People's Daily - September 19, 2026

Lucid waters and lush mountains, ice and snow, are all gold and silver mountains

By: 本报记者 崔 佳 祝大伟 戴林峰

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains."

— Xi Jinping

"My home is in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest area. In summer, the eyes are filled with lucid waters and lush mountains; in winter, ice and snow are everywhere. Yet for so many years, none of us Mohe residents ever thought of combining the lucid waters and lush mountains with the ice and snow." Shi Ruijuan, a villager of Beiji Village, Mohe City, Greater Khingan Mountains Prefecture, Heilongjiang Province, said with emotion, "It was a remark by General Secretary Xi Jinping ten years ago that awakened the people of Mohe."

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains." In March 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping made this remark while participating in the deliberation of the Heilongjiang delegation at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress, hitting the nail on the head (一语中的, yi yu zhong - "one word, hit the mark").

The General Secretary's words made the people of Mohe think deeply, and the more they thought, the more they felt suddenly enlightened (醍醐灌顶, ti hu guan ding - "golden liquid, pour on head"): in the past, they were accustomed to speaking of lucid waters and lush mountains and ice and snow separately, but by combining the two and achieving organic unity, the disadvantage of location actually became a development advantage!

At 53 degrees north latitude, Mohe is located at the "crest of the golden rooster" on the map of the motherland, and is the highest-latitude place in China.

At minus 53 degrees Celsius, Mohe's winter temperature set the extreme low temperature record since China began keeping meteorological records.

Overcoming the challenges of extreme north and extreme cold, Mohe uses new thinking to inspire new ideas, and new ideas to lead new development.

Entering Beiji Village, a giant compass needle sculpture stands facing visitors. This is a geographical coordinate, and it also marks the life coordinates of strivers in the new era. The Beiji Village Party Branch and the co-built emerging-field Party organizations stationed there have 49 Party members, including 13 entrepreneurs from outside and 7 who returned to their hometown to start businesses.

New and old Beiji Village residents alike are rooted in this entrepreneurial hot land of the northernmost and coldest region, turning the border village that was once "trapped by the north" into one that "prospers because of the north." In 2025, Beiji Village received 2.7288 million tourist visits, generating tourism spending of 2.565 billion yuan. In July this year, the Party Central Committee awarded the Beiji Village Party Branch the title of "National Advanced Primary-Level Party Organization."

On September 6, 2023, during his inspection tour in Mohe, General Secretary Xi Jinping walked into the homestay courtyard of Shi Ruijuan's family. "Developing tourism is an important focal point for promoting high-quality development. Only by protecting the Greater Khingan Mountains forests well can tourism be attractive." The General Secretary's expectations were earnest.

The light of truth illuminates the path of development. The people of Mohe have calibrated their ideological coordinates, found their action coordinates, and aimed at their development coordinates. Lucid waters and lush mountains and ice and snow complement each other, and gold and silver mountains are visible, tangible, and within reach.

Calibrating Ideological Coordinates

Whether analyzing the causes of difficulties or seeking the path to revitalization, one must break through at the level of thinking and ideas

Having returned to her hometown to start a business 15 years ago, Shi Ruijuan has opened three homestays. The names are unadorned and plain (朴实无华, pu shi wu hua - "simple, without flash") yet full of deep meaning. Her youngest daughter raised her hand and pointed to the sign in front of the door, reciting in a young, childish voice that was catchy and easy to recite (朗朗上口, lang lang shang kou - "clear, easy on the mouth"), "Lucid Waters Pavilion, Lush Mountains Residence, Snowman Log Cabin."

"As the name implies (顾名思义, gu ming si yi - "look at name, think of meaning"), my homestays are a small footnote to the 'Two Mountains' concept taking root and bearing fruit." Shi Ruijuan recalled the past, "It's all 'gold panning,' but in the past it meant digging mountains for ore and felling trees for gold; now it means gold growing under the forest and gold born from ice and snow."

Stepping into the village history museum, the grand scene of "the thousand-li Heilongjiang River trimmed in gold" leaps into view. Beiji Village prospered because of gold panning. In the late Qing Dynasty, a gold transport relay station was established here, and through the passage of seasons, traffic was heavy and continuous (车水马龙, che shui ma long - "carts, water; horses, dragon"). At the end of the last century, Mohe joined the ranks of the nation's "ten-thousand-liang counties" in annual gold output, but extensive mining also left scars on the mountains and forests, with piles of sand and gravel and direct discharge of sewage. The volume of harvestable mature and over-mature forest in the Greater Khingan Mountains plummeted from 460 million cubic meters at the beginning of development in the 1960s to 21 million cubic meters in 2008.

How can living off the mountains mean eating away the mountains' resources? The Greater Khingan Mountains region, reflecting deeply on its pain, completely banned sand gold mining, which had lasted a century, in 2005, and completely stopped commercial logging of natural forests, which had lasted half a century, in 2014.

If you don't mine and don't cut trees, how do you make a living? "Many fellow villagers went out to work as migrant laborers." At age 18, Shi Ruijuan bid farewell to her parents and went south to Qingdao, Shandong, to work as an apprentice at a foreign enterprise.

A corner of Mohe reflects a region of the Northeast. Of the first batch of 12 resource-exhausted cities in the country, the Northeast region accounted for 6.

For the development of the Northeast, whether analyzing the causes of difficulties or seeking the path to revitalization, one must break through at the level of thinking and ideas.

Entering the new era, the new development philosophy, like a sapling, slowly took root in the soil of Mohe.

"Economic development does not mean exhausting resources by 'draining the pond to catch the fish,' and ecological protection cannot mean guarding the green mountains in poverty by 'climbing a tree to seek fish.'" Gao Wei, secretary of the Beiji Village Party Branch, was once anxious about this.

How can fellow villagers secure stable jobs at their doorstep? The village's two committees made up their minds to transform and develop tourism. The Greater Khingan Mountains Technician College sent courses to the countryside, tailoring a two-year correspondence program in tourism management for the villagers.

Shi Ruijuan, who was then already a probationary Party member, signed up to become one of the first 20 trainees, and also converted her old house into a family inn.

"The transformation of thinking and understanding does not happen overnight." When Shi Ruijuan's inn first opened, business was lukewarm (不温不火, bu wen bu huo - "not warm, not hot"), with customers concentrated in the summer, and the long winter was bleak and deserted.

In the bitter cold, one cannot just endure and wait in hardship; breaking through development requires breaking the ice in thinking.

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains." That spring ten years ago, this remark by General Secretary Xi Jinping brought Shi Ruijuan the spring of her career development.

"In the early years, who would dare to proactively mention Mohe's cold? I was afraid the extreme cold weather would scare off tourists!" Shi Ruijuan self-analyzed at the Party branch's membership meeting, "When you regard ice and snow as a burden in your heart, you cannot see the gold and silver mountains with your eyes."

"Mulling over the General Secretary's words again and again, the ice of thought in my head gradually melted." Shi Ruijuan braved the severe cold and walked out of her home, raised her phone to do live streams, filming both the vast snowy ridges and ice peaks and her own frozen pears and frozen persimmons, sending sincere invitations to netizens. Many netizens were attracted to come.

Blazing a new path and driving a large area forward, more and more villagers worked hard like Shi Ruijuan. In 2017, ticket revenue for the Beiji Village scenic area reached 18.8 million yuan, an increase of 80% year-on-year.

Awakening the dormant "cold resources," the Mohe Beiji Ski Resort became the earliest-opening ski resort in the country for three consecutive years starting in 2017.

From "fearing the cold" to "longing for the cold," a change in thinking opens up vast new horizons, and Mohe's winter is no longer lonely. In 2020, Beiji Village built a 22,000-square-meter cold-region testing base. During the 2025-2026 ice and snow season, 75 auto companies and more than 2,400 technical personnel were stationed in Mohe. Lin Zhiqiang, an engineer at Beiqi Foton Motor, was one of them.

"When winter comes, I 'fly' to Beiji Village to stay like a migratory bird." Lin Zhiqiang has come to Mohe for vehicle testing for three consecutive years and often participates in themed Party Day activities at the Beiji Red Relay Station. At the station, the cumulative number of Party members who have checked in as a memento among tourists exceeds 59,000.

In the golden autumn three years ago, during his inspection of Beiji Village, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "Forests are a great treasure house that combines a reservoir, a grain depot, a money vault, and a carbon pool. We must establish the concept that increasing greenery means increasing advantages, and protecting forests means protecting wealth," further pointing the way for Mohe's development.

In the deep mountains, autumn comes early, and clusters of blueberries hang on the branches covered with frost. Why not pick the ripe fruit? "Fruit hit by frost is sweeter than honey." Shi Ruijuan handed a berry to the reporter; the blueberry was sweet and refreshingly cold in the mouth.

The Greater Khingan Mountains' wild blueberry reserves account for 90% of the national total and 30% of the world total. Fresh fruit sold by the jin fetches a low price, so how can added value be increased? Mohe City introduced an enterprise to build the Beiji Ice Blueberry Winery, brewing ice wine from frost-covered wild blueberries, which last year won a gold medal at the Brussels International Wine Competition.

"Lucid waters and lush mountains nurture blueberries, and ice and snow brew fine nectar." Shi Ruijuan not only sells ice wine on consignment, but her own sun-dried blueberry snacks and hand-made blueberry jam are also quite popular with tourists.

From viewing things in isolation to coordinating efforts comprehensively, Mohe firmly grasps its resource advantages. The city's comprehensive output value of the blueberry industry reached 450 million yuan last year, with more than 400,000 artificially cultivated blueberry plants.

Finding Action Coordinates

Protect the business environment as you would protect the ecological environment, so that entrepreneurs are willing to come and "build nests" like birds

Outside the window, mandarin ducks frolic in the rippling blue waves; inside the room, melodious tunes flow with song after song.

In late August, the Shiyezhiyou Homestay concert in Beiji Village welcomed several newlywed couples who had traveled from far away in Shanxi, Liaoning, and other places to tie the knot at the third "Love of the Arctic" group wedding. Beiji Village has created the cultural tourism IP "One North Character, A Lifetime" (一北字，一辈子), and since the beginning of this year, 32 couples of out-of-town tourists have received their marriage certificates at the "Northernmost Marriage Registration Office," twice the number in 2024.

Whether the ecology is good, the birds know best. Beiji Village not only attracts more than 180 species of wild migratory birds such as mandarin ducks to stop over and roost, but also gathers more than 200 entrepreneurs and workers from outside. Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, the couple who run the Shiyezhiyou Homestay, are new villagers who "flew north from the south" from Fujian. From honeymooning in Mohe in 2017 to settling in Beiji Village today, they have invested a total of more than 10 million yuan to build a homestay complex.

Qiu Xiaoyun is a backpacker who loves traveling and had visited 31 provinces before the age of 30. Yearning for a free life of going wherever one pleases, why did she choose to stop and take root in this remote northern border?

"The most beautiful scenery is the people!" Qiu Xiaoyun blurted out. Although Mohe is cold, people's hearts are warm. When she first arrived, she hiked into the mountains to pick up branches for handicrafts and passed a local villager on the way. Although they were complete strangers, the other person turned back and chased after her for nearly a kilometer to warn her that the wild fruit on the branches might be poisonous and she must not eat it.

The warmth of Beiji Village warmed two young hearts. The couple hit it off immediately, rented an old house in the village, converted it into a youth hostel, and earned 400,000 yuan in two years. Seeing the business growing increasingly prosperous, Qiu Xiaoyun took out her savings to further renovate and upgrade.

Unexpectedly, an accident struck suddenly, and all their hard work went up in flames. At 2 a.m. on May 11, 2019, a short circuit in the electrical wiring sparked a raging fire. When Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, asleep, were choked awake by the thick smoke, the old house of more than 400 square meters was already engulfed in flames. Fortunately, the two escaped in time.

In May, Beiji Village was still cold after the warmth of spring. Fellow villagers who heard the news rushed over and draped thick cotton coats over them. Standing before the ruins, Qiu Xiaoyun wanted to cry but had no tears, frozen in place. At 5 a.m., as dawn was breaking, an elder in camouflage clothing arrived in haste, travel-worn. His first words were: "Young lady, do you still recognize me? You may have forgotten, but I've been here before."

Qiu Xiaoyun was a bit stunned, and only after a village cadre reminded her did she realize that the person standing before her was the then-mayor of Mohe City, who happened to be on a rural research trip and had stayed overnight in Beiji Village the night before.

This warmth of "I may not know you, but you are deeply concerned about me" filled Qiu Xiaoyun, who had just experienced a fire, with a flood of mixed emotions.

No interference in normal times, but shared burdens in times of difficulty. On the day of the incident, the then-secretary of the Mohe Municipal Party Committee and others also drove to the scene at around 6 a.m.

Facing a pile of ruins, Qiu Xiaoyun had thoughts of giving up, but faced with donations from caring people from all walks of life and police officers from the Beiji Village police station taking the initiative to help clear the ruins... Qiu Xiaoyun gradually regained her confidence, and the homestay resumed operations in December of that year.

The homestay was reborn from the ashes, and in peak season rooms were hard to come by. Qiu Xiaoyun wanted to expand, but had difficulty choosing a site, so city officials drove the couple around to survey locations. In 2024, the 17,000-square-meter Shiyezhiyou Homestay complex was completed and put into operation. In the past three years, Beiji Village has added more than 130 homestays (guesthouses) and more than 2,600 beds.

"Why is it said that lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains? 'Fish follow water and grass, birds choose good trees to perch on.'" General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out profoundly.

"Protect the business environment as you would protect the ecological environment, so that entrepreneurs are willing to come and 'build nests' like birds." Jin Guangdan, member of the Greater Khingan Mountains Prefecture Party Committee and secretary of the Mohe Municipal Party Committee, introduced that Mohe City has incorporated business environment monitoring into the "four systems" working mechanism of leadership responsibility, work promotion, supervision and inspection, and assessment and evaluation. Last year, 142 suggestions from business entities were implemented in response to their "listening to advice."

"This year marks my tenth year of starting a business in Mohe. I have experienced three municipal party committee secretaries, and they have all drawn the same blueprint to the end, giving entrepreneurs a full sense of certainty." Qiu Xiaoyun's hometown is far away in Quanzhou, Fujian. Her parents once kindly reminded her, "Investment does not cross the Shanhai Pass," but Qiu Xiaoyun chose to believe in her own experience and what she had seen.

"Investment crossed the Shanhai Pass, and even went to the northernmost point." Qiu Xiaoyun joked. For three consecutive years, she accompanied Mohe municipal departments on investment promotion trips to the south, building bridges of communication in a two-way endeavor. In the past three years, Mohe City has introduced 25 investment projects with a total investment of 1.292 billion yuan.

Aiming at Development Coordinates

Adhere to the dual development of understory economy and tourism, anchoring the fusion point of two-way empowerment

From boiler worker to designer, Peng Chuhan, a young man from Jiangxi born after 1995, found his career direction in Beiji Village and also witnessed the "Two Mountains" concept taking root here. In 2018, he happened to see the recruitment post from Shiyezhiyou Homestay and was deeply drawn to it, traveling north to Mohe alone.

After traveling a long distance to arrive at Beiji Village, Peng Chuhan realized that Mohe's heating season lasts as long as 8 months. "In winter, every household lights its fire, and every chimney emits smoke." After burning the boiler every day, his ears and nostrils were full of black soot.

Developing tourism cannot be separated from a good ecology. With heating, there must also be good air; it must be both "warm and cozy" and "sky blue." Starting in 2023, Beiji Village invested more than 31 million yuan to promote energy-saving and environmentally friendly centralized heating, achieving full village coverage by the end of last year.

With blue skies, clean snow, and warm houses, green equipment such as air-source heat pumps was introduced one after another, and Peng Chuhan was also "liberated" from the tedious work of burning the boiler. He came up with the idea of designing a set of forest-themed cultural and creative products, which coincided with Qiu Xiaoyun's thinking.

Pine cone aromatherapy, ganoderma refrigerator magnets, birch bark notebooks... the grass and trees found everywhere were transformed into unique souvenirs crafted with ingenuity. Today, the Shiyezhiyou series of cultural and creative products has nearly 300 items, with annual sales of more than 2 million yuan. In June this year, Shiyezhiyou Homestay signed a technology development contract for the "Longjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Cultural and Creative Product Series" with the School of Pharmacy of Harbin University of Commerce, committed to letting more fine forest products go out of the Greater Khingan Mountains.

Culture is the soul of tourism, and tourism is the carrier of culture. Strolling through the Shiyezhiyou Homestay, every room's name has a story. "The inspiration comes from the literary works of Chi Zijian, a writer from Mohe." Qiu Xiaoyun explained at length, such as Cuoluo Star Tent, meaning the tent of the Oroqen people for stargazing in the forest; and Tula Song, symbolizing the gurgling sound of the Argun River... Chi Zijian was born in Beiji Village, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of her novel "The Fairy Tale of Beiji Village."

Traveling with literature, Qiu Xiaoyun took this as an opportunity to hold multiple forest reading sessions, and also led literature enthusiasts into the mountains to pick pine needles, gather mushrooms, and collect wild vegetables, immersively experiencing the lifestyle of forest region families. Innovating in the practice of "humanistic economics," Qiu Xiaoyun took the lead in establishing the Homestay Branch of the Greater Khingan Mountains Tourism Association and serves as its president, providing public welfare services to entrepreneurs such as brand building, decoration design, and cultural and creative development. "I am a Party member business operator, and my husband joined the Party in Beiji Village last year. The two of us want to work together with our fellow villagers." Qiu Xiaoyun introduced that the number of homestays in Beiji Village has exceeded 300.

During his inspection of Beiji Village, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "Adhere to the dual development of understory economy and tourism."

Making a big deal of the word "dual," Mohe anchors the fusion point of two-way empowerment.

Following the rich aroma of food, one enters the restaurant of the Zhang Zhongjing Health Center in Beiji Village, where delicious dishes come into view: braised monkey head mushroom with asparagus fern, iron-pot stewed assorted mushrooms, ginseng-braised pork tripe... The head of the enterprise, Zhang Tao, recited them as fluently as counting family treasures, with all the medicinal cuisine ingredients sourced locally.

Practicing the big food concept, the forest "grain depot" enriches the "Chinese rice bowl," and also attracted Zhongjing Wanxi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to set up a factory in Mohe, producing 10,000 tons of blueberry and red bean raw juice annually; at the same time, it invested 150 million yuan to build the Zhang Zhongjing Health Center, which received more than 20,000 visitors last year.

How is the economic transformation and development of the forest region going, how is the ecological protection of the forest region going, and how are the lives of forest farm workers going — General Secretary Xi Jinping has always been concerned about these.

Ten years ago, during his inspection and research trip to Heilongjiang, the General Secretary urged: "The economic transformation and development of the forest region is an arduous task, and we must broaden our thinking and adopt multiple measures simultaneously."

Ten years later, the Greater Khingan Mountains forest region has handed in its report card: the total value of ecosystem products across the entire region has exceeded 800 billion yuan. The ecological foundation is getting thicker, and the path to prosperity is getting wider.

Even more inspiring is that Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, the "Party member couple" born after 1990 from Quanzhou, Fujian, have achieved career success, and their son was born in 2024, "rooting" them in Mohe.

Mohe, this northernmost and coldest place in the motherland, "this hot land," is increasingly making people yearn for it.

"Standing in the far north, hearts toward the Party Central Committee," this slogan standing in the Shenzhou North Pole Square is the heartfelt voice of the people of Mohe.

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Keep Expanding and Strengthening Advanced Manufacturing

By: 金社平

The modernized industrial system is the strategic anchor of China's economy; advanced manufacturing is the backbone of the modernized industrial system.

"Fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, coordinate high-quality development with high-level security" and "accelerate the construction of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, and provide strong support for advancing Chinese modernization." General Secretary Xi Jinping recently made important instructions on developing advanced manufacturing, providing fundamental guidance and a course of action for continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger on the new journey.

From September 16 to 17, the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference was held in Beijing, fully demonstrating the high importance that the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaches to advanced manufacturing. We must unite efforts and pooling strength (凝心聚力, ning xin ju li - "condense, heart, gather, strength"), take practical and effective action (真抓实干, zhen zhua shi gan - "truly, grasp, real, do"), conscientiously study and comprehend, resolutely implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, continue to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, and prop up the "backbone" of the modernized industrial system.

(1)

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's advanced manufacturing has continued to grow and strengthen, with significant enhancement in innovation capacity, competitiveness, and comprehensive strength, and solid steps taken in building a manufacturing powerhouse.

"China is a major country, and must develop the real economy, continuously advance industrial modernization, and raise the level of the manufacturing industry";

"Based on the real economy as this foundation, make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, actively advance new industrialization";

"Led by scientific and technological innovation, coordinate the advancement of traditional industry upgrading, emerging industry expansion, and future industry cultivation";

Standing at the strategic height of advancing the great cause of building a strong country and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions on developing advanced manufacturing, guiding China in the new era to accelerate the building of a manufacturing powerhouse.

Of every 3 cars sold globally, 1 is made in China. With forward deployment, lane-changing to overtake, and accelerated evolution, since 2013 China's new energy vehicle sales have grown by more than 930 times, with penetration rate increasing by more than 590 times, and a trillion-yuan-level strategic emerging industry has risen powerfully.

The added value of manufacturing has ranked first globally for 16 consecutive years, accounting for nearly 30% of the global total; photovoltaic, communications, high-speed rail, shipbuilding and other advantageous fields have achieved global leadership; robotics, artificial intelligence, and innovative drugs are flourishing and showing no sign of decline (方兴未艾, fang xing wei ai - "just, rising, not, yet"), new quality productive forces are taking shape and building momentum, and advanced manufacturing is surging with powerful momentum.

Mountains one stretch, waters one stretch. In developing advanced manufacturing, our foundation is solid, but the task is arduous. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the world's century-old changes and industrial transformation are interweaving and evolving, China's economy has entered a critical stage of transformation and upgrading, and the significance of continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger is even more prominent, and the task is also more urgent.

The recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan place the construction of a modernized industrial system first among all strategic tasks. "This was carefully considered," General Secretary Xi Jinping gave the reason at this year's "first lesson of the new year," "Over these years, China's economy has been braving the wind and waves to forge ahead (顶风破浪, ding feng po lang - "top, wind, break, waves"), maintaining strong resilience and vitality, and the strategic anchor has been the complete industrial system."

On the new journey, continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger has major and profound strategic significance for "continuously enhancing the certainty and sustainability of China's development."

This is an inevitable choice for responding to external challenges and gaining the initiative in international competition.

In today's world, unilateralism and protectionism are rising, international competition in new fields and new tracks such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology is unprecedentedly fierce, and advanced manufacturing has become the main battlefield.

How can we firmly hold the fate of development and progress in our own hands? Coordinate high-quality development with high-level security, and enhance the independent and controllable level of industrial chains. Adhere to placing the development of the country and nation on the foundation of our own strength, continuously enhance independent innovation capability, only then can we stand firm and gain the initiative in the reconstruction of the global innovation landscape.

This is a key move for consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy and developing new quality productive forces.

Advanced manufacturing has a high density of technology, strong value-creation capability, and broad leading and driving coverage; it is a typical representative of new quality productive forces and occupies a pivotal position in the modernized industrial system.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, placing the development of new quality productive forces in light of local conditions in a more prominent strategic position requires us to firmly grasp advanced manufacturing as the key, effectively enhance the completeness, advancedness, and security of the industrial system, "through continuous transformation and upgrading, quality improvement and generational change, step by step moving upward."

This is a practical need for stabilizing the economy and promoting development.

Over the past decade, the added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing has grown at an average annual rate of 10% and over 8% respectively... China's economy continues to develop toward the new, the superior, and the good, with advanced manufacturing being an important force.

Having fully shifted onto the track of high-quality development, China's economic development momentum, industrial structure, and other aspects are undergoing profound adjustment. To promote the smooth transition and succession between old and new growth drivers, an important starting point is to vigorously develop advanced manufacturing, cultivate and strengthen new quality productive forces, promote new growth drivers to accumulate strength to build up momentum (积厚成势, ji hou cheng shi - "accumulate, thick, become, momentum") and traditional growth drivers to be renewed and upgraded.

In developing advanced manufacturing, challenges are not small, but opportunities are even greater. With a complete industrial system, broad application scenarios, stable supply of resources and energy, strong resilience of industrial and supply chains, and many opportunities, advantages, and favorable conditions overlapping, opportunities outweigh challenges.

With firm confidence and braving difficulties and forging ahead (迎难而上, ying nan er shang - "meet, difficulty, and, go up"), the development potential of advanced manufacturing will be continuously released, and the material and technological foundation of Chinese modernization will become even more solid.

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General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Adhere to the direction of intelligentization, greenization, and integration, continuously make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger."

A piece of steel foil reveals the vivid appearance of advanced manufacturing.

Rolling, cleaning, brightening, tension leveling, slitting, packaging—in the workshop of Shanxi TISCO Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd., rolls of "hand-tearable steel" come off the production line one after another through automated processes. From 0.02 millimeters to 0.015 millimeters, from research and development to production and then to mass production, "turning hard steel into something flexible and supple" (百炼钢做成了绕指柔, bai lian gang zuo cheng le rao zhi rou - "hundred, refine, steel, made, into, wrap, finger, soft"), with the price of the highest-end product comparable to gold.

To continuously make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, we must respond to the times and situations, keep a close eye on the frontier, work hard on the word "advanced," and promote manufacturing to extend toward both ends of the smile curve and climb toward the upper end of the value chain.

Leap toward "intelligence," shaping new advantages for"Made in China with Intelligence."

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "we must seize the rare historical opportunity, encourage open source, openness, and shared cooperation, fully promote scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, and scenario application of artificial intelligence."

Embracing new technologies, China has built more than 56,000 basic-level, more than 9,000 advanced-level, and more than 500 excellence-level intelligent factories, cultivated 15 leading-level intelligent factories, and its new-generation information technology system including artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing ranks among the forefront globally.

Currently, global artificial intelligence technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity. Focusing on intelligentization, taking the new generation of intelligent manufacturing as the main direction of attack, deeply advancing the"AI + Manufacturing" initiative, promoting more industries and enterprises to undergo comprehensive digital and intelligent transformation, the"Made in China with Intelligence" name card will become even more brilliant.

Move toward"green," making green transformation a new growth driver.

New quality productive forces are themselves green productive forces, and green is the distinctive background color of advanced manufacturing.

After years of development, the number of national green factories has exceeded 8,000, and many green industries such as photovoltaics, power batteries, and energy-saving and environmental-protection equipment have achieved"lane-changing to take the lead."

The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for green technological transformation, rule competition, and the tough battle for carbon peaking. Anchoring on greenization, unswervingly following the path of ecological priority and green development, advancing green transformation, technological innovation, and industrial upgrading as one integrated whole, China's competitive advantages in green industries will become even more prominent.

Focus efforts on"integration," cultivating more new growth points for industrial development.

Cross-border integration is an important driving force for the development of advanced manufacturing. A pair of artificial intelligence glasses, equipped with technologies such as artificial intelligence, sensors, and wireless communications, integrates services including translation, navigation, and voice recognition; an Anhui Hefei Luogang Park brings together more than 10 types of typical scenarios such as sightseeing, cultural tourism, and high-speed inspection, giving new technologies "a place where one can display their talents" (用武之地, yong wu zhi di - "use, martial, place, land")... In recent years, technologies in different fields such as information technology, new materials, and biotechnology have achieved multi-point breakthroughs and cross-application, giving birth to a batch of highly integrated innovative products and highly comprehensive innovative scenarios.

Grasp the industrial trend, integrate into thousands of industries. Focusing efforts on integration, promoting deep integration between advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, driving more new technologies, new products, and new scenarios to emerge one after another, will not only help the entire manufacturing chain increase in value and leap toward the high end of the value chain, but also leverage various industries to achieve coupled symbiosis and vibrant vitality.

Anchoring on the goal, pursuing the new and reaching for the high, adhering to the direction of intelligentization, greenization, and integration, advanced manufacturing will continuously reveal new appearances and brim with new vitality.

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General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Enhance the independent and controllable level of industrial chains, accelerate the construction of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone."

Continuously making advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger is a systematic project; we must adopt comprehensive measures and make precise efforts to ensure that various deployed tasks achieve tangible results.

Innovation leads, igniting the innovation engine of advanced manufacturing.

Modern manufacturing cannot do without scientific and technological empowerment, and the fundamental driving force behind"advanced" lies in innovation. Basic research is the source of the entire scientific system and the general hub of all technological problems. In April this year, at the Symposium on Strengthening Basic Research, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that"we must strengthen basic research with greater intensity and more concrete measures, enhancing our country's original innovation capability." Optimizing layout, increasing investment, and enhancing basic research and original innovation capabilities will make the stamina for innovation even stronger.

Scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths for developing new quality productive forces. Strengthening research on key core technologies, deepening the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, more new technologies and new applications will walk out of laboratories, into workshops, and toward markets, accelerating their transformation into real productive forces.

Coordinated advancement, promoting advanced manufacturing to expand capacity and improve quality.

Advanced manufacturing is rooted in various industries, covering both emerging industries spawned by new technologies and traditional industries that have been transformed and upgraded. Facing the future, we must both support technological research and development, promote scenario cultivation, accelerate large-scale application, and make bigger the increment of emerging industries; also prospectively plan and layout, cultivate the variable of future industries; and also improve process technology, optimize product structure, and make better the existing stock of traditional industries.

Traditional industries"put forth new shoots," emerging industries"grow into forests," future industries"take root," and advanced manufacturing will be growing and multiplying without end (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, cease") amid the mutual advancement of the old and the new.

Systematic policy implementation, optimizing the development environment for advanced manufacturing.

Developing advanced manufacturing cannot do without countless enterprises. How can we unleash the enthusiasm and creativity of various entities and further enhance development momentum? Adhere to combining an effective market with a capable government, improve systems and mechanisms, let fiscal, financial, industrial, scientific, and technological policies work in concert, let various high-quality factors such as capital, talent, and data converge toward advanced manufacturing, and let a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment create a sound ecosystem for industrial development.

Leading enterprises"standing tall between heaven and earth" (顶天立地, ding tian li di - "top, heaven, stand, earth"), while specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative"little giants," unicorns, and other high-quality enterprises and startups"spread across the sky and earth"—advanced manufacturing will be full of vitality and gallop forward.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that revitalizing manufacturing, especially advanced manufacturing, is in the short term the key to achieving a sound economic cycle, and in the long term the lifeline of the national economy.

Building a modernized industrial system and developing advanced manufacturing carries heavy responsibility and arduous tasks. Let us further unify our thoughts and actions with General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments, forge ahead with determination and dare to scale new heights, accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing and the building of a manufacturing powerhouse, and make new and greater contributions to realizing the Second Centenary Goal!

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Li Qiang Chairs State Council Executive Meeting

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 18)   Premier of the State Council Li Qiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on September ​18, which heard a report on work related to the elderly, studied work on promoting the healthy development of sports events, deployed the implementation of a project to expand and upgrade medical rehabilitation and nursing care services, reviewed and approved the "Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Draft)", and discussed the "Amendment Draft to 15 Laws Including the Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China".

The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to comprehensively and objectively understand the impact brought by population aging, deeply implement the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, and promote the comprehensive development and progress of undertakings for the elderly. It is necessary to make every effort to improve the level of service and support for the elderly, continue to exert efforts in such areas as elderly care services, health promotion, and social security, improve the multi-level and multi-pillar old-age insurance system, open up the linkage channels among home-based, community-based, and institutional elderly care services, and expand inclusive elderly care services. It is necessary to target the characteristics of the elderly group, enrich silver-hair products and services, cultivate new scenarios for silver-hair consumption, better meet the consumption needs of the elderly, and realize the two-way promotion of people's wellbeing and the expansion of domestic demand.

The meeting pointed out that sports events are of great significance for satisfying the diversified life needs of the masses and improving the quality of people's lives. It is necessary to increase the supply of high-quality sports events, revitalize and make good use of various sports venues, facilities, and event resources, and coordinate the development of competitive sports events, professional events, and mass events. It is necessary to promote the integrated development of sports events with culture, tourism, commerce, etc., accelerate the application of new technologies, enhance the spectator experience, and amplify the comprehensive effect. It is necessary to improve the capacity for event management and support, cultivate a number of professional event operation entities, improve the management systems for venues, personnel, and institutions, and promote the safe development of various types of events.

The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to take the grassroots level as the focus to build a strong medical rehabilitation and nursing care service system, promote the extension of rehabilitation and nursing care resources toward communities and families, and enhance the accessibility of rehabilitation and nursing care services for urban and rural residents. It is necessary to rely on scientific and technological innovation to improve the level of medical rehabilitation and nursing care, develop more intelligent rehabilitation technologies and equipment, optimize the review, approval, and registration of new technologies and new products, and enrich service scenarios. It is necessary to strengthen the support and guarantee for medical rehabilitation and nursing care, dynamically adjust the catalogues of rehabilitation medical services and long-term care service items, deepen the reform of prices for medical rehabilitation and nursing care services, improve talent cultivation policies, and continuously enhance the professional attractiveness of the field.

The meeting pointed out that the theories, techniques, and prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine are important resources for China's independent innovation. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the protection and management of traditional knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, and safeguard the foundation for the survival and development of traditional Chinese medicine. It is necessary to coordinate the protection and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources, continue to deepen the research and interpretation of the basic theories, diagnostic and treatment laws, and mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicine, increase the efforts to promote the popularization and application of traditional Chinese medicine traditional knowledge, strengthen foreign exchange and cooperation, and enhance the international influence of China's traditional medicine through learning from each other through mutual exchange (互学互鉴, hu xue hu jian - "each learn, each imitate").

The meeting discussed and approved in principle the "Amendment Draft to 15 Laws Including the Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China", and decided to submit the draft to the NPC Standing Committee for deliberation.

The meeting also studied other matters.

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Zhao Leji, Wang Huning Meet Egyptian Senate Speaker Farid Separately

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 18) Zhao Leji, Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, and Wang Huning, Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, met separately with Farid, Speaker of the Egyptian Senate, in Beijing on the 18th.

During the meeting, Zhao Leji stated that at the beginning of this month, President Xi Jinping paid a successful historic visit to Egypt, and the two heads of state agreed to advance the building of a China-Egypt community with a shared future, drawing a new blueprint for the development of bilateral relations under the new circumstances. China is willing to work with Egypt to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuing traditional friendship (赓续传统友谊, geng xu chuan tong you yi - "continue, traditional, friendship"), strengthening political mutual trust (夯实政治互信, hang shi zheng zhi hu xin - "solidify, political, mutual, trust"), and deepening pragmatic cooperation (务实合作, wu shi he zuo - "practical, cooperation"), jointly creating an even brighter future for China-Egypt relations. The NPC of China is willing to strengthen exchanges with the Egyptian parliament at all levels and in multiple fields, conduct in-depth exchanges of experience in democracy and rule-of-law development, and contribute to the building of a China-Egypt community with a shared future.

Farid stated that the Egypt-China comprehensive strategic partnership has achieved pragmatic results in various fields. Egypt firmly adheres to the one-China principle and is willing to work with China to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state. The Egyptian Senate is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the NPC of China to provide support for the development of the two countries.

During the meeting, Wang Huning stated that not long ago, President Xi Jinping paid a successful historic visit to Egypt, and the two heads of state reached broad consensus, further pointing the way for the development of bilateral relations. China is willing to work with Egypt to fully implement the important consensus of the two heads of state, continuing traditional friendship, expanding mutually beneficial cooperation, and advancing the building of a China-Egypt community with a shared future. The CPPCC National Committee of China is willing to further strengthen exchanges and interactions with Egypt and contribute to promoting the development of the Egypt-China comprehensive strategic partnership.

Farid stated that over the past 70 years, Egypt-China relations have maintained sound and steady development, with fruitful cooperation results. Egypt firmly adheres to the one-China principle, is willing to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, and strengthen cooperation with China in such fields as economy, trade, and science and technology. The Egyptian Senate is willing to strengthen exchanges with the CPPCC National Committee of China, actively participate in activities such as the China Economic and Social Forum, and serve the economic and social development of the two countries.

Mu Hong, Wang Dongfeng, and others attended the relevant meetings.

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Multi-Dimensional Empowerment Propels Sports Powerhouse Construction onto the Fast Track (A Strong Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan)

By: 本报记者 李 硕 孙龙飞

With refreshing autumn weather (秋高气爽, qiu gao qi shuang - "autumn, high, air, refreshing"), the fashion for sports and fitness is bringing vitality to urban and rural areas alike; "city super leagues" and "village super leagues" across the country are being held with great enthusiasm, and sports consumption continues to heat up; preparations for the Asian Games are in full swing with intense activity (紧锣密鼓, jin luo mi gu - "tight, gong, dense, drum"), with our country's athletes sprinting with full effort... In this opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, a vivid picture of the flourishing development (蓬勃发展, peng bo fa zhan - "flourishing, develop") of sports in the new era is slowly unfolding.

"Sports carry the dream of national strength and national rejuvenation." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Building a sporting power is an important goal in comprehensively building a modern socialist country."

The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes accelerating the building of a sporting power. In July this year, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sporting Power" and the "National Fitness Plan (2026-2030)" were released. Among them, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sporting Power," based on this opening year, sets out five major goals: by 2030, per capita sports venue area in our country will reach about 4 square meters, the proportion of people regularly participating in physical exercise will reach about 40 percent, the national physique excellence rate will rise to 31.1 percent, the number of world championships won will rank among the forefront, and the total scale of the sports industry will exceed 7 trillion yuan.

Anchored to the blueprint and adhering to a people-centered approach, the high-quality development of sports is advancing steadily and surely.

The public service system for national fitness is improving in quality and efficiency, laying a solid sports foundation for a Healthy China.

"I come to the Senior Sports and Health Home to exercise almost every day. My body is stronger and my life is more fulfilling." Su Junxing, a 70-year-old Shanghai resident, used to be a regular at the outdoor fitness area of Shanghai Heping Park.

With the establishment of Senior Sports and Health Homes in various communities across Shanghai, sports venues at one's doorstep have solved the problem of "where to exercise" for the silver-haired generation. "Services such as physical fitness testing, scientific guidance, exercise intervention for chronic diseases, health science popularization, and leisure social interaction are all available, having everything one could need (一应俱全, yi ying ju quan - "one, should, all, complete"), so that elderly people dare to exercise, know how to exercise, and are willing to exercise," said Wang Hailong, founder of Shangti Lehuo Senior Sports and Health Home. As of August 2026, Shanghai has built more than 200 such homes in total, with more than 300 built nationwide, serving over 100,000 person-times.

Venues are more inclusive, guidance is more professional, and mass events are increasingly down-to-earth and close to the people. "You can participate in a provincial-level competition right at your doorstep!" said Jiang Min, a resident of Yunsui Subdistrict, Zengdu District, Suizhou City, Hubei Province. Based on the fitness needs of grassroots people, since 2024 Hubei Province has innovatively created the "Hundred Towns, Thousand Villages" and "Hundred Streets, Thousand Alleys" national fitness series of events and activities, with each stop featuring 1 comprehensive sports meet, 1 village health run or community lecture hall, 3 champion campus visits, and 1 physical fitness test benefiting ten thousand households. As of September 9, 2026, the province has held 1,016 events and activities at 76 stops in total, mobilizing more than 1,900 villages and communities, with 190,000 people directly participating and 1.5 million people watching on site.

Improve the new nationwide system for competitive sports and build a diverse and open talent cultivation ecosystem.

On June 25, the national squash team moved into a new base completed in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where 22 internationally certified standard courts and a professional physical training and rehabilitation center provide one-stop services for training, accommodation, and rehabilitation for the national team. "The team members' minds are more settled, and the team's cohesion is stronger," said team leader Zhou Jie.

Squash and cricket are new events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The General Administration of Sport has carried out pilot work, entrusting the sports bureaus of Sichuan Province and Zhejiang Province to host them respectively. With the central administration and local governments providing support from both central and local levels (两手托举, liang shou tuo ju - "two, hands, hold, lift") and joining forces to tackle difficult problems (合力攻坚, he li gong jian - "combine, force, attack, key"), the innovative model has borne fruitful results. At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the Chinese squash team will participate in all events for the first time, and the Chinese women's cricket team will return to the Asian Games after 12 years.

On the green field of Beijing Zhengchangzhuang Football Park, the "Hundred Team Cup" football tournament is fiercely competitive. In the competitive group, U17 youngster Wang Yichen scored two consecutive goals, contributing to his team's eventual victory. The "Hundred Team Cup" football tournament has gone through more than 40 years, with batches of football youths making friends through sports competitions (以赛会友, yi sai hui you - "by, competition, meet, friends"), and many promising talents have used it as a starting point to embark on professional paths. Today, this benchmark event promoting the comprehensive and healthy development of young people has become a vivid practice in Beijing's deepening of the integration of sports and education and the consolidation of the reserve talent base for competitive sports.

From the effectiveness of models such as "province-run national teams" and "school teams run by municipalities," to the continuous improvement of the event system and the mechanism of cultivating talent through competition, the new development model for competitive sports with government leadership and participation of multiple entities is becoming increasingly mature. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, our country's competitive sports achieved a total of 665 world championships and set 91 world records, with both the number of medals and the coverage of events reaching new highs.

Since the beginning of this year, our country's competitive sports have seen frequent news of victories (捷报频传, jie bao pin chuan - "victory, report, frequently, spread"): the Milan Winter Olympics achieved the best results in history for overseas participation, weightlifting, rock climbing, shooting, and other events successively set new world records, the World Table Tennis Championships once again swept both the men's and women's team titles, and Wu Yize became the first post-2000 champion in the history of the World Snooker Championship... Our athletes are writing new glories with their hard work and determination.

Actively integrate into the overall national economic and social development and promote the high-quality development of the sports industry.

The "Su Super League," which became a sensation last year, has new moves this year: during the competition period, 106 cross-regional themed cultural and tourism routes allowed fans and tourists to "follow the Su Super League and travel through Jiangsu"; various cities jointly launched a series of "ticket stub+" benefit measures for the people, with consumption booming along with the events. The number of tourists received by A-level scenic spots in Jiangsu, as well as the sales and foot traffic of key monitored commercial circulation enterprises across the province, all achieved year-on-year growth.

The outdoor sports industry, widely popular among young people, has set off a new upsurge. In the past, tourists would go to Sichuan Wa Wu Mountain to "take a look at the table mountain, take a photo, and leave." Now, it has become a destination for outdoor sports enthusiasts, with various events and activities continuously drawing in visitors. In 2026, the "Village BA" drove consumption of 23 million yuan; in the first seven months of this year, local tourists reached 700,000, with no sign of slowing growth momentum.

With both the supply side and the consumption side heating up simultaneously, and both domestic demand and foreign trade making two-way efforts, "event traffic" is boosting "industrial growth." Since the beginning of this year, retail sales of cultural, sports, and leisure services have maintained relatively rapid growth, and the operating revenue of sports enterprises above designated size has continued to grow.

"The sports industry is a sunrise industry, a green industry, and a happiness industry." In the view of Huang Haiyan, dean of the School of Management at Beijing Sport University, we should continue to promote the improvement of quality, expansion of scale, and upgrading of the sports industry, make greater contributions to expanding domestic demand, stabilizing growth, and promoting employment, and truly make the sports industry a new carrier of the people's better life and an enabler of economic and social development.

When sports are strong, China is strong; when the nation's fortunes prosper, sports prosper. Gao Zhidan, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the General Administration of Sport, stated that we will anchor to the overall goal of building a sporting power, adhere to a people-centered approach, implement the requirements for high-quality development, coordinate all work in national fitness, competitive sports, and the sports industry, fully leverage the comprehensive value and multiple functions of sports, solidly handle practical sports matters for the people, fully activate the potential of domestic demand for sports consumption, strive to promote a steady start and a good beginning for sports in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and inject strong sports momentum into high-quality economic and social development.

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Photo Report

On September 18, the four newly built passenger stations on the Xi'an–Ankang (Xi'an to Ankang, Shaanxi) high-speed railway — Niubeiliang Station, Zhashui West Station, Zhen'an West Station, and Ankang West Station — completed their final acceptance inspections. After the line enters operation, travel time between the two cities will be reduced from the current approximately 3 hours to under 1 hour.

The photo shows Niubeiliang Station, located in Shangluo City, Shaanxi Province.

Photo by Zhang Yuan (China Images)

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Water Diversion Adds 4 Cubic Meters per Second: How It Supports Navigation on the Pinglu Canal (Reader's Query·Joint Focus)

By: 本报记者 韩 鑫 邓剑洋

The Pinglu Canal recently opened to navigation. Some reports have said that the construction and operation of the canal will replace the original water diversion project, and that the diversion flow will add 4 cubic meters per second on top of the original 20 cubic meters per second. How can this volume of water guarantee the safe passage of 5,000-ton-class vessels? Will the diversion squeeze out water for production and daily use along the downstream route?

— Question from a People's Daily Online netizen

For the canal to open to navigation, water is the key.

As the first grand canal built since the founding of New China to connect rivers to the sea (通江达海, tong jiang da hai - "connect rivers, reach seas"), the Pinglu Canal starts at Pingtang River Mouth in Nanning, Guangxi, in the north, crosses the watershed, passes through Lingshan County in Qinzhou, and follows the main stem of the Qin River into the Beibu Gulf. The 4 cubic meters per second of diversion mentioned by the netizen is the baseline supplementary flow added on top of the 20 cubic meters per second of the original project that diverts water from the Yu River into the Qin River.

To understand the significance of 4 cubic meters per second, one must first start with the water regime of the Qin River basin.

The Qin River has an annual runoff of about 2.03 billion cubic meters, which seems considerable, but its temporal and spatial distribution is extremely uneven — the flood season accounts for 83 percent of the annual flow, while the dry season accounts for only 17 percent. Added to this are the short source, swift current, and weak regulation and storage capacity, so natural inflow is far from sufficient to support navigation on a high-grade waterway.

Even before the planning of the Pinglu Canal, in order to solve the gap in water supply for coastal industry and urban use in Qinzhou, Guangxi had already built the project diverting water from the Yu River into the Qin River, which transfers water from the Yu River to the Qin River when the latter's inflow is insufficient, with a designed maximum diversion flow of 20 cubic meters per second. This project has been in operation for many years and has become the "lifeline" of local water supply.

With insufficient natural inflow to the Qin River compounded by the fact that no rivers join in along the watershed section, external water replenishment is imperative if the waterway's water level is to maintain the minimum navigable depth.

Is the additional 4 cubic meters per second enough?

The answer is yes.

Calculated according to the standards for a Class I inland waterway and the traffic volume of 5,000-ton-class vessels, the near-term water demand for canal navigation is about 24 cubic meters per second, and the diversion volume approved by the water authorities is exactly this figure. This means that, on the basis of the existing diversion scale, only an additional 4 cubic meters per second is needed to meet the basic needs of canal navigation.

24 cubic meters per second is equivalent to a total annual diversion of about 700 million cubic meters. Although this is a large-scale diversion, it is not a high proportion relative to the natural flow of the main stem of the Yu River.

How can a "small flow" support "large-scale navigation"?

Behind this lies a set of water-saving "special techniques."

The Pinglu Canal has a total water level drop of about 65 meters along its entire length, with three cascade hubs: Madao, Qishi, and Qingnian. With a traditional ship lock, every time a vessel passes through, the entire chamber's water must be discharged downstream, which not only consumes a large amount of water but, crucially, cannot guarantee navigation under the existing diversion scale.

The key to solving this problem lies in the innovative design of water-saving basins. The Madao and Qishi hubs adopt the world's largest three-stage superimposed water-saving ship locks. When a vessel travels downstream from the upper reach, the water in the lock chamber is not discharged directly downstream but is stored stage by stage in the water-saving basins through water conveyance galleries; when a vessel travels upstream from the lower reach, the water stored in the basins is returned to replenish the lock chamber. Through this cycle of storage and reuse, more than 60 percent of the regulating water is recycled. With the coordinated operation of the three hubs, annual water savings exceed 1 billion cubic meters.

Behind this lies a coordinated "grand chess game."

Behind the 24 cubic meters per second diversion quota is a whole system of joint dispatch of water resources across the river basin providing support.

Along the main stem of the Yu River, multiple large reservoirs are distributed in a cascade, with a total regulating storage capacity of several billion cubic meters. The water supply guarantee for the Pinglu Canal relies precisely on the unified dispatch of these reservoirs, which also takes into account multiple objectives such as power generation and navigation.

Some people worry whether diverting water from the Yu River will affect water use and the ecology of the Pearl River Delta downstream in the basin. The project makes full use of the facilities and capacity of the existing water diversion project and strictly adheres to the red line for water allocation — holding the bottom line for ecological flow in the main stem of the Xijiang River and safeguarding comprehensive downstream needs such as flood control. It can be said that the additional 4 cubic meters per second of diversion is the optimal solution under multiple constraints.

Canal operation is not simply "consuming water" but achieving "multiple uses of one body of water." By straightening, widening, and deepening the river channel, the Pinglu Canal links the water systems of the Yu River and the Qin River, opens a southward flood discharge corridor directly to the sea, and effectively enhances the region's flood discharge capacity. The replacement of the task of the project diverting water from the Yu River into the Qin River takes into account the water needs of the Qinzhou urban area and the areas along the canal, achieving comprehensive utilization of water resources.

Behind the 4 cubic meters per second lies a renewal of thinking in major projects of the new era — no longer following the old path of "large-scale diversion and transfer, trading resources for development," but instead exchanging the smallest resource consumption for the greatest development benefits.

As the dispatch system continues to improve and with the support of science-based water management, the Pinglu Canal will better play its backbone role in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the west, writing a new chapter for the times in which the southwestern region connects rivers to the sea.

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Accelerating the Establishment of a New Model for Real Estate Development (Authoritative Release · Getting Off to a Good Start in the 15th Five-Year Plan)

By: 本报记者 李心萍

Housing and urban-rural development is connected to people's livelihoods on one side and to development on the other. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, more than 11 million units of government-subsidized housing and resettlement housing benefited more than 30 million people, and more than 1.78 million dilapidated houses of low-income rural households were renovated, further improving the housing conditions of the people.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, how will modern people's cities be built? What changes will the real estate market see? How will urban renewal work be carried out? On September 18, the State Council Information Office held a series of themed press conferences under the theme "Getting Off to a Good Start in the 15th Five-Year Plan," introducing the relevant situation regarding the promotion of high-quality development in housing and urban-rural development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Building "Good Houses"

Raising the Living Standards of the People

What does a "good house" look like?

Chen Shaowang, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, introduced four key words: safety, comfort, greenness, and intelligence.

"Specifically, the standard that the people consider good is the standard for a 'good house.'" Chen Shaowang stated that the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has earnestly listened to the public's opinions on improving living conditions and has raised housing quality requirements in 14 aspects.

First, look at the "height" of residences. The latest version of the "Residential Project Code" has raised the standard for floor height from the original 2.8 meters to 3 meters.

Next, look at the "configuration" of residences. Previously, elevators were required for buildings of 7 stories and above; the latest version of the "Residential Project Code" has changed this so that buildings of 4 stories and above must all be equipped with elevators.

In addition, in response to the issue of child safety protection, the latest version of the "Residential Project Code" has also uniformly raised the height of guardrails at all open-edge areas such as balconies and exterior corridors to no less than 1.2 meters.

At present, various localities are actively exploring the construction of "good houses." Some projects implement "separation of pipelines," that is, separating water, heating, electricity, and the main structure, to solve the problem of cutting through walls and floors for repairs and decoration; some projects design variable, adjustable living spaces, which can both increase storage space and reserve space for later renovation.

How are "good houses" built?

"We will advance this across the entire chain and entire life cycle of good standards, good design, good materials, good construction, and good operation and maintenance." Chen Shaowang said.

First, build new houses well. "We will improve the standards, design, materials, construction, and operation and maintenance levels of housing across the entire chain." Li Xiaolong, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that the application of intelligent construction, green construction, green building materials, and modular buildings in the construction of "good houses" will be promoted, creating "good houses" that satisfy the people.

Second, renovate old houses well. "There are two ways to renovate old houses." Li Xiaolong introduced. One is demolition and reconstruction on the original site, especially for Grade D dilapidated houses that must be demolished and rebuilt; through demolition and reconstruction on the original site, structural and functional optimization can be achieved on the basis of minimal change in area. The other is renovation, repair, and partial upgrading.

Third, provide good services. A "good house" must have "good services." On the one hand, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development will, on the basis of "good houses," coordinate the construction of good neighborhoods, good communities, and good urban areas, fill gaps in services such as elderly care, childcare, and dining, and better reflect the value of "good houses." On the other hand, it will accelerate the establishment of a whole-life-cycle housing safety management system.

"We will also implement an action to improve the quality of property services." Li Xiaolong introduced that a new model of coordinated operation among residents' committees, owners' committees, and property service enterprises under the leadership of community Party organizations will be established, providing residents with diversified residential services, so that houses are not only built well, but also managed well and lived in well.

Achieving a Higher Level of Housing for All

Coordinating Risk Prevention and Transformation Promotion, Coordinating Benefit to People's Livelihoods and Stable Growth

Real estate concerns the vital interests of the people and the overall situation of economic and social development, and society is very concerned about it.

Zhang Xuetao, Director of the Real Estate Market Supervision Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, introduced that at present, two changes have occurred in the real estate market. First, the supply-demand relationship in the real estate market has undergone major changes; second, the real estate market has entered the existing-stock stage.

Data show that the proportion of second-hand housing transactions in China has risen from 27% in 2020 to 46% in 2025. In the first eight months of this year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the proportion of second-hand housing transactions has reached 52%, exceeding the 50% marker line.

"During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we will actively adapt to the new situation, new changes, and new requirements of real estate, coordinate risk prevention and transformation promotion, coordinate benefit to people's livelihoods and stable growth, and accelerate the construction of a new model for real estate development." Zhang Xuetao said.

What is the new model for real estate development?

One goal, namely, firmly grasping the fundamental point of enabling the people to live and work in peace, and achieving a higher level of housing for all;

Two systems, namely, improving the two systems of government-subsidized housing and market housing, and forming a supply pattern with clear positioning, complementary functions, and effective satisfaction of residents' housing needs;

Three systems, focusing on the three systems of the project company system, the lead bank system, and the completed-housing sales system, to reform and improve the basic systems of real estate;

Four major elements, namely, promoting the linkage of the four elements of "people, housing, land, and money," achieving the determination of housing by people, the determination of land by housing, and the determination of money by housing, and promoting the rational allocation of elements.

As of now, all three basic systems of real estate have been introduced.

In real estate development, the project company system will be substantively implemented. One real estate project corresponds to one project company, and the project company exercises the rights of an independent legal person in accordance with the law; it is strictly prohibited for the enterprise headquarters to improperly transfer or divert the project company's funds.

In real estate financing, the lead bank system will be implemented. One project designates one bank or a banking syndicate as its lead bank; all funds for the project's development, construction, and sales must be deposited with the lead bank, which provides the project's financing services and meets the project's reasonable financing needs.

In the sales of commercial housing, the completed-housing sales system will be implemented. By achieving what you see is what you get (所见即所得, suo jian ji suo de - "what is seen, is what is obtained"), delivery risks will be fundamentally prevented. "In the future, new real estate development projects should prioritize completed-housing sales." Zhang Xuetao stated that for those implementing pre-sales, supervision of pre-sale funds must be improved to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of homebuyers.

In addition, with regard to government-subsidized housing, Zhang Xuetao stated that the housing security system, mainly consisting of rental-type subsidized housing and sale-type subsidized housing, will be further improved, adhering to the combination of rental subsidies and physical housing guarantees, and determining construction by demand and purchase by demand.

In particular, for urban households receiving subsistence allowances and families with housing difficulties, full coverage of guarantees must be achieved, giving play to the role of a safety net; for new urban residents, young people, and urban wage-earning groups with housing difficulties and low incomes, the principle of renting where rental is appropriate and selling where sale is appropriate will be adhered to, and their basic housing needs will be met in light of local conditions and through city-specific policies.

Promoting Urban Renewal with High Quality

The Country Will Newly Start Renovation of 115,000 Old Urban Residential Communities

Urban renewal is an important lever for urban work at the current stage. The "15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal" proposes 10 development indicators, 23 key tasks, and 14 major projects. How will the related work be carried out?

First, look at livelihood projects. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the country will newly start renovation of 115,000 old urban residential communities, implement complete community construction and renovation in 5,000 communities, renew and install 575,000 residential elevators, construct and renovate 50,000 hectares of urban green space, add 15,000 pocket parks, and construct and renovate 20,000 kilometers of urban greenways. Through the systematic advancement of the "four good" construction, high-quality living spaces will be created for residents.

Next, look at development projects. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, renovation and upgrading of 1,500 old urban neighborhoods and factory areas will be implemented, injecting new momentum into urban development through the revitalization and utilization of existing resources. In addition, during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, a new batch of national famous historical and cultural cities will be repaired and upgraded, and 300 historical and cultural districts will be renovated and upgraded.

Finally, look at safety projects. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, approximately 770,000 kilometers of urban underground pipelines will be constructed and renovated, including approximately 200,000 kilometers of gas pipelines, approximately 175,000 kilometers of drainage pipelines, approximately 175,000 kilometers of water supply pipelines, approximately 100,000 kilometers of sewage pipelines, and approximately 120,000 kilometers of heating pipelines. At the same time, the construction of underground integrated utility corridors will be advanced in light of local conditions, with an investment scale exceeding 5 trillion yuan.

How can the solid advancement of urban renewal work be ensured?

"We will establish an integrated advancement mechanism for urban physical examination and urban renewal, making the problems identified through the physical examination the focus of urban renewal; and establish a mechanism for the organic integration of urban renewal and historical and cultural protection, so that historical culture and modern life complement each other." Zhang Qiang, Director of the Urban Management and Supervision Bureau of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said.

In terms of resource guarantees, Zhang Qiang stated that a sustainable investment and financing mechanism for urban renewal will be established, both increasing government investment and better leveraging the role of market forces. At the same time, legislation on urban renewal will be accelerated, and the standards system will be improved, consolidating institutional support for the high-quality advancement of urban renewal work.

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Ten Major Categories of Producer Services Achieve First Full Coverage (Official Release)

By: 本报记者 王 珂

The 140th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) will be held in three phases in Guangzhou, Guangdong, from October 15 to November 4. On September 18, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the relevant situation.

Zhang Li, Assistant Minister of Commerce, said that since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has continued its sound growth momentum, and the Canton Fair, as the "barometer" and "weather vane" of China's foreign trade, has shown characteristics of moving toward innovation, moving toward intelligence, and becoming more specialized and higher-quality.

Among the 32,000 exhibitors at this Canton Fair, more than 11,000 are high-quality enterprises such as specialized and innovative enterprises (专精特新, zhuan jing te xin - "specialized, refined, unique, new") and single-product champions. Sixty-four percent of exhibitors have applied new technologies such as industrial internet and artificial intelligence. New products and green products account for 23.2 percent and 26 percent of exhibits respectively, both setting historical highs.

Since the beginning of this year, imports and exports of artificial intelligence products have maintained rapid growth momentum. This Canton Fair has deeply embedded technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data into the entire exhibition process, launching for the first time 22 smart application scenarios and 16 featured artificial intelligence applications, which will achieve booth-level navigation throughout the entire hall and augmented reality information display at booths, enhancing the exhibition experience.

At present, foreign trade enterprises are transforming from "taking orders and selling products" to "building systems and optimizing services," presenting a new trend of integration of goods and services and integrated development of trade and investment. The trade services exhibition area of this Canton Fair has been upgraded in quality, achieving for the first time full coverage of ten major categories of producer services, with 36.5 percent of exhibitors implementing the "product + service" model transformation.

With precision in investment attraction, differentiation in services, and digitalization and intelligence in operations, this Canton Fair has launched new investment attraction measures. "More than 210,000 buyers from 196 countries and regions have pre-registered, of whom professional buyers account for nearly 80 percent, and buyers from countries jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative have registered enthusiastically," said Zhu Yong, Director of the China Foreign Trade Centre.

To ensure good service support and convert exhibition traffic into urban attractiveness and industrial growth, Guo Yile, Deputy Secretary-General of the People's Government of Guangdong Province, said that Guangdong has launched 29 measures for quality upgrading and enhancement, setting up dedicated Canton Fair passages at key ports such as Baiyun Airport, implementing the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, and promoting "dedicated personnel and dedicated windows, immediate processing upon arrival"; promoting the full-process online handling of exhibit filing, declaration, and appointment-based customs clearance to make exhibit flow more efficient. Hu Hao, Vice Mayor of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, introduced that multiple airlines have launched exclusive discounts, airports and Pazhou Port have opened exclusive passages, buses and subways have designated special timetables, and more than 2,000 taxis and ride-hailing vehicles are dispatched daily to make travel smoother for business visitors.

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First 8 Months See 5.7% Rise in National General Public Budget Revenue

(People's Daily, Beijing, September 18) (Reporter Wang Guan) The Ministry of Finance released data on the 18th: from January to August, the national general public budget revenue was 15.66 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of ​5.7%. Among this, the national tax revenue was 12.91 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6%.

Viewed by tax category, the domestic value-added tax increased by 5.9%, mainly driven by the sustained growth of industry and services, and the rise in producer price indexes for industrial products; the value-added tax and consumption tax on imported goods increased by 12.6%, mainly due to the relatively rapid growth in foreign trade imports; the corporate income tax increased by 7.3%; the individual income tax increased by 14.5%; the stamp tax on securities transactions increased by 82%, mainly due to the growth in stock market turnover;the export tax rebates for value-added tax and consumption tax on exported goods totaled 1.65 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase in rebates of 707 billion yuan, supporting the growth of foreign trade exports. Viewed by region, revenue in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions increased by 3.2%, 1.4%, 4.6%, and 2.1%, respectively, with most regions maintaining revenue growth.

National general public budget expenditure continued to maintain growth. From January to August, national general public budget expenditure was 18.15 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%. Among the major national expenditure areas, expenditure related to investment in people grew relatively rapidly. Among these, social security and employment expenditure increased by 6.5%; education expenditure increased by 0.7%; health and hygiene expenditure increased by ​9.2%, mainly due to increases such as the issuance of childcare subsidies; science and technology expenditure increased by 2.2%; housing security expenditure increased by 3.6%.

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Lucid waters and lush mountains, ice and snow, are all gold and silver mountains

By: 本报记者 崔 佳 祝大伟 戴林峰

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains."

— Xi Jinping

"My home is in the Greater Khingan Mountains forest area. In summer, the eyes are filled with lucid waters and lush mountains; in winter, ice and snow are everywhere. Yet for so many years, none of us Mohe residents ever thought of combining the lucid waters and lush mountains with the ice and snow." Shi Ruijuan, a villager of Beiji Village, Mohe City, Greater Khingan Mountains Prefecture, Heilongjiang Province, said with emotion, "It was a remark by General Secretary Xi Jinping ten years ago that awakened the people of Mohe."

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains." In March 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping made this remark while participating in the deliberation of the Heilongjiang delegation at the Fourth Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress, hitting the nail on the head (一语中的, yi yu zhong - "one word, hit the mark").

The General Secretary's words made the people of Mohe think deeply, and the more they thought, the more they felt suddenly enlightened (醍醐灌顶, ti hu guan ding - "golden liquid, pour on head"): in the past, they were accustomed to speaking of lucid waters and lush mountains and ice and snow separately, but by combining the two and achieving organic unity, the disadvantage of location actually became a development advantage!

At 53 degrees north latitude, Mohe is located at the "crest of the golden rooster" on the map of the motherland, and is the highest-latitude place in China.

At minus 53 degrees Celsius, Mohe's winter temperature set the extreme low temperature record since China began keeping meteorological records.

Overcoming the challenges of extreme north and extreme cold, Mohe uses new thinking to inspire new ideas, and new ideas to lead new development.

Entering Beiji Village, a giant compass needle sculpture stands facing visitors. This is a geographical coordinate, and it also marks the life coordinates of strivers in the new era. The Beiji Village Party Branch and the co-built emerging-field Party organizations stationed there have 49 Party members, including 13 entrepreneurs from outside and 7 who returned to their hometown to start businesses.

New and old Beiji Village residents alike are rooted in this entrepreneurial hot land of the northernmost and coldest region, turning the border village that was once "trapped by the north" into one that "prospers because of the north." In 2025, Beiji Village received 2.7288 million tourist visits, generating tourism spending of 2.565 billion yuan. In July this year, the Party Central Committee awarded the Beiji Village Party Branch the title of "National Advanced Primary-Level Party Organization."

On September 6, 2023, during his inspection tour in Mohe, General Secretary Xi Jinping walked into the homestay courtyard of Shi Ruijuan's family. "Developing tourism is an important focal point for promoting high-quality development. Only by protecting the Greater Khingan Mountains forests well can tourism be attractive." The General Secretary's expectations were earnest.

The light of truth illuminates the path of development. The people of Mohe have calibrated their ideological coordinates, found their action coordinates, and aimed at their development coordinates. Lucid waters and lush mountains and ice and snow complement each other, and gold and silver mountains are visible, tangible, and within reach.

Calibrating Ideological Coordinates

Whether analyzing the causes of difficulties or seeking the path to revitalization, one must break through at the level of thinking and ideas

Having returned to her hometown to start a business 15 years ago, Shi Ruijuan has opened three homestays. The names are unadorned and plain (朴实无华, pu shi wu hua - "simple, without flash") yet full of deep meaning. Her youngest daughter raised her hand and pointed to the sign in front of the door, reciting in a young, childish voice that was catchy and easy to recite (朗朗上口, lang lang shang kou - "clear, easy on the mouth"), "Lucid Waters Pavilion, Lush Mountains Residence, Snowman Log Cabin."

"As the name implies (顾名思义, gu ming si yi - "look at name, think of meaning"), my homestays are a small footnote to the 'Two Mountains' concept taking root and bearing fruit." Shi Ruijuan recalled the past, "It's all 'gold panning,' but in the past it meant digging mountains for ore and felling trees for gold; now it means gold growing under the forest and gold born from ice and snow."

Stepping into the village history museum, the grand scene of "the thousand-li Heilongjiang River trimmed in gold" leaps into view. Beiji Village prospered because of gold panning. In the late Qing Dynasty, a gold transport relay station was established here, and through the passage of seasons, traffic was heavy and continuous (车水马龙, che shui ma long - "carts, water; horses, dragon"). At the end of the last century, Mohe joined the ranks of the nation's "ten-thousand-liang counties" in annual gold output, but extensive mining also left scars on the mountains and forests, with piles of sand and gravel and direct discharge of sewage. The volume of harvestable mature and over-mature forest in the Greater Khingan Mountains plummeted from 460 million cubic meters at the beginning of development in the 1960s to 21 million cubic meters in 2008.

How can living off the mountains mean eating away the mountains' resources? The Greater Khingan Mountains region, reflecting deeply on its pain, completely banned sand gold mining, which had lasted a century, in 2005, and completely stopped commercial logging of natural forests, which had lasted half a century, in 2014.

If you don't mine and don't cut trees, how do you make a living? "Many fellow villagers went out to work as migrant laborers." At age 18, Shi Ruijuan bid farewell to her parents and went south to Qingdao, Shandong, to work as an apprentice at a foreign enterprise.

A corner of Mohe reflects a region of the Northeast. Of the first batch of 12 resource-exhausted cities in the country, the Northeast region accounted for 6.

For the development of the Northeast, whether analyzing the causes of difficulties or seeking the path to revitalization, one must break through at the level of thinking and ideas.

Entering the new era, the new development philosophy, like a sapling, slowly took root in the soil of Mohe.

"Economic development does not mean exhausting resources by 'draining the pond to catch the fish,' and ecological protection cannot mean guarding the green mountains in poverty by 'climbing a tree to seek fish.'" Gao Wei, secretary of the Beiji Village Party Branch, was once anxious about this.

How can fellow villagers secure stable jobs at their doorstep? The village's two committees made up their minds to transform and develop tourism. The Greater Khingan Mountains Technician College sent courses to the countryside, tailoring a two-year correspondence program in tourism management for the villagers.

Shi Ruijuan, who was then already a probationary Party member, signed up to become one of the first 20 trainees, and also converted her old house into a family inn.

"The transformation of thinking and understanding does not happen overnight." When Shi Ruijuan's inn first opened, business was lukewarm (不温不火, bu wen bu huo - "not warm, not hot"), with customers concentrated in the summer, and the long winter was bleak and deserted.

In the bitter cold, one cannot just endure and wait in hardship; breaking through development requires breaking the ice in thinking.

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains, and Heilongjiang's ice and snow are also gold and silver mountains." That spring ten years ago, this remark by General Secretary Xi Jinping brought Shi Ruijuan the spring of her career development.

"In the early years, who would dare to proactively mention Mohe's cold? I was afraid the extreme cold weather would scare off tourists!" Shi Ruijuan self-analyzed at the Party branch's membership meeting, "When you regard ice and snow as a burden in your heart, you cannot see the gold and silver mountains with your eyes."

"Mulling over the General Secretary's words again and again, the ice of thought in my head gradually melted." Shi Ruijuan braved the severe cold and walked out of her home, raised her phone to do live streams, filming both the vast snowy ridges and ice peaks and her own frozen pears and frozen persimmons, sending sincere invitations to netizens. Many netizens were attracted to come.

Blazing a new path and driving a large area forward, more and more villagers worked hard like Shi Ruijuan. In 2017, ticket revenue for the Beiji Village scenic area reached 18.8 million yuan, an increase of 80% year-on-year.

Awakening the dormant "cold resources," the Mohe Beiji Ski Resort became the earliest-opening ski resort in the country for three consecutive years starting in 2017.

From "fearing the cold" to "longing for the cold," a change in thinking opens up vast new horizons, and Mohe's winter is no longer lonely. In 2020, Beiji Village built a 22,000-square-meter cold-region testing base. During the 2025-2026 ice and snow season, 75 auto companies and more than 2,400 technical personnel were stationed in Mohe. Lin Zhiqiang, an engineer at Beiqi Foton Motor, was one of them.

"When winter comes, I 'fly' to Beiji Village to stay like a migratory bird." Lin Zhiqiang has come to Mohe for vehicle testing for three consecutive years and often participates in themed Party Day activities at the Beiji Red Relay Station. At the station, the cumulative number of Party members who have checked in as a memento among tourists exceeds 59,000.

In the golden autumn three years ago, during his inspection of Beiji Village, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "Forests are a great treasure house that combines a reservoir, a grain depot, a money vault, and a carbon pool. We must establish the concept that increasing greenery means increasing advantages, and protecting forests means protecting wealth," further pointing the way for Mohe's development.

In the deep mountains, autumn comes early, and clusters of blueberries hang on the branches covered with frost. Why not pick the ripe fruit? "Fruit hit by frost is sweeter than honey." Shi Ruijuan handed a berry to the reporter; the blueberry was sweet and refreshingly cold in the mouth.

The Greater Khingan Mountains' wild blueberry reserves account for 90% of the national total and 30% of the world total. Fresh fruit sold by the jin fetches a low price, so how can added value be increased? Mohe City introduced an enterprise to build the Beiji Ice Blueberry Winery, brewing ice wine from frost-covered wild blueberries, which last year won a gold medal at the Brussels International Wine Competition.

"Lucid waters and lush mountains nurture blueberries, and ice and snow brew fine nectar." Shi Ruijuan not only sells ice wine on consignment, but her own sun-dried blueberry snacks and hand-made blueberry jam are also quite popular with tourists.

From viewing things in isolation to coordinating efforts comprehensively, Mohe firmly grasps its resource advantages. The city's comprehensive output value of the blueberry industry reached 450 million yuan last year, with more than 400,000 artificially cultivated blueberry plants.

Finding Action Coordinates

Protect the business environment as you would protect the ecological environment, so that entrepreneurs are willing to come and "build nests" like birds

Outside the window, mandarin ducks frolic in the rippling blue waves; inside the room, melodious tunes flow with song after song.

In late August, the Shiyezhiyou Homestay concert in Beiji Village welcomed several newlywed couples who had traveled from far away in Shanxi, Liaoning, and other places to tie the knot at the third "Love of the Arctic" group wedding. Beiji Village has created the cultural tourism IP "One North Character, A Lifetime" (一北字，一辈子), and since the beginning of this year, 32 couples of out-of-town tourists have received their marriage certificates at the "Northernmost Marriage Registration Office," twice the number in 2024.

Whether the ecology is good, the birds know best. Beiji Village not only attracts more than 180 species of wild migratory birds such as mandarin ducks to stop over and roost, but also gathers more than 200 entrepreneurs and workers from outside. Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, the couple who run the Shiyezhiyou Homestay, are new villagers who "flew north from the south" from Fujian. From honeymooning in Mohe in 2017 to settling in Beiji Village today, they have invested a total of more than 10 million yuan to build a homestay complex.

Qiu Xiaoyun is a backpacker who loves traveling and had visited 31 provinces before the age of 30. Yearning for a free life of going wherever one pleases, why did she choose to stop and take root in this remote northern border?

"The most beautiful scenery is the people!" Qiu Xiaoyun blurted out. Although Mohe is cold, people's hearts are warm. When she first arrived, she hiked into the mountains to pick up branches for handicrafts and passed a local villager on the way. Although they were complete strangers, the other person turned back and chased after her for nearly a kilometer to warn her that the wild fruit on the branches might be poisonous and she must not eat it.

The warmth of Beiji Village warmed two young hearts. The couple hit it off immediately, rented an old house in the village, converted it into a youth hostel, and earned 400,000 yuan in two years. Seeing the business growing increasingly prosperous, Qiu Xiaoyun took out her savings to further renovate and upgrade.

Unexpectedly, an accident struck suddenly, and all their hard work went up in flames. At 2 a.m. on May 11, 2019, a short circuit in the electrical wiring sparked a raging fire. When Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, asleep, were choked awake by the thick smoke, the old house of more than 400 square meters was already engulfed in flames. Fortunately, the two escaped in time.

In May, Beiji Village was still cold after the warmth of spring. Fellow villagers who heard the news rushed over and draped thick cotton coats over them. Standing before the ruins, Qiu Xiaoyun wanted to cry but had no tears, frozen in place. At 5 a.m., as dawn was breaking, an elder in camouflage clothing arrived in haste, travel-worn. His first words were: "Young lady, do you still recognize me? You may have forgotten, but I've been here before."

Qiu Xiaoyun was a bit stunned, and only after a village cadre reminded her did she realize that the person standing before her was the then-mayor of Mohe City, who happened to be on a rural research trip and had stayed overnight in Beiji Village the night before.

This warmth of "I may not know you, but you are deeply concerned about me" filled Qiu Xiaoyun, who had just experienced a fire, with a flood of mixed emotions.

No interference in normal times, but shared burdens in times of difficulty. On the day of the incident, the then-secretary of the Mohe Municipal Party Committee and others also drove to the scene at around 6 a.m.

Facing a pile of ruins, Qiu Xiaoyun had thoughts of giving up, but faced with donations from caring people from all walks of life and police officers from the Beiji Village police station taking the initiative to help clear the ruins... Qiu Xiaoyun gradually regained her confidence, and the homestay resumed operations in December of that year.

The homestay was reborn from the ashes, and in peak season rooms were hard to come by. Qiu Xiaoyun wanted to expand, but had difficulty choosing a site, so city officials drove the couple around to survey locations. In 2024, the 17,000-square-meter Shiyezhiyou Homestay complex was completed and put into operation. In the past three years, Beiji Village has added more than 130 homestays (guesthouses) and more than 2,600 beds.

"Why is it said that lucid waters and lush mountains are gold and silver mountains? 'Fish follow water and grass, birds choose good trees to perch on.'" General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out profoundly.

"Protect the business environment as you would protect the ecological environment, so that entrepreneurs are willing to come and 'build nests' like birds." Jin Guangdan, member of the Greater Khingan Mountains Prefecture Party Committee and secretary of the Mohe Municipal Party Committee, introduced that Mohe City has incorporated business environment monitoring into the "four systems" working mechanism of leadership responsibility, work promotion, supervision and inspection, and assessment and evaluation. Last year, 142 suggestions from business entities were implemented in response to their "listening to advice."

"This year marks my tenth year of starting a business in Mohe. I have experienced three municipal party committee secretaries, and they have all drawn the same blueprint to the end, giving entrepreneurs a full sense of certainty." Qiu Xiaoyun's hometown is far away in Quanzhou, Fujian. Her parents once kindly reminded her, "Investment does not cross the Shanhai Pass," but Qiu Xiaoyun chose to believe in her own experience and what she had seen.

"Investment crossed the Shanhai Pass, and even went to the northernmost point." Qiu Xiaoyun joked. For three consecutive years, she accompanied Mohe municipal departments on investment promotion trips to the south, building bridges of communication in a two-way endeavor. In the past three years, Mohe City has introduced 25 investment projects with a total investment of 1.292 billion yuan.

Aiming at Development Coordinates

Adhere to the dual development of understory economy and tourism, anchoring the fusion point of two-way empowerment

From boiler worker to designer, Peng Chuhan, a young man from Jiangxi born after 1995, found his career direction in Beiji Village and also witnessed the "Two Mountains" concept taking root here. In 2018, he happened to see the recruitment post from Shiyezhiyou Homestay and was deeply drawn to it, traveling north to Mohe alone.

After traveling a long distance to arrive at Beiji Village, Peng Chuhan realized that Mohe's heating season lasts as long as 8 months. "In winter, every household lights its fire, and every chimney emits smoke." After burning the boiler every day, his ears and nostrils were full of black soot.

Developing tourism cannot be separated from a good ecology. With heating, there must also be good air; it must be both "warm and cozy" and "sky blue." Starting in 2023, Beiji Village invested more than 31 million yuan to promote energy-saving and environmentally friendly centralized heating, achieving full village coverage by the end of last year.

With blue skies, clean snow, and warm houses, green equipment such as air-source heat pumps was introduced one after another, and Peng Chuhan was also "liberated" from the tedious work of burning the boiler. He came up with the idea of designing a set of forest-themed cultural and creative products, which coincided with Qiu Xiaoyun's thinking.

Pine cone aromatherapy, ganoderma refrigerator magnets, birch bark notebooks... the grass and trees found everywhere were transformed into unique souvenirs crafted with ingenuity. Today, the Shiyezhiyou series of cultural and creative products has nearly 300 items, with annual sales of more than 2 million yuan. In June this year, Shiyezhiyou Homestay signed a technology development contract for the "Longjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Cultural and Creative Product Series" with the School of Pharmacy of Harbin University of Commerce, committed to letting more fine forest products go out of the Greater Khingan Mountains.

Culture is the soul of tourism, and tourism is the carrier of culture. Strolling through the Shiyezhiyou Homestay, every room's name has a story. "The inspiration comes from the literary works of Chi Zijian, a writer from Mohe." Qiu Xiaoyun explained at length, such as Cuoluo Star Tent, meaning the tent of the Oroqen people for stargazing in the forest; and Tula Song, symbolizing the gurgling sound of the Argun River... Chi Zijian was born in Beiji Village, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of her novel "The Fairy Tale of Beiji Village."

Traveling with literature, Qiu Xiaoyun took this as an opportunity to hold multiple forest reading sessions, and also led literature enthusiasts into the mountains to pick pine needles, gather mushrooms, and collect wild vegetables, immersively experiencing the lifestyle of forest region families. Innovating in the practice of "humanistic economics," Qiu Xiaoyun took the lead in establishing the Homestay Branch of the Greater Khingan Mountains Tourism Association and serves as its president, providing public welfare services to entrepreneurs such as brand building, decoration design, and cultural and creative development. "I am a Party member business operator, and my husband joined the Party in Beiji Village last year. The two of us want to work together with our fellow villagers." Qiu Xiaoyun introduced that the number of homestays in Beiji Village has exceeded 300.

During his inspection of Beiji Village, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "Adhere to the dual development of understory economy and tourism."

Making a big deal of the word "dual," Mohe anchors the fusion point of two-way empowerment.

Following the rich aroma of food, one enters the restaurant of the Zhang Zhongjing Health Center in Beiji Village, where delicious dishes come into view: braised monkey head mushroom with asparagus fern, iron-pot stewed assorted mushrooms, ginseng-braised pork tripe... The head of the enterprise, Zhang Tao, recited them as fluently as counting family treasures, with all the medicinal cuisine ingredients sourced locally.

Practicing the big food concept, the forest "grain depot" enriches the "Chinese rice bowl," and also attracted Zhongjing Wanxi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to set up a factory in Mohe, producing 10,000 tons of blueberry and red bean raw juice annually; at the same time, it invested 150 million yuan to build the Zhang Zhongjing Health Center, which received more than 20,000 visitors last year.

How is the economic transformation and development of the forest region going, how is the ecological protection of the forest region going, and how are the lives of forest farm workers going — General Secretary Xi Jinping has always been concerned about these.

Ten years ago, during his inspection and research trip to Heilongjiang, the General Secretary urged: "The economic transformation and development of the forest region is an arduous task, and we must broaden our thinking and adopt multiple measures simultaneously."

Ten years later, the Greater Khingan Mountains forest region has handed in its report card: the total value of ecosystem products across the entire region has exceeded 800 billion yuan. The ecological foundation is getting thicker, and the path to prosperity is getting wider.

Even more inspiring is that Qiu Xiaoyun and Qiu Xiaoxu, the "Party member couple" born after 1990 from Quanzhou, Fujian, have achieved career success, and their son was born in 2024, "rooting" them in Mohe.

Mohe, this northernmost and coldest place in the motherland, "this hot land," is increasingly making people yearn for it.

"Standing in the far north, hearts toward the Party Central Committee," this slogan standing in the Shenzhou North Pole Square is the heartfelt voice of the people of Mohe.

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Photo Report

In the golden autumn season, the ancient tea forest on Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er, Yunnan, displays lush greenery and layered verdant colors (叠翠, die cui - "layer, emerald"), attracting visitors from all directions. The photo shows tourists enjoying themselves on the 16th at the ancient Wengji Village on Jingmai Mountain.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Xinbo

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Water Diversion Adds 4 Cubic Meters per Second: How It Supports Navigation on the Pinglu Canal (Reader's Query·Joint Focus)

By: 本报记者 韩 鑫 邓剑洋

The Pinglu Canal recently opened to navigation. Some reports have said that the construction and operation of the canal will replace the original water diversion project, and that the diversion flow will add 4 cubic meters per second on top of the original 20 cubic meters per second. How can this volume of water guarantee the safe passage of 5,000-ton-class vessels? Will the diversion squeeze out water for production and daily use along the downstream route?

— Question from a People's Daily Online netizen

For the canal to open to navigation, water is the key.

As the first grand canal built since the founding of New China to connect rivers to the sea (通江达海, tong jiang da hai - "connect rivers, reach seas"), the Pinglu Canal starts at Pingtang River Mouth in Nanning, Guangxi, in the north, crosses the watershed, passes through Lingshan County in Qinzhou, and follows the main stem of the Qin River into the Beibu Gulf. The 4 cubic meters per second of diversion mentioned by the netizen is the baseline supplementary flow added on top of the 20 cubic meters per second of the original project that diverts water from the Yu River into the Qin River.

To understand the significance of 4 cubic meters per second, one must first start with the water regime of the Qin River basin.

The Qin River has an annual runoff of about 2.03 billion cubic meters, which seems considerable, but its temporal and spatial distribution is extremely uneven — the flood season accounts for 83 percent of the annual flow, while the dry season accounts for only 17 percent. Added to this are the short source, swift current, and weak regulation and storage capacity, so natural inflow is far from sufficient to support navigation on a high-grade waterway.

Even before the planning of the Pinglu Canal, in order to solve the gap in water supply for coastal industry and urban use in Qinzhou, Guangxi had already built the project diverting water from the Yu River into the Qin River, which transfers water from the Yu River to the Qin River when the latter's inflow is insufficient, with a designed maximum diversion flow of 20 cubic meters per second. This project has been in operation for many years and has become the "lifeline" of local water supply.

With insufficient natural inflow to the Qin River compounded by the fact that no rivers join in along the watershed section, external water replenishment is imperative if the waterway's water level is to maintain the minimum navigable depth.

Is the additional 4 cubic meters per second enough?

The answer is yes.

Calculated according to the standards for a Class I inland waterway and the traffic volume of 5,000-ton-class vessels, the near-term water demand for canal navigation is about 24 cubic meters per second, and the diversion volume approved by the water authorities is exactly this figure. This means that, on the basis of the existing diversion scale, only an additional 4 cubic meters per second is needed to meet the basic needs of canal navigation.

24 cubic meters per second is equivalent to a total annual diversion of about 700 million cubic meters. Although this is a large-scale diversion, it is not a high proportion relative to the natural flow of the main stem of the Yu River.

How can a "small flow" support "large-scale navigation"?

Behind this lies a set of water-saving "special techniques."

The Pinglu Canal has a total water level drop of about 65 meters along its entire length, with three cascade hubs: Madao, Qishi, and Qingnian. With a traditional ship lock, every time a vessel passes through, the entire chamber's water must be discharged downstream, which not only consumes a large amount of water but, crucially, cannot guarantee navigation under the existing diversion scale.

The key to solving this problem lies in the innovative design of water-saving basins. The Madao and Qishi hubs adopt the world's largest three-stage superimposed water-saving ship locks. When a vessel travels downstream from the upper reach, the water in the lock chamber is not discharged directly downstream but is stored stage by stage in the water-saving basins through water conveyance galleries; when a vessel travels upstream from the lower reach, the water stored in the basins is returned to replenish the lock chamber. Through this cycle of storage and reuse, more than 60 percent of the regulating water is recycled. With the coordinated operation of the three hubs, annual water savings exceed 1 billion cubic meters.

Behind this lies a coordinated "grand chess game."

Behind the 24 cubic meters per second diversion quota is a whole system of joint dispatch of water resources across the river basin providing support.

Along the main stem of the Yu River, multiple large reservoirs are distributed in a cascade, with a total regulating storage capacity of several billion cubic meters. The water supply guarantee for the Pinglu Canal relies precisely on the unified dispatch of these reservoirs, which also takes into account multiple objectives such as power generation and navigation.

Some people worry whether diverting water from the Yu River will affect water use and the ecology of the Pearl River Delta downstream in the basin. The project makes full use of the facilities and capacity of the existing water diversion project and strictly adheres to the red line for water allocation — holding the bottom line for ecological flow in the main stem of the Xijiang River and safeguarding comprehensive downstream needs such as flood control. It can be said that the additional 4 cubic meters per second of diversion is the optimal solution under multiple constraints.

Canal operation is not simply "consuming water" but achieving "multiple uses of one body of water." By straightening, widening, and deepening the river channel, the Pinglu Canal links the water systems of the Yu River and the Qin River, opens a southward flood discharge corridor directly to the sea, and effectively enhances the region's flood discharge capacity. The replacement of the task of the project diverting water from the Yu River into the Qin River takes into account the water needs of the Qinzhou urban area and the areas along the canal, achieving comprehensive utilization of water resources.

Behind the 4 cubic meters per second lies a renewal of thinking in major projects of the new era — no longer following the old path of "large-scale diversion and transfer, trading resources for development," but instead exchanging the smallest resource consumption for the greatest development benefits.

As the dispatch system continues to improve and with the support of science-based water management, the Pinglu Canal will better play its backbone role in the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor in the west, writing a new chapter for the times in which the southwestern region connects rivers to the sea.

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Entering the People's City, Understanding China's Governance

By: ​本报记者 崔 寅 季觉苏 王伟健

The "Entering the People's City: China's Governance and Global Mutual Learning" event for resident foreign envoys to visit local regions was recently held. Thirty resident envoys and diplomats from 20 countries, including Spain, Bangladesh, and Belarus, traveled to Shanghai Municipality and Suzhou, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province to inspect on site the practical achievements of people's city construction and grassroots governance experience, reading from urban development samples the governance of China.

Seeking Advice from the People Highlights the Original Aspiration of the People's City

"The people's city is built by the people, and the people's city serves the people. This is not an empty slogan, but an important driving force for the high-quality development of China's cities." Elia Georgiev, Ambassador of Namibia to China, said.

During the on-site visits, the resident envoys felt the practical power of the important concept of the people's city. Yangpu District in Shanghai is the place where the concept of the people's city was first proposed; it once gathered Shanghai's waterworks, power plants, and other industrial facilities, carrying the developmental memory of modern Shanghai's industry. Through approaches such as restoring the old as it was and micro-renewal, Shanghai has revitalized its industrial heritage, transforming old factories and warehouses into public cultural spaces and convenience service stations. The Shanghai People's City Practice Exhibition Hall is a typical achievement of heritage activation and reuse.

From the spatial transformation of urban spaces, industrial upgrading, to top-level institutional design and basic livelihood safeguards, Shanghai's refined and systematic governance system drew the attention of the envoys. In the meeting hall of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, around governance topics such as population aging, old district renovation, and planning compilation, the envoys frequently raised questions.

Cyprus's Ambassador to China, Kula Sophianou, focused on Shanghai's policies and legislative arrangements for coping with population aging. Chen Jing, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, introduced that locally, home-based and community-based elderly care serve as the mainstay, and through refined livelihood measures such as age-friendly renovation, family doctor contracting, and community meal assistance services, while relying on local legislation to firmly secure the bottom line of elderly people's rights and interests. Shanghai, in the compilation of its municipal "15th Five-Year Plan," has solicited public opinions, comprehensively incorporating livelihood demands such as elderly care, childcare, and old district renovation into the plan. This governance model, which balances long-term layout with livelihood details and seeks advice from the people, won high recognition from the envoys.

Song Lei, Professor at China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong, cited the example of the Taishan People's Square area on Yichuan Road Subdistrict in Putuo District, saying that this workers' new village, built in the 1970s and 1980s, was once split apart by a herringbone-patterned road and walls, with three residential communities poorly connected, inconvenient for travel, and cluttered public spaces. The local area fully solicited opinions from more than 3,000 households, and through urban micro-renewal opened up spatial barriers, revitalized idle resources, transforming the unmanaged herringbone-patterned road into a vibrant axis connecting livelihood resources, and building around this axis community service centers, senior canteens, and convenience markets. Public affairs such as greenery and merchant management in the area are all jointly discussed and co-governed by residents. After the renovation, the area's livelihood vitality and commercial popularity have significantly improved.

Nazmul Islam, Ambassador of Bangladesh to China, who has visited Shanghai several times, said with deep feeling: "Shanghai has achieved remarkable results in governance areas of megacities such as traffic management, waste disposal, public health, and livelihood services. Numerous small and micro livelihood projects have consistently adhered to asking the people for their needs and seeking advice from the people, precisely solving the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious concerns. This governance model of deep public participation and pragmatic benefit to the people is highly referential, and Bangladesh hopes to learn relevant experience in light of its own local conditions to enhance the well-being of its people."

Meticulous and Detailed Work Improves Residents' Daily Lives

On the shore of Taihu Lake in Suzhou, the unmanned aerial vehicles of Suzhou Yunsheng Qianli Low-Altitude Industry Operation Co., Ltd. autonomously took off from fully automatic airports, completing maneuvers such as hovering and turning, while high-definition images transmitted back were simultaneously displayed on large screens. The parent company of this firm, Yunsheng Intelligent, organically integrates industrial drones, automated drone airports, ground robots, and IoT cloud platforms, providing an integrated air-network-cloud solution. Nazmul said that this provides a reference for Bangladesh to integrate emerging technologies into urban governance.

In the Suzhou Industrial Park Exhibition Center, groups of photographs and segments of video linked together the park's more-than-30-year development history, and a series of star products on display let the envoys feel the pace of the park's industrial transformation and innovative development. As night fell, the envoys walked into the Humble Administrator's Garden, where waterside pavilions and winding corridors were reflected on the water's surface, and the classical garden presented a distinctive charm under the night sky. Qiu Linghuan, Counselor of the Embassy of Thailand in China, exclaimed:"Whether traditional or modern, Suzhou is very beautiful."

At the symposium on innovation in urban governance, the envoys and heads of relevant Suzhou municipal departments engaged in interactive exchanges around topics such as ecological protection and sustainable development, digitally empowered urban governance, historical heritage and urban renewal.

Qian Yujing, Deputy Director General of the Suzhou Municipal Bureau of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that Suzhou's practice of the"15-minute living circle" provides a model for citizen-centered urban planning. According to statistics, since the period of the"14th Five-Year Plan," Suzhou has cumulatively renovated 608 old residential communities citywide, with a renovation area of approximately 20.35 million square meters, benefiting approximately 200,000 households. From small vegetable markets at street corners to large community elderly care and childcare facilities, everything falls within the scope of renewal. Suzhou is, with meticulous and detailed work, stitch by stitch, weaving a modern version of the"Prosperity of Gusu" painting, one of integration of people, industry, and city, and of harmony between humans and nature.

Sophianou said that this visit inspired her to reflect on the relationship between urban development, public spaces, and quality of life. "How can a city maintain its own characteristics while responding to change, and at the same time respond to the needs of communities?" she said. Suzhou let her see how cultural heritage, technological innovation, and future-oriented urban planning can coexist.

In Nanjing, the envoy delegation visited the Nanjing Confucius Temple–Qinhuai River Scenic Belt, Jiangsu International Data Port, and Xuanwu Large Model Factory. At the Jiangsu International Data Port, the envoys learned in detail how the Jiangsu Data Exchange works synergistically from the"two types of increments" of public data and enterprise data, striving to solve supply-side problems and serve social governance. According to the relevant person in charge of the Jiangsu Data Exchange, the exchange has so far landed 775 public data products across the province, and a batch of high-quality data products has achieved substantive on-exchange transactions. In fields such as healthcare, transportation, and agriculture, public data has moved from"tradeable" to"truly applied," realizing value release in serving the real economy and social governance. Nazmul said that China integrates innovation into the concrete work of urban development, combining the promotion of development with the improvement of residents' living experience.

China's Practice Empowers Global Urban Development

"China's capacity for long-term planning and precise policy implementation, along with its increasingly mature governance system and experience, is deeply impressive," said Elia Georgiev. "Namibia is advancing urban transformation and practicing a people-centered smart city strategy. We will base ourselves on our national conditions and fully draw on China's experience, walking out a people-centered urban development path, building inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous cities."

There is no ready-made template for China's urban governance. By basing itself on national conditions, being pragmatic, and innovating, China has formed a uniquely distinctive path of modern urban governance. Ambassador of Belarus to China, Chervyakov Alexander, said that this trip greatly deepened his understanding of China's development concepts and governance models. The envoys said that China's urban governance is a pragmatic and efficient practical system, providing a referenceable sample for global sustainable urban development.

On this trip to Shanghai and Suzhou, the envoys read, from the fine-cut entry points of urban renewal and grassroots co-governance, the governance core of"putting the people first." China's warm, pragmatic, precise, and effective urban governance practices have become vivid samples of mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations and of shared governance reference, injecting new ideas and vitality into global sustainable urban development. Nazmul said, reviewing this visit, one thread runs through it all—the essence of good urban governance is people-centered:"Whether it is cultivating high-caliber cadres, developing whole-process people's democracy, or providing public services that better meet the needs of local and foreign residents, the underlying philosophy behind all of these is consistent—the people's city is built by the people, and the people's city serves the people. China, unswervingly pursuing a goal, has continuously advanced and achieved remarkable results."

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has upgraded the"Resident Envoys' Local Visits" brand activity, launching thematic activities such as"Setting Sail for the'15th Five-Year Plan': China's Development and Global Opportunities," building a bridge for mutual learning between Chinese and foreign development. Nazmul praised that China, with an open and inclusive attitude, proactively shares its development experience, letting the world see a real, multidimensional, and comprehensive China.

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Sharing the Opportunities of 3.0, China's Opening-Up Dividends Continue to Be Released

Through one grand gathering after another, the international community has seen China's firm steps in expanding high-standard opening up,and has truly felt the strong momentum that China's new quality productive forces have injected into global growth.

On September 17,the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit opened in Nanning, Guangxi. Durians, coffee, rosewood,and other ASEAN specialty products presented a dazzling array of beautiful things (琳琅满目, lin lang man mu - "gem-like, full, eyes, filled"),and visitors came in a continuous stream of people or things (络绎不绝, luo yi bu jue - "continuous, flowing, not, ceasing"). In the special exhibition area for the Pinglu Canal, business visitors from ASEAN countries carefully learned about this "golden passage" connecting rivers to the sea; in the "AI Mega-Market," over 70 companies brought more than 500 types of consumer AI (artificial intelligence) products, available for on-site experience and ordering... The bustling, lively venue was precisely a vivid footnote to this year's Expo theme of "Sharing the 3.0 Opportunities, Creating a Better Life Together." The "gold content" of China's opportunities is being transformed into the "sense of gain" of both Chinese and ASEAN peoples.

This year marks the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the 35th anniversary of the establishment of China-ASEAN dialogue relations. Over the past 35 years, from establishing dialogue relations to building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future, bilateral relations have achieved leapfrog development, driving all-round cooperation between the two sides to continuously expand in scope and improve in quality. China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, and ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for 6 consecutive years. In the first eight months of this year, the total trade value between China and ASEAN reached 5.95 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%, and the cake of mutually beneficial outcomes (互利共赢, hu li gong ying - "mutual, benefit, together, win") between the two sides has been continuously made bigger and better, tangibly benefiting more than 2 billion people on both sides. This year's Expo coincides with the completion and opening of navigation of the Pinglu Canal, a project of the century. This first man-made canal connecting rivers to the sea since the founding of New China is a major breakthrough in regional "hard connectivity," described by foreign media as a new "logistics lifeline" between China and ASEAN. The opportunities of the Expo's "golden platform" and the canal's "golden passage" are superimposed, driving China-ASEAN two-way engagement to accelerate.

This year is also a critical year for the accelerated implementation of the Protocol on Upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area to Version 3.0 after its signing. Seizing the new opportunities of the China-ASEAN FTA Version 3.0, this year's Expo focused on upgrading the digital economy and green low-carbon exhibition areas, added a new "AI + Finance" featured exhibition area, established the "AI Mega-Market" for the first time, held the China-ASEAN AI Supply-Demand Matchmaking Meeting for the first time, and high-tech products such as AI glasses, AI home robots, and photovoltaic cleaning robots became the "new favorites" of the exhibition. At present, cooperation in areas such as the digital economy, green economy, blue economy, and AI highly matches the development and transformation needs of ASEAN countries, and is becoming a new highlight of China-ASEAN cooperation. According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first half of 2026, China exported 2.355 million new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.2 times, among which ASEAN market demand was robust and performance was strong; China's computing infrastructure and artificial intelligence services are accelerating their way to ASEAN, helping local enterprises lower the threshold for application... The dividends of China's high-quality development and high-standard opening up continue to be released, continuously opening new space and accumulating new momentum for China-ASEAN cooperation.

Since September, China's grand gatherings for opening up have come one after another: the 21st China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair was held in Guangzhou, Guangdong, focusing on "AI Empowering SMEs," providing a targeted supply-demand matchmaking platform for Chinese and foreign small and medium-sized enterprises; the 26th China International Fair for Investment and Trade concluded in Xiamen, Fujian, with business visitors from 129 countries and regions gathering to discuss expanding two-way investment and jointly promote global development; the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services concluded in Beijing, with more than 200 new achievements released centrally, over 100 first launches and debuts, and 200 forum sessions, conferences, negotiations, and promotions unfolding one after another, witnessing the continued rise of the international influence of the "China Services" brand. Through one grand gathering after another, the international community has seen China's firm steps in expanding high-standard opening up,and has truly felt the strong momentum that China's new quality productive forces have injected into global growth.

The current international situation is one of turbulence and interweaving changes; the more frequent ups and downs or disturbances (风浪迭起, feng lang die qi - "wind, wave, repeatedly, rise") occur, the more all parties must tighten the bonds of cooperation and promote an inclusive and universally beneficial economic globalization. China, through concrete actions, is sending a clear signal to the world: China will continue to promote high-quality development, expand high-standard opening up, share opportunities with countries around the world, and jointly create prosperity.

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Promoting Greater BRICS Cooperation with a Win-Win Spirit for Deeper and More Substantive Progress (International Forum)

By: 狄伯杰

The 18th BRICS Leaders' Meeting held in New Delhi, the capital of India, is another important meeting after "Greater BRICS Cooperation" has entered the stage of high-quality development. At present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, international situations are intertwined with changes and turbulence, and unilateralism and protectionism are surging against the current, which not only drags down global economic growth but also exposes the weaknesses of the global governance system. Under multiple pressures and tests, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has demonstrated strong resilience and vitality, gathering positive forces for upholding multilateralism and reforming and improving global governance.

The collective rise of the Global South has become a key driving force for the process of world multipolarization and a distinct hallmark of the great transformation of the world. However, the existing global governance system has failed to fully reflect the representation and voice of Global South countries, and some Global South countries also face multiple challenges such as conflict, turbulence, and uneven development, urgently needing to voice collective demands and pursue common development. Conforming to the historical trend of the evolution of the world pattern, the BRICS cooperation mechanism emerged in response to circumstances (应运而生, ying yun er sheng - "respond to, transport, arise"), opening a new chapter in the unity and collaboration of Global South countries. With the formal expansion of BRICS and the accession of partner countries, today's BRICS family, with a total population exceeding more than half of the world's and an economic aggregate accounting for nearly 30 percent of the global total, contributing over 50 percent to world economic growth, has become an important platform for promoting the unity and cooperation of the Global South and an important force for advancing the reform of the global governance system.

The reason why the BRICS cooperation mechanism can unite the forces of the Global South lies in its consistent placement of development at the center of cooperation, allowing Global South countries to participate fairly in international cooperation and share the fruits of development. The New Development Bank is one of the landmark achievements of BRICS cooperation and a concrete measure by BRICS countries to lead the common development of the Global South. As the first multilateral development institution founded and led by emerging market and developing countries, by the end of 2025, the New Development Bank had approved 139 projects with a total financing of approximately 43 billion US dollars, playing an important role in promoting infrastructure construction, clean energy development, and other fields in BRICS countries and other Global South countries. With financing cooperation through the New Development Bank as a driver, the breadth and depth of BRICS cooperation have continued to expand. All parties unanimously uphold the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, deepen cooperation in areas such as trade and investment liberalization and facilitation and the digital economy, continuously consolidate the foundation for the common development of BRICS countries, and enhance the development resilience and expand the development space of the Global South.

Upholding the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, China has always been a builder and contributor to BRICS cooperation. Together with other BRICS members, China established the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, promoted the formation of a "three-wheel drive" pattern of political security, economic, trade and financial, and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, pioneered the new "BRICS Plus" cooperation model, and worked with relevant parties to promote the historic expansion of BRICS, continuously injecting new impetus into "Greater BRICS Cooperation." Focusing on inclusive and beneficial global development, China, together with other BRICS countries, implements the Global Development Initiative, advances high-quality Belt and Road cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, shares innovative achievements and development experience in fields such as green technology, artificial intelligence, digital payments, and e-commerce, creates more opportunities for BRICS cooperation through its own development, and helps Global South countries enhance their capacity for self-driven development through concrete actions.

India and China are each other's important neighbors and both representatives of major developing countries and emerging economies. Under multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, the two sides maintain close strategic communication, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, and deepen multilateral coordination, which helps jointly promote the unity and self-strengthening of the Global South. The two sides should further expand the scale of trade and investment, deepen the interconnection of industrial and supply chains and collaboration in scientific and technological innovation, and effectively translate their complementary economic advantages into lasting momentum for common development. This not only serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples but also meets the common expectations of Global South countries and conforms to the trend of the times.

A multipolar world should be one that is equal and orderly, universally beneficial and inclusive. The cooperative practice of BRICS countries fully demonstrates that differences in political systems and development paths are not obstacles to unity and cooperation, and all parties can fully carry out efficient and pragmatic collaboration around common development goals. Embarking on a new journey, as long as BRICS countries continue to uphold the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, firmly focus on the theme of development, and continuously advance pragmatic cooperation, they will be able to continuously enhance cohesion, influence, and capacity for action, and make greater contributions to promoting the development of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction.

(The author is a professor at the Centre for Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)

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Photo Report

The Mbour-Kaolack Expressway in Senegal, constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation, was recently opened to traffic. The expressway connects the western coastal city of Mbour with the central city of Kaolack in Senegal, with a total length of 99.2 kilometers, four lanes in both directions, and a designed maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour. The photo shows the completed Mbour-Kaolack Expressway.

Photo courtesy of China Road and Bridge Corporation

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U.S. Returns 64 Pieces (Sets) of Cultural Relics, Artworks, and Paleontological Fossils to China

(People's Daily, Washington, September 18) (Reporter Li Zhiwei) The National Cultural Heritage Administration of China received on the 16th and 17th local time in Washington and New York, respectively, a total of 64 pieces (sets) of cultural relics, artworks, and paleontological fossils returned to China by the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney in New York in two batches.

Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, signed the return and receipt confirmation documents on behalf of the Chinese side with the U.S. side, accepting the aforementioned cultural relics, artworks, and paleontological fossils. Xie Feng, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Chen Li, Chinese Consul General in New York, as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of State, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney in New York, attended the return and receipt ceremonies respectively.

In remarks, the Chinese side stated that this return cooperation, carried out by the government departments of the two countries in accordance with the intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Prevention of the Illegal Entry of Chinese Cultural Objects into the United States, is the latest achievement of China and the United States jointly implementing the consensus reached at the Beijing summit between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in the field of cultural heritage, and is also a concrete manifestation of the "China-U.S. constructive strategic stability relationship" in the people-to-people and cultural field. This cooperation demonstrates both sides' sense of responsibility toward history, respect for civilization, and commitment to justice. It will further promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges between China and the United States, advance people-to-people connectivity (民心相通, min xin xiang tong - "people's heart, mutually connect") between the two peoples, and once again prove that China-U.S. cooperation can accomplish many major, practical, and good things, benefiting both countries and the world at large.

The U.S. side stated that cultural relics, artworks, and fossils all carry profound historical and cultural information, and that China-U.S. cooperation on the return of cultural relics reflects the friendship and mutual respect between the two countries. It expressed the hope that through the joint efforts of both sides, China's historical and cultural heritage will be safely protected and properly preserved, benefiting all parties.

The cultural relics, artworks, and paleontological fossils returned by the U.S. side this time include the bodhisattva torso from the north side of the west wall of Cave 17 at Tianlongshan, sculptures, pottery figurines, as well as dinosaur skeleton fossils, fish fossils, and dinosaur egg fossils, all of which were seized by U.S. law enforcement agencies in the course of their work. The National Cultural Heritage Administration, together with the Chinese Embassy and Consulates in the United States, worked in close coordination with the U.S. side, successfully achieving the return of Chinese lost cultural relics, artworks, and paleontological fossils by nine field offices of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and the fifth return of cultural relics and artworks to the Chinese side by the Office of the Manhattan District Attorney in New York.

On January 14, 2009, China and the United States signed for the first time the intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Prevention of the Illegal Entry of Chinese Cultural Objects into the United States, which has since been renewed three consecutive times. In accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding, the government departments of the two countries have actively carried out return cooperation, achieving the return to the motherland of multiple batches of Chinese cultural relics that had been lost to the United States.

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Li Qiang Chairs State Council Executive Meeting

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 18)   Premier of the State Council Li Qiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on September ​18, which heard a report on work related to the elderly, studied work on promoting the healthy development of sports events, deployed the implementation of a project to expand and upgrade medical rehabilitation and nursing care services, reviewed and approved the "Regulations on the Protection of Traditional Knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Draft)", and discussed the "Amendment Draft to 15 Laws Including the Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China".

The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to comprehensively and objectively understand the impact brought by population aging, deeply implement the national strategy of actively responding to population aging, and promote the comprehensive development and progress of undertakings for the elderly. It is necessary to make every effort to improve the level of service and support for the elderly, continue to exert efforts in such areas as elderly care services, health promotion, and social security, improve the multi-level and multi-pillar old-age insurance system, open up the linkage channels among home-based, community-based, and institutional elderly care services, and expand inclusive elderly care services. It is necessary to target the characteristics of the elderly group, enrich silver-hair products and services, cultivate new scenarios for silver-hair consumption, better meet the consumption needs of the elderly, and realize the two-way promotion of people's wellbeing and the expansion of domestic demand.

The meeting pointed out that sports events are of great significance for satisfying the diversified life needs of the masses and improving the quality of people's lives. It is necessary to increase the supply of high-quality sports events, revitalize and make good use of various sports venues, facilities, and event resources, and coordinate the development of competitive sports events, professional events, and mass events. It is necessary to promote the integrated development of sports events with culture, tourism, commerce, etc., accelerate the application of new technologies, enhance the spectator experience, and amplify the comprehensive effect. It is necessary to improve the capacity for event management and support, cultivate a number of professional event operation entities, improve the management systems for venues, personnel, and institutions, and promote the safe development of various types of events.

The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to take the grassroots level as the focus to build a strong medical rehabilitation and nursing care service system, promote the extension of rehabilitation and nursing care resources toward communities and families, and enhance the accessibility of rehabilitation and nursing care services for urban and rural residents. It is necessary to rely on scientific and technological innovation to improve the level of medical rehabilitation and nursing care, develop more intelligent rehabilitation technologies and equipment, optimize the review, approval, and registration of new technologies and new products, and enrich service scenarios. It is necessary to strengthen the support and guarantee for medical rehabilitation and nursing care, dynamically adjust the catalogues of rehabilitation medical services and long-term care service items, deepen the reform of prices for medical rehabilitation and nursing care services, improve talent cultivation policies, and continuously enhance the professional attractiveness of the field.

The meeting pointed out that the theories, techniques, and prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine are important resources for China's independent innovation. It is necessary to comprehensively strengthen the protection and management of traditional knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, and safeguard the foundation for the survival and development of traditional Chinese medicine. It is necessary to coordinate the protection and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine resources, continue to deepen the research and interpretation of the basic theories, diagnostic and treatment laws, and mechanisms of action of traditional Chinese medicine, increase the efforts to promote the popularization and application of traditional Chinese medicine traditional knowledge, strengthen foreign exchange and cooperation, and enhance the international influence of China's traditional medicine through learning from each other through mutual exchange (互学互鉴, hu xue hu jian - "each learn, each imitate").

The meeting discussed and approved in principle the "Amendment Draft to 15 Laws Including the Emergency Response Law of the People's Republic of China", and decided to submit the draft to the NPC Standing Committee for deliberation.

The meeting also studied other matters.

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Multi-Dimensional Empowerment Propels Sports Powerhouse Construction onto the Fast Track (A Strong Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan)

By: 本报记者 李 硕 孙龙飞

With refreshing autumn weather (秋高气爽, qiu gao qi shuang - "autumn, high, air, refreshing"), the fashion for sports and fitness is bringing vitality to urban and rural areas alike; "city super leagues" and "village super leagues" across the country are being held with great enthusiasm, and sports consumption continues to heat up; preparations for the Asian Games are in full swing with intense activity (紧锣密鼓, jin luo mi gu - "tight, gong, dense, drum"), with our country's athletes sprinting with full effort... In this opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, a vivid picture of the flourishing development (蓬勃发展, peng bo fa zhan - "flourishing, develop") of sports in the new era is slowly unfolding.

"Sports carry the dream of national strength and national rejuvenation." General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Building a sporting power is an important goal in comprehensively building a modern socialist country."

The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes accelerating the building of a sporting power. In July this year, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sporting Power" and the "National Fitness Plan (2026-2030)" were released. Among them, the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Sporting Power," based on this opening year, sets out five major goals: by 2030, per capita sports venue area in our country will reach about 4 square meters, the proportion of people regularly participating in physical exercise will reach about 40 percent, the national physique excellence rate will rise to 31.1 percent, the number of world championships won will rank among the forefront, and the total scale of the sports industry will exceed 7 trillion yuan.

Anchored to the blueprint and adhering to a people-centered approach, the high-quality development of sports is advancing steadily and surely.

The public service system for national fitness is improving in quality and efficiency, laying a solid sports foundation for a Healthy China.

"I come to the Senior Sports and Health Home to exercise almost every day. My body is stronger and my life is more fulfilling." Su Junxing, a 70-year-old Shanghai resident, used to be a regular at the outdoor fitness area of Shanghai Heping Park.

With the establishment of Senior Sports and Health Homes in various communities across Shanghai, sports venues at one's doorstep have solved the problem of "where to exercise" for the silver-haired generation. "Services such as physical fitness testing, scientific guidance, exercise intervention for chronic diseases, health science popularization, and leisure social interaction are all available, having everything one could need (一应俱全, yi ying ju quan - "one, should, all, complete"), so that elderly people dare to exercise, know how to exercise, and are willing to exercise," said Wang Hailong, founder of Shangti Lehuo Senior Sports and Health Home. As of August 2026, Shanghai has built more than 200 such homes in total, with more than 300 built nationwide, serving over 100,000 person-times.

Venues are more inclusive, guidance is more professional, and mass events are increasingly down-to-earth and close to the people. "You can participate in a provincial-level competition right at your doorstep!" said Jiang Min, a resident of Yunsui Subdistrict, Zengdu District, Suizhou City, Hubei Province. Based on the fitness needs of grassroots people, since 2024 Hubei Province has innovatively created the "Hundred Towns, Thousand Villages" and "Hundred Streets, Thousand Alleys" national fitness series of events and activities, with each stop featuring 1 comprehensive sports meet, 1 village health run or community lecture hall, 3 champion campus visits, and 1 physical fitness test benefiting ten thousand households. As of September 9, 2026, the province has held 1,016 events and activities at 76 stops in total, mobilizing more than 1,900 villages and communities, with 190,000 people directly participating and 1.5 million people watching on site.

Improve the new nationwide system for competitive sports and build a diverse and open talent cultivation ecosystem.

On June 25, the national squash team moved into a new base completed in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where 22 internationally certified standard courts and a professional physical training and rehabilitation center provide one-stop services for training, accommodation, and rehabilitation for the national team. "The team members' minds are more settled, and the team's cohesion is stronger," said team leader Zhou Jie.

Squash and cricket are new events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The General Administration of Sport has carried out pilot work, entrusting the sports bureaus of Sichuan Province and Zhejiang Province to host them respectively. With the central administration and local governments providing support from both central and local levels (两手托举, liang shou tuo ju - "two, hands, hold, lift") and joining forces to tackle difficult problems (合力攻坚, he li gong jian - "combine, force, attack, key"), the innovative model has borne fruitful results. At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the Chinese squash team will participate in all events for the first time, and the Chinese women's cricket team will return to the Asian Games after 12 years.

On the green field of Beijing Zhengchangzhuang Football Park, the "Hundred Team Cup" football tournament is fiercely competitive. In the competitive group, U17 youngster Wang Yichen scored two consecutive goals, contributing to his team's eventual victory. The "Hundred Team Cup" football tournament has gone through more than 40 years, with batches of football youths making friends through sports competitions (以赛会友, yi sai hui you - "by, competition, meet, friends"), and many promising talents have used it as a starting point to embark on professional paths. Today, this benchmark event promoting the comprehensive and healthy development of young people has become a vivid practice in Beijing's deepening of the integration of sports and education and the consolidation of the reserve talent base for competitive sports.

From the effectiveness of models such as "province-run national teams" and "school teams run by municipalities," to the continuous improvement of the event system and the mechanism of cultivating talent through competition, the new development model for competitive sports with government leadership and participation of multiple entities is becoming increasingly mature. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, our country's competitive sports achieved a total of 665 world championships and set 91 world records, with both the number of medals and the coverage of events reaching new highs.

Since the beginning of this year, our country's competitive sports have seen frequent news of victories (捷报频传, jie bao pin chuan - "victory, report, frequently, spread"): the Milan Winter Olympics achieved the best results in history for overseas participation, weightlifting, rock climbing, shooting, and other events successively set new world records, the World Table Tennis Championships once again swept both the men's and women's team titles, and Wu Yize became the first post-2000 champion in the history of the World Snooker Championship... Our athletes are writing new glories with their hard work and determination.

Actively integrate into the overall national economic and social development and promote the high-quality development of the sports industry.

The "Su Super League," which became a sensation last year, has new moves this year: during the competition period, 106 cross-regional themed cultural and tourism routes allowed fans and tourists to "follow the Su Super League and travel through Jiangsu"; various cities jointly launched a series of "ticket stub+" benefit measures for the people, with consumption booming along with the events. The number of tourists received by A-level scenic spots in Jiangsu, as well as the sales and foot traffic of key monitored commercial circulation enterprises across the province, all achieved year-on-year growth.

The outdoor sports industry, widely popular among young people, has set off a new upsurge. In the past, tourists would go to Sichuan Wa Wu Mountain to "take a look at the table mountain, take a photo, and leave." Now, it has become a destination for outdoor sports enthusiasts, with various events and activities continuously drawing in visitors. In 2026, the "Village BA" drove consumption of 23 million yuan; in the first seven months of this year, local tourists reached 700,000, with no sign of slowing growth momentum.

With both the supply side and the consumption side heating up simultaneously, and both domestic demand and foreign trade making two-way efforts, "event traffic" is boosting "industrial growth." Since the beginning of this year, retail sales of cultural, sports, and leisure services have maintained relatively rapid growth, and the operating revenue of sports enterprises above designated size has continued to grow.

"The sports industry is a sunrise industry, a green industry, and a happiness industry." In the view of Huang Haiyan, dean of the School of Management at Beijing Sport University, we should continue to promote the improvement of quality, expansion of scale, and upgrading of the sports industry, make greater contributions to expanding domestic demand, stabilizing growth, and promoting employment, and truly make the sports industry a new carrier of the people's better life and an enabler of economic and social development.

When sports are strong, China is strong; when the nation's fortunes prosper, sports prosper. Gao Zhidan, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the General Administration of Sport, stated that we will anchor to the overall goal of building a sporting power, adhere to a people-centered approach, implement the requirements for high-quality development, coordinate all work in national fitness, competitive sports, and the sports industry, fully leverage the comprehensive value and multiple functions of sports, solidly handle practical sports matters for the people, fully activate the potential of domestic demand for sports consumption, strive to promote a steady start and a good beginning for sports in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, and inject strong sports momentum into high-quality economic and social development.

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Deeply Study and Apply Xi Jinping's Important Discourses on Grassroots Work Methods, and Persist in Strengthening Grassroots Work to Benefit the People

(People's Daily, Beijing, September 18) (Reporter Meng Xiangfu) The symposium on studying and implementing Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods was held in Beijing on the 18th. Shi Taifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, emphasizing the need to deeply study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, especially Xi Jinping's Party-building thought, to thoroughly study, deeply comprehend, and make good use of Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods, to firmly support the Two Establishments (两个确立) and resolutely achieve the Two Upholds (两个维护), to solidly do grassroots work in the new era, continuously consolidate the Party's governing foundation, and solidify the grassroots foundation of Chinese modernization.

Shi Taifeng stated that Xi Jinping's important discourses on grassroots work methods are the crystallization of the wisdom of Chinese Communists regarding the theory and practice of grassroots work methods, providing important guidance and action guidelines for doing grassroots work well in the new era. It is necessary to strengthen learning and training, deepen research and interpretation, promote applying what one has learned (学以致用, xue yi zhi yong - "learn, use, achieve, application"), and effectively transform them into vivid practice of vigorously grasping grassroots work and benefiting the people. It is necessary to uphold the Party's overall leadership and the centralized, unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, improve the system of the Party's overall leadership over grassroots governance, and ensure that grassroots work advances along the correct direction. It is necessary to uphold the supremacy of the people, consolidate and expand the achievements of educationand learning on establishing and practicing a correct view of political achievements, walk the Party's mass line well in the new era, and solve the people's urgent, difficult, and anxious problems with heart and feeling. It is necessary to vigorously promote the work style of seeking truth from facts, being pragmatic, and doing solid work, vigorously promote investigation and research, act in accordance with objective laws, deeply rectify formalism to reduce burdens on grassroots units. It is necessary to tighten and solidify the political responsibility of Party governance and self-supervision, coordinate and advance the construction of Party organizations at all levels in various fields, strengthen education, management, and supervision of Party members and cadres, and continuously promote full and rigorous self-governance of the Party to extend to the grassroots level.

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Ceremony marking September 18 Incident held in Shenyang

(People's Daily, Shenyang, September 18) (Reporters Hu Jingyi, Liu Jiahua) On the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the September 18 Incident, the "Do Not Forget September 18" bell-striking and air-raid-siren ceremony was held on the morning of September 18 at the Remnant Calendar Stele Square of the "September 18" History Museum in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. Li Hongzhong, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech.

At approximately 9 a.m., the ceremony began. The entire assembly sang the national anthem at full voice. At 9:18, Comrade Li Hongzhong and other leading comrades and representatives of the masses, with solemn expressions, pushed the bell clapper to strike the "Warning Bell." The 14 bell tolls symbolized the Chinese people's 14 years of unwavering and indomitable (艰苦卓绝, jian ku zhuo jue - "hard, bitter, outstanding, extraordinary") war of resistance. Air-raid sirens sounded across the entire city of Shenyang, and whistles of trains, ships, and automobiles blared.

Li Hongzhong pointed out in his speech that, 95 years ago, Japanese aggressors flagrantly launched the September 18 Incident that shocked China and the world. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people achieved their first complete victory against foreign invasion since modern times. Learning lessons from history (以史为鉴, yi shi wei jian - "take, history, as, mirror") and illuminating the future, we must unswervingly uphold the Party's overall leadership, advance the building of Chinese modernization, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the magnificent journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will surely forge ahead single-mindedly (一往无前, yi wang wu qian - "one, way, no, front").

Li Hongzhong and other leading comrades also, together with representatives of the masses from all walks of life, visited the exhibition "Truth: Ironclad Evidence of Japan's Aggression Against Northeast China."

Wang Xiaohong, Zhang Shengmin, and Shao Hong attended the ceremony. Representatives of young students spoke at the ceremony. Approximately 1,000 people participated in the ceremony, including representatives of veterans and old comrades who participated in the War of Resistance Against Japan in Liaoning, representatives of family members of martyrs who died in the War of Resistance, responsible comrades of relevant central Party and government, military and civilian departments and of Liaoning Province, Jilin Province, and Heilongjiang Province, relevant responsible comrades of the Northern Theater Command, and representatives of the masses from all walks of life.

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Photo Report

On September 18, events were held in many places across the country to remembering history clearly (铭记历史, ming ji li shi - "remember, record, history"), honor the martyrs, and pray for peace. The photo shows the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, where people stood in solemn silence as air-raid sirens sounded.

Photo by Su Yang (Xinhua News Agency)

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Remember the Martyrs, Cherish Peace

On the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the September 18th Incident, activities were held in many places to remember history, cherish the memory of martyrs, treasure peace, and create the future.

On September 18, the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression held a series of themed activities to inherit and carry forward the great spirit of the War of Resistance. At 9:18 a.m., nearly 200 people, including faculty and students from universities in the capital and representatives of staff of the Memorial Hall, lined up in neat formation in the memorial hall's entrance hall, sang the National Anthem of the People's Republic of China, observed a moment of silence for the martyrs who heroically sacrificed their lives in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and then laid flowers one by one before the martyrs of the War of Resistance, expressing boundless remembrance and high respect for them.

At the event site, relying on the themed exhibition "For National Liberation and World Peace," docents explained in detail the historical background and profound impact of the September 18th Incident, leading young students to appreciate the striving for national survival (救亡图存, jiu wang tu cun - "save, perish; exist, survive") unyielding spirit of the Chinese people. That same morning, the Memorial Hall of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression also linked up with the "September 18th" History Museum in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and under the theme "Mountains and Rivers Bear Witness Together  Memories of the War of Resistance," carried out a cross-regional special livestream for the 95th anniversary of the September 18th Incident, with both places attending the same cloud-based ideological and political lesson.

On the 18th, the Heilongjiang Province and Harbin City Youth "Do Not Forget September 18th" patriotic education provincial-level demonstration activity was held at the Exhibition Hall of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion Army. Responsible comrades from the Heilongjiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Veterans Affairs, the Harbin Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, and other relevant departments attended the event, and more than 400 youth representatives from organs, schools, firefighting, medical care, state-owned enterprises, railways, and other fields participated.

The activity combined ceremonial education with on-site study tours. The commemorative ceremony was structured around three chapters: "Alarm Bells Ring Long·Do Not Forget National Humiliation," "Echoes of Mountains and Rivers·Remembering Loyal Souls," and "Youth Forge Ahead·A Strong Nation Has Me." The activity simultaneously featured on-site study segments on "National Defense Education" and "History of National Suffering," in which youth representatives entered the Exhibition Hall of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion Army, visited the national defense education themed news photography exhibition, and immersively experienced history and reinforced their original aspirations.

On the morning of the 18th, representatives from all walks of life in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, gathered at the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre Committed by the Japanese Invaders, participating in the ceremony of raising the national flag, singing the national anthem, and striking the Peace Bell, thereby remembering history and cherishing the memory of martyrs.

At 9 a.m., all participants stood in solemn silence and sang the national anthem in unison. After the national anthem was sung, all participants observed a moment of silence for the innocent victims of the Nanjing Massacre, for the compatriots cruelly killed by the Japanese aggressors, for the revolutionary martyrs and national heroes who gave their lives for the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and for the international soldiers and friends who gave their lives fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Chinese people against the Japanese aggressors.

Subsequently, student representatives from Nanjing University of the Arts passionately recited poems of the War of Resistance, extolling the Chinese people's brave and unyielding spirit of the War of Resistance. Student Zhang Boxiang stated that, as members of the younger generation, they should remember history and shoulder the mission of the nation.

On the morning of the 18th, on the garden square of the former site memorial hall of the Headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Xihu District, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, more than 100 people, including representatives from all walks of life, school students, and young volunteers, lined up in neat formation, stood in silent mourning, and laid flower baskets and bouquets before the bronze statues of the revolutionary forebears, deeply recalling the eventful years of the forebears' bloody struggles and expressing high respect and deep grief for the martyrs.

In addition to the themed commemorative ceremony, the memorial hall also held the special exhibition "The Long March Tempers the Original Aspiration  Red Earth Nurtures Loyal Souls — Yuhua Martyrs Who Walked Out of Jiangxi's Land." Relying on 125 precious historical photographs and materials and 25 items (sets) of physical exhibits, the exhibition systematically reviewed the glorious deeds of the Yuhua martyrs who were born in Jiangxi or had engaged in revolutionary activities there, reproducing the martyrs' arduous and extraordinary struggle process.

"The prosperous and peaceful scene of our country stems from the blood sacrifices of countless martyrs; peace has not come easily." Citizen Wan Tian said that, as young people of the new era, they should shoulder the responsibilities of the times with the power of youth and safeguard the homeland that the forebears defended with their lives.

(Compiled from reports by People's Daily reporters Wang Haonan, Fang Yuan, Yin Xiaoyu, and Zhou Huan)

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What changes is the post; what remains unchanged is the original aspiration

By: 本报记者 李龙伊

On September 18, the State Council Information Office held a meeting with Chinese and foreign journalists themed "Strivers on the New Journey," inviting four representatives of retired military personnel to meet and exchange views with Chinese and foreign reporters around the theme "Forever Preserving the Nature of Soldiers, Retiring and Continuing to Add Glory."

Retired military personnel are a valuable asset of the Party and the state. After retiring, they display their talents and make significant contributions (发光发热, fa guang fa re - "emit light, emit heat") in different posts; some guard the peace of one locality and stand sentry over the security of the national border; some tell the stories of martyrs and carry forward the red spirit; some are committed to innovation and contribute to the cause (添砖加瓦, tian zhuan jia wa - "add brick, add tile") of national scientific and technological development, demonstrating the vigorous, upward-striving, and enterprising spirit of retired military personnel.

Loyal and responsible, they transform the skills tempered in the armed forces into competence for performing their duties.

"Grassroots police work has no earth-shaking drama; it is mostly the trivialities of everyday life. I have always treated the small matters of the masses as matters of heaven." Chen Xiaopan, who once served in the "Yang Gensi Company" and is now the instructor of the Huangdimiao Police Station in Linying County, Henan Province, has taken root in the countryside for 21 years, accumulated more than 150,000 kilometers of patrol riding, visited the courtyards of all 8,948 households in the township, and written more than 90 notebooks of visit records... The local people pass down from generation to generation by word of mouth (口口相传, kou kou xiang chuan - "mouth, mouth, mutually, pass") a saying: "When in difficulty, find Xiaopan; once you find Xiaopan, no difficulty remains."

Li Jianping, deputy captain of the Seventh Detachment on Duty at the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, has brought the rigorous, pragmatic, and daring to take on difficult and challenging tasks (敢打硬仗, gan da ying zhang - "dare, fight, tough, battle") style tempered in the armed forces to her post at the national border. She has led her team to successfully complete more than 150 security tasks for major events involving foreign affairs.

This style brought out of the armed forces has also inspired young police officers — the team has produced post-80s "Top Ten Border Guards" and post-90s police officers who have been awarded first-class merit. "Old soldiers lead new recruits, and fine traditions are passed down from generation to generation." "My identity can change, my post can change, but my steadfast commitment to my original aspiration will not change," Li Jianping said.

From military camp to civilian life, from battlefield to market, Gao Zhongqian, chairman of the board and general manager of Oriental Spaceport (Shandong) Development Group Co., Ltd., once served for 24 years. After transferring to civilian work, he participated in and witnessed the construction of China's first maritime launch home port — the Oriental Spaceport.

"At the beginning of the project's construction, there was no industrial foundation, no project funding, and no talent reserve." Gao Zhongqian led his team to start from scratch, carrying forward the tradition and style of the armed forces of fearing no difficulty and overcoming great difficulties and challenges (攻坚克难, gong jian ke nan - "attack, key position, overcome, difficulty"), boldly practicing and daring to innovate, conquering the core technology of routine maritime launches, and forming a new maritime launch capability featuring land-sea coordination, high-frequency routine launches, and wide-area mobility. As of now, the Oriental Spaceport has carried out 28 maritime launch missions, sending 175 satellites precisely into space, with every launch a success and every mission complete.

Guard the red position well and be a good inheritor of the red gene.

Zhang Yong, administrator and docent of the Tangfang Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Pulandian District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, has worked at this post for 20 years. Beyond his explanatory work, he has always been concerned about the martyrs in the cemetery whose relatives have not been found. He has visited 18 provinces, traveled more than 20,000 kilometers, and successively helped more than 340 martyrs find their relatives.

"As a retired military serviceman and a docent for martyrs, I always keep in mind that giving lectures is my primary responsibility and main business. I adhere to combining 'going out' with 'inviting in,' telling the local red stories well, and driving the whole society, especially the younger generation, to inherit the red gene and remember the revolutionary predecessors with reverence," Zhang Yong said.

Taking root at the grassroots and striving with dedication, the four representatives of retired military personnel are transforming the loyalty, responsibility, and tenacity tempered in the armed forces into the strength to continue charging forward on the new journey.

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NPC Standing Committee Holds 2026 Fourth Session of NPC Deputies Study Class

(People's Daily, Wuhan, September 18) The NPC Standing Committee held the 2026 fourth session of the National People's Congress deputies study class in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, from September 16 to 18. Two hundred and twenty-four NPC deputies from 31 electoral units carried out performance-of-duties study centered on thoroughly studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, comprehensively implementing the Ecological Environment Code, and accelerating the construction of a Beautiful China.

The responsible comrade of the Representative Work Commission of the NPC Standing Committee stated at the opening ceremony that, constructing a Beautiful China is an important goal of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. Deputies to the NPC must continue to thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, comprehensively implement the Ecological Environment Code, fully give play to the acting as a link between different groups (桥梁作用, qiao liang zuo yong - "bridge, role, function") of NPC deputies, comprehensively and deeply understand the aspirations and desires of the masses, collect frontline voices, and contribute grassroots wisdom to the thorough implementation of the Ecological Environment Code; based on their own posts and duties, relying on platforms such as deputy liaison stations to carry out in-depth legal publicity and education, promote the formation of a good atmosphere of studying and applying the law, and contribute strength to accelerating the construction of a Beautiful China.

The study class arranged 6 special-topic reports, inviting responsible comrades of relevant departments including the Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee, the NPC Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee, the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment to give lectures on related topics. The study class also arranged on-site teaching, and organized exchanges on performance of duties.

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From "One Village Red" to "Regional Prosperity" (Carrying Forward the Long March Spirit, Forging Ahead on the Journey of Revitalization·Reporters Retrace the Long March)

By: 本报记者 孙 超

In November 1934, during the Long March, the Red Army passed through Shazhou Yao Village, Wenming Yao Township, Rucheng County, Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, where three female Red Army soldiers lodged at the home of villager Xu Jiexiu. Before leaving, they cut their only quilt in half and left one half behind. Since then, the story of the "Half Quilt" has been passed down to this day. Recently, a reporter visited Shazhou Village and happened to catch the local commemoration activity — the Chenzhou City "Walk for Health" event marking the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.

Merging into the crowd, stepping onto the walking trail, walking past the industrial road. This walk led straight out of Shazhou Village. In the adjacent Wenshi Village, the slogan "Waiting for you in Shazhou" on the hillside wall of the Yao stockade village was surrounded by flowers. How did Shazhou's name come to be hung on Wenshi Village?

"Now, everyone calls it the 'Greater Shazhou'." Luo Kaiming, a village cadre from Wenshi Village, answered with a smile. Starting in 2023, local authorities have coordinated and promoted the linked development of the "Ten Villages and One Community" around Shazhou, implementing six major projects — bottom-line consolidation, industrial cultivation, income increase and common prosperity, environmental improvement, infrastructure upgrading, and rural governance — and building a rural revitalization and common prosperity demonstration zone around Shazhou.

The driving force, first of all, relies on the spillover of popularity.

During this year's May Day holiday, Wenshi Yao Stockade Village received over 30,000 tourist visits. Shazhou has become popular, and Wenshi, having a natural advantage due to proximity (近水楼台, jin shui lou tai - "near, water, multi-story building, terrace"), has seen its homestay businesses emerging in large numbers very quickly (雨后春笋, yu hou chun sun - "rain, after, spring, bamboo shoots"). Deep inside the Yao stockade village, the aroma of beans wafts through the air — Zhang Xianhua, inheritor of the "Wenming Tofu" craft, was making fried tofu. "In the past, it was a family workshop, and I didn't hire a single helper." After Shazhou became popular, tofu has been demand exceeding supply (供不应求, gong bu ying qiu -"supply, not, meet, demand"), and the workforce has expanded to over 50 people. Recently, he has been planning to move the tofu workshop into the scenic area, so that tourists can have a better experience.

"A single scenic spot is not very attractive; only when they are linked together can there be a 'chemical reaction'." Chen Min, general manager of the Hunan Tourism Development Co., Ltd. stationed at the Shazhou Red Tourism Scenic Area, said.

Linkage cannot be separated from the extension of the industrial chain.

In Wuyi Village, Long March elements are not lacking. On the exterior walls of old houses, revolutionary propaganda leaflets from the Long March era —《The Way Out》— are posted. The village used to have little industry and was a poor village. Thanks to the linked development of the demonstration zone, in 2024, the village built the "The Way Out" exhibition hall, which was incorporated into the "My Shazhou Trip" red study tour route, attracting over 20,000 tourist visits. This year, counting the scenic area's rent, the village collective economic income can reach over 400,000 yuan.

Joining forces also requires solving the problem of mindsets.

In the view of Zhang Youfa, Party branch secretary of Hantian Village, on the "Long March road" of advancing comprehensive rural revitalization, only joint development can provide sustained momentum. Hantian Village dances the intangible cultural heritage Fragrant Fire Dragon; Xiushui Village has run up a cluster of homestays… Within the Shazhou surrounding area, the "One Village, One Scenic Spot" differentiated development has attracted over 4.3 million tourist visits in the past nearly three years, and the collective economic income of the "Ten Villages and One Community" has grown from an average of 115,400 yuan per village to 348,700 yuan. "One Village Red" is now moving toward "Regional Prosperity."

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Keep Expanding and Strengthening Advanced Manufacturing

By: 金社平

The modernized industrial system is the strategic anchor of China's economy; advanced manufacturing is the backbone of the modernized industrial system.

"Fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, coordinate high-quality development with high-level security" and "accelerate the construction of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone, consolidate and strengthen the foundation of the real economy, and provide strong support for advancing Chinese modernization." General Secretary Xi Jinping recently made important instructions on developing advanced manufacturing, providing fundamental guidance and a course of action for continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger on the new journey.

From September 16 to 17, the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference was held in Beijing, fully demonstrating the high importance that the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core attaches to advanced manufacturing. We must unite efforts and pooling strength (凝心聚力, ning xin ju li - "condense, heart, gather, strength"), take practical and effective action (真抓实干, zhen zhua shi gan - "truly, grasp, real, do"), conscientiously study and comprehend, resolutely implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, continue to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, and prop up the "backbone" of the modernized industrial system.

(1)

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's advanced manufacturing has continued to grow and strengthen, with significant enhancement in innovation capacity, competitiveness, and comprehensive strength, and solid steps taken in building a manufacturing powerhouse.

"China is a major country, and must develop the real economy, continuously advance industrial modernization, and raise the level of the manufacturing industry";

"Based on the real economy as this foundation, make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, actively advance new industrialization";

"Led by scientific and technological innovation, coordinate the advancement of traditional industry upgrading, emerging industry expansion, and future industry cultivation";

Standing at the strategic height of advancing the great cause of building a strong country and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important expositions on developing advanced manufacturing, guiding China in the new era to accelerate the building of a manufacturing powerhouse.

Of every 3 cars sold globally, 1 is made in China. With forward deployment, lane-changing to overtake, and accelerated evolution, since 2013 China's new energy vehicle sales have grown by more than 930 times, with penetration rate increasing by more than 590 times, and a trillion-yuan-level strategic emerging industry has risen powerfully.

The added value of manufacturing has ranked first globally for 16 consecutive years, accounting for nearly 30% of the global total; photovoltaic, communications, high-speed rail, shipbuilding and other advantageous fields have achieved global leadership; robotics, artificial intelligence, and innovative drugs are flourishing and showing no sign of decline (方兴未艾, fang xing wei ai - "just, rising, not, yet"), new quality productive forces are taking shape and building momentum, and advanced manufacturing is surging with powerful momentum.

Mountains one stretch, waters one stretch. In developing advanced manufacturing, our foundation is solid, but the task is arduous. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the world's century-old changes and industrial transformation are interweaving and evolving, China's economy has entered a critical stage of transformation and upgrading, and the significance of continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger is even more prominent, and the task is also more urgent.

The recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan place the construction of a modernized industrial system first among all strategic tasks. "This was carefully considered," General Secretary Xi Jinping gave the reason at this year's "first lesson of the new year," "Over these years, China's economy has been braving the wind and waves to forge ahead (顶风破浪, ding feng po lang - "top, wind, break, waves"), maintaining strong resilience and vitality, and the strategic anchor has been the complete industrial system."

On the new journey, continuing to make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger has major and profound strategic significance for "continuously enhancing the certainty and sustainability of China's development."

This is an inevitable choice for responding to external challenges and gaining the initiative in international competition.

In today's world, unilateralism and protectionism are rising, international competition in new fields and new tracks such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology is unprecedentedly fierce, and advanced manufacturing has become the main battlefield.

How can we firmly hold the fate of development and progress in our own hands? Coordinate high-quality development with high-level security, and enhance the independent and controllable level of industrial chains. Adhere to placing the development of the country and nation on the foundation of our own strength, continuously enhance independent innovation capability, only then can we stand firm and gain the initiative in the reconstruction of the global innovation landscape.

This is a key move for consolidating and strengthening the foundation of the real economy and developing new quality productive forces.

Advanced manufacturing has a high density of technology, strong value-creation capability, and broad leading and driving coverage; it is a typical representative of new quality productive forces and occupies a pivotal position in the modernized industrial system.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, placing the development of new quality productive forces in light of local conditions in a more prominent strategic position requires us to firmly grasp advanced manufacturing as the key, effectively enhance the completeness, advancedness, and security of the industrial system, "through continuous transformation and upgrading, quality improvement and generational change, step by step moving upward."

This is a practical need for stabilizing the economy and promoting development.

Over the past decade, the added value of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing has grown at an average annual rate of 10% and over 8% respectively... China's economy continues to develop toward the new, the superior, and the good, with advanced manufacturing being an important force.

Having fully shifted onto the track of high-quality development, China's economic development momentum, industrial structure, and other aspects are undergoing profound adjustment. To promote the smooth transition and succession between old and new growth drivers, an important starting point is to vigorously develop advanced manufacturing, cultivate and strengthen new quality productive forces, promote new growth drivers to accumulate strength to build up momentum (积厚成势, ji hou cheng shi - "accumulate, thick, become, momentum") and traditional growth drivers to be renewed and upgraded.

In developing advanced manufacturing, challenges are not small, but opportunities are even greater. With a complete industrial system, broad application scenarios, stable supply of resources and energy, strong resilience of industrial and supply chains, and many opportunities, advantages, and favorable conditions overlapping, opportunities outweigh challenges.

With firm confidence and braving difficulties and forging ahead (迎难而上, ying nan er shang - "meet, difficulty, and, go up"), the development potential of advanced manufacturing will be continuously released, and the material and technological foundation of Chinese modernization will become even more solid.

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General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Adhere to the direction of intelligentization, greenization, and integration, continuously make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger."

A piece of steel foil reveals the vivid appearance of advanced manufacturing.

Rolling, cleaning, brightening, tension leveling, slitting, packaging—in the workshop of Shanxi TISCO Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd., rolls of "hand-tearable steel" come off the production line one after another through automated processes. From 0.02 millimeters to 0.015 millimeters, from research and development to production and then to mass production, "turning hard steel into something flexible and supple" (百炼钢做成了绕指柔, bai lian gang zuo cheng le rao zhi rou - "hundred, refine, steel, made, into, wrap, finger, soft"), with the price of the highest-end product comparable to gold.

To continuously make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, we must respond to the times and situations, keep a close eye on the frontier, work hard on the word "advanced," and promote manufacturing to extend toward both ends of the smile curve and climb toward the upper end of the value chain.

Leap toward "intelligence," shaping new advantages for"Made in China with Intelligence."

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "we must seize the rare historical opportunity, encourage open source, openness, and shared cooperation, fully promote scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, and scenario application of artificial intelligence."

Embracing new technologies, China has built more than 56,000 basic-level, more than 9,000 advanced-level, and more than 500 excellence-level intelligent factories, cultivated 15 leading-level intelligent factories, and its new-generation information technology system including artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing ranks among the forefront globally.

Currently, global artificial intelligence technological innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity. Focusing on intelligentization, taking the new generation of intelligent manufacturing as the main direction of attack, deeply advancing the"AI + Manufacturing" initiative, promoting more industries and enterprises to undergo comprehensive digital and intelligent transformation, the"Made in China with Intelligence" name card will become even more brilliant.

Move toward"green," making green transformation a new growth driver.

New quality productive forces are themselves green productive forces, and green is the distinctive background color of advanced manufacturing.

After years of development, the number of national green factories has exceeded 8,000, and many green industries such as photovoltaics, power batteries, and energy-saving and environmental-protection equipment have achieved"lane-changing to take the lead."

The 15th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for green technological transformation, rule competition, and the tough battle for carbon peaking. Anchoring on greenization, unswervingly following the path of ecological priority and green development, advancing green transformation, technological innovation, and industrial upgrading as one integrated whole, China's competitive advantages in green industries will become even more prominent.

Focus efforts on"integration," cultivating more new growth points for industrial development.

Cross-border integration is an important driving force for the development of advanced manufacturing. A pair of artificial intelligence glasses, equipped with technologies such as artificial intelligence, sensors, and wireless communications, integrates services including translation, navigation, and voice recognition; an Anhui Hefei Luogang Park brings together more than 10 types of typical scenarios such as sightseeing, cultural tourism, and high-speed inspection, giving new technologies "a place where one can display their talents" (用武之地, yong wu zhi di - "use, martial, place, land")... In recent years, technologies in different fields such as information technology, new materials, and biotechnology have achieved multi-point breakthroughs and cross-application, giving birth to a batch of highly integrated innovative products and highly comprehensive innovative scenarios.

Grasp the industrial trend, integrate into thousands of industries. Focusing efforts on integration, promoting deep integration between advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, driving more new technologies, new products, and new scenarios to emerge one after another, will not only help the entire manufacturing chain increase in value and leap toward the high end of the value chain, but also leverage various industries to achieve coupled symbiosis and vibrant vitality.

Anchoring on the goal, pursuing the new and reaching for the high, adhering to the direction of intelligentization, greenization, and integration, advanced manufacturing will continuously reveal new appearances and brim with new vitality.

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General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Enhance the independent and controllable level of industrial chains, accelerate the construction of a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone."

Continuously making advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger is a systematic project; we must adopt comprehensive measures and make precise efforts to ensure that various deployed tasks achieve tangible results.

Innovation leads, igniting the innovation engine of advanced manufacturing.

Modern manufacturing cannot do without scientific and technological empowerment, and the fundamental driving force behind"advanced" lies in innovation. Basic research is the source of the entire scientific system and the general hub of all technological problems. In April this year, at the Symposium on Strengthening Basic Research, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that"we must strengthen basic research with greater intensity and more concrete measures, enhancing our country's original innovation capability." Optimizing layout, increasing investment, and enhancing basic research and original innovation capabilities will make the stamina for innovation even stronger.

Scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths for developing new quality productive forces. Strengthening research on key core technologies, deepening the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, more new technologies and new applications will walk out of laboratories, into workshops, and toward markets, accelerating their transformation into real productive forces.

Coordinated advancement, promoting advanced manufacturing to expand capacity and improve quality.

Advanced manufacturing is rooted in various industries, covering both emerging industries spawned by new technologies and traditional industries that have been transformed and upgraded. Facing the future, we must both support technological research and development, promote scenario cultivation, accelerate large-scale application, and make bigger the increment of emerging industries; also prospectively plan and layout, cultivate the variable of future industries; and also improve process technology, optimize product structure, and make better the existing stock of traditional industries.

Traditional industries"put forth new shoots," emerging industries"grow into forests," future industries"take root," and advanced manufacturing will be growing and multiplying without end (生生不息, sheng sheng bu xi - "birth, birth, not, cease") amid the mutual advancement of the old and the new.

Systematic policy implementation, optimizing the development environment for advanced manufacturing.

Developing advanced manufacturing cannot do without countless enterprises. How can we unleash the enthusiasm and creativity of various entities and further enhance development momentum? Adhere to combining an effective market with a capable government, improve systems and mechanisms, let fiscal, financial, industrial, scientific, and technological policies work in concert, let various high-quality factors such as capital, talent, and data converge toward advanced manufacturing, and let a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment create a sound ecosystem for industrial development.

Leading enterprises"standing tall between heaven and earth" (顶天立地, ding tian li di - "top, heaven, stand, earth"), while specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative"little giants," unicorns, and other high-quality enterprises and startups"spread across the sky and earth"—advanced manufacturing will be full of vitality and gallop forward.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that revitalizing manufacturing, especially advanced manufacturing, is in the short term the key to achieving a sound economic cycle, and in the long term the lifeline of the national economy.

Building a modernized industrial system and developing advanced manufacturing carries heavy responsibility and arduous tasks. Let us further unify our thoughts and actions with General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and the Party Central Committee's decisions and deployments, forge ahead with determination and dare to scale new heights, accelerate the development of advanced manufacturing and the building of a manufacturing powerhouse, and make new and greater contributions to realizing the Second Centenary Goal!

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Page 1 editors: Yang Xu, Luan Xinyi, Zhao Chuanbo; Page 2 editors: Lin Lin, Zhang Anyu, Chen Zhen; Page 3 editors: Han Xiaoming, Jiang Bo, Guan Haoyu; Page  editors: Yuan Zhenxi, Bai Zhiyu, Han Chunyao

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Off to the Arena, Cheer On China's Athletes (Asian Games Panorama)

By: 本报记者

The 20th Asian Games will open on the evening of September 19 in Nagoya, Japan. The Chinese sports delegation's preparations for all events are proceeding in an organized and orderly manner. On the 18th, several teams had already arrived at the competition venues, conducting their final pre-competition sprints in different ways.

Adapting to the venues, sharpening on-the-spot performance

On the morning of September 18, the Chinese badminton team arrived at the competition venue, the Ichinomiya City General Gymnasium, and each event group carried out orderly pre-competition adaptation training in the warm-up area, training hall, and competition hall. A team official said that the hall was not large, the lighting was acceptable, and the headwind/tailwind directions were quite pronounced; the team would make full use of the officially arranged pre-competition time to train actively, adapt to the venue as quickly as possible, and adjust their competitive form to the optimum.

At 8 a.m. on September 17, the Chinese table tennis team departed from their residence and arrived at the Toyota Sky Arena, the venue for this Asian Games'table tennis competition, beginning their first pre-competition training session. The team had arrived in Nagoya on the 16th. Three Olympic champions on the team are each competing in three events, and each has different expectations for this Asian Games journey. Sun Yingsha said she wants to enjoy every match and fight out good form bit by bit. Wang Manyu said that, facing the dense schedule, she must ensure her body holds up and deliver the quality of closed-door training in competition. Wang Chuqin's goal is resolute: "Be prepared for a marathon-style schedule, bravely meet difficult challenges, and strive to win every point."

For this Asian Games, the Chinese wushu team has sent a total of 12 athletes, including Gao Xiaobin, to compete in 12 of the 15 events. During previous domestic training camps, the team had already conducted multiple rounds of simulated tests to help improve on-the-spot performance and psychological resilience, hoping that athletes would quickly enter the rhythm of major competition. On September 17, the Chinese wushu team held its first training session of the Asian Games, focusing primarily on recovery-oriented physical training, using low-intensity aerobic exercise, dynamic stretching, and event-specific flexibility drills to help athletes adjust to the time difference and adapt to the environment. Afterwards, the entire team went to the competition venue for a pre-competition live simulation drill, familiarizing themselves in advance with procedures such as check-in, entry, competition, and exit.

Simulated tests, timely review and summarization

"The handling of movement details is still insufficient""The splash effect is somewhat lacking""The duet's rhythm had a bit of a problem"...Recently, the Chinese diving team held an internal team test in Beijing, and during post-competition interviews, athletes opened with"self-criticism," not letting any opportunity for review and summarization slip by.

Conducting internal team tests before major competitions to identify gaps, make final adjustments, and sprint, is a tradition of the Chinese diving team. Since participating in the 1974 Tehran Asian Games, the Chinese diving team has won all event gold medals at 13 consecutive editions. From September 26 to 30, this Asian Games'diving competition will be held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, with China sending 12 athletes to compete in all 10 events. Chen Yuxi, who has already won the women's 10m platform world championship four times, still meticulously reviews her movements and entry into the water after every training session and competition. The test clarified her direction for adjustment, and she will use the remaining pre-competition time to continue improving. "I still need to keep a calm mindset and fight for every event, every dive." she said.

The wrestling competition at this Asian Games will begin on September 30. At the Asian Championships in April, the Chinese wrestling team won 5 gold, 1 silver, and 8 bronze medals, and the Chinese women's wrestling team reached the podium in all 10 weight classes, winning 5 gold, 1 silver, and 4 bronze, ranking first in team total points. Before the competition, the team conducted targeted simulated confrontation training, with coaches playing referees to help athletes correctly face officiating decisions during matches and avoid emotions affecting technical performance. "The training intensity during recent preparation has repeatedly pushed past limits, making our foundation more solid and enabling us to better adapt to more situations." team member Long Jia said.

The Chinese artistic swimming team will present a brand-new routine, "Time," in the team free routine event at this Asian Games, hoping to move judges and audiences with graceful Eastern charm and profound expressive content. "We strive to ensure that every piece we present is a masterpiece." head coach Zhang Xiaohuan introduced. The artistic swimming competition will be held from September 26 to 28 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. ""Continue to refine the execution of every difficult movement, while also paying attention to injury prevention and control, guiding athletes to convert high-intensity training into more targeted competition simulation." Zhang Xiaohuan said.

Using competition to drive training, adjusting competitive form

On September 13, the IFSC Climbing World Cup Guiyang stop concluded, with the Chinese climbing team winning 3 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze. Chinese athlete Deng Lijuan won gold in the women's speed individual event with a time of 6.14 seconds. As the silver medalist in this event at the Paris Olympics, Deng Lijuan has been affected by injuries over the past two years and the challenge of changing her climbing movements; this gold medal timely boosted her confidence. At the Asian Games venue, Deng Lijuan will face strong opponents including Desak, an athlete from the Indonesian team who holds the Asian record. She said she will give her all to the task and tackle difficulties head-on.

The Asian Games golf competition will be held from September 30 to October 3. Chinese player Yin Ruoning won the FM Championship held at the end of August, showing good competitive form before the Asian Games. The Chinese golf team has sent a total of 3 male and 3 female athletes to compete in all 4 sub-events of the individual and team competitions. According to Li Jihai, director of the Olympic Support Department of the Chinese Golf Association, the association arranged for athletes to test the course in advance in July, obtaining performance data of the Asian Games competition course and conducting special analysis, providing data support for athletes'preparation and helping them perform at a better level.

On September 19, the Chinese women's basketball team will face Thailand, their first group-stage opponent at this Asian Games, striving to launch a challenge for a third consecutive Asian Games title. Before this, the Chinese women's basketball team had just undergone the test of the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and successfully advanced to the quarterfinals. In the view of team head coach Gong Luming, the World Cup experience has made the team more united, with everyone supporting each other, laying a good foundation for the upcoming competition.

(People's Daily reporters Li Shuo, Sun Longfei, Tao Xiang'an, Kong Qingyuan)

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Firm in Our Goals, Focused on the Path Ahead (Asian Games Observations)

By: 马国英

From Hangzhou to Nagoya, after an interval of three years, Asian sports are about to open a new chapter.

At this Asian Games, the Chinese delegation has sent 815 athletes to compete in 38 major sports and 369 events. For the Chinese delegation, the number of gold medals is not the only yardstick for measuring the results of participation; what matters more is the athletes' hard work on the field, their breakthroughs of self, and especially the emergence and growth of new faces.

Among the 815 athletes of the Chinese delegation, 548 are new faces at the Asian Games. The average age of the athletes is 24, athletes born after 2005 account for 27 percent of the total number of athletes, and a total of 36 Olympic champions are competing — full of vitality and brilliant and dazzling (星光熠熠, xing guang yi yi - "star, light, bright, shining"). Such a personnel structure demonstrates the expectation of relay and inheritance, and also conveys Chinese sports' long-term planning and layout for welcoming the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Standing at a new Olympic cycle, the Chinese delegation regards this Asian Games as a "mid-term examination." During the pre-competition training, each team has carried out all-round preparation benchmarked against the Olympics, and the results will be tested on the Asian Games field. Take the Chinese table tennis team as an example. Recently, the team conducted 24 days of closed training at the Shanghai Chongming Sports Training Base. In terms of personnel arrangements, the national table tennis team sent 10 people to compete at this Asian Games; the three Olympic champions Wang Chuqin, Sun Yingsha, and Wang Manyu are all participating in the Asian Games for the third time, while the other seven are first-time participants. Olympic champions pass on experience to the newcomers, and the newcomers use their passion to spur the Olympic champions to perform. Based on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and laying out for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, it is hoped that such "passing on, helping, and leading" will play a unique role.

There is no extremely reliable or certain (十拿九稳, shi na jiu wen - "ten, take, nine, certain") win, only without any reservation (毫无保留, hao wu liu bao - "not, have, leave, reserve") effort. The so-called layout is planning from the perspective of the future, yet every match has irreplaceable value; only by moving step by step, with sustained, long-term effort, can plans and layouts become reality. As many athletes said during pre-competition training, they must strive to pursue results with greater substance. Greater substance means looking at results beyond the major competition and viewing oneself from the world's perspective; the results of this Asian Games will also be confirmed in directly facing the challenges of the future.

Layout requires anchoring goals, deploying troops and sending out generals (调兵遣将, diao bing qian jiang - "dispatch, soldiers, send, generals"), and full preparation, but the concrete implementation ultimately still comes down to the athletes' performance in every match.

On the field, what leaves the deepest impression is the athletes' wholehearted devotion; this power of focus is silent yet moving. It is a selfless pursuit, and also a respect for the competition, the rules, teammates, and opponents. Whether surprises or regrets appear in the competition, they are vivid footnotes to the charm of competitive sports. It is hoped that both inside and outside the arena, athletes and spectators alike will gain purer and more beautiful Asian Games memories through their focus.

Stepping onto the Asian Games stage, for Chinese athletes, gold medals and other medals naturally matter, but what they say more often is: the goal of tenacious struggle and winning glory for the country remains unchanged. Cheer for China's sports athletes! The goal is unchanged, and they are even more composed.

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Chinese Sports Delegation Appears at Asian Games Welcome Ceremony

(People's Daily, Nagoya, September 18) (Reporters Chen Chenxi, and People's Daily Online reporter Hu Xuerong) On the 17th, at the welcome ceremony for the 20th Asian Games held at Fuji Square, Garden Pier, Nagoya, the Chinese sports delegation made its official appearance (see photo, Xinhua News Agency reporter Jia Yuchen photo).

The Asian Games welcome ceremony began to be held from September 16, with the ceremony proceeding through segments including delegation entrance, delegation introduction, artistic performances, welcome addresses, flag-raising ceremony, commemorative gift presentation, group photo, and other segments. Three sessions are set each day, with approximately 3 to 6 delegations appearing at each session. Appearing together with the Chinese sports delegation were also the Hong Kong, China sports delegation and the Macao, China sports delegation.

On September 19 the first match will be played by the Chinese women's basketball team players Liu Yutong, Tang Ziting, Sun Yu, Jia Saiqi, and others appeared at the welcome ceremony. After the flag-raising ceremony concluded, Liu Yutong stated that this was her first time participating in the Asian Games welcome ceremony, and she was very excited. Regarding the upcoming competition, she said: "We will give our all to the task (全力以赴, quan li yi fu -"all, strength, use, up") and enter the competition, welcoming every opponent with a full and vigorous spirit."

The women's basketball competition at these Asian Games had already begun on September 17, with defending champion China sharing Group A with Indonesia and Thailand. The Chinese women's basketball team will face Thailand on the 19th.

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Chinese men's field hockey and women's volleyball teams both claim victories

(People's Daily, Nagoya, September 18) (Reporters Liu Shuoyang, Fan Jiajia) On the 18th, one day before the Asian Games opening ceremony, competition in eight events including basketball had already begun. The Chinese team performed well in men's field hockey and women's volleyball, defeating their respective opponents.

On the morning of the 18th, the men's field hockey competition at the Asian Games officially got underway. In the first round of group-stage play, facing Oman, the Chinese team played steadily; after withstanding the opponent's opening attack, Gao Jiesheng scored via a penalty corner to take the lead. Entering the second half, Du Shihao seized a penalty-corner opportunity in the third quarter to add another goal, and in the end China defeated Oman 2:0, achieving a successful start (开门红, kai men hong - "open, door, red").

A total of 12 teams are competing in the men's field hockey event at these Asian Games. China is grouped with Pakistan, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Oman in Group B. After a single round-robin group stage, the top two teams in each group advance to the semifinals. China's coach, Anthony, said he was very pleased to secure this victory, and the team would continue to work hard in pursuit of a place on the podium.

That afternoon, China's women's volleyball team faced their second group-stage opponent, Kazakhstan's women's volleyball team, at Okazaki Central Park Comprehensive Gymnasium. China had already secured a place in the quarterfinals of these Asian Games in advance, but in this match the players did not let up, winning cleanly 3:0 over their opponent to claim a second straight victory. Team member Zhuang Yushan said after the match that, with the quarterfinal two days later, they would make corresponding preparations based on the opponent.

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Across mountains and seas, we gather through sport

By: 本报记者 陈晨曦

On September 18, with two days still to go before the Asian Games' first official competition day, the reporters had already run into a dilemma. According to the schedule, on the morning of the 20th, the first gold medal of these Asian Games will be produced among the men's individual triathlon, the women's individual time trial in road cycling, the men's changquan in wushu, and the women's individual and team modern pentathlon. Opening the map, the triathlon venue was in Gamagori City, Aichi Prefecture, nearly 60 kilometers from Nagoya's urban center; the road cycling course was even farther, in Shinshiro City, roughly 90 kilometers from Nagoya.

How to choose among the first-gold interviews had become a multiple-choice question that the reporters had to answer over these two days.

Compared with the atmosphere of previous Asian Games, where venues were concentrated and the whole city was abuzz, the upcoming Asian Games, about to open, presented a different appearance: on the streets of Nagoya, Asian Games elements were not conspicuous in many places. Competition venues were widely distributed in many places (星罗棋布, xing luo qi bu - "stars, scattered, chess, pieces") across multiple cities in Aichi, Gifu, and Shizuoka Prefectures, as well as within Tokyo's urban area. Also breaking with convention was the accommodation model. These Games did not set up an Asian Games Village; delegations were scattered across city hotels, sea cruises, and temporary dormitories. In accommodation reception, transportation support, and other areas, problems and oversights kept appearing from time to time before the Games began.

Of course, the distance in space and the toil of travel did not dilute the warmth of the Asian Games. Athletes from all over Asia crossed mountains and seas, gathering because of sport, meeting because of passion. On the training grounds over these past few days, everywhere there were busy figures of athletes racing against time (争分夺秒, zheng fen duo miao - "struggle, minute, seize, second") to improve their competitive condition. After the Asian Games open, the scattered venues will become the stage for their competition.

A grand sports gathering has never been merely about wins and losses on the field; it even more prominently manifests the significance of striving hard and exchanging with one another. Every journey undertaken, every effort made in competition, will become a vivid portrayal of the mutual integration and shared development of Asian sport.

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Wu Yu and Hu Mingxuan to serve as flag bearers for Chinese delegation at Asian Games opening ceremony

(People's Daily, Nagoya, September 18) (Reporter Chen Chenxi) The Chinese sports delegation announced on the 16th the flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the 20th Asian Games. Women's boxer Wu Yu and men's basketball player Hu Mingxuan will jointly carry the five-starred red flag into the arena at the Asian Games opening ceremony to be held on September 19.

Wu Yu, 31, was born in Guizhou and has won gold medals at the World Championships and the Hangzhou Asian Games. In the women's 50kg boxing event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, she won a gold medal for the Chinese team.

Hu Mingxuan, born in Xinjiang, is now 28 years old and has competed in major international tournaments including the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the Asian Cup, and the Asian Games. He delivered an outstanding performance in the 2025 Asian Cup final, helping the Chinese team secure the runner-up position, achieving the team's best result in the tournament in nearly a decade.

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Page editors: Luo Yan, Shi Zhe, Cao Jiwei

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Moon Rises in the East, Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony

A lamp, a moon, a table of food—enough to convey the profound meaning of "home": it is someone waiting on the road home, it is sharing this moment from afar under the same sky, it is a small reunion in the human world. This Mid-Autumn Festival, Poly Development Holding Group Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as "Poly Development") took "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" as its theme, going into communities in various places to carry out activities such as the "Banquet of Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" and the "Owners' Mid-Autumn Festival Gala," putting into practice its brand proposition of "Three-Good Poly, Living with Heart."

Relying on established brand IPs such as "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" and "Hele China," Poly Development continues to build distinctive community brand activities, gathering and preserving fragments of a beautiful life: there is the first arrival of youth chasing dreams, there is the family joy of three generations living together under one roof, there is the flickering lamplight of neighbors meeting by appointment, and there is the succession of fine performances of cultural heritage. These subtle yet real stories are vivid footnotes to a "small family" bustling with warmth and a "big family" flourishing and prospering, and they are also Poly Development's gentle expression of "home culture."

Ten Thousand · Ten Thousand Lives

The city is big; life is small. In the communities operated by Poly Development, the daily hustle and bustle of everyday life takes ten thousand forms:someone shines on stage, someone rides a bike chasing the wind on a greenway, someone savors the years in a bowl of herbal tea, someone forms a friendship beside a cute pet... These seemingly ordinary fragments piece together the vivid backdrop of ten thousand lives.

Owners' Spring Festival Gala: A Neighborhood Performance Where "I Am the Protagonist"

On the stage of the Poly Hainan 2026 Owners' Spring Festival Gala, the old neighbor from the next building and the young people across the hall are all "protagonists" under the spotlight. The theme lighting of "Friendship-Filled Chinese New Year" slowly shifts, the seats below are neatly arranged, and applause and laughter merge into one. Programs such as song and dance and folk art are written, directed, and performed by the owners themselves. The performers' seriousness and enthusiasm for the stage infuse the New Year atmosphere with warmth. The stage of this night carries the lively gala of the community and also holds the sincere New Year greetings between neighbors.

Chasing the Wind on the Greenway: Another Way to Open the Weekend

Every weekend, the "Poly Weekend" cycling team of Poly Property Management sets off on time. The team rides through urban greenways and the shade of park avenues. The members of the cycling team are of varying ages, and the ride is not for racing, but only to slow down and see which grove of trees the wind passes through, and to chat about whose child has grown taller. Wheels roll over tree shadows, and the team becomes a moving scenic line. An ordinary weekend gains a bit more fun because of the company of neighbors.

Community Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Bowl of Intangible Cultural Heritage Herbal Tea Right Downstairs

In midsummer, Poly (Guangzhou) Health Industry Investment Co., Ltd., under Poly Development, joined forces with the Guangdong Provincial Herbal Tea Museum to bring the national-level intangible cultural heritage item of herbal tea into the community. Intangible cultural heritage inheritors taught owners hand by hand to identify raw materials and to mix and brew them. One mouthful of herbal tea leaves one feeling refreshed and invigorated. The elderly hold bowls and tell old stories, young people raise their phones to record, and children watch with wide, curious eyes—through a bowl of herbal tea, Poly Development brings the intangible cultural heritage found in classics to the neighbors' table, bringing traditional culture to the owners' doorstep and into the summer evenings when neighbors sit together in casual conversation.

With Pets as the Medium: Neighborhood Bonds "Walked" Out

On the plaza of the Poly Development Shanghai Guanghe TOD community, a few cats and dogs frolic happily, and pet owners chat about their experiences raising pets, in a scene that is harmonious and happy and full of wit and humor. Beside the science popularization display boards, some people are carefully noting down the agreements for civilized pet ownership; on the lawn, two puppies chase and play, and their owners also become familiar with each other. Pets become "icebreakers" between strangers, and the community atmosphere becomes warmer because of the cute pets. The small activity space is filled with neighborhood warmth.

Home · Home Has Warmth

What is home? It is the first small room you decorated yourself after graduation, it is a reunion dinner with three generations living together under one roof sitting around the table, it is the joyful cry of a child rushing toward nature, and it is the rising hustle and bustle of a crab feast on the table.The "home" that Poly Development understands is not just a room or a door, but the real lives behind that door.

The First Small Room: A Rented House Is Also Your Own Home

In the year she graduated, Ms. Lin rented a small room at Poly Guangzhou Heyu (Wanbo Branch), and two kittens became her new family members. After a busy day, when she pushes open the door, the kittens rub against her legs and gather around, and much of the fatigue in her heart dissipates. The room is not big; the curtains were chosen by herself, the ornaments were added gradually, and every square meter bears traces of beginning an independent life. The house is rented, but home is not. Here, Ms. Lin grew from a student just out of campus into an adult who can calmly arrange her own life. This small room is the beginning of her embrace with the city, and it is a lamp that belongs only to her among the lights of ten thousand homes.

From Tianjin to Beijing: A Bowl of Hot Soup Is the Temperature of Reunion

Three years ago, Aunt Wang and her husband, who live in Tianjin, made an important decision: to move to Beijing and live in the same city as their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, so that while they are still healthy, they can help the children out and also add the liveliness of having children and grandchildren around them in their later years. In 2025, the family took a liking to Poly Beijing Jiahua Tianjun: the sunken courtyard with Jiangnan charm, the 2,300-square-meter multifunctional clubhouse, and the exquisite and elegant interior spaces formed a residence the whole family admired. From "the Gate of Tianjin" to "the Capital City," what changes is the coordinates; what does not change is that bowl of hot soup, carrying the temperature of reunion.

Living in "Six Thousand Trees": The Children's Nature Class Is Right Downstairs

This is a family of three in Hainan who love nature. After their daughter Little Lemon turned one month old, her parents often took her outdoors. When their daughter was in kindergarten, island-wide road trips became the family's routine leisure choice, and the mountains, rivers, and scenery quietly planted a love of nature in Little Lemon's heart. When their daughter entered primary school, during winter and summer vacations she could drive out of the island with her parents to see the vastness of mountains and rivers. When the family was looking for a new home, they chose Poly Haikou "Six Thousand Trees"—the mountain birds her father loves, the bright and airy sunshine her mother longs for, and the fairy-tale world the child imagines all lie within this stretch of tree shadows. Heading toward nature and gathering beauty, the family's ideal life is settled here.

A Table of Crab Feast: Life Is Steady and Secure, the Small Family Is Bustling with Warmth

Twenty years ago, Wu Caicai and her husband started from a small workshop and gradually built up their own custom home furnishing brand. Now, with two sons around them, life becomes more and more secure with each passing day. As this Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, they booked the crab feast at Poly Shijiazhuang Tianyao early. Looking forward to the reunion dinner and managing a happy family, Wu Caicai gazes out the window at the lights gradually lighting up and sighs with emotion: "A small family bustling with warmth is steady happiness."

Lamps · Lamps Reflecting Reunion

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the lights are brilliant. A row of lanterns on the community path, a flower lantern in a neighbor's hand, a string of lamp shadows at the long-table banquet, all merging with the bright lights of every household, diffuse the two characters "reunion" into a tenderness that fills the human world.

Lamp Shadows Forming a River: Mid-Autumn in the Night

As night falls, the lights in the Guangzhou Poly Garden community light up one after another. Big red lanterns hang at staggered intervals along the path, themed light installations adorn the landscape features, and a soft warm yellow glow spreads gently, echoing from afar with the residential lights shining through the buildings. From one lamp to a stretch of lamps, the Mid-Autumn Festival mood of reunion lights up inch by inch.

Strolling at the Lantern Fair: A Rendezvous of Light and Shadow

On the day of the Foshan Poly Tianjun Neighborhood Lantern Fair, owners brought the whole family along and strolled slowly along the community path. Traditional flower lanterns hung along the entire route, lamplight reflected on figures, and laughter accompanied the evening breeze. The interactive light installations and folk-custom stalls along the way turned lantern viewing into a journey of stopping and going. Encountering an old friend, one pauses to chat a while; coming upon a beautiful scene, one raises a phone to take a photo. The flavor of reunion quietly wells up in the heart during this leisurely stroll.

The Long-Table Banquet Begins: Neighbors Are Family

The long table of the Shanghai Poly Ye Shanghai Mid-Autumn Family Banquet stretches from one end to the other. Warm lanterns light up one by one, home-style dishes fill the table, neighbors sit around together, raising cups and chatting idly, and the heat of the food and the laughter of the full table interweave. Staff of Poly Property Management move among them, adding tea and passing chopsticks, bustling about as if entertaining their own family. Lamplight blends with moonlight, the long-table banquet begins, savoring the deep affection of "neighbors are family."

Harmony · Hele China

One lamp illuminates one household; a beam of light brightens a stage. For 18 years, Poly Development's "Hele China" brand has built stages in communities, allowing traditional culture to be passed down from generation to generation amid the applause of neighbors and the singing of children.

Hometown Intangible Cultural Heritage Show: A Cultural Stage in the Community

The 18th "Hele China" Fujian stop, with the theme "Hometown Intangible Cultural Heritage Show," brought Fujian's local national-level and provincial-level intangible cultural heritage items onto the stage one after another. Master craftsmen brought their signature skills into the community, and owners enjoyed an authentic and original cultural feast without leaving their gates. For eighteen years, "Hele China" has always taken root in the soil of traditional culture, bringing intangible cultural heritage onto the stage right outside the owners' buildings.

Children's Voices with Drama: The Highlight Stage of Little Protagonists

Poly Development, together with Poly Culture Group Corporation Limited and the Art & Culture Channel of Beijing Radio and Television Station, jointly launched the "Children's Voices with Drama" youth cultural performance. The little protagonists took the stage one by one, their children's voices clear and bright, their singing young but earnest. Professional stage lighting shines on the children's faces—that is their moment in the spotlight. As an important activity of the 18th "Hele China" Beijing stop, "Children's Voices with Drama" builds a bridge of art—childhood is not only textbooks, but also a stage light lit for children and a memory of growth wrapped in applause.

Sichuan People, Sichuan Opera: "Old Art" Meets "New Ways to Play"

The 18th "Hele China" Sichuan stop, with the theme "Sichuan People, Sichuan Opera, Fine Performances in Fashion," brought Jinsha culture and traditional Sichuan opera onto the stage. The instant of face-changing draws thunderous applause; the melodious singing is enjoyed in silence by the whole hall; the trendy interactive segments let young people delight in the experience... "Old art" meets "new ways to play," rapidly bursting forth with new vitality. Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, "Hele China" has always been seeking contemporary expressions of traditional culture, preserving the weight of history while also incorporating the freshness of fashion.

Eighteen Years of Companionship: "A Beam of Light" Gathers into "Lamps of Ten Thousand Homes"

Over 18 years, "Hele China" has grown from an event into a community cultural IP covering multiple cities. From intangible cultural heritage inheritance to artistic performances, from the growth of youth to the recreation of elders, the faint light of culture rises from one community after another, converging into the warm picture of "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony." Eighteen years of companionship—the value of "Hele China" has long transcended the event itself and has become an important bridge of emotional connection between Poly Development and its owners. Building harmony and joy through culture, shining together with ten thousand homes—this is the vision of "Hele China" and the answer of "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony."

Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, the bright moon hangs high; the lights of ten thousand homes warm the human world. The Poly Development 2026 Owners' Mid-Autumn Festival Gala is about to be held, with the theme "Moon Rising in the East · Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony," wishing small families reunion and big families harmony and joy, and wishing that every Mid-Autumn Festival brings a full moon and reunited people.

One lamp connects to another, diffusing the night of moonlight like water; one window adjoins another, revealing a life bustling with warmth. Poly Development is willing, together with ten thousand owners, to write this reunion and harmony into every ordinary day and blend it into every journey of a beautiful life.

Data source: Poly Development

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Moon Rises in the East, Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony

A lamp, a moon, a table of food—enough to convey the profound meaning of "home": it is someone waiting on the road home, it is sharing this moment from afar under the same sky, it is a small reunion in the human world. This Mid-Autumn Festival, Poly Development Holding Group Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as "Poly Development") took "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" as its theme, going into communities in various places to carry out activities such as the "Banquet of Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" and the "Owners' Mid-Autumn Festival Gala," putting into practice its brand proposition of "Three-Good Poly, Living with Heart."

Relying on established brand IPs such as "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony" and "Hele China," Poly Development continues to build distinctive community brand activities, gathering and preserving fragments of a beautiful life: there is the first arrival of youth chasing dreams, there is the family joy of three generations living together under one roof, there is the flickering lamplight of neighbors meeting by appointment, and there is the succession of fine performances of cultural heritage. These subtle yet real stories are vivid footnotes to a "small family" bustling with warmth and a "big family" flourishing and prospering, and they are also Poly Development's gentle expression of "home culture."

Ten Thousand · Ten Thousand Lives

The city is big; life is small. In the communities operated by Poly Development, the daily hustle and bustle of everyday life takes ten thousand forms:someone shines on stage, someone rides a bike chasing the wind on a greenway, someone savors the years in a bowl of herbal tea, someone forms a friendship beside a cute pet... These seemingly ordinary fragments piece together the vivid backdrop of ten thousand lives.

Owners' Spring Festival Gala: A Neighborhood Performance Where "I Am the Protagonist"

On the stage of the Poly Hainan 2026 Owners' Spring Festival Gala, the old neighbor from the next building and the young people across the hall are all "protagonists" under the spotlight. The theme lighting of "Friendship-Filled Chinese New Year" slowly shifts, the seats below are neatly arranged, and applause and laughter merge into one. Programs such as song and dance and folk art are written, directed, and performed by the owners themselves. The performers' seriousness and enthusiasm for the stage infuse the New Year atmosphere with warmth. The stage of this night carries the lively gala of the community and also holds the sincere New Year greetings between neighbors.

Chasing the Wind on the Greenway: Another Way to Open the Weekend

Every weekend, the "Poly Weekend" cycling team of Poly Property Management sets off on time. The team rides through urban greenways and the shade of park avenues. The members of the cycling team are of varying ages, and the ride is not for racing, but only to slow down and see which grove of trees the wind passes through, and to chat about whose child has grown taller. Wheels roll over tree shadows, and the team becomes a moving scenic line. An ordinary weekend gains a bit more fun because of the company of neighbors.

Community Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Bowl of Intangible Cultural Heritage Herbal Tea Right Downstairs

In midsummer, Poly (Guangzhou) Health Industry Investment Co., Ltd., under Poly Development, joined forces with the Guangdong Provincial Herbal Tea Museum to bring the national-level intangible cultural heritage item of herbal tea into the community. Intangible cultural heritage inheritors taught owners hand by hand to identify raw materials and to mix and brew them. One mouthful of herbal tea leaves one feeling refreshed and invigorated. The elderly hold bowls and tell old stories, young people raise their phones to record, and children watch with wide, curious eyes—through a bowl of herbal tea, Poly Development brings the intangible cultural heritage found in classics to the neighbors' table, bringing traditional culture to the owners' doorstep and into the summer evenings when neighbors sit together in casual conversation.

With Pets as the Medium: Neighborhood Bonds "Walked" Out

On the plaza of the Poly Development Shanghai Guanghe TOD community, a few cats and dogs frolic happily, and pet owners chat about their experiences raising pets, in a scene that is harmonious and happy and full of wit and humor. Beside the science popularization display boards, some people are carefully noting down the agreements for civilized pet ownership; on the lawn, two puppies chase and play, and their owners also become familiar with each other. Pets become "icebreakers" between strangers, and the community atmosphere becomes warmer because of the cute pets. The small activity space is filled with neighborhood warmth.

Home · Home Has Warmth

What is home? It is the first small room you decorated yourself after graduation, it is a reunion dinner with three generations living together under one roof sitting around the table, it is the joyful cry of a child rushing toward nature, and it is the rising hustle and bustle of a crab feast on the table.The "home" that Poly Development understands is not just a room or a door, but the real lives behind that door.

The First Small Room: A Rented House Is Also Your Own Home

In the year she graduated, Ms. Lin rented a small room at Poly Guangzhou Heyu (Wanbo Branch), and two kittens became her new family members. After a busy day, when she pushes open the door, the kittens rub against her legs and gather around, and much of the fatigue in her heart dissipates. The room is not big; the curtains were chosen by herself, the ornaments were added gradually, and every square meter bears traces of beginning an independent life. The house is rented, but home is not. Here, Ms. Lin grew from a student just out of campus into an adult who can calmly arrange her own life. This small room is the beginning of her embrace with the city, and it is a lamp that belongs only to her among the lights of ten thousand homes.

From Tianjin to Beijing: A Bowl of Hot Soup Is the Temperature of Reunion

Three years ago, Aunt Wang and her husband, who live in Tianjin, made an important decision: to move to Beijing and live in the same city as their son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, so that while they are still healthy, they can help the children out and also add the liveliness of having children and grandchildren around them in their later years. In 2025, the family took a liking to Poly Beijing Jiahua Tianjun: the sunken courtyard with Jiangnan charm, the 2,300-square-meter multifunctional clubhouse, and the exquisite and elegant interior spaces formed a residence the whole family admired. From "the Gate of Tianjin" to "the Capital City," what changes is the coordinates; what does not change is that bowl of hot soup, carrying the temperature of reunion.

Living in "Six Thousand Trees": The Children's Nature Class Is Right Downstairs

This is a family of three in Hainan who love nature. After their daughter Little Lemon turned one month old, her parents often took her outdoors. When their daughter was in kindergarten, island-wide road trips became the family's routine leisure choice, and the mountains, rivers, and scenery quietly planted a love of nature in Little Lemon's heart. When their daughter entered primary school, during winter and summer vacations she could drive out of the island with her parents to see the vastness of mountains and rivers. When the family was looking for a new home, they chose Poly Haikou "Six Thousand Trees"—the mountain birds her father loves, the bright and airy sunshine her mother longs for, and the fairy-tale world the child imagines all lie within this stretch of tree shadows. Heading toward nature and gathering beauty, the family's ideal life is settled here.

A Table of Crab Feast: Life Is Steady and Secure, the Small Family Is Bustling with Warmth

Twenty years ago, Wu Caicai and her husband started from a small workshop and gradually built up their own custom home furnishing brand. Now, with two sons around them, life becomes more and more secure with each passing day. As this Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, they booked the crab feast at Poly Shijiazhuang Tianyao early. Looking forward to the reunion dinner and managing a happy family, Wu Caicai gazes out the window at the lights gradually lighting up and sighs with emotion: "A small family bustling with warmth is steady happiness."

Lamps · Lamps Reflecting Reunion

On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the lights are brilliant. A row of lanterns on the community path, a flower lantern in a neighbor's hand, a string of lamp shadows at the long-table banquet, all merging with the bright lights of every household, diffuse the two characters "reunion" into a tenderness that fills the human world.

Lamp Shadows Forming a River: Mid-Autumn in the Night

As night falls, the lights in the Guangzhou Poly Garden community light up one after another. Big red lanterns hang at staggered intervals along the path, themed light installations adorn the landscape features, and a soft warm yellow glow spreads gently, echoing from afar with the residential lights shining through the buildings. From one lamp to a stretch of lamps, the Mid-Autumn Festival mood of reunion lights up inch by inch.

Strolling at the Lantern Fair: A Rendezvous of Light and Shadow

On the day of the Foshan Poly Tianjun Neighborhood Lantern Fair, owners brought the whole family along and strolled slowly along the community path. Traditional flower lanterns hung along the entire route, lamplight reflected on figures, and laughter accompanied the evening breeze. The interactive light installations and folk-custom stalls along the way turned lantern viewing into a journey of stopping and going. Encountering an old friend, one pauses to chat a while; coming upon a beautiful scene, one raises a phone to take a photo. The flavor of reunion quietly wells up in the heart during this leisurely stroll.

The Long-Table Banquet Begins: Neighbors Are Family

The long table of the Shanghai Poly Ye Shanghai Mid-Autumn Family Banquet stretches from one end to the other. Warm lanterns light up one by one, home-style dishes fill the table, neighbors sit around together, raising cups and chatting idly, and the heat of the food and the laughter of the full table interweave. Staff of Poly Property Management move among them, adding tea and passing chopsticks, bustling about as if entertaining their own family. Lamplight blends with moonlight, the long-table banquet begins, savoring the deep affection of "neighbors are family."

Harmony · Hele China

One lamp illuminates one household; a beam of light brightens a stage. For 18 years, Poly Development's "Hele China" brand has built stages in communities, allowing traditional culture to be passed down from generation to generation amid the applause of neighbors and the singing of children.

Hometown Intangible Cultural Heritage Show: A Cultural Stage in the Community

The 18th "Hele China" Fujian stop, with the theme "Hometown Intangible Cultural Heritage Show," brought Fujian's local national-level and provincial-level intangible cultural heritage items onto the stage one after another. Master craftsmen brought their signature skills into the community, and owners enjoyed an authentic and original cultural feast without leaving their gates. For eighteen years, "Hele China" has always taken root in the soil of traditional culture, bringing intangible cultural heritage onto the stage right outside the owners' buildings.

Children's Voices with Drama: The Highlight Stage of Little Protagonists

Poly Development, together with Poly Culture Group Corporation Limited and the Art & Culture Channel of Beijing Radio and Television Station, jointly launched the "Children's Voices with Drama" youth cultural performance. The little protagonists took the stage one by one, their children's voices clear and bright, their singing young but earnest. Professional stage lighting shines on the children's faces—that is their moment in the spotlight. As an important activity of the 18th "Hele China" Beijing stop, "Children's Voices with Drama" builds a bridge of art—childhood is not only textbooks, but also a stage light lit for children and a memory of growth wrapped in applause.

Sichuan People, Sichuan Opera: "Old Art" Meets "New Ways to Play"

The 18th "Hele China" Sichuan stop, with the theme "Sichuan People, Sichuan Opera, Fine Performances in Fashion," brought Jinsha culture and traditional Sichuan opera onto the stage. The instant of face-changing draws thunderous applause; the melodious singing is enjoyed in silence by the whole hall; the trendy interactive segments let young people delight in the experience... "Old art" meets "new ways to play," rapidly bursting forth with new vitality. Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, "Hele China" has always been seeking contemporary expressions of traditional culture, preserving the weight of history while also incorporating the freshness of fashion.

Eighteen Years of Companionship: "A Beam of Light" Gathers into "Lamps of Ten Thousand Homes"

Over 18 years, "Hele China" has grown from an event into a community cultural IP covering multiple cities. From intangible cultural heritage inheritance to artistic performances, from the growth of youth to the recreation of elders, the faint light of culture rises from one community after another, converging into the warm picture of "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony." Eighteen years of companionship—the value of "Hele China" has long transcended the event itself and has become an important bridge of emotional connection between Poly Development and its owners. Building harmony and joy through culture, shining together with ten thousand homes—this is the vision of "Hele China" and the answer of "Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony."

Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, the bright moon hangs high; the lights of ten thousand homes warm the human world. The Poly Development 2026 Owners' Mid-Autumn Festival Gala is about to be held, with the theme "Moon Rising in the East · Lights of Ten Thousand Homes in Harmony," wishing small families reunion and big families harmony and joy, and wishing that every Mid-Autumn Festival brings a full moon and reunited people.

One lamp connects to another, diffusing the night of moonlight like water; one window adjoins another, revealing a life bustling with warmth. Poly Development is willing, together with ten thousand owners, to write this reunion and harmony into every ordinary day and blend it into every journey of a beautiful life.

Data source: Poly Development

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Long March Relics Illuminate the Source of Victory

By: 黄 黎

In the display cases of the National Museum of China, several revolutionary relics lie quietly on display. Ninety years have passed since that expedition that shook the world; the smoke of gunfire has long since dispersed, yet these ordinary objects preserved from those years of war stitch together, from different dimensions, the magnificent panorama of the Long March.

Iron Chain Link

Thirteen iron chains, leading to rebirth

This is an iron chain link from the Luding Bridge, collected in 1958 by the Chinese Revolution Museum (now the National Museum of China).

Thirteen iron chains, with desperation at one end and rebirth at the other. The coldness of the iron and the hot blood of the soldiers merged into one in that moment — when a unit dares to launch a charge across iron chains with no bridge deck beneath them, there is no natural barrier before them that cannot be crossed.

In May 1935, the Central Red Army arrived at the banks of the Dadu River during the Long March. The Dadu River rushed with swift currents, flanked by towering mountains on both banks, and only the Luding Bridge could be crossed. By this time, the wooden planks on the bridge had already been removed by enemy forces, leaving only thirteen thick iron chains suspended high above the roaring river. On the opposite bank, enemy troops were heavily garrisoned, with machine-gun firing points densely deployed.

On the morning of May 29, the 4th Regiment of the 2nd Division of the 1st Army Corps of the First Front Army, led by Regimental Commander Wang Kaixiang and Political Commissar Yang Chengwu, was ordered to march more than 240 li in a single day and night, arriving at the west bank of the Luding Bridge. At 4 p.m., the general offensive began. Twenty-two Red Army soldiers formed an assault team, led by Liao Dazhu, commander of the 2nd Company. Under covering fire, holding submachine guns or pistols, with broadswords slung across their backs and grenades tied at their waists, they gripped the iron chain railings and charged across the chains toward the opposite bank. As the assault team neared the east bridgehead, the enemy set fire to the wooden planks, and the bridgehead was instantly engulfed in flames. The assault team members passed through the raging fire and ultimately seized the Luding Bridge. In the battle, four heroes were laid to rest there forever.

Three Strings of Cloth Coins

A mother and son's promise, fifteen years of cold and heat

The three strings of cloth coins record a different kind of Long March — the long vigil of loved ones in the rear. The three strings of cloth coins of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area were cloth currency printed against the backdrop of material scarcity in the Sichuan-Shaanxi base area, also known as "Red Army notes." In the spring of 1935, to coordinate with the Central Red Army's Long March, the Fourth Front Army launched the Jialing River Campaign and turned westward in battle. Yang Shicai, then a 12-year-old Red Army soldier, refused his mother's pleas to return home, left this cloth coin — his allowance — with his mother to serve as travel money for her journey home, and resolutely set out on the Long March. Thereafter he passed through the Long March, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and the War of Liberation, cut off from contact with his family for a long period. His mother carefully treasured the cloth coin for fifteen years. In 1950, Sichuan was liberated, and mother and son were finally reunited. In 1975, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the victory of the Long March, Yang Shicai donated the cloth coin free of charge to the Chinese Revolution Museum.

A single cloth coin never traveled the 25,000 li, but from the son's pocket to the mother's palm, from a crack in the wall to the display case, it traveled for 15 years. What truly sustained this expedition was not only the will to march across snowy mountains and grasslands, but also the countless ordinary people like Yang Shicai's mother who, in the rear, kept the lamps of the soldiers' homes burning for them. They were illiterate, understood nothing of strategy, and did not know where northern Shaanxi was, but they believed in the words their sons had spoken — "When we win victory, I will come home." The strength of the Long March lies buried deep in the most simple waiting of tens of millions of families.

Firm revolutionary ideals and convictions, for Yang Shicai, were the words of a 12-year-old boy: "I will carry the revolution through to the end"; for his mother, they were a cloth coin not spent in fifteen years.

Gray Woolen Blanket

The warmth of one blanket, the soul of an army

The gray woolen blanket records yet another kind of vigil — that between comrades-in-arms. The National Museum of China treasures a blanket used by Wu Huanxian, political commissar of the 25th Red Army, measuring 215 centimeters in length and 115 centimeters in width. During the Long March, Wu Huanxian saw that the soldier Zhang Bo was wounded and thinly clothed, and immediately took his own blanket and laid it over him. Zhang Bo was deeply moved and treasured the blanket all along, until 1962, when he donated it to the Chinese Revolution Museum.

The 25th Red Army was a "child army," with an average age of under 18 across the entire force. During the Long March, Wu Huanxian led by example in battle (身先士卒, shen xian shi zu - "body, first; soldier,卒"), charging into the enemy ranks at the head of his troops in the Battle of Dushu Town, brandishing a broadsword and shouting "Communist Party members, follow me!"; on the march, he gave his warhorse to the wounded and left his grain for the soldiers. The act of giving a blanket to a wounded soldier was but one small corner of his daily care for his troops. On August 21, 1935, when the 25th Red Army was crossing the river at Sipo Village, Jingchuan County, Gansu, it came under enemy attack. Wu Huanxian was hit by enemy fire and died a martyr's death while commanding his troops to seize the commanding heights — he was only 28 years old.

When an army's political commissar charges at the head of his troops on the battlefield and gives his own blanket to the wounded along the march, that army possesses an unbreakable cohesion.

Revised Manuscript

A sheet of ink marks, two kinds of memory

Chen Yi's revised manuscript of "Record of the Guerrilla War" — that is, "Guerrilla Lyrics of Southern Jiangxi" — from the 1960s is a national first-class cultural relic. On the manuscript paper, brush-written characters are layered one upon another, with the traces of circles, dots, additions, and deletions clearly visible.

In October 1934, when the Central Red Army set out on the Long March, Xiang Ying and Chen Yi were ordered to remain in the south with a portion of the armed forces, submitting to the Party Central Committee's strategic deployment and moving into the mountains of Guangdong and Jiangxi to wage three years of guerrilla warfare, becoming an important strategic flank of the great undertaking of the Long March.

These 12 "Guerrilla Lyrics of Southern Jiangxi" adopt the ci form of "Recalling Jiangnan," setting aside personal joys and sorrows to faithfully record the realities of the guerrilla units' struggle: the hardship of boiling wild vegetables in water under the grain blockade, the bitter cold of sleeping in the open mountains with wind and rain soaking their clothes, the guerrilla tactics of maneuvering against the enemy, and above all the flesh-and-blood bond of sharing the same interests and fates (休戚与共, xiu qi yu gong - "joy, sorrow, and; with, together") between the army and the people. "Rely on the people; their support must never be forgotten." Under the white terror of the enemy's "merging villages and relocating residents" and tight blockade, the local people, at the risk of execution, found every possible way to deliver grain and salt to the guerrilla units deep in the mountains.

More than 90 years have passed. Sacrifice, conviction, unity, and reliance on the masses — the core connotations of the great spirit of the Long March — are sedimented upon each specific old object. Objects age in the passage of time, but the spirit is reborn in the act of gazing. Every pause before the display case is a later generation's tribute to and look back upon that journey. To understand the stories behind the cultural relics is to complete a dialogue across time and space with the forebears of 90 years ago, transforming the spiritual strength endowed by that journey into the driving force for moving forward. To walk well the Long March road of the new era is not only the best consolation, but also an unavoidable responsibility or duty (义不容辞, yi bu rong ci - "righteousness, not; allow, to decline") for those who come after.

(Author's affiliation: National Museum of China)

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Reading Civilization’s Grandeur Through the “Cong” Genealogy (New on the Shelves)

By: 叶晨曦

On September 12, the Liangzhu Museum launched a major exhibition, "The Cong Genealogy — Special Exhibition for the 90th Anniversary of the Discovery of the Liangzhu Site." A total of 124 cong and cong-style vessels from 39 institutions, both domestic and overseas collecting bodies, gathered here across mountains and seas, returning to the spiritual homeland of the jade cong. This exhibition, using a single type of object as a thread, unfolds a civilization genealogy stretching more than 5,000 years, and also offers a weighty cultural answer for the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu site.

The "ancient ritual vessel" has walked forth from the depths of history, becoming a contemporary cultural symbol and a continuation of Eastern aesthetics, completing the rebirth of an ancient cultural relic in the new era. The jade cong's unique form of having a circular interior and a square exterior (内圆外方, nei yuan wai fang - "inside, round; outside, square"), has unending and continuous (源源不断, yuan yuan bu duan - "source, source, not, continuous") provided cultural inspiration for contemporary design. From the "above-square, below-round" structure of the Hangzhou Asian Games torch "Kindling Flame," to the cong forms incorporated into the Asian Games medals, venue architecture, and more, the cultural genes of 5,000 years ago have been transformed into the distinctive cultural markers of a modern city. And more often than not, it enters the daily lives of ordinary people in an approachable guise: refrigerator magnets, co-branded yellow rice wine and celadon tea sets, and even cong-shaped decorations on urban greening and lampposts — the artistic expression of the cong can be seen everywhere. In international civilizational dialogue arenas such as the Liangzhu Forum, the jade cong serves as an important medium for mutual learning and exchange between Chinese and foreign civilizations, continuously deepening cultural identity.

What kind of object, after all, is the jade cong? This is the starting point of all stories.

In 1973, the archaeological excavation of the Caoxieshan site in Wu County, Jiangsu, for the first time confirmed that this type of object was a relic of the Liangzhu culture period. Thereafter, the excavation of aristocratic cemeteries such as Fanshan and Yaoshan at the Liangzhu site systematically revealed the core position of the jade cong within the ritual system of Liangzhu society. Scholars generally believe that the jade cong was a ritual implement invented by the Liangzhu ancestors for sacrificing to heaven, earth, and spirits, and is also important material evidence that Liangzhu had already entered an early state and civilized society. The jade cong, round within and square without, with a central aperture running through, its surface carved with the mysterious spirit-and-man-and-beast motif, was the divine-communicating ritual vessel of the Liangzhu ancestors. The "divine emblem" at the corner of the vessel — a figure wearing a feathered crown and riding a fierce beast — was the divine image venerated jointly by all of Liangzhu society, and the spiritual bond sustaining the belief system of the early state.

With the decline of Liangzhu civilization, the jade cong began a "journey" across thousands of mountains and rivers. Entering the Longshan era, the jade cong began to spread and transform on a large scale. The Qijia culture in the northwestern region became the flourishing ground of plain-surface jade cong. The various types of jade cong seen in high-ranking aristocratic tombs of the Shang and Zhou dynasties were the lingering legacy of prehistoric ritual jade. The appearance of sheet-shaped cong-style objects from the Warring States period to the Han dynasty was already the final echo of the ritual-jade tradition. By the Song dynasty, cong-form vases based on the cong prototype entered the desks of literati, becoming elegant objects for scholarly enjoyment; during the Ming and Qing dynasties, they became classic antique-style display vessels of the Jingdezhen imperial kilns. In this exhibition, we systematically present its "journey route."

Interestingly, although the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty was obsessed with collecting these square-tube-shaped ancient jades, he never knew their name, and even mistakenly believed them to be "axle sleeves," a chariot axle component, leaving behind more than 10 inscribed poems.It was not until the late-Qing scholar Wu Dacheng, in his Illustrated Catalogue of Ancient Jades (Gu Yu Tu Kao), cross-referenced textual records with physical objects, that the name was finally "found" for this object. From ritual vessel to scholarly curio, from the "separation of name and substance" to modern rectification of the name, the form of the jade cong changed continuously, its function evolved continually, but the spiritual core of "the vessel bearing the Way" has always endured.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu site. In 1936, a young Shi Xingeng discovered "black, lustrous pottery shards" at the bottom of a dried-up pond in Liangzhu town. He perhaps never imagined that behind these pottery shards lay buried a prehistoric capital city testifying to more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Over the past 90 years, generation after generation of archaeologists have continued the excavations; Fanshan, Yaoshan, Mojiaoshan, the ancient city of Liangzhu, and the outer water-control system have been revealed one by one, continuously refreshing our understanding of early China. And the jade cong is precisely the core key that strings together this journey of exploration.

A single object illuminates the myriad manifestations of a civilization. Over 5,000 years, the evolution and spread of the cong have manifested the magnificent vision of Chinese civilization's diversity in unity and its broad-minded and inclusive of various elements (兼收并蓄, jian shou bing xu - "simultaneously, receive;; also, absorb"). The exhibition is named "Cong Genealogy," aiming to sort out the complete life trajectory of the jade cong, from its birth, heyday, to its circulation and reinvention, linking cong-type cultural relics from different eras and regions through four narrative units, restoring the vivid picture of civilizational exchange and integration behind the objects.

Reviewing the history of the cong, sorting out the genealogy of the cong, is not merely looking back at the past and present lives of a single jade object, but also looking back at the 90-year path of exploration of the Liangzhu site, from discovery to inheritance. The exhibition does not stop at retrospection, but is committed to drawing spiritual nourishment from the source of civilization, enlightening today and the future.

(Author's affiliation: Liangzhu Museum)

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My Home Adjacent to the Yangming Shrine ( Cultural Relic at My Doorstep

By: 谢亚鹏

More than ten years ago, I moved to live on Dongshan Road in Guiyang City, and my home was right beside the Yangming Shrine at the foot of Fufeng Mountain. This ancient shrine, which carries the cultural lineage of central Guizhou, was first built in the thirteenth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty (1534), and was relocated and altered several times over the years. In the nineteenth year of the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty (1814), a new shrine was built on Fufeng Mountain, and during the Guangxu reign it was again extensively repaired and expanded. Together with the adjacent Yin Daozhen Shrine and Fufeng Temple, it forms the complete complex of ancient buildings seen today.

When I first moved here, I often strolled along the small path outside the shrine, looking at the lush and luxuriant vegetation (草木葱茏, cao mu cong long - "grass, wood, lush, luxuriant") in the courtyard and the winding corridors, simply taking it as a quiet and secluded environment (环境清幽, huan jing qing you - "environment, clear, quiet, secluded") of an urban garden near my home. In 2023, Guizhou implemented the "Four Major Cultural Projects," among which was the project for the transformation and application of Yangming culture. As a publisher, we invited Professor Li Bo of Nanjing Normal University to write The Birth of the School of the Mind. In the process of polishing the manuscript, I gradually came to understand Wang Yangming's life experiences and the thread of his thought. From then on, I often walked into this ancient shrine just one wall away. Inside the courtyard walls, every stele, every stone, every tile, and every piece of wood embodies 500 years of the cultural lineage of central Guizhou and holds the spiritual backbone of the sages of old.

Many people know that Wang Yangming was demoted and exiled to Guizhou, where he attained enlightenment at Longchang and founded the profoundly influential Yangming school of the mind. The Yangming Shrine in Guiyang preserves in concentrated form many ancient stone inscriptions related to Wang Yangming, and is an important and well-preserved historic site for commemorating and carrying forward the Yangming cultural lineage. Unlike many memorial sites built in later generations, the stone carvings here are physical objects handed down generation after generation, silently recording Wang Yangming's past of lecturing and spreading the Way in Guizhou.

When I first passed by, I only felt that the courtyard was quiet and peaceful. Only after I had gained a certain understanding of the Yangming school of the mind and then searched carefully did I discover that the shrine conceals many precious cultural relics. The main hall is the core of the entire shrine complex, and the statue and the portrait stele inside it are especially rare. In the central bay of the main hall stands a white marble statue of Wang Yangming from the time of his demoted residence in Guizhou. Dressed in casual attire, with a gaunt face, he sits in silent concentration, showing none of the air of a marquis or high official, only the calm of a demoted scholar-official engaged in inner reflection and self-examination. In the side bay of the main hall is the large portrait stele of Wang Yangming in court dress, depicting his official appearance after he was enfeoffed as the new Marquis of Xinjian, with a dignified and solemn manner (气度庄重, qi du zhuang zhong - "manner, dignified, solemn, serious"), fully displaying the sense of responsibility of a great minister of his generation.

Embedded in the wall of the main hall is a stele bearing the "Edict Bestowing the Title of Marquis of Xinjian," heavy with ancient meaning. The inscription transcribes the edict of Emperor Muzong of the Ming Dynasty posthumously conferring on Wang Yangming the title of Marquis of Xinjian. It was re-carved onto stone by a famous local calligrapher of Guizhou in the Qing Dynasty, with meticulous and precise brushwork, and serves as an important physical testimony to later generations of Wang Yangming's historical achievements of "establishing virtue, establishing merit, and establishing words."

The stele corridor around the courtyard is the essence of the ancient shrine and the place where I most love to stop and look closely. Over a hundred Ming and Qing Dynasty steles are arrayed in sequence, and despite the passage of time, the spirit and brilliance of the brushwork remain intact.

Stele after stele bearing traces of weathering is history that can be touched; line after line of writing on the steles is thought and wisdom that can be continued. Over the years, work on cultural relic restoration, routine maintenance, and cultural lectures has been carried out continuously, and meticulous protection has allowed the ancient buildings and steles to be preserved securely. This old shrine carries a weighty cultural memory, and every brick and every stone silently nourishes the cultural character of the city.

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The Warm Companionship of the "Big Pagoda" (Cultural Relics by My Doorstep)

By: 张腾达

I grew up in a small village in the southwestern corner of the old town of Huaxian County, Henan. Beside the village stands a quietly towering ancient pagoda—the Mingfu Temple Pagoda. Yet we almost never called it by its "formal name." From childhood to adulthood, we followed the village elders and affectionately called it the "Big Pagoda." It is a nationally key cultural relic protection site, but to me it was more like a silent, gentle playmate that had quietly accompanied me as I grew up since I could remember, holding my warm childhood memories.

When I was little, what I looked forward to most every day was running to the foot of the pagoda to play. I would always stuff chalk, marbles, and other little trinkets into my pockets and plunge headlong into the frolicking of my playmates. When playing blind man's buff, I would deliberately grope toward the Big Pagoda and steady myself against it; when playing hopscotch, the pagoda's shadow fell across the squares, as if hopping along with me; when crouching on the ground to shoot marbles, I always liked to press close against the pagoda's base. When we ran wildly around the pagoda's foundation, our crisp laughter struck the pagoda's body and bounced lightly back. When the games broke up, we would hide our toys in the cracks between the stones at the pagoda's base, not forgetting to urge: "Big Pagoda, keep a good eye on them for us." When the wind blew, the 24 bronze bells atop the pagoda clinked and rang, as if softly answering in kind.

Sometimes when I was tired from playing, I would sidle up to the pagoda and stroke the cold, rough brick and stone of its body. Looking up, the pagoda walls were inlaid with countless niches and statues of Buddhas, which, though blurred by a thousand years of wind and rain, seemed endlessly novel to my eyes. I would stand on tiptoe, lean in to examine them, and try to make out the figures of the Buddhas—some with palms pressed together in scripture recitation, some sitting quietly in meditation, as if they might open their mouths and speak at any moment. Later I learned that these Buddha statues number more than 1,234 in over 50 categories, and because of this the Big Pagoda is also called the "Thousand-Buddha Pagoda." The villagers often walk clockwise around the pagoda, praying for peace and blessings.

As I grew older, I came to learn the Big Pagoda's origins. It is named for having been built at the Mingfu Temple. According to the "Record of the Newly Built Stupa at Mingfu Temple in Huazhou" by Bai Minzhong, a chancellor of the late Tang Dynasty, in the second year of the Baoli reign of the Tang (826 AD), Li Ting, military governor of the Yicheng Army, presided over its construction. This octagonal, seven-story, pavilion-style brick pagoda stands about 40 meters tall with a base diameter of 11 meters. Its foundation of blue stone is steady and solid, and its body is built from more than 70 kinds of gray bricks and sculpted bricks. Each story projects an eave and corbels inward, and the corners of each story are adorned with lotus-flower brick carvings, their lines at once solemn and gentle. According to the elders, the Big Pagoda originally had nine stories; during the Republican era part of it collapsed, and the villagers, unwilling to part with this "old companion," raised funds on their own to repair it to seven stories, changing the top into a peach shape. With its peach-shaped top, the Big Pagoda lost a bit of its majesty and gained a bit of warmth, like an old man who has weathered many hardships yet remains gentle. In earlier years one could spiral up along the stairway inside the pagoda and, climbing to the top, take in the whole view of the old town of Huaxian at a single glance.

Now I am away studying, and it has been seven or eight years since I left home. But no matter how far I go, whenever I think of home, what first rises in my heart is always that quietly towering Big Pagoda.

When I am home during the holidays, a "Come on, let's take a turn around the Big Pagoda" after dinner has long become a habit between me and my family. Beside the pagoda, the night market wafts with fragrance, and the children's amusement facilities are full of the laughter and joy of kids, just like the scenes of our own frolicking back then. At the foot of the pagoda there is a matchmaking corner. The elders say that the two characters "Mingfu" hold kindness and blessing, and that the Big Pagoda can help destined lovers tie the knot. The foot of the pagoda in the evening is the most moving: the music of square dancing is light and melodious, adults lead children by the hand as they stroll and play, and others sit together playing chess and cards, with laughter and joy lingering around the Big Pagoda.

And the Big Pagoda gently watches over it all, just as it accompanied me in the past.

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Deciphering the "Temporal Code" of Cultural Relics

By: 陈相龙

Chronology is the foundation for understanding archaeological and historical questions. Among the many methods of chronological research, radiocarbon dating offers the highest precision, capable of accurately dating carbon-containing samples up to approximately 55,000 years old. The invention and dissemination of radiocarbon dating provided key scientific support for constructing prehistoric chronological frameworks and historical sequences, and also enabled scholars to break free from the limitations of relying solely on stratigraphy and typology to reconstruct archaeological cultural histories, allowing them to devote more energy to in-depth research on the comprehensive restoration of ancient societies. Archaeology thereby entered a brand-new stage of development.

Radiocarbon dating was invented by Professor Willard Libby of the University of Chicago. In 1949, Professor Libby successfully conducted age determinations on remains such as the coffin of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh and the floorboards of a house in the ancient Hittite kingdom. This was regarded as the landmark of the invention of radiocarbon dating, and Professor Libby was accordingly awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The rapid dissemination of radiocarbon dating produced a large volume of key data that reshaped European prehistory.

China followed closely behind (紧随其后, jin sui qi hou - "follow closely, arrive after"). In 1955, Xia Nai, then deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, wrote an article systematically introducing radiocarbon dating, and in 1959 brought in nuclear physics experts Qiu Shihua and Cai Lianzhen to prepare for the establishment of a radiocarbon dating laboratory. After six years of effort, China's first radiocarbon dating laboratory was completed in the winter of 1965. Thereafter, with the help of Qiu Shihua and others, the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and a number of other institutions successively established radiocarbon dating laboratories.

How does radiocarbon "calculate the age" of cultural relics? The element carbon has several "brothers." The most common are carbon-12 and carbon-13, which are physically stable and do not change over time; carbon-14, however, is "impatient," being inherently radioactive, and decays by half every 5,730 years. When nitrogen-14 in the upper atmosphere is struck by a thermal neutron from cosmic rays, it "transforms" into carbon-14, which then rapidly combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide containing carbon-14, spreading throughout the globe through atmospheric circulation. Plants "breathe in" this carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, animals eat plants, and humans eat animals or plants — in this way carbon-14 enters the bodies of all living organisms. Even stalactites, stalagmites, and the lime plaster surfaces of ancient buildings can "capture" carbon-14 from the atmosphere. The carbon-14 in the atmosphere and biosphere, while constantly decaying, is also constantly replenished, so its ratio remains relatively constant. But once an organism dies, the "supply is cut off" — the carbon-14 in its body no longer receives new replenishment, yet continues to decay at a fixed rate, growing ever less. Archaeologists need only measure the remaining carbon-14 content in the remains and compare it with the initial value when the organism was alive to accurately calculate how many years it has been dead.

When radiocarbon dating was first invented, scientists could only estimate by detecting the sample's "number of decays per minute," which was inefficient and required large sample quantities. By the late 1970s, accelerator mass spectrometry was successfully applied, and scientists no longer had to wait for carbon-14 to decay but could directly detect how many carbon-14 atoms remained in the sample. Today, this technology has become the "standard configuration," greatly improving detection efficiency and reducing the required sample quantity from the gram level to the milligram or even microgram level — even half a grain of charred rice can be accurately dated.

From human origins and agricultural origins to the origins of civilization, radiocarbon dating has played a key role in all of these.

East Asia, as a key region for research on human origins, holds an important position in investigating the question of modern human origins. Radiocarbon dating of human bone and animal bone samples from related sites has provided key data for the research. The results show that the process of modern human origins in East Asia was more complex than previously imagined — even early modern humans may have experienced two or more waves of dispersal.

Agricultural origins represent a key juncture in the transition of humans from foraging and hunting to agricultural production. This process involves the domestication of crops, the emergence of cultivation techniques, and the associated changes in settlement patterns and social organization, and an accurate chronological framework is the foundation for understanding these complex processes. Through radiocarbon dating of archaeologically excavated charred grains of rice, foxtail millet, broomcorn millet, and associated remains, it can be established that approximately 10,000 years ago, settled and semi-settled lifestyles had already appeared in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the mountainous region of northern Hebei, accompanied by early cultivated crops such as rice, foxtail millet, and broomcorn millet. Radiocarbon dating of human bones shows that approximately 7,800 to 7,500 years ago, in the food structure of the ancestors of the Xinglongwa culture in the West Liao River basin, the proportion of crops such as foxtail millet and broomcorn millet could already reach about 70 percent, providing key evidence for demonstrating the initial establishment of a dryland farming society.

Radiocarbon dating endows archaeological remains with precise temporal coordinates, injecting a quantifiable scientific gene into archaeological research. With improvements in measurement precision, reductions in sample requirements, and optimization of calibration methods, its application will become ever more extensive and in-depth. In the future, carbon-14 will continue to provide more reliable support for unraveling the unknown mysteries of human history.

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

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Page editors: Zhou Feiya, Zhao Cairu

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