life of a vocational education textbook must flow with the blood of industry.
In addition to deeply engaging in teaching, I have also devoted myself to researching automotive intelligent detection technology, leading nearly 20 projects including National Natural Science Foundation of China and enterprise technology projects, bringing batches of teachers and students to the forefront of industry, and honing skills through practice.
Vocational education concerns the growth of children and the future of industry. I will continue to work hard, guarding the original aspiration with craftsmanship, illuminating lives with skills, and contributing to the building of a strong education nation.
(The author is a professor at the School of Vehicle Engineering, Chongqing Vocational and Technical University of Industry)
The benevolent heart of delighting in teaching, loving students, and willingly dedicating oneself
Love illuminates the path of highland children chasing their dreams
Yang Maoji
I have been a teacher for 30 years now. My deepest feeling is that a good teacher must use love to cultivate love, inspire love, and spread love.
I still remember a winter 20 years ago. Early on a Saturday morning, I saw Xiao Hao at the school gate. I asked him why he wasn't going home. He lowered his head and said quietly: "The bus fare is 5 yuan; I need to save money." When I unzipped his school uniform, inside was a shabby sweater, without even an undergarment. At that moment, I secretly resolved: I must never let a child drop out of school because of family financial difficulties.
I took Xiao Hao to my home, bought him clothes and shoes, washed his clothes, and cooked for him. Later, Xiao Hao was admitted to China University of Political Science and Law, and after graduation he chose to return to his hometown to work. Now, he often visits me with his wife and children, saying: "You are not my mother, but you are even better than a mother."
There are many more such stories — in my home, there is a bedroom my daughter calls the "student dormitory," where nine children have lived over the years. Some experienced family upheavals, some were frail and sickly. I helped take care of their lives, accompanied them as they grew, and sent them one by one through the gates of university.
Achieving success for one child is not easy, so how can we achieve success for millions of children and change millions of families? I realized that this requires the joint efforts of schools, families, and society. At my urging, the Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County in Qinghai, where I work, established a government-led institution for the co-education of family, school, and society. We formed expert teams to bring scientific family education concepts into thousands of households.
My students often call me "Mother Maoji" or "Teacher Mom." I also frequently receive messages from graduates saying, "Teacher, I miss you," "I dreamed of my teacher last night"... Whenever this happens, I feel especially happy.
What gratifies me most is that this love is being passed on and continued. A student I once sponsored, Tingting, was admitted to Shaanxi Normal University as a publicly funded normal student. She said, "I want to be like you — a good teacher who deeply loves her students."
I am willing to continue being the children's "Teacher Mom," guarding their growth and illuminating the dream-chasing path of more highland children.
(The author is a teacher at No. 2 Complete Middle School of Datong Hui and Tu Autonomous County, Qinghai Province)
The pursuit of promoting the Way by embracing the world and transforming people through culture
Mathematics MOOCs can also tell China's story well
Ma Yuchun
How many students can a teacher have? Walking on campus or on business trips elsewhere, I often encounter Chinese and foreign students I do not recognize who greet me warmly: "Teacher Ma, I've watched your 'Combinatorics' MOOC!"
Over the years, with technological progress, I have explored using MOOCs to let teaching cross mountains and seas, and have also gained many students at the other end of the screen. In the classroom, they together appreciate the beauty of mathematics and understand the crystallization of thousands of years of human wisdom behind formulas and proofs.
In 2014, the "Combinatorics" course I taught went online as one of the first batch of MOOCs in China, and the course now has more than 80,000 learners. In the process of producing the MOOC, I have also felt increasingly clearly that "Combinatorics" contains Chinese civilization and wisdom that deserve better dissemination. For example, the "Yang Hui triangle" or "Jia Xian triangle" we are familiar with is often called "Pascal's triangle" in foreign textbooks, but in fact this concept was proposed very early in China. To let the world see this Eastern wisdom, we also produced an all-English MOOC and launched it on an international MOOC platform. The English MOOC now has more than 20,000 learners worldwide, who together witness the course going global and becoming a bridge for cross-cultural exchange.
In the English MOOC, we use the story of Han Xin counting soldiers to introduce the Chinese remainder theorem, use the Hetu and Luoshu to connect with modern encryption algorithms, use the yin-yang line changes of the Eight Trigrams to show the exquisite symmetry of combinatorial structures, and use three-dimensional shapes such as traditional lanterns to explain the mysteries of equivalence classes in group theory... A classic mathematics course has also become a vehicle for telling China's story well. I have also received emails and comments from many foreign learners, who say the videos are very interesting and that they can learn a lot.
Teachers are engineers of the human soul and inheritors of human civilization; they must promote the common values of all humanity. I will continue to uphold the original aspiration of education, innovate teaching methods, spread knowledge with warmth, let the classroom reach broader horizons, guide more students to draw nourishment from the wisdom and spirit of the sages, and let the flower of mathematics, the flower of wisdom, and the flower of culture continue endlessly without cessation (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, stop").
(The author is a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University)
The articles on this page were compiled by our reporters Ding Yasong, Wu Yue, and Yan Yiqiao; all photos were provided by the interviewees.
Return to TopBy: 吴 丹
Another Teachers' Day has arrived—happy Teachers' Day to all teachers!
September 10 is a date that evokes memories across the entire nation. Recently, the Political and Cultural Department of the People's Daily, together with the Teacher Work Division of the Ministry of Education, launched a nationwide co-creation campaign, inviting everyone to sing one song together "in the cloud." After the campaign went online, netizens participated enthusiastically. Some posted long-cherished photos of teachers and students in the comments section, freezing the warmth of their youth; others wrote sincere words, recalling the exhortations and encouragement of their mentors from years past.
A single holiday capable of evoking such broad and sincere emotion is enough to show the weight the two characters "teacher" carry in people's hearts. A hundred-year plan begins with education; the plan for education begins with teachers. Generation after generation of teachers have nurtured and influenced others through gentle education (春风化雨, chun feng hua yu - "spring wind, transform, rain"), enlightened wisdom, forged souls, and nurtured talent, passing on civilization, illuminating with the lamp of education the magnificent journey of national rejuvenation.
This year's Teachers' Day theme is "Vigorously Promote the Spirit of Educators and Jointly Build a Culture of Respecting Teachers and Valuing Education." Perhaps not everyone can become an educator, but the spirit of educators belongs to every education worker.
Su Donglin, a professor at Beihang University, led her team to break through "bottleneck" technologies, pioneering an electromagnetic compatibility design system, with over 95% of the doctoral students she trained entering the main battlefield of national and national defense construction. For her, serving the country through scientific research is a mission etched into her bones. This is "having a great self in one's heart and serving the country with utmost sincerity."
"People's Educator" Gao Mingxuan, at over 90 years of age, gave a lecture for young teachers. The night before the lecture, he revised his draft until 2 a.m. "Every time the audience is different, so of course the lecture notes must be reorganized." The gentleman's rigorous, meticulous, and extremely meticulous and careful (一丝不苟, yi si bu gou - "one, thread, not, catch") attitude is precisely "setting an example through words and deeds (言为士则、行为世范, yan wei shi ze, xing wei shi fan - "speech, act, as, scholar, model")."
A principal in Zhejiang, Zhang Zhenle, takes children to plant vegetables, cook, and watch birds in the fields. Some worry this will delay their studies. Zhang Zhenle says: "I hope that when our children see wild chrysanthemums, they can also feel their hearts stir, and when they hear birdsong, they can also stop in their tracks." Education is not only about scores; it is also about seeing life and feeling life. This is "teaching students according to their individual aptitudes (因材施教, yin cai shi jiao - "according to, talent, carry out, teaching") and enlightening wisdom and nourishing hearts."
There are still more people who study hard and act with determination (勤学笃行, qin xue du xing - "diligent, study, earnest, practice") and seek truth and innovate, guarding skills with craftsmanship; who love teaching and care for students (乐教爱生, le jiao ai sheng - "happy, teach, love, student") and willingly make selfless contributions (甘于奉献, gan yu feng xian - "willing, at, devote, contribute"), doing their utmost to lift children out of the mountains; who have a broad-minded vision for the whole world (胸怀天下, xiong huai tian xia - "chest, hold, all, under, heaven") and educate and transform people through culture (以文化人, yi wen hua ren - "use, culture, transform, people"), closely linking the podium with national development.
They are the rehabilitation teachers in special education classes who repeat the same pronunciation over and over again, the homeroom teachers who soothe their own children to sleep late at night while grading homework, the rural teachers who travel back and forth over rugged mountain roads to make home visits... Their names may not be known, but the moment they walk into the classroom and face the shining eyes of the children, the spirit of educators resides in their hearts. Raising the spiritual banner of nurturing talent is not a slogan; it is a firm choice.
Teachers' Day lasts only one day, but respecting teachers and valuing education should be practiced every day. It is embodied in the trust and understanding of daily life: give teachers more trust and less blame; give education more rationality and less anxiety; give schools more tolerance and less interference. Every teacher who toils at the lectern deserves to be seen and treated well. The steadfastness of every three-foot podium gathers solid strength for the great cause of building a strong country and the rejuvenation of the nation.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 陈 然
Early on the morning of August 15, crowds surged outside the "Giant Panda Adventure" pavilion at Ocean Park Hong Kong. Visitors wearing panda headbands looked on with anticipation, while children clutching hand-drawn cards could barely contain their excitement, standing on tiptoe to peer ahead. That day marked the second birthday of "Jia Jia" and "De De," Hong Kong's first pair of locally born giant panda twins. The two chubby, round panda cubs hugged their specially made "birthday cake" and munched away with relish, while their mother "Ying Ying" kept watch nearby, drawing a steady stream of photos from visitors.
Since the start of this year, Hong Kong's tourism market has continued its growth momentum. Data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board shows that from January to July this year, Hong Kong received approximately 31.22 million visitor arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 11 percent; in the first half of the year, more than 130 mega events attracted approximately 1.75 million visitors to participate, generating about HK$5.8 billion in consumption. One after another, brilliant and varied activities (精彩纷呈, jing cai fen cheng - "splendid, colorful, varied") have made Hong Kong increasingly "fun."
Exhibition economy continues to heat up
From July 15 to 21, the 36th Hong Kong Book Fair was held concurrently with the Hong Kong Sports and Leisure Expo and the Snack World, with more than 770 exhibitors from about 30 countries and regions participating, attracting approximately 990,000 visits in total.
After nightfall, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre bustled with people. The fragrance of books filled the air as young readers lingered over novels, comics, and science fiction titles, while parents accompanied their children in choosing picture books, savoring the leisurely pleasure that reading brings. Zhao Xiaotao, a tourist from Hebei, came with his wife and daughter. "At past 9 p.m., there were still so many readers at the Hong Kong Book Fair. It let me appreciate the city's rich literary heritage."
The book fair's layout was original and ingenious in design (别具匠心, bie ju jiang xin - "possess, unique, craftsman, heart"). Wan Li Book Company Limited arranged its booth as scenes such as a "siu mei stall" and a "cart noodle stall" to promote food-related books, making the familiar flavors of the city part of the reading experience. "Home cooking books are widely popular, and the World Cup craze has also boosted sales of football-themed titles," said Leung Cheuk Lun, deputy chief editor of Wan Li Book Company Limited.
A survey by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council showed that respondents spent an average of HK$923 at the book fair, and 98.2 percent of respondents said the visit met their expectations.
The book fair had barely concluded when the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre welcomed food enthusiasts once again. In mid-August, the Food Expo, Beauty & Wellness Expo, Home & Lifestyle Expo, Food Expo PRO, and Hong Kong International Tea Fair were held, with the five exhibitions together attracting more than 520,000 visits, setting a new record. Inside the halls, long queues formed at tasting booths, and visitors carrying shopping bags moved between different exhibition zones with great interest.
The heat of the exhibition economy reflects the vitality of tourism consumption. Data from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government shows that in the first half of this year, Hong Kong's total retail sales value increased by 9.6 percent year on year, recording year-on-year growth for 14 consecutive months; in June, the sales value of jewelry, watches and clocks, and valuable gifts grew by 20.1 percent year on year, with tourism-consumption-related categories performing strongly.
Rhinoceros iguanas resembling miniature dinosaurs, Yao Mountain crocodile lizards quietly perched on branches, and panther chameleons with nearly 360-degree vision... In late August, the "Reptile Exploration Base," a reptile-themed pavilion at Ocean Park Hong Kong, officially opened, drawing many visitors to Hong Kong who came specially to see it.
"I originally thought reptiles would be frightening, but after observing them up close, I found them very interesting," said Natalie, a visitor from Canada, with a smile. Inside the pavilion, interactive displays and explanations introduced animal habits and biodiversity conservation in a way that was explaining profound concepts in simple terms (深入浅出, shen ru qian chu - "deep, enter; shallow, go out"), giving many visitors, especially children, a vivid natural science lesson amid their sightseeing.
Sports mega events ignite the whole city
On the evening of August 1, the main venue of Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong shone with brilliant lights, as the cheers of tens of thousands of fans rose and fell in succession (此起彼伏, ci qi bi fu - "this, rise; that, fall"), making one feel extremely excited or enthusiastic (热血沸腾, re xue fei teng - "hot, blood, boil, surge"). The opening match of the 2026 Hong Kong Football Gala kicked off, with Manchester City and Inter Milan competing before 43,000 fans.
"With such a wonderful international-level match being held right here in Hong Kong, I had to come and watch. Tonight was totally worth it!" said Mr. Zhu, a resident of Zhuhai, Guangdong, who had specially arranged to come to Hong Kong with several fellow football fans to watch the game, visibly thrilled. On the pitch, the two sides were level after 90 minutes of regulation time, before the match went to a penalty shootout, in which Inter Milan ultimately prevailed. Even after the final whistle, the fervent cheers from the stands lingered for a long time, with many fans feeling that something was not yet enough (意犹未尽, yi you wei jin - "meaning, still, have, not, end").
Leaving the stadium, the Kai Tak area was brightly lit with many lights (灯火通明, deng huo tong ming - "lamp, fire, through, bright"), with restaurants, shopping malls, and street crowds intermingling. It is understood that during the 2026 Hong Kong Football Gala and the "Audi Summer Tour," the three football matches together attracted more than 120,000 spectators.
On Lantau Island, the 2026 World Fencing Championships drew many visitors, marking the first time Hong Kong hosted this world-class fencing event. From July 22 to 30, fierce competition took place at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong. At either end of the piste, athletes were concentrating with one's full attention (全神贯注, quan shen guan zhu - "whole, spirit, concentrate, on"), adjusting their footwork rapidly, probing again and again with their blade tips, with attacks and defenses completed in an extremely rapid or instantaneous (电光石火, dian guang shi huo - "electric, light, stone, fire") flash.
"This is my first time watching a fencing match live. It's far more thrilling than on television," said Ms. Wen, a visitor from Sichuan. Every point scored by a fencer gripped the emotions of the entire venue. "When the audience cheered together, the atmosphere was truly unforgettable." Even more delightful for Hong Kong spectators was that the Hong Kong men's foil team fought all the way to the team final, ultimately winning a silver medal — the best result ever achieved by the Hong Kong fencing team in a team event at the World Championships.
Away from competition, athletes also took time to explore and experience Hong Kong's charm. During the various events, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort hosted more than 30 teams from multiple countries and regions. "We hope to combine world-class sports mega events with the play experience at Disney to attract more visitors," said Michael Moriarty, managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
The World Cup's heat also extended to Hong Kong's streets. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, many shopping malls, restaurants, and bars in Hong Kong offered live broadcasts of matches, and some businesses that normally closed late at night extended their operating hours, drawing groups of football fans to sit together and watch. "Many merchants that offered live broadcasts reported an increase in business," said Rosanna Law, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism of the HKSAR Government.
Chinese culture permeates the fragrance of Hong Kong
On the evening of July 31, the stage of the Sha Tin Town Hall in Hong Kong sank into a tranquil play of light and shadow. Water sleeves swept past, blue-and-white porcelain and landscape-painting backdrops appeared and disappeared, the singing slowly rose, and the audience followed the performers into a dream that was partly real and partly illusory (亦真亦幻, yi zhen yi huan - "also, true, also, illusion")... The Kunqu Opera troupe of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group brought both parts of The Dream of the Southern Bough to Hong Kong for the first time, giving this ancient story new vitality on a modern stage.
"This is my first time watching Kunqu Opera live. The characters, story, and stage emotions deeply moved me. I hope to have the chance to come back to Hong Kong for more performances in the future," said Mr. Zhou, a visitor from Liaoning.
A reporter learned that The Dream of the Southern Bough is one of the highlight programs of Hong Kong's "Chinese Culture Festival 2026" and the 14th Chinese Opera Festival. An official from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the HKSAR Government introduced that from June to September this year, the "Chinese Culture Festival 2026" has launched more than 280 stage programs and related extension activities, covering film screenings, themed exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and other events, bringing fine traditional Chinese culture closer to residents and visitors in ways that fit everyday life.
At the East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Ngau Tau Kok, drumbeats and applause alternated in succession. As a key production of the 2026 "National Style, National Charm, Fragrant Hong Kong" performance season, the original acrobatic drama Tanggu Baixi by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Acrobatic Troupe made a brilliant appearance. Acts including men's handstands, rope skills, flag dancing, and diabolo spinning took the stage in turn, drawing frequent applause and gasps of amazement from the audience. In the finale, dozens of performers completed handstand balancing acts simultaneously as a large cape on stage slowly unfurled, bringing the atmosphere to a climax.
After the show, the troupe also specially arranged an acrobatics experience workshop, where young audience members learned to spin the diabolo alongside the performers. The performance on stage was transformed into a tangible, accessible cultural experience.
Leaving the lively stage and stepping into the Hong Kong Palace Museum, one's pace seemed to slow as well. The exhibition "The Forbidden City and the World: Cultural Exchange and Mutual Learning," which opened in early summer, presents precious cultural relics along the thread of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, telling the story of exchange and mutual learning between China and other parts of Asia and Europe in the fields of diplomacy, trade, science and technology, thought, and craftsmanship.
Before the display cases, visitors bent down to examine the ornamentation of the artifacts, paused to read the labels, and occasionally exchanged remarks in low voices. That history spanning several hundred years was no longer merely words on a page, but also hidden in the details of each artifact, painting, and craft. "It turns out that hundreds of years ago, there was already so much exchange between China, other parts of Asia, and Europe. Both my daughter and I felt we gained a great deal from the visit," said Ms. Li, a visitor from Shanxi.
As the summer heat gradually fades, Hong Kong's calendar of mega events continues to move forward. An official of the HKSAR Government introduced that in the second half of this year, more than 100 mega events will be held, expected to attract more than 1.85 million visitors to participate and generate approximately HK$5.9 billion in consumption.
Watching a match, picking out a few books, listening to a Kunqu Opera, celebrating a birthday with the panda cubs... One vivid memory after another leaves visitors lingering and reluctant to leave. Hong Kong's appeal may well lie in these concrete moments, adding a little more anticipation to every arrival.
Return to TopBy: 凌 锋
The farce of fabricating claims that the "Taiwan Youth e-Home" platform collects personal data has not yet come to an end, and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities have again concocted new rumors on cross-strait issues. Facing the "Regulations of the State Council on the Administration of Exit and Entry" that will take effect on September 15, the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council has maliciously distorted it, hyping that Taiwanese compatriots, especially those in the technology industry and semiconductor industry, face risks in traveling to the mainland. An administrative regulation that safeguards the legitimate rights and interests of persons exiting and entering the country has been forcibly stigmatized as "control" over Taiwanese compatriots, and Taiwanese people are even being intimidated to conduct risk assessments before traveling to the mainland, once again exposing the sinister intention of the DPP authorities to deliberately obstruct normal cross-strait exchanges and create a "chilling effect" for the sake of their own party's interests.
Is that all? In recent times, the DPP authorities have used a variety of means such as suppression, intimidation, and rumor-mongering, frequently creating cross-strait confrontation. In the narrative deliberately woven by the DPP authorities, the mainland seems to be full of "dangerous situations": Xiaohongshu has been stigmatized as a "hotbed of fraud," and even the widely praised Amap has been hyped as posing "information security risks." Anyone with discerning eyes can see through this set of tricks that is exactly the same (如出一辙, ru chu yi zhe - "as, depart, one, pattern") — as long as one comes to the mainland or uses good mainland products, one is easily labeled with the "risk" tag, and then the DPP authorities forcibly ban them in the name of "protection," or try to scare off people on the island with intimidating rhetoric. These absurd statements and actions are nothing more than a reprint of the same shoddy script.
Compatriots on both sides of the strait are close blood relatives (骨肉天亲, gu rou tian qin - "bone, flesh, heaven, kin"), and exchanges, interactions, and integration between them fundamentally require no worry about any risks. In the first half of this year, Taiwanese compatriots visiting the mainland reached 2.85 million person-trips, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%. At Lugu Lake in Yunnan, a chance encounter allowed a younger relative from Tongxiang, Zhejiang, to miraculously find his uncle who had been out of contact for many years in Taiwan; in the vast western region, a Taiwanese woman rode a motorcycle through three provinces—Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu—in a single day, safely touring the magnificent landscapes; in Hotan, Xinjiang, a Taiwanese tourist's words "Chinese Taiwan" drew a burst of "Welcome home!" from compatriots on the scene... These vivid and real scenes one after another are a powerful rebuttal to the so-called "risks."
Why have the DPP authorities recently frequently hyped the so-called "risks" on the mainland? The answer could not be simpler: because the mainland's development, changing with each passing day (日新月异, ri xin yue yi - "day, new, month, change"), is increasingly recognized by Taiwanese compatriots, policies benefiting Taiwan and its people are penetrating deeper into the island, and the appeal to Taiwanese compatriots is growing stronger. From the speed of high-speed trains, the connectivity of 5G, and the convenience of mobile payment's "scan to pay," to the thoughtful services of the "Taiwan Youth e-Home" and the broad stage for development, the true and multi-faceted image of the mainland is continuously being conveyed to Taiwanese society. More and more Taiwanese compatriots have discovered through personal experience that the mainland is a land full of kinship and opportunities. Thus, the DPP authorities are afraid—afraid that Taiwanese compatriots will see the prosperity of the mainland with their own eyes, afraid that the information cocoon they have painstakingly built will be pierced, afraid that compatriots on both sides of the strait will grow closer, and even more afraid that the "Taiwan independence" narrative will collapse in the face of facts and that their political manipulation will completely fail in the face of popular sentiment. It is precisely out of this deep-seated fear that they are using every possible means (千方百计, qian fang bai ji - "thousand, ways, hundred, schemes") to set up obstacles, using suppression, intimidation, and rumor-mongering to block compatriots on both sides of the strait from getting closer and interacting.
The more good products the mainland has, the more so-called "risks" the DPP authorities claim; the more heated cross-strait exchanges become, the more urgent their smears. This absurd logic of "always smearing anything related to the mainland" has long become a laughingstock. From "high-speed trains have no backrests" to "Beijing has no refrigerators," from intimidating people about traveling to the mainland being surrounded by hidden dangers (危机四伏, wei ji si fu - "crisis, four, directions, ambush") to asking Taiwanese businesspeople to conduct "risk assessments," the scripts are too similar and the lines too shoddy. They are not protecting Taiwanese people at all; they are building walls with lies and locking doors with fear, vainly attempting to push Taiwanese society and the broad masses of Taiwanese compatriots into the abyss of decline and isolation.
The tide of history is grand and majestic in scale (浩浩荡荡, hao hao dang dang - "vast, vast, surging, surging"), and the great trend of compatriots on both sides of the strait growing closer, interacting, and coming together will not change. We advise the DPP authorities to recognize the general trend, stop political manipulation, and do more things conducive to the well-being of compatriots on both sides of the strait. Compatriots on both sides of the strait are connected by blood, and frequent exchanges, growing closer, and coming together are the stable and warm correct path. Any artificial barriers and intimidation will ultimately be washed away by the will of the people and engulfed by the torrent of history.
Return to TopRecently, the musical Tide Rises in the Greater Bay Area (Chao Qi Da Wan), one of the productions performed at the 7th National Ethnic Minority Arts Festival, was staged at the Beijing Tianqiao Theater. Set against the backdrop of Macao's development since its return to the motherland and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the musical tells the stories of ordinary people striving to realize their dreams, showcasing the spirit of Macao's youth actively integrating into the country's overall development and courageously shouldering the mission of the times, as well as the vibrant vitality of the new era's Greater Bay Area construction.
The photo shows performers in the musical Tide Rises in the Greater Bay Area.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua.
Return to TopBy: 李国强
This year marks the 81st anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. However, what is deeply outrageous is that 81 years later, the Japanese government not only refuses to face up to and reflect on its colonial crimes, but instead denies its history of aggression, falsifies history textbooks, visits the Yasukuni Shrine, summons the ghost of militarism, wantonly challenges the postwar international order, and seriously hurts the feelings of all Chinese people, including our compatriots in Taiwan.
The 50 years of Japan's occupation of Taiwan were 50 years in which Taiwan compatriots were brutally trampled under Japanese colonial rule. Japanese colonialists mobilized large numbers of troops to crazily slaughter Taiwanese people; wherever the Japanese army went, it committed acts of looting and destruction (烧杀抢掠, shao sha qiang lue - "burn, kill, rob, plunder"), committing every kind of evil act (无恶不作, wu e bu zuo - "no evil, not, do"), and large numbers of innocent civilians were cruelly massacred, with Taiwan compatriots living constantly in fear and humiliation. Japanese colonialists carried out frenzied economic exploitation of Taiwan, leaving the people's livelihood in ruin and all industries in depression, with Taiwan compatriots not having enough food to satisfy hunger (食不果腹, shi bu guo fu - "eat, not, full, belly") and having insufficient clothing to cover the body (衣不蔽体, yi bu bi ti - "clothes, not, cover, body"), barely surviving in extreme poverty and misery (穷困潦倒, qiong kun liao dao - "poor, distressed, fallen"). Japanese colonialists comprehensively promoted the "Kominka" (imperialization) movement in Taiwan, whose main contents included "forcibly promoting the Japanese language," "intensifying Japanese lifestyles and customs," and "implementing enslavement education," in an attempt to erase the Chinese national identity of the Taiwanese people. Japanese colonialists massively conscripted laborers, military porters, and comfort women; countless young and middle-aged Taiwanese were forcibly sent to mines, factories, and battlefields to perform high-intensity forced labor, sent overseas to serve as wartime coolies, and countless Taiwanese women victims suffered physical and psychological trauma that could never heal in their lifetimes. This history must not be erased, must not be falsified, and must not be forgotten.
Faced with the brutal atrocities of the Japanese colonialists, Taiwan compatriots never yielded. Over those 50 years, bearing the patriotic sentiment of "better to die as righteous martyrs than to live as surrendered captives," Taiwan compatriots issued the roar that "we would rather fight to the death and lose Taiwan than yield it easily without a fight" (拱手而让, gong shou er rang - "arch, hands, and, yield"), and approximately 650,000 Taiwan compatriots gave their precious lives in resisting Japanese colonial rule. Together with their compatriots on the mainland, Taiwan compatriots fought heroically for the nation's striving to save the nation and ensure survival (救亡图存, jiu wang tu cun - "save, nation, seek, survival"), demonstrating the national sentiment of "we are all Chinese, joining hands to protect China." The history of Taiwan compatriots' resistance against Japanese colonial rule is a history of their patriotism.
Eighty-one years ago, after fighting bravely through bloodshed (浴血奋战, yu xue fen zhan - "bathe, blood, struggle, fight"), the Chinese people defeated the extremely wicked and vicious (穷凶极恶, qiong xiong ji e - "extreme, fierce, ultimate, evil") Japanese militarist aggressors, won the great victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and welcomed the historic moment of Taiwan's return to the motherland. This is the common great glory of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation. History is the best textbook and also the best sobering agent. Exposing Japan's 50 years of colonial crimes against Taiwan is to proclaim justice to the world, defend historical justice, and safeguard human conscience, using history as a lesson (以史为鉴, yi shi wei jian - "use, history, as, mirror") and keeping the alarm bell ringing.
(The author is a member of the Academic Division of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a research fellow at the Institute of Chinese History.)
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 杨文明
"Single-head roses, plateau red grade B, 20 stems per bunch, 30 yuan"... In the fresh-cut flower auction hall of the Dounan International Flower Industrial Park in Chenggong, Kunming, Yunnan, a huge electronic screen displayed real-time trading prices and transaction volumes for various flowers. The numbers flickered, then froze as deals were struck, and members of the Macau media senior delegation to Yunnan stopped to take photos.
"From seedlings to auction, from cold chain to export — I never imagined a supply chain could be developed this deeply. Most flowers on the Macau market come from Yunnan. Before, I only knew the flowers were good; today I learned how far this flower travels from the field to the market." He Qunchong, Director of Mainland Affairs and Production Manager of Macau Cable TV Co., Ltd., said with emotion. It is not only flowers — freshly picked matsutake mushrooms can be on Macau residents' dining tables the very next day, as modern logistics have shortened the distance between Yunnan and Macau.
Recently, organized by the All-China Journalists Association under the theme "Yunnan and Macau United in Heart · Media Gathering in Yunnan," the Macau media senior delegation to Yunnan visited Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang, experiencing firsthand the pulse of the rapid developments (日新月异, ri xin yue yi - "day, new, month, change") unfolding across the colorful land of Yunnan.
"A worthwhile trip (不虚此行, bu xu ci xing - "not, in vain, this, trip") — the rapid developments are evident." The completely transformed urban landscape was a common impression among many visitors. Li Cuiping, Deputy Editor of the Chinese News and Information Program Department of Teledifusão de Macau, S.A., had visited Kunming in 2014, when the city's metro was still under construction. "Now, Kunming's metro lines extend to every part of the city, and public transportation is convenient and efficient — vastly different from the scene I remember," Li Cuiping said.
During their stay in Dali, the delegation visited the Yinqiao new plant of Yunnan Xiaguan Tuocha (Group) Co., Ltd. Tea workers packed steamed, softened tea leaves into cloth bags, pressed down a lever, and a "steamed bun"-shaped tuocha tea cake took shape in moments. Delegation members bent down to examine the tight texture of the tuocha, pressing it gently with their fingertips — from treading the Ancient Tea Horse Road to now being exported to 18 countries and regions, this tea cake has traveled for over 100 years.
The cultural heritage that only becomes more new with time (历久弥新, li jiu mi xin - "long time, increasingly, new") left a deep impression on the delegation. The group visited the Yunnan Military Academy History Museum, tracing the historical marks left by the century-old military academy and experiencing its spirit of "perseverance and hard work." At the site of the National Southwestern Associated University, the lyrics of the school song remained clearly visible on the mottled walls of the school buildings. Li Zisong, Station Director of Macau Lotus TV, lingered for a long time: "'Fortitude, firmness, excellence, and perseverance' was the motto of the National Southwestern Associated University. That so many great masters were cultivated under such difficult conditions — this sense of devotion to family and country is something the younger generation should earnestly absorb."
In Lijiang, new forms of cultural tourism are emerging. The old town of Dayan now hosts more than 130 folk-song taverns, with over 190 resident singers rooted there year-round. Walking on the blue-stone paths, guitar music drifts through the air as visitors sit together listening to songs and softly joining in. "On how to preserve the historical character of the old town while creating a chemical reaction between economic development and cultural experience, Macau and Yunnan have much to learn from each other," Li Cuiping said.
Experiencing the beauty of the ecology along the Erhai Lake ecological corridor, and watching the large-scale live performance "Impression · Lijiang" at the Ganhaizi scenic area at Yulong Snow Mountain in Lijiang... Delegation members were captivated by Yunnan's ecological beauty and cultural charm. At the Puzhen Bai Tie-Dye Museum in Dali, delegation members followed the demonstration of a Bai ethnic "Ama" (mother), tying white cloth with string before dipping it into the dye vat. "I had only seen tie-dye on television before; today I truly felt the charm of this national-level intangible cultural heritage. This craft must be passed down."
Exchanging and learning from each other in media business was also an important purpose of this trip. In Kunming, the delegation visited Yunnan Daily Press Group and toured the Yunnan Regional International Communication Center for South and Southeast Asia. Before exhibition boards of overseas special editions in languages including Burmese and Lao, delegation members learned in detail about processes such as content production and local distribution.
In the cultural and creative exhibition area, the "A Life Called Yunnan" series of cultural and creative products drew attention, with blind boxes, refrigerator magnets, and postcards incorporating Yunnan elements presenting a profusion of beautiful things (琳琅满目, lin lang man mu - "exquisite, many, eyes, fill"). "Telling China's story well — a refrigerator magnet or a postcard can be a starting point. Macau has the platform advantage of ties with Portuguese-speaking countries, while Yunnan has the geographical advantage of facing South and Southeast Asia. Yunnan Daily Press Group's practice of producing periodicals and cultural products in the languages of target countries offers inspiration for Macau media in advancing international communication," said Hu Zhilin, a video journalist with Macau Daily News.
In Lijiang, the delegation visited the Lijiang Converged Media Center. In the AI (artificial intelligence) smart studio, delegation members stepped onto the anchor's desk, and as staff touched a button, the studio backdrop instantly switched to a magnificent panoramic view of Yulong Snow Mountain — the image realistic, the transition smooth.
"Lijiang Converged Media is actively exploring AI-assisted content production, making progress in areas such as multilingual subtitle translation and virtual anchor broadcasting," introduced Hong Guochen, Director of the Lijiang Converged Media Center. Lu Bo, head of the delegation and President of Macau Daily News, said that the operational experience of the Lijiang Converged Media Center provides a reference for the transformation and upgrading of Macau media, and that Macau possesses unique advantages in international communication and cross-border cultural exchange. He expressed hope that the two places could explore cooperation in content co-creation, mutual promotion of culture and tourism, and sharing of experience.
Traveling and reporting along the way, media outlets including Macau Daily News and Hou Kong Daily published reports under titles such as "Yunnan and Macau Join Hands to Tell the Story of Integrated Development" and "Reflections from the Yunnan Lijiang Visit," while Teledifusão de Macau aired segments on the Dounan flower market and Erhai Lake in Dali in its television news.
"Yunnan boasts beautiful scenery, a superior ecology, profound ethnic cultural heritage, and fruitful results in industrial transformation and upgrading — it is a rich mine of news stories worth digging deep into. We hope delegation members will capture vivid material and tell the story of Yunnan's development in the new era well," said Tian Yuhong, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Secretary of the Secretariat of the All-China Journalists Association.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 耿 磊
As night falls and a busy day of work comes to an end, many young people walk out of their offices and into classrooms and cultural and creative spaces, learning dance and music, studying intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, and participating in AI (artificial intelligence) courses... Night schools, a learning venue once associated with "catching up and recharging," are once again becoming popular across the country, and attending night school has become a fashionable lifestyle for contemporary youth.
This lamp of learning that lights up the city at night both settles the spiritual aspirations of young people and has become a new driving force for activating the nighttime economy and culture and helping youth grow.
Breaking the social island, providing a spiritual habitat
Evening haze spreads over the streets and alleys of Hangzhou, and the setting sun slowly fades away along with the heat and the clamor.
After finishing the work at hand, Hu Siqi comes to the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center, located at West Lake Cultural Plaza in Hangzhou, takes out a bamboo flute, opens the sheet music, and begins to practice.
Attending night school after work is this post-80s worker's "required course" after the end of the workday. In the classroom, waiting for class with him are 14 other students, all of them young faces.
"The flute is a traditional Chinese instrument; the earliest flutes date back about 8,000 years..." From the history of the development of wind instruments to ancient Chinese music theory, Li Zi'ang, a young teacher from Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, lectures with great care and detail. The students below listen with finding it highly interesting (饶有兴味, rao you xing wei - "excess, have, interest, taste").
When asked why he came to night school, Hu Siqi told reporters that although he works in the chip industry, he has always been full of interest in traditional music. By chance, he saw the night school courses of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center on the "Zheli Wenhua Quan" mini-program, and with a try-it-and-see attitude, he never expected that once he tried it, he would become "hooked."
This summer, the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center simultaneously offered multiple courses including yoga, vocal music, and makeup, and every session was packed to capacity.
"In recent years, relying on the province's 'Public Art Academy' initiative, the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center has brought more art courses to the people through forms such as night schools." Zhao Yaqian, deputy director of the training department of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center, told reporters, "This year's spring semester and summer semester each offered 6 and 7 courses respectively, with about 15 students per class, and they were snapped up as soon as they went online. Among them, post-80s and post-90s students account for more than half."
"From not being able to make a sound the first time, to clearly distinguishing gong, shang, jue, zhi, yu, to playing simple melodies, I feel a great sense of achievement." Hu Siqi told reporters that attending night school feels very good, the price is affordable, and the people who come are all friends with shared interests. It is relaxing and stress-relieving, and it also allows him to realize his dream of learning music. "It's not really a class, but a spiritual journey after work, a poetry and distant place right at hand." Hu Siqi said.
Nowadays, more and more young people like Hu Siqi are doing the same. They walk into night schools, whether to pursue hobbies and interests, to break the social island, or simply to experience a different way of life.
He Xiuqing, a post-90s young woman living in Changping District, Beijing, crosses more than half of Beijing every Wednesday evening to come to Beijing Open University, located on Xiaohoucang Hutong in Xicheng District, to learn jazz dance.
"It's totally worth it." She told reporters that she started from zero foundation and could not even keep the rhythm at first, but the relaxed and inclusive classroom atmosphere dispelled her concerns, and during breaks she would study movement details together with her classmates. He Xiuqing said: "We set up a group chat, and when there's no class, everyone also shares their life updates in the group. I feel that I am becoming more and more outgoing, and my life is more colorful."
In her view, one night school class has driven a positive change in her overall life state. "Actually, my job is very physically demanding. Before, I just wanted to 'collapse at home' after work and didn't want to do anything. Now, in order to go to class, I take the initiative to get up early and run to build up my stamina, and my daily routine has also become more regular." He Xiuqing said.
Night schools have built a social space based on interests, broken the state of the social island, and provided a spiritual habitat for young people.
Focusing on the needs of youth, many places across the country are holding youth night schools with their own distinctive features. Shanghai has incorporated youth night schools into its practical projects for the people, with teaching sites covering all administrative districts; at the Chengdu Cultural Center in Sichuan, evening courses received over 10,000 clicks the moment they went online, and grabbing a course has become the norm in the student community; the "Jingxue" night school education service community, bringing together 13 universities and educational institutions including Beijing Open University and Dongcheng District Staff University, was launched last December, with a course list covering guqin, dance, short video editing...
"Youth night schools are conducive to breaking the information 'cocoon,' solving the dilemma of 'social anxiety,' and promoting young professionals in the workplace to reshape themselves in an inclusive and diverse public communication space, to accommodate multiple roles, to realize the organic intersection of self-worth and social value, and to stimulate the youthful momentum of embarking on a new journey to realize the Chinese Dream." Hu Xianzhong, curator and researcher of the Youth Movement History Archives of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, said.
Enabling students to make practical use of acquired knowledge and to apply what has been learned to practical work
In Wulin Night Market, located in Gongshu District, Hangzhou, there is a dessert shop called "Fairy Forest · Dessert Healing Center," and as soon as evening comes, it is full of people.
"This drink is simple and easy to make, thirst-quenching and flavorful, and especially suitable for summer." After the owner Zeng Xuemei finished explaining, she began to operate: selecting ingredients, mixing, and plating. After a full process, a special soda drink covered with a thin layer of ice mist was made.
Zeng Xuemei, a post-90s young woman, has several identities: a "new Hangzhou resident" striving to make it in Hangzhou, a student of Wulin Youth Night School, and now she is also a lecturer at the Wulin Youth Night School training site. In 2020, she and her husband came to Hangzhou to make a living. Facing practical difficulties such as conflicts with childcare time and limited skills, she, who wanted to start a business, did not know where to begin. A chance encounter while strolling through Wulin Night Market ignited her dream of picking up dessert-making skills again.
With the support of Wulin Subdistrict, she started from a stall at the night market and gradually opened her own shop. In order to improve business performance, the Wulin Youth Night School project provided her with influencer operations training courses. "They taught us how to face the camera and how to run an account." Zeng Xuemei said that at first she could not even speak smoothly in front of the camera, but now she can confidently present her products, step by step turning "just trying it out" into reality.
Today, "Fairy Forest" is not only a small shop with a daily turnover of over 10,000 yuan, but also a training site for Wulin Youth Night School, sharing with young people the full-process experience from dessert development to stall operation.
"How to go from an 'interest class' to a 'growth camp'? This is a question we have always been thinking about in running night schools." A relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League told reporters, "We have built a closed-loop system for youth night schools of 'short-term market training — merit-based cultivation — long-term shop incubation,' so that students can enter real business scenarios to test what they have learned after mastering skills, giving night school teaching a more concrete application scenario."
In 2026, "creating 100 youth night school sites for skills upgrading and employment and entrepreneurship" has been incorporated into Hangzhou's practical projects for people's livelihood. To date, nearly 300 courses in vocational skills upgrading and employment and entrepreneurship have been offered cumulatively, serving nearly 20,000 young people.
From the initial expansion of interests to later skills learning, night schools have also begun to play a greater role. They are no longer merely satisfied with providing young people with a space for leisure and recharging after work, but are more closely aligned with the real needs of youth employment and entrepreneurship, enabling students to make practical use of acquired knowledge and to apply what has been learned to practical work.
Sun Jiawei, born in 1993, is a member of the Party general branch committee of Dongfanghong Village, Jiashan County, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. When working in the village, he often encounters technical difficulties.
In the first half of this year, he learned on the "Youth Jiashan" public account that the Jiashan County Youth Night School had launched vocational skills training courses under the "Youth Home · Youth Entrepreneurship Night Learning" program, and he decisively signed up for the electrician course. From circuit principles to hands-on wiring, he completed the study using evenings and weekends, and successfully obtained the electrician vocational skill level certificate.
During the impact of Typhoon "White Dolphin" on Jiashan this year, waterlogging occurred in the village, and submersible pumps urgently needed to be installed for drainage. Facing the accumulated water, the village could not find a professional electrician at the time, and Sun Jiawei stepped forward on his own initiative. From wiring the distribution box, installing the pump, to commissioning and running it, he completed the entire process independently.
"The improvement of skills brings not only a certificate, but also the confidence and sense of responsibility at critical moments." Sun Jiawei said.
Centering on the direction of county-level industrial upgrading and the actual skills needs of youth, the Jiashan County Youth Night School has cumulatively offered 13 vocational skills courses including electrician, welder, cross-border e-commerce, AI applications, and drone piloting. To date, it has cumulatively served 842 youth, and promoted 50 people to obtain vocational skills certificates such as junior electrician and drone pilot.
Upholding the public welfare foundation, exploring diversified operations
On August 10, as soon as registration for the autumn semester of the Shanghai Citizens' Night School began, popular courses were "sold out in seconds" — badminton classes sold out in 3 seconds, archery classes were full in 4 seconds, and ice skating classes were fully booked in 5 seconds...
"80 yuan per class, you can skate on real ice, and there are professional coaches for guidance — it's such a bargain!" Citizen Fan Xinyi said excitedly, "Great value for money, worth going for." In order to grab the course she wanted, she familiarized herself with the system in advance and submitted her application right on time.
The popularity of night schools continues to rise, but they also face the "trouble" of supply falling short of demand. In response, Shanghai's Pudong New Area has taken the initiative to explore introducing market forces to participate in running schools. In Qiantan Park Lane, merchants in retail, pet, lifestyle services, and other fields are guided to launch night school courses based on their own professional strengths. Under the guidance of the district league organization, dozens of courses such as office coffee skills, AI creative drawing and product design, and pet health management have been launched one after another. Merchants have transformed from operators into teaching providers, both injecting high-quality content into night schools and bringing foot traffic and vitality to the neighborhood.
"The district league committee has changed its approach, handing over course development to business entities, with the league organization providing guidance and quality control." Cai Yule, director of the grassroots work department (rights and interests department) of the Pudong New Area Committee of the Communist Youth League, told reporters, "Such a transformation is precisely a practice of two-way commitment between the city and youth. Night schools that have been tested by the market better understand the needs of youth and can also grow together with youth through dynamic iteration."
The government sets up the platform, and multiple parties participate. Now, various places are actively exploring operating models that both uphold the public welfare foundation and provide rich courses.
In Zhejiang, the "public welfare + low-cost + market" course model is gradually becoming the mainstream. "In reality, under a completely free model, problems of casual registration and insufficient attendance rates easily arise, but complete marketization would raise the threshold and shut out ordinary young people." Shao Danwan, a teacher in charge of academic affairs at the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center, said, "Public welfare is the bottom line. We adhere to the model of free basic classes and moderate fees for advanced courses."
Shao Danwan introduced that the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center, on the one hand, fully revitalizes its own high-quality cultural resources, such as the accumulation of teaching resources in fields like sister art troupes and folk art, fully mobilizing these resources; on the other hand, it continuously explores and develops new forms, expands the boundaries of night schools, and enriches the categories of night school courses.
Last year, the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center also launched the "Night School Without Walls." It is the "outdoor version" of the Public Art Academy of the Zhejiang Provincial Cultural Center, with no spatial barriers and no age or education restrictions, providing every student with inclusive learning opportunities. Now, when the weather is relatively good, citizens can attend classes at West Lake Cultural Plaza, with course content covering an introduction to the Hangzhou dialect, traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture, popular vocal music, and more.
As night deepens, the classrooms of night schools are brightly lit one after another, becoming a microcosm of building a learning society. Here, young people come for their passions and for self-enrichment. The youth night school, this lamp of the city, bears witness to the vibrant posture of contemporary youth in pursuing a better life, and also gives the city more humanistic charm, allowing individual growth and urban development to achieve each other.
(People's Daily reporters Dou Hanyang and Cao Lingjuan participated in the writing of this article)
Return to TopBy: 张 贺
According to reports, a foreign artificial intelligence company, in order to train AI (artificial intelligence), has been conducting large-scale destructive scanning of paper books, with many precious books being trimmed, disassembled, scanned, and then discarded. This practice has sparked enormous controversy. According to the company's explanation, to improve the accuracy of AI's predictive language output, it needs massive and high-quality data, and books happen to be one of the best sources of complex, high-quality long-form text.
This incident has prompted reflection on the importance of books and reading. If artificial intelligence still needs to "read" a large number of high-quality books to train itself and enhance its capabilities, then how can we—as the most intelligent of all living beings, the humans who invented artificial intelligence—abandon reading?
"When in doubt, ask AI." Many people now treat artificial intelligence as an efficient and convenient answer extractor. When faced with unfamiliar, hefty tomes, why not spend the time and effort to read them yourself when you can ask AI to summarize and distill the core and essence of the books?
Indeed, artificial intelligence's "reading" efficiency far exceeds that of humans. But reading is not simply about seeking answers; it is also a spiritual journey and an intellectual dialogue, an adventure full of the unknown and surprises. Skipping the process of reading and using AI to directly obtain answers not only deprives one of the joy of reading but also fails to gain the benefits of reading.
On the meaning of reading, the discussions of countless sages throughout the ages are an immense amount of information or books (浩如烟海, hao ru yan hai - "vast, like, mist, sea"), but we must still ask: in the age of artificial intelligence, why is reading still important and irreplaceable?
Reading is one of the best ways to cultivate one's character and aspirations. Artificial intelligence is a great achievement of human rationality, but besides instrumental rationality, humans also need value rationality. We must not only ask "can this be done," but also "should it be done." In the age of artificial intelligence, what we lack is not efficiency tools, but the demeanor of a gentleman. In an era that pursues efficiency and benefits, reading remains an important way to cultivate a sound personality.
"One who is filled with poetry and books radiates elegance." Why? Because reading cultivates sentiment, elevates emotions, and nurtures character. Reading makes people humble. Faced with the boundless world of books, faced with the various kinds of knowledge that even a lifetime of effort could hardly grasp even a a tiny, insignificant part of something large (九牛一毛, jiu niu yi mao - "nine, oxen, one, hair"), people become modest and rational, tolerant and gentle, open-minded and insightful, and filled with awe for the brevity of life, the infinity of the universe, and the profundity of human existence. Reading makes people understand reason. In life, one inevitably faces questions of righteousness versus profit, right versus wrong, gain versus loss. How one views and chooses these matters depends on both personal cultivation and personal cognition, and both cultivation and cognition can be nurtured through reading. Reading helps establish a correct worldview, outlook on life, and set of values. With correct values, one becomes a gentleman. Confucius said: "The virtue of the gentleman is like the wind; the virtue of the petty person is like the grass. When the wind blows over the grass, the grass is sure to bend." The Book of Changes says: "The gentleman, through much learning about past words and deeds, cultivates his virtue." The ancient sages never regarded reading merely as a way to learn knowledge and master skills, but as an essential path to cultivating an ideal personality.
In the age of artificial intelligence, what we lack is not information and knowledge, but thinking and insight. Reading is precisely the best way to train one's thinking ability. Many people today are accustomed to directly asking AI for answers, which is equivalent to outsourcing reading and thinking. Outsourcing reading to AI may, over time, lead to the loss of thinking ability and the hollowing out of the mind. AI creates an illusion for users, as if they have learned and mastered something, but in fact they have not. Once they face problems independently, they will still be being at a complete loss for what to do (束手无策, shu shou wu ce - "bind, hands, no, plan"), which is the so-called "understand at a glance, useless at first use." Einstein said: "The development of general ability for independent thinking and independent judgment should always be placed first, and not the acquisition of specialized knowledge." The process of reading is also a process of thinking. In the deep dialogue between the reader and the author, one's thinking ability will be being influenced or changed imperceptibly (潜移默化, qian yi mo hua - "subtly, move, silently, transform") improved. Throughout history, all wise people have been working with tireless enthusiasm and persistence (孜孜不倦, zi zi bu juan - "diligently, diligently, not, weary") readers, which is the best proof of this.
Morality and wisdom—these are the most precious gifts reading bestows upon us. In the age of artificial intelligence, these two remain treasures indispensable to human civilization.
More than a decade ago, long before the large-scale application of artificial intelligence, Italian philosopher Umberto Eco predicted in a dialogue that "books will never die" and loudly proclaimed, "Don't think of getting rid of books." Today, indeed, the "form" of books has changed, but don't think of getting rid of reading, even if we have artificial intelligence.
Return to TopBy: 本报记者 李祉瑶
"Outdated customs and bad habits drift away with the wind; a new chapter of civilization is built with heart." At the New Era Civilization Practice Center of Arben Gol Township, Jalaid Banner, Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the original short play Breaking Old Customs, Building a New Chapter, which promotes the transformation of social customs, is being performed. Farmer and herder performers use down-to-earth dialect lines and life-like performance scenes to weave the concept of civilized new trends into the show, winning enthusiastic applause (声声喝彩, sheng sheng he cai - "sound, sound, praise, shout").
"We rehearsed this skit during the slack farming season, and we never expected the performance to be such a hit!" said Bao Jinhua, a member of the cast, happily. Audience members also expressed their feelings: "The programs are all about people around us performing stories about things around us — easy to understand and easy to take in."
Looking across the villages large and small of Jalaid Banner, there has never been a shortage of stages here. Every season has a theme, every month has activities, every week has programs; regardless of status or age, anyone with talent has the opportunity to show it; field ridges, herding sites, and farmhouse courtyards are all performance venues — this is the four-season "Stars of the People" distinctive cultural brand that Jalaid Banner has innovatively created to fit the daily production and living needs of farmers and herders.
Jalaid Banner closely follows the seasonal rhythms of spring plowing, summer tourism, autumn harvest, and winter travel, with each season's activities featuring its own "folk star": in spring there is the "Farming and Nurturing Star," relying on the banner's 197 grassland bookstores to carry out cultural fairs, reading promotion, and other activities; in summer there is the "Tourism and Prosperity Star," with a thousand-person four-stringed instrument ensemble and ten-thousand-person Andai dance, with numerous activities welcoming visitors; in autumn there is the "Competition Star," using the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival as a node to launch calligraphy, painting, and photography exhibitions, village song performances, and more; in winter, combined with ice and snow tourism, the "Ice and Snow Star" is launched.
"In creating the four-season 'Stars of the People,' we wanted to break the old path of one-way cultural output from the government at the grassroots level and hand over the initiative for rural cultural creation, display, and expression to the masses," said Han Jing, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Jalaid Banner Party Committee and director of the Press, Publication, Radio, Film, and Television Bureau. According to statistics, in 2025, the four-season "Stars of the People" cultural and sports activities of Jalaid Banner held a cumulative total of 1,168 sessions, with more than 5,000 ordinary people stepping onto stages of their own.
In order to long-term activate the "blood-making" capacity of rural culture, the locality has also implemented multiple measures such as professional pairing assistance and upgrading grassroots cultural venues: 28 professional backbone members of the Ulan Muqir art troupe have been assigned to pair with 14 grassroots folk art troupes, incubating 10 local characteristic literary and artistic teams such as the "Field Ridge Art Troupe"; a "Stars of the People" talent reserve database has been established, cumulatively discovering and cultivating more than 2,000 rural cultural talents; professional performance equipment has been installed at rural grand stages, intangible cultural heritage experience workshops, and banner-level cultural art stations... opening up the complete chain of talent discovery, cultivation, performance, and industrial transformation.
"We leverage the four-season 'Stars of the People' brand to bring all kinds of talented people into deep participation in scenic area operations, folk custom performances, intangible cultural heritage craft demonstrations, and various other work," said Shi Jian, chairman of Jalaid Banner Hualü Cultural Tourism Investment Co., Ltd.
According to reports, the four study tour routes launched by integrating four-season farming and folk custom resources received 165,000 tourist visits in 2025. Intangible cultural heritage masters who took to the stage to perform took the lead in conducting training, driving 352 women in pastoral areas to find nearby employment. The literary and artistic flair that once belonged to the fields and ridges has become a real industry that enriches the people and revitalizes the villages.
The grassland is vast, and the stage is boundless. In one down-to-earth rural cultural activity after another, the platform for rural cultural display continues to expand, and civilized rural customs and simple, honest folkways permeate thousands of households. From performance activities to cultural tourism industry, Jalaid Banner will continue to take serving the masses as its foothold, allowing rural culture to radiate vigorous vitality and paving a beautiful path toward comprehensive rural revitalization.
(Wang Wenliang participated in the reporting)
Return to TopBy: 乔天富 张军荣
In the history of Chinese fine arts, there is a special "troop"—they do not carry guns, yet they charge to the very front lines; they do not press shutters, yet they use lines and colors to create portraits of soldiers. This troop is the battlefield art correspondents.
The tradition of sketching on the battlefield had already sprouted at a time of national crisis. A group of young people walked out of their studios, faced reality directly, and used their brushes to awaken the masses and rally strength, painting a moving scroll of war and youth intertwined. For example, after the September 18th Incident in 1931, Shen Yiqian, who was then studying at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, quickly organized a group of classmates around him, full of passion and enthusiasm (热血沸腾, re xue fei teng - "hot, blood, boil, surge"), to create anti-Japanese propaganda paintings and placed them on busy streets and along railway lines. Thereafter, he organized battlefield sketching teams and went to the front lines many times to interview and create works. The writer Mao Dun once lamented: "Mr. Shen Yiqian traveled through all the battlefields in the north and south, as well as the vast rear areas of the southwest and northwest. Among literary and art workers, he is the one who walked the most and traveled the farthest." Many other art workers, disregarding life and death, resolutely joined the troops, guerrilla units, militia teams, and so on. After the July 7th Incident in 1937 broke out, Li Hua entrusted his 3-year-old daughter, who had lost her mother at birth, to the care of relatives, and joined the army with his engraving knives. Amidst tense and exhausting marches and combat, he created many sketches recording the atrocities of the Japanese invaders and reflecting the bloody struggles of our military and civilians, powerfully arousing the public's enthusiasm for the War of Resistance.
This tradition of battlefield art, using the brush as a blade and sketches to record the flames of war, was carried forward on the Korean War battlefield. Lin Gang, Wu Duanduan, Hou Yimin, and other young teachers from the Central Academy of Fine Arts went to the front lines as special correspondents for the People's Daily. Based on what they saw and heard, they produced a large number of sketch works, vividly interpreting "who are the most beloved people." Painters such as Luo Gongliu, Gu Yuan, and Shao Yu also rushed to the battlefield, using their sketchbooks as their positions, freezing moments amid the smoke of gunpowder and painting eternity on the battlefield. Among them, Shao Yu's works such as The Bridge That Cannot Be Bombed and When Dressing, Do Not Forget the Clothes Makers, rich in both illustrations and text (图文并茂, tu wen bing mao - "picture, text, together, flourishing"), eulogized the soldiers' spirit of being unyielding and indomitable (不屈不挠, bu qu bu nao - "not, yield, not, bend") in the face of powerful enemies and defending the country. There was also You Youzhong, a battlefield correspondent for the Chinese People's Volunteer Army Railway Engineering Corps, who risked his life at the front to complete the sketch work The Battlefield-Invented Overhanging Pile Driver in Combat. While he was painting, the corner of his drawing board was pierced by shrapnel.
More than 20 years later, the mission of connecting the front line with the rear through the brush was once again placed in the hands of art workers. In the late 1970s, Chen Yuxian, who served as an art editor at the PLA Daily, went to the border front lines as a battlefield art correspondent. Every day, he sent sketch faxes to the PLA Daily through the military radio station. Among them, 8 works were created by him in a narrow air-raid shelter using his knee as a desk. This group of works, torn from his sketchbook, appeared at the All-Army Art Exhibition and was later collected by the National Art Museum of China. Through these paintings, one can see the true nature of a battlefield art correspondent—the more dangerous it is, the more he moves forward.
His solid battlefield sketching skills were rooted in Chen Yuxian's day after day in a repetitive manner (日复一日, ri fu yi ri - "sun, repeat, sun, one") of arduous training. He sketched all his life. After joining the army in 1962, whether at border sentry posts, grasslands and Gobi deserts, snowy plateaus, tropical rainforests, or island fishing villages, no matter where he was, he always kept his pen in hand and his sketchbook in hand. Decades of accumulation enabled him to master the hard skill of "capturing movement, capturing the whole, capturing the eyes, and forming an image in an instant." His sketch collections became textbooks in some fine arts academies.
Not limited to sketching, Chen Yuxian once followed the footprints of the Red Army through Jinggangshan and Yan'an, creating a batch of classic illustrations for Long March-themed books such as Reviewing the Long March, The Red Army Fears Not the Trials of the Long March, and The Little Red Army Soldier's Long March Diary. He also devoted himself to thematic art creation, exploring the fusion of Western painting's realistic modeling with Chinese painting's ink-wash freehand language, to erect statues for the people's army. In works such as The Autumn Harvest Uprising, Ascending Jinggangshan, and The Yan'an Rectification Movement, from ordinary soldiers to founding fathers, all shine brightly and brilliantly (熠熠生辉, yi yi sheng hui - "shining, shining, produce, light") under his brush. Each painting has both traditional charm and modern flavor, forming a distinctive personal style of ink-wash figure painting. His comic strips such as Blood-Drenched Fakashan, Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain, and First Battle of Pingxingguan used highly tense pictorial language to make the image of the people's army more vivid and three-dimensional. What he painted was military history; what he established was the soul of the military.
"If paper bullets can have some effect in anti-Japanese propaganda, then we have fulfilled some of our duties," the painter Zhao Wangyun once lamented. A stroke stirs the wind; the whole page is filled with the smoke of war. Letting history solidify at the tip of the pen and letting heroes live forever on paper is the lofty mission of battlefield art correspondents. In peacetime, the smoke of gunpowder is no more, yet the responsibility of recording the times and paying tribute to heroes with brush and ink has never changed. We look forward to more art workers picking up their sketchbooks, rushing to the places where the motherland needs them most, capturing true moments, freezing the faint light of ordinary people, and using simple yet powerful brush and ink to write the family-and-country narrative of the new era.
Return to TopBy: 万小宁
Looking back suddenly, my life has already passed through 70 years. Recalling my lifelong artistic journey, I am filled with many emotions.
When I graduated from high school, coinciding with the turbulent waves of the era, I was assigned to the Guangzhou Palace Lantern Craft Factory in Guangdong, becoming an apprentice. The palace lantern factory was a pure world of handicraft. Most of the work in the factory involved finely carving rosewood into dragons, phoenixes, and auspicious clouds, then assembling them into elegant hanging lamps and wall lamps. The painting group I belonged to was responsible for "adding the finishing touch" to these palace lanterns—applying oil paint stroke by stroke along the robes of maidens, pavilions and towers, and flowers, birds, fish, and insects printed on glass. That thin layer of glass separated me from the tactile feel of the brush, yet it stimulated my sensitivity to line. From entering the factory in 1974 to being admitted to the Chinese Painting Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1979, five years of time allowed me to forge a solid "childhood skill" in meticulous brushwork and line drawing. Thinking back now, it was precisely those unalterable oil-paint lines on the glass surfaces of the palace lantern factory that taught me the rigor of "no regrets once the brush falls."
After the recent national art exhibitions, a voice always lingers in the Chinese painting exhibition area: "Too many meticulous paintings, too few freehand paintings." Some critics even bluntly state that meticulous painting is "craftsman-like," lacking the unique "poetic quality" and "artistic conception" of freehand painting. For a time, concepts such as "freehand meticulous painting" and "freehand oil painting" were constantly emerging and never ending (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, exhausted"), as if "freehand" had become a universal label for elevating a painting's artistic caliber. Regarding this, I often harbor confusion. We might look back at Gu Kaizhi's "Nymph of the Luo River" from the Eastern Jin Dynasty—the gentle ripples of the Luo River, Cao Zhi's wistful gaze, the lines in the painting like a silkworm spinning silk—is that deeply sentimental and moving (缠绵悱恻, chan mian fei ce - "entwine, linger; deep, sorrowful") not poetic quality? Look again at Zhou Fang's "Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers" from the Tang Dynasty—the ladies walking leisurely and unhurriedly (闲庭信步, xian ting xin bu - "leisure, courtyard, trust, step"), their gauze robes carrying a chill—is the solitude within that elegance not artistic conception? And consider Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji's "Auspicious Cranes" of the Song Dynasty—a clear and bright blue sky (碧空如洗, bi kong ru xi - "jade, sky, like, wash"), white cranes circling the palace—the solemnity within that auspiciousness is the very pinnacle of poetic quality. Among these renowned meticulous paintings passed down through the ages, which one is not permeated with poetic sentiment (诗情弥漫, shi qing mi man - "poetry, feeling, overflow, permeate") and profound in artistic conception?
In my view, the problem with contemporary Chinese painting creation lies not in the formal distinction between "meticulous" and "freehand," but in the difference between shallow and deep in the creative "heart." If one merely knows how to repeat the model drafts of predecessors, or chases after currently fashionable visual symbols, yet lacks one's own genuine perception of heaven, earth, and all things, the work will naturally become shallow. This kind of malady is not uncommon in freehand painting either, precisely because the abstractness of its brush and ink often makes it easier to be interpreted as an outpouring of the author's inner nature, thereby making a self-consistent argument (自圆其说, zi yuan qi shuo - "self, round, its, speech"). If one narrows "freehand" into a privilege of ink wash, and demeans "meticulous" into the craft of artisans, that is truly a misreading of the Chinese painting tradition.
If freehand emphasizes "expressing the heart"—directly pouring out one's innermost feelings, unrestrained and vigorous—then meticulous painting emphasizes "writing the heart"—calm and focused, revealing true temperament in the finest details. The two reach the same goal by different routes; both are paintings of the heart. The splashed ink of grand freehand is the surging of one's mood, and the layered rendering of meticulous heavy-color painting is likewise the sedimentation of one's inner traces. The quality of a work ultimately depends on whether the creator can construct an organic, vibrant new world on the picture surface from individual life experience and aesthetic sentiment. We need not favor one over the other, and even less do we need to set limits on artistic forms.
Specifically regarding meticulous heavy-color creation, it is truly a "spiritual practice" full of challenge and interest. Here, line and color are like parallel twin tracks—they must both cooperate with each other to achieve the harmony of the picture, and yield to each other to avoid conflict. Meticulous heavy-color painting involves complex coloring; especially when choosing mineral pigments with coarser particles (rock pigments), after layers upon layers are superimposed, the original ink lines are often covered over, presenting a hazy, receding state. Conversely, if the line-drawing strokes are too domineering and rough, they will not only disturb the clarity and chroma of the colors, but will also plunge the entire work into a chaotic deadlock. Therefore, the line-drawing underdrawing of meticulous heavy-color painting is by no means an optional draft, but a "foundation ceremony" that must be treated with the utmost reverence.
Here, line is not only the skeleton of form, but also dominates the rhythm of the picture's breathing. In recent years, there has been a tendency to treat meticulous line drawing purely as decorative patterning. At first glance it seems novel, but as the "protagonist" status of color becomes prominent, those lines floating on the surface often degenerate into the first useless effort to be "devoured" by color—quite a pity. This reminds us that the "vitality" of line drawing lies in its ultimate "symbiosis" with color, not in isolated self-display of skill.
From apprentice in the palace lantern factory to professor at the art academy, over the decades I have not been swayed by the trends of the times, nor have I changed course because of clamor; meticulous heavy-color painting has always been the direction in which I move forward. Especially in the past 40 years, research and application of mineral pigments (rock pigments) have allowed me to find new points of growth on the fertile soil of tradition. I know well that tradition is not a shackle, but the shoulders upon which we are able to gaze into the distance. We cannot and must not ignore that we are situated in a living era—the warmth and cold of the human world amid the smoke of city life, the joys of the four seasons amid the blooming and falling of flowers, are all sources of art.
Looking back on the road I have traveled, I often feel that I am like a faint glimmer of light in a place where lanterns are dim—not dazzling enough, yet always clear-headed and persistent. Whether encountering hardships or dwelling amid prosperity, I have never thought of retreating. Holding fast to my teaching post, transmitting the Way and imparting knowledge; persisting in creation at my desk, writing the heart with my brush; reminding myself to stay close to the pulse of the times—these are both my simple life goals and the dreams I am willing to devote my entire life to pursuing.
(The author is a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts)
Return to TopBy: 邓翔鹏
From fashion runways to trendy accessories, in recent years, with the rise of the "New Chinese Style," the small frog button has also transformed into a global fashion symbol, carrying people's new imagination of Eastern aesthetics.
The frog button, born from ancient rope knots, is mainly composed of a knot button and a loop. The button head formed by coiling cloth strips is called the "knot button," and the cloth loop that receives the button head is called the "loop." For decorative buttons, the tails of the knot button and loop are coiled into patterns with ornamental charm, and this part is called the "loop flower." In early times, clothing had no buttons and was fastened with rope ties; rope knots were not only practical components for securing garments but were also endowed by ancestors with multiple layers of meaning. The intertwining and binding of threads symbolized the bonds, covenants, and mutual commitment between people, and the cultural imagery of "tying the sash" and "the knot of unity" in later wedding customs originated from this. The ancients also believed that rope knots could gather vital energy and absorb auspiciousness, conveying wishes for peace and smooth fortune.
In the Tang Dynasty, clothing was still mainly fastened with tied ropes, with sporadic appearances of cloth frog button prototypes, mostly seen on armor and narrow-fitting casual garments, emphasizing practicality over decoration. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the cloth button form pairing knot buttons with loops gradually took shape, with plain styles, mostly "one-character buttons." The Ming and Qing dynasties were the flourishing period of frog buttons, especially after the mid-Qing period, when decorative buttons rose in great numbers: pipa, butterfly, plum blossom, ruyi, longevity character, and various other shapes were constantly emerging and never-ending (层出不穷, ceng chu bu qiong - "layer, emerge, not, exhausted"). The arrangement and number of frog buttons echoed the ceremonial dress system, and the patterns incorporated auspicious meanings, becoming important symbolic decorations on clothing.
The beauty of the frog button lies in the perfectly integrated and harmonious (浑然统一, hun ran tong yi - "vague, complete, unified") unity of practicality and aesthetics. The simple "one-character button," with its straight and upright lines, signifies standing firm with integrity and being open and upright without crookedness. The gentle "pipa button," round and full, harbors the wish for family abundance. The "butterfly button," graceful and lively (翩跹灵动, pian xian ling dong - "dance, light, clever, moving"), carries the meaning of longevity, health, peace, and successive waves of good fortune (福运迭至, fu yun die zhi - "blessing, luck, repeatedly, arrive"), and also symbolizes staying together like birds flying side by side (比翼相守, bi yi xiang shou - "compare, wings, together, guard") and a harmonious marriage. The small frog button, with minimal materials, carries craftsmanship, etiquette, and sentiment, becoming a key to understanding the aesthetics of Chinese-style clothing.
The beauty of the frog button also lies in the "warmth of handcraft." Without the standardized replication of machines, every frog button embodies the ingenuity of needlework, and between the rise and fall of each stitch lies tender affection. An exquisite frog button takes hours or even days of painstaking slow work to complete. Mothers, wives, and daughters, through folding, ironing, coiling, winding, and sewing, with several turns, weave all their concern, longing, and blessings into this small button knot. Clothing also carries ritual — the lapels fold inward, and the frog buttons fasten in sequence, which is both external demeanor and inner cultivation, representing the underlying character of restraint, modesty, and propriety. Not flaunting outwardly, yet enduring in the details, this is the unique temperament of Eastern aesthetics.
At present, in the contemporary context of building China's own fashion knowledge system, the frog button has deep value and significance beyond being a decorative symbol. It is not merely a visual symbol available for appropriation, but also provides contemporary Chinese fashion with its own formal language and spiritual core. Today, frog buttons are no longer confined to lapels; through ingenious design, they have been transformed into elegant brooches, bookmarks, pendants, handicrafts, and more, with their uses continuously expanding.
A strip of cloth, coiling and winding within a square inch, both carries the beautiful wishes of generations of Chinese people and, through its myriad forms, embodies vitality and vigor, opening a dialogue between ancient and modern times. The frog button, coming from tradition, is now integrating into contemporary life in a new posture, allowing the cultural connotation of living together in harmony (和合相守, he he xiang shou - "harmony, union, together, guard") of one button and one loop, the restrained and introverted aesthetic orientation, and the profound Eastern wisdom within to extend at the fingertips.
(The author is the Deputy Dean of the School of Fashion Communication at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology)
Return to TopBy: 武 湛
As the founding patriarch of the Ming dynasty's "Wu School of Painting," Shen Zhou's oeuvre includes a work hailed as a unique and unparalleled (绝无仅有, jue wu jin you - "absolutely not, only have, only exist") marvel: the Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" (see image), painted when he was 54. Originally in the collection of Weng Tonghe, a prominent late-Qing official, the painting was donated to the Shanghai Museum by his descendants in 2019, bringing it to wider public attention.
Executed in blue-and-green mineral pigments on a grand vertical scroll, the painting draws on the allusion of "Eastern Mountain music and strings" associated with Xie An, a celebrated scholar-official of the Eastern Jin dynasty. In his youth, Xie An lived in seclusion for over 20 years on the Eastern Mountain in Kuaiji, where he befriended luminaries such as Wang Xizhi and Sun Chuo. He later returned to official service due to family circumstances and the needs of the court—an episode historically known as making a comeback after a setback (东山再起, dong shan zai qi - "East Mountain, again, rise"). The Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" depicts precisely the scene of his life during that period of reclusion.
Unrolling the scroll, one sees a procession of figures on a slope by a stream. Among them, a man in plain robes carrying a bamboo staff and wearing a black cap is Xie An himself. With a flowing beard and gazing ahead, he is attended by a maidservant who turns back to tease a white deer, while four women behind him carry qin zithers and wind instruments, chatting and laughing in a lively manner (谈笑风生, tan xiao feng sheng - "talk, laugh, wind, grow"). The style of the Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" departs considerably from the "scholarly aura" that Shen Zhou consistently advocated. Yet upon examining the details of the painting, one can vaguely discern his painstaking efforts to reconcile the academic court style with the literati painting tradition.
The panoramic composition, anchored by a towering central peak, transforms the picture into a landscape space one can wander through and dwell in. Shen Zhou employs the meticulous brushwork of academic painters such as Liu Songnian and Li Tang to lay out the picturesque scenery with beautiful mountains and clear waters (山清水秀, shan qing shui xiu - "mountain, clear, water, beautiful") as an ideal realm, while also adopting distinctive texture-stroke methods derived from hemp-fiber and curling-cloud strokes in the rendering of banks, rocks, peaks, and mist, paying homage to the brush-and-ink sensibilities of Dong Yuan, Fan Kuan, Guo Xi, and Huang Gongwang. The depiction of the figures' drapery lines and expressions seems deliberately modeled on the opening section of Gu Kaizhi's Nymph of the Luo River, revealing the painter's reverence for the figure-painting tradition.
Moreover, Shen Zhou assembles a series of symbolically charged classical motifs—"deep mountain and ancient temple," "peach blossoms and flowing water," along with poetic elements such as "leaning on a staff," "facing the stream," and "carrying a qin"—to evoke the refined elegance of Xie An's leisurely life beneath the Eastern Mountain forest, inviting viewers to grasp its spirit at a glance and yearn for such a life.
Viewed in this light, the Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" both harbors the artistic creation of literary allusions by the Ming painter Dai Jin (courtesy name Wenjin) and showcases Shen Zhou's appreciation of Dai Jin's depiction of the Eastern Mountain imagery. Through the invisible "Xie An's Eastern Mountain" and "Dai Jin's Eastern Mountain," as well as the visible "Shen Zhou's Eastern Mountain," the story of Xie An's "Eastern Mountain music and strings" is continually rendered into imagery, idealized, and canonized, shaping and influencing posterity's poetic imagination of this celebrated recluse's life.
For Weng Tonghe, who was dismissed from office and returned to his hometown in his twilight years, Dai Jin—who returned home in disappointment in his old age—Shen Zhou, who never held office, and Xie An, who lived in seclusion on the Eastern Mountain in Kuaiji, all seem to share a certain spiritual kinship or mutual resonance with him. In their wavering between withdrawal from and engagement with the world, and in their life choices between leisure and responsibility, between non-action and action, they each composed their own simple yet splendid movements of life. And the collection and appreciation of the Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" may well have stirred, in Weng Tonghe's later years, a cross-temporal spiritual dialogue with the sages of antiquity. Within this lies a life conviction deeply ingrained in the Chinese character—cultivating one's own character when unable to help the world (穷则独善其身, qiong ze du shan qi shen - "poor/constrained then, alone, good, its, body") and helping the world when in a position of power (达则兼济天下, da ze jian ji tian xia - "prosper/reach then, jointly, aid, heaven, below"). Though the Copy of Dai Jin's "Xie An on the Eastern Mountain" depicts the Eastern Mountain of Kuaiji, it contains more than just the refined elegance of blue-and-green hues. Behind the emerald waters and verdant peaks, this unbroken spiritual undercurrent may well be the painting's truest meaning, most worthy of our appreciation and contemplation.
Return to TopBy: 王 昀
At the 2026 World Robot Conference, robots ran, jumped, painted, and played instruments... Embodied intelligence became the absolute protagonist, moving from the laboratory toward diverse scenarios.
In the exhibition hall, one detail left a deep impression on me: when a home companion robot walked through the crowd, the people beside it instinctively stepped back half a step. That half step was not fear, but more like a subtle retreat made by the body before consciousness. A similar phenomenon appeared in a centaur-shaped firefighting robot tested abroad: it is highly capable, able to cross rubble to carry out wilderness rescues, but on social media, netizen feedback was rather complex. Some said it "looks like a villain from a sci-fi movie," and others said, "I know it's here to save me, but I still want to run."
These phenomena made me think: robot manufacturing technology is already so powerful, why are people still not fully ready to let it approach? Perhaps what that half step of distance exposes is precisely the distance between technological logic and the logic of life, and design works precisely between the two kinds of logic. I call the design work that connects these two logics a "flexible interface." It answers the question of robot design aesthetics from three dimensions—form, scenario, and relationship: how to turn a cold machine into an existence that is acceptable, integrable, and able to remain in people's lives.
The first is form. Today, too many robots have a "laboratory face": exposed metal, a strong mechanical feel. This form is appropriate in factories and laboratories, but what about in living rooms and nursing homes? Clearly, facing different usage scenarios, robot design has different aesthetic requirements. In our design of health-care robots, we attempt to use soft materials, gentle forms, and rounded lines, letting robots sheathe their technological edge and enter life with a more approachable form. This is not decoration, but a judgment: if a robot makes people want to step back at first sight, it cannot truly integrate into life.
The second is scenario. German philosopher Edmund Husserl believed that the life-world is the foundation of the scientific world. So what is the "life-world" of robots? Not the laboratory, not the exhibition stand, but the cities, streets, and communities where we live. Chinese culture emphasizes acting in light of local conditions. When designing urban inspection robots, we proposed the concept of "coexisting with the people," letting robots integrate into the existing order of life and become friendly collaborators of the city. From ground inspection to aerial coordination, robots move gently through streets at night, providing corresponding assistance for urban governance.
Then there is relationship. When robots begin to take on the work of accompanying the elderly, caring for children, and participating in family life, designers face not only improving the efficiency of robot use, but also how to build trust, intimacy, and a sense of boundaries. The "Jacquard Bean" companion robot, designed by young people, uses lively eyes as a window for emotional expression, wrapping technological intelligence in soft plush, allowing people and robots to gradually build emotional bonds in daily interaction.
Objects usually wait for people to use them, but robots actively approach, gaze, respond, and even touch people. The particularity of robot design aesthetics lies precisely here: when robots have a "body," form carries attitude, speed carries emotion, and distance takes on ethical meaning.
Establishing a "flexible interface" means design must maintain an appropriate measure. Chinese lifestyle aesthetics especially values this "measure," emphasizing appropriateness, restraint, and leaving room. Applied to robot design, this means gentleness in form, restraint in scenario, and moderation in relationship.
The development of new energy vehicles provides a very meaningful reference. In the early days, people cared about range, energy consumption, parameters, and the like. As technology gradually matured, what truly integrated new energy vehicles into life and brought a comfortable experience was precisely those flexible elements: the steady sound of closing the door, the warm touch of the cabin, the emotional connection between person and vehicle, and so on. This shows one thing: high technology needs high aesthetics and high emotion.
Robot design aesthetics is not about dressing hard-core technology in a pretty coat, but about letting technology, before it enters life, first pass through the calibration of human cognition, culture, and emotion, establishing a "flexible interface" between technological logic and the logic of life.
The development of technology always tends toward faster and stronger, while life needs quiet, needs pauses, needs familiarity, and also needs some space not occupied by technology. The half step back in the exhibition hall is both the physical distance between people and unfamiliar machines, and the emotional distance yet to be crossed between the technological world and the life-world. What design aesthetics must do is precisely to make this distance gradually smaller.
(The author is Dean of the School of Industrial Design at the China Academy of Art)
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