People's Daily - September 20, 2026

Unleash the Potential of the "Sea," Activate the Vitality of the "Rivers," and Make Full Use of the Advantages of the "Border"

By: 本报记者 刘 泉 韩 鑫 罗珊珊

"Guangxi's development potential lies in opening up, and its staying power also lies in opening up." "We must build on our unique geographic position, unleash the potential of the 'sea,' activate the vitality of the 'rivers,' and make full use of the advantages of the 'border.'"

— Xi Jinping

After four years of construction, the Pinglu Canal recently opened to full navigation, not only changing Guangxi's history of "being by the sea yet unable to reach the sea via its rivers," but also rewriting the pattern of China's inland waterway network.

"Build the Pinglu Canal to high standards and with high quality." General Secretary Xi Jinping personally planned and mapped out the project, turning into reality the vision set forth in The International Development of China more than 100 years ago.

This canal is the first grand canal connecting rivers to the sea built since the founding of New China;

This canal is a backbone project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and a landmark project in accelerating the building of a strong transportation country;

This canal is a milestone in Guangxi's efforts to "emancipate the mind, pursue innovation and change, strive seaward for strength, and pursue opening-up and development."

Unleashing the potential of the "sea" —

"Connecting rivers to the sea and river-sea intermodal transport — this is where Guangxi's future development potential lies"

One canal carries the dream of striving seaward for strength.

"The ocean nurtures life, connects the world, and promotes development." "To advance Chinese modernization, we must develop and utilize the ocean efficiently." "Building a maritime power" — General Secretary Xi Jinping "has always held this conviction."

On the shores of the Beibu Gulf, at the Qinzhou port area, cargo ships line up in rows, and freight trains shuttle back and forth.

The country's first automated rail-sea intermodal container terminal is located here. Looking out from the railing, gantry cranes tower overhead; goods arriving from Sichuan, Chongqing, and other places are "unloaded from trains and directly loaded onto ships" here, bound for destinations around the world.

"Build the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port to a high level." At present, the Beibu Gulf Port has opened shipping routes to more than 200 ports in over 100 countries and regions, becoming an important hub connecting western China with the global market.

From one port to one region: as the only coastal province in the western region, Guangxi is likewise a gateway where land and sea converge.

With more than 6,700 square kilometers of jurisdictional sea area, over 1,600 kilometers of coastline, more than 600 islands, and over 10 harbors... Backed by the southwest and facing Southeast Asia, Guangxi is endowed with unique maritime and land resources.

"Connecting rivers to the sea and river-sea intermodal transport — this is where Guangxi's future development potential lies." Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited Guangxi on multiple occasions for inspection, his gaze always fixed on the ocean, urging Guangxi to "write a new chapter in the Maritime Silk Road," "vigorously develop the seaward economy," and "strive seaward for strength and pursue opening-up and development."

To strive seaward for strength, one must connect rivers to the sea!

The Xijiang River stretches a thousand li — a golden waterway. Yet, separated by layers of mountains, most of Guangxi's rivers cannot flow southward into the sea nearby; instead, they flow eastward into the Pearl River and out to sea.

More than a hundred years ago, Dr. Sun Yat-sen wrote with bold strokes in The International Development of China: connect the Pearl River, the Xijiang River, and the Beibu Gulf, and "all places west of Qinzhou will choose this port to reach the sea... the economic benefits will be considerable."

The passage of time and changing of the stars (斗转星移, dou zhuan xing yi - "turn, rotate; star, move"), the vision has now been realized in the new era.

Amid towering mountains and deep valleys, more than 20,000 builders toiled for four years, and the Pinglu Canal is now open through its full length, opening up the road to the sea: the vast waters of the Xijiang River flow southward from Pingtang River Estuary in Nanning, along the Qinjiang River, and surge into the sea through the Beibu Gulf.

One river connected through — Guangxi turns toward the sea.

In the Nanning Liujing Industrial Park, projects spread across contiguous plots and factory machinery roars.

"It's as if we landed on 'wind-fire wheels'!" said Li Zeyu, General Manager of Qinshi Group's Guangxi-Yunnan Region. "We signed the contract in February, got the land approved in May, and started construction in September. At present, the new-energy shipbuilding and intelligent manufacturing base is accelerating construction, racing to start partial production within the year."

With rivers and sea connected, industries come at the call of "transport": in the first seven months of this year, the Liujing Industrial Park achieved industrial output value above designated scale of over 14.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.3%; the total investment in newly signed major industrial projects exceeded 15.6 billion yuan.

From the canal to Guangxi, new vitality is being nurtured.

In the Beibu Gulf port cluster, inland river cargo ships and oceangoing vessels meet where river and sea converge.

"We are in full swing or with great urgency (紧锣密鼓, jin luo mi gu - "tight, gong, dense, drum") carrying out adaptive renovations," said Song Haitao, General Manager of Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area Honggang Wharf Company. Five 5,000-ton-class dedicated river-sea intermodal berths have already broken ground. In the future, thousand-ton-class vessels and ten-thousand-ton-class seagoing ships will achieve rapid "ship-to-ship" transshipment here.

"The road to the sea is an important path for a country's development." Following the direction charted by the General Secretary, Guangxi is managing the ocean with rapid progress and a steady pace (蹄疾步稳, ti ji bu wen - "hoof, fast; step, steady"), driving the seaward economy to increasingly become the "blue engine" of high-quality development: since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the cumulative import and export trade volume of provinces along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor through Guangxi has exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, with the corridor's radiating and driving role further strengthened; from 2017 to 2025, Guangxi's gross ocean product grew from 137.7 billion yuan to 268.78 billion yuan, with its share of the region's total GDP rising from 7.7% to 9%.

"The Pinglu Canal is vital to Guangxi's development," said Li Wenyong, President of Guangxi Transport Vocational and Technical College. In Guangxi's "leaf-vein-style" seaward layout, the canal is precisely like the "leaf stalk."

"After years of development, the hardware foundation, industrial support, and opening-up system of the seaward economy have become increasingly mature, and it is now moving from the initial stage of laying foundations and building frameworks into a new stage of comprehensively improving quality and efficiency," said a responsible comrade from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Using the canal as a passage to achieve river-sea intermodal transport, Guangxi is step by step transforming its coastal advantages into an opening-up advantage.

Activating the vitality of the "rivers" —

"We must strengthen internal-external linkages and build a more dynamic open economic system"

One canal creates a pattern of connecting rivers to the sea.

As the whistle of the Pinglu Canal pierces the sky, in Xing'an, Guilin, to the north, the Lingqu Canal flows gently, its waters never ceasing. Wandering along it, one's thoughts reach back a thousand years —

In the Qin Dynasty, the Lingqu Canal was cut to connect with Lingnan; in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Grand Canal was opened to link north and south; in the Ming and Qing dynasties, waters were constrained to flush sediment and grain transport was kept smooth... Waterways flow, culture continues, and the wisdom of prospering through water management has a long and continuous history (源远流长, yuan yuan liu chang - "source, far; flow, long").

"Managing water is managing the state; the way of water management is an important way of state governance."

From the cutting of the Lingqu Canal more than 2,000 years ago to the Pinglu Canal connecting rivers to the sea in the new era, two monuments of water transport, spanning time and space, illuminate each other, resounding with a powerful call for opening-up and development.

"Coordinated development and opening-up development must be pursued by every region";

"We must adhere to promoting major development through major opening-up and raise the level of opening-up to both domestic and international markets in the western region";

"Integrate into the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative and jointly build the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor to a high level";

"Guangxi must continue to expand opening-up to both domestic and international markets. We must strengthen internal-external linkages and build a more dynamic open economic system";

Since the beginning of the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the development of the western region, leading and promoting the formation of a new pattern of opening-up and development in the west.

In August 2019, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor was elevated to a national strategy, and in October 2022 it was written into the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Covering 18 provinces domestically and reaching 584 ports in 127 countries and regions, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor integrates multiple logistics organization models, links the western hinterland with coastal and border ports, and has become the main passage for goods from western China to exit by sea or across the border.

To promote coordinated regional development, the inland waterway shipping network is of vital importance.

"Give full play to the role of inland waterway shipping and develop river-sea intermodal transport," "truly enable the golden waterway to produce golden benefits." With keen insight into the country's conditions and water conditions, General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed the way.

With the opening of the Pinglu Canal, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has entered a new stage of "capacity expansion, upgrading, and elevation."

The Xijiang River, flowing upstream to Yunnan and Guizhou and traversing Guangdong and Guangxi, is Guangxi's "mother river" and the main stream of the Pearl River system.

Sailing upstream along the Pinglu Canal, through the Xijiang River and into the Youjiang River, tower cranes at Funing Port in Yunnan swing into action, with construction in full swing.

This is the "first port on the upper reaches of the Pearl River." On the riverbank surrounded by mountains, a slogan stands out prominently: "Yunnan goes to the sea from here." Beneath the slogan, construction of the first phase of Funing Port's three 1,000-ton-class cargo berths is racing to completion, and a cross-provincial golden waterway running directly from Yunnan to the Beibu Gulf is about to take shape.

Guizhou is also accelerating its embrace of the Pinglu Canal.

The Huangbai Railway is under intensive construction, and the second line of the Qian-Gui Railway is being accelerated... In the future, Guizhou's goods can travel south via the Huangbai Railway to Baise, transfer to ships along the Youjiang River into the Pinglu Canal, and exit to sea from Beibu Gulf Port. The rail-highway-water multimodal transport system will effectively clear bottlenecks in opening-up and development.

New corridor, new momentum. After goods from the southwestern region enter the Xijiang River system by highway, railway, or waterway and exit to sea via the Pinglu Canal, compared with detouring through the Pearl River Delta, the inland waterway distance is shortened by more than 560 kilometers, and comprehensive logistics costs are reduced by 18%–30%. From the southwestern region to ASEAN countries, there is now a water transport passage that is shorter in distance, more economical, and more convenient.

"For the western region, the value of the Pinglu Canal lies not only in optimizing transport costs on a single route, but more importantly in enhancing the capacity, resilience, and breadth of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, enabling more 'openness dead-ends' to become 'openness highlands,'" said Li Yutao, a researcher at the Comprehensive Transport Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Wherever rivers reach, vitality bursts forth (生机勃发, sheng ji bo fa - "life, machine; surge, emit").

The canal connects the Xijiang River, and on the shores of the Beibu Gulf, a number of port-adjacent industrial clusters are rising rapidly — Qinzhou has built the first 100-billion-yuan specialized chemical park in the southwest; Fangchenggang has built a 10-million-ton-class advanced steel manufacturing base; Beihai has built a seaward industry cluster with daily photovoltaic glass production capacity exceeding 10,000 tons and annual pulp and paper production capacity exceeding 10 million tons... With the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor as the main axis and the Xijiang River Seaward Economic Belt and the Beibu Gulf Coastal Economic Belt as the two wings, Guangxi's development vitality surges.

Rivers surge onward, reaching in all directions.

According to the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transport Network Planning Outline, by 2035 China will have basically built a national high-grade waterway network of about 25,000 kilometers with a "four vertical, four horizontal, and two network" layout. From one river to one network, with the opening of the Pinglu Canal as the starting point, a "Han-Xiang-Gui Corridor" stretching more than 3,000 kilometers and linking multiple provinces including Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangxi has added its stroke at the southernmost end, and the pattern of China's water transport network being "strong east-west and weak north-south" will be gradually rewritten.

Making full use of the "border" —

"To enliven the chess game of Guangxi's high-quality development, the key move lies in expanding opening-up"

One canal elevates the realm of opening-up and development.

Early morning, Chongzuo, Guangxi: at the Aidian Port in Ningming, trucks loaded with Vietnamese cashews and tropical fruits pass through customs in an orderly manner.

Dozens of kilometers away, in the Ningming area of the Pingxiang Industrial Park, workshops are bustling. "Shipped from Vietnam in the morning, arriving at the Ningming plant for processing in the afternoon, and sold across the country within a few days," said He Jianqing, General Manager of Guangxi Ningming Weipinyuan Food Co., Ltd.

From customs clearance at the port, to processing in the park, to shipping out from the port — the shift from a "transit economy" to a "port economy" has become a vivid microcosm of Guangxi's deep cultivation of border trade and expansion of opening-up.

Opening up is a distinctive hallmark of Chinese modernization. How to "better transform unique geographic advantages into opening-up and development advantages"?

"One gulf embraces eleven countries, with positive interactions across the east, central, and west" — this is a vivid portrayal of Guangxi's unique geographic advantages. Opening up to foster harmony at the "border," developing industries to prosper the "border": as the only region in China connected to ASEAN by both land and sea, this former southwestern frontier of the motherland is developing into a frontline hub for China's opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN. At present, Guangxi has a total of 22 open ports, with "full port coverage" achieved across 8 counties in 3 border cities; relying on platforms such as industrial cooperation parks and border-adjacent port industrial parks, it has built cross-regional and cross-border industrial and supply chains with ASEAN, with nearly 200 leading enterprises based in Guangxi "venturing into ASEAN."

Infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade and investment, and deepening and solidifying opening-up and cooperation. To date, China has maintained its position as ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, and ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for 6 consecutive years.

Standing at a new starting point, how to reach a new level?

"To enliven the chess game of Guangxi's high-quality development, the key move lies in expanding opening-up." General Secretary Xi Jinping earnestly encouraged Guangxi: "Deepen and expand cooperation with ASEAN countries in all fields, actively serve the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future, take the initiative to act, and accelerate development."

"Take the initiative to act, and accelerate development" — cooperation will grow ever deeper.

In the Wuxiang New Area of Nanning, Guangxi, amid lush greenery, a "digital ecological jungle" is thriving. This is the China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Cooperation Center, better known by the name "Nan-A Center."

With deployed computing power of 5,000 PFLOPS (quadrillions of floating-point operations per second) and a utilization rate as high as 75%; with more than 100 domestic and international AI projects signed cumulatively and 19 foreign-invested AI enterprises settled... Aligning, accelerating, integrating — in just one year, computing power has surged and enterprises have clustered.

Walking through Yongcheng (Nanning), with the Nan-A Center as the "sea outlet," a "cloud river" of "R&D in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou + integration in Guangxi + application in ASEAN" is taking shape.

"ASEAN is China's largest trading partner and is at a critical stage of digital transformation." In the view of Zhang Hongshi, President of the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, located at the convergence point of China's market of more than 1.4 billion people and ASEAN's market of 700 million people, Guangxi has broad opportunities for opening-up and development.

Not long ago, the "Foreign Enterprises' Guangxi Tour" event attracted 141 foreign-invested enterprises from more than 30 countries and regions, facilitating 36 cooperation projects in areas such as modern finance and high-end manufacturing.

"Take the initiative to act, and accelerate development" — exchanges will grow ever closer.

"The value of major national projects is ultimately reflected in serving national development strategies," said Ni Yuping, a professor in the History Department of Tsinghua University. If the Lingqu Canal solved the question of "how Lingnan was incorporated into the unified national transport system," then the Pinglu Canal answers the contemporary question of "how the western region can more conveniently integrate into the global economic system."

Accelerating the revision of the cultural and tourism development plan for the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, planning a "Lingqu Canal–Pinglu Canal–Beibu Gulf" waterway cultural tourism route; this October, Guilin will host the World Canal Conference, with the Lingqu Canal and the Pinglu Canal as the dual main threads, showcasing to the world the Eastern wisdom of canal civilization... Facing the question of the times, Guangxi continues to explore and actively answer.

Connecting rivers to the sea, sailing toward the blue.

  

This year marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.

In April five years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping, during an inspection tour in Guangxi, visited the Memorial Park for the Red Army's Long March Xiangjiang River Campaign in Caiwan Town, Quanzhou County, Guilin, to pay tribute to revolutionary martyrs and carry forward the spiritual lineage of Communists.

"Sweeping away a thousand troops as if rolling up a mat." General Secretary Xi Jinping said firmly: "We should hold such a conviction of certain victory in achieving the next centenary goal and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

The new journey is a new Long March.

With the opening of the Pinglu Canal, Guangxi's development has opened a new chapter, and the sons and daughters of Guangxi have embarked on a new journey.

Striving seaward for strength, pursuing opening-up and development.

(People's Daily reporters Zhu Jiaqi and Zhang Yunhe contributed to this report)

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China-Europe Railway Express Links Asia and Europe (Cultivating More 'China Service' Brands)

By: 本报记者 李心萍

Opening Remarks for the Column

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Promote the extension of producer services toward specialization and the high end of the value chain, promote the high-quality, diversified, and convenient development of consumer services, cultivate more 'China Service' brands, and strive to open up a new situation in the high-quality development of the service industry."

Following the direction charted by the General Secretary, various localities and departments are actively planning and accelerating the building of service brands. Starting today, this newspaper launches the "Cultivating More 'China Service' Brands" column, systematically reviewing the new explorations and new progress in cultivating "China Service" brands across various localities, and showcasing the distinctive highlights, innovative measures, driving roles, and industrial benefits of service brands in various fields.

At around 12:00 noon on September 14, at Putian Station in Zhengzhou, Henan, the Zhengzhou–Hamburg China-Europe Railway Express departed for overseas; at 3:55 a.m. on September 16, at Xi'an International Port Station in Shaanxi, the Xi'an–Duisburg full-timetable China-Europe Railway Express roared out of the station...

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of a unified brand for the China-Europe Railway Express. Data show that the cumulative number of China-Europe Railway Express trips has exceeded 130,000, transporting goods worth more than 520 billion U.S. dollars, making it an internationally recognized logistics brand.

Why has the China-Europe Railway Express grown so rapidly? The unified brand has been crucial.

In 2011, the Yu-Xin-Ou (Chongqing–Xinjiang–Europe) train departed from Chongqing for the first time. Subsequently, routes such as Han-Xin-Ou, Xiang-Ou Express, and Zheng-Xin-Ou were opened, with the number of train trips climbing rapidly from 80 in 2013 to 815 in 2015.

However, during this phase, trains from various localities were acting independently without coordination (各自为战, gè zhì wéi zhàn - "each, itself, act, war"). High internal friction, high costs, low efficiency, and weak branding became pain points constraining development.

On June 8, 2016, the unified brand for the China-Europe Railway Express was officially launched. The brand logo features a speeding train and flowing silk, incorporating elements such as the China Railway emblem and the English abbreviation of China Railway, with Chinese red and black as the primary colors.

Since then, the China-Europe Railway Express has unified brand building, train naming, brand identity, brand usage, and brand promotion, pooling the strength of all localities to enhance competitiveness. The annual number of departures grew from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, an increase of 10.8 times, with an average annual growth rate of 31.5%.

Today, the brand advantages of the China-Europe Railway Express—"fast and punctual, safe and stable, green and environmentally friendly"—are increasingly recognized by countries along the routes.

Uniting individual strengths into a single powerful force (握指成拳, wò zhǐ chéng quán - "grasp, fingers, become, fist") to build a comprehensive network.

The foundation of logistics lies in connectivity. With unified branding and unified planning, the China-Europe Railway Express has established three major corridors in China—western, central, and eastern—and has mapped out 96 scheduled routes with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, weaving lines into a network.

At present, 129 cities within China have opened China-Europe Railway Express services, reaching 236 cities in 26 European countries, an increase of 113 and 216 domestic and overseas cities respectively compared with 2016, with service coverage basically spanning the whole of Asia and Europe. This three-dimensional layout provides a solid logistics foundation for cross-border trade.

Unified standards to improve transport efficiency.

In logistics competition, efficiency is key. First, consider transport speed: at present, the operating speed of the China-Europe Railway Express on the domestic section is uniformly 1,600 kilometers per day, and on the overseas section reaches 1,000 to 1,300 kilometers per day, one-third faster than traditional international intermodal transport.

Next, consider transport capacity. After systematic upgrades, the maximum number of cars per train and the traction weight of the China-Europe Railway Express have been increased to 55 cars and 3,000 tons respectively, offering large capacity and high speed.

Finally, consider customs clearance efficiency. Walking into the Safety Dispatch and Command Center at Horgos Station in Xinjiang, telephone rings sound from time to time, and on the display screen, small dots representing the train reception signals at Altynkol Station in Kazakhstan blink continuously.

"Since the inter-station transparency system was put into use, our operational efficiency has increased by 11%," said dispatcher Zhang Dongchang. Previously, operational staff at the Chinese and Kazakh stations could not view each other's train operations in real time and had to communicate repeatedly by phone. Now, train operation information is synchronized within seconds, saving 10 minutes of customs clearance time for each train.

In recent years, relying on the "railway fast clearance" model and the "digital port" system, the customs clearance time for China-Europe Railway Express trains at ports has been compressed to as little as 30 minutes.

Clear division of labor to improve service quality.

The China-Europe Railway Express portal website is an online one-stop service platform (一站式, yī zhàn shì - "one, station, style"). Mr. Chen, the person in charge of Hangzhou Qianjin Conveying Equipment Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang, logged onto the China-Europe Railway Express portal website and handled everything from door-to-door transport and agency customs declaration to integrated logistics in one go: "The goods departed from Zhengzhou and arrived safely in the heart of Europe in just 17 days."

The ultimate in service is often reflected in the details. When this batch of goods arrived in Europe in the early morning, the customer service team of the China-Europe Railway Express portal website, in front of their screens, remotely guided the overseas consignee through unpacking and unloading, striving to ensure the safe and intact handover of the goods.

Connectivity, efficiency, and meticulousness have forged the unique advantages of the China-Europe Railway Express.

Xi'an Yingtuo International Logistics Co., Ltd. once received an urgent task: to help an overseas chemical company import 310 containers totaling 18,600 tons of raw materials from China, with a transport deadline of 35 days.

At that time, the shipping cycle was as long as 45 to 60 days, while road transport required the deployment of more than 600 trucks, and freight rates fluctuated greatly with oil prices. "The China-Europe Railway Express has an end-to-end transit time of 10 to 20 days, with large capacity, and total logistics costs can be reduced by 29%, efficiently ensuring that the enterprise starts production on time," said Su Lu, general manager of the company.

With the high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express, transport prices on both domestic and overseas sections have fallen by more than 40% compared with the early days of operation. The goods transported cover 53 categories and more than 50,000 types of commodities. High value-added goods such as automobiles and auto parts, machinery and equipment, and electronics and electrical products have become the main sources of export cargo for the China-Europe Railway Express, while European timber, pulp, specialty agricultural and sideline products, and daily consumer goods also enter the Chinese market via the trains.

Today's China-Europe Railway Express is still being continuously upgraded.

On June 24, the first "zero-carbon" China-Europe Railway Express from the Yangtze River Delta arrived smoothly at Yiwu West Railway Station. This train operated on the full timetable of the Duisburg–Yiwu route, using 100% green electricity on electrified sections; on non-electrified sections, the remaining emissions were offset through carbon offset projects certified under the Gold Standard, achieving "zero carbon dioxide emissions" during train operation.

"The China-Europe Railway Express has had green genes since its inception," praised Martin Koubek, director of the Silk Road division of Czech company METRANS Group.

With the continued advancement of electrification renovation of facilities along the railway lines, and the deployment of clean transport vehicles such as new-energy container trucks in cargo collection and distribution, the green foundation of this "steel camel caravan" spanning Asia and Europe is becoming increasingly pronounced.

Today's China-Europe Railway Express is still expanding its influence.

At Ganzhou International Land Port in Jiangxi, containers are neatly arranged and gantry cranes shuttle back and forth. Relying on the land port, cross-border e-commerce is profoundly changing the way enterprises in southern Jiangxi go global.

"Previously, Ganzhou had no cross-border e-commerce customs clearance channel, and I had to go to Shenzhen in Guangdong to handle exports. Now, customs clearance can be completed at the Ganzhou International Land Port at our doorstep, and the China-Europe Railway Express directly transports goods to overseas warehouses in foreign parks, helping enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency and win more customers," said the person in charge of Jiangxi Dashijie Home Furnishing Co., Ltd., describing the convenience brought to enterprises by the "dual-zone linkage" mechanism.

After a decade of dedicated cultivation, the "steel camel caravan" is no longer merely a transport route; with its stable capacity, efficient coordination, and green philosophy, it has become a widely welcomed international public good.

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20th Asian Games Opens in Nagoya, Japan

(People's Daily, Nagoya, Japan, September 19) (Reporter Fan Jiayuan, Tao Xiang'an) On the evening of the 19th local time, the 20th Asian Games opened in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Approximately 11,000 athletes from delegations of 45 countries and regions across Asia are competing in the Games.

This is the 14th time the Chinese sports delegation has participated in the Asian Games. The delegation consists of 815 athletes competing across 38 sports and 369 events. Among them, 548 athletes are making their Asian Games debut, and 36 Olympic champions are competing together in a joint effort (联袂出征, lianmei chuzheng - "join hands, go forth to battle"). At the opening ceremony, men's basketball player Hu Mingxuan and women's boxer Wu Yu served as flag bearers for the Chinese delegation.

The Games run from September 19 to October 4, featuring 43 sports and 71 disciplines, with 469 gold medals to be awarded. Some events, including basketball, football, and volleyball, have already started ahead of schedule. In addition, several new events such as mixed martial arts, teqball, and virtual taekwondo will make their Asian Games debut, adding new highlights to this edition of the Games. (Related report on Page 5)

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Judicial Protection "Precision Irrigation" for the Soil of Innovation (Deepening the Strategy to Upgrade Pilot Free Trade Zones)

By: 本报记者 范昊天

Robotic arms swing and dance, precisely locking onto the tightening points of every vehicle.

At the Wuhan Economic Development Zone section of the Wuhan Linkage Innovation and Development Zone of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone, at the Voyah Automobile Smart Factory, on average one new car rolls off the production line every 40 seconds.

Having accumulated 6,866 patent applications, of which 5,877 are invention patents, accounting for 85.6%, "the enterprise's intellectual property 'family assets' are substantial, but there are shortcomings in intellectual property protection, and challenges remain." Liu Mingjiao, the relevant person in charge of Voyah Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that Voyah Automobile was at one point troubled by trade secret leaks, patent right infringement, and difficulties in providing evidence for rights protection.

A judicial "physical examination report" drew repeated praise from Liu Mingjiao.

This year, Voyah Automobile was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Upon learning of the enterprise's urgent needs for the protection of intellectual property such as patents and trademarks, the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Court organized a team of judges to visit the enterprise on-site, providing full-chain, targeted legal services.

"Conduct intellectual property review of promotional materials and establish a proprietary library of legitimate materials," "Strengthen the pre-collection and preservation of litigation evidence and enhance the enterprise's evidence awareness"... Analyzing the company's previous litigation cases, the judge team conducted "consultations" one by one on multiple high-frequency risk points such as contract disputes, labor disputes, and intellectual property disputes, and put forward legal suggestions from the perspectives of contract formation and internal corporate norms.

"We have provided precise 'physical examinations' for more than 20 key enterprises in the zone and two geographical indication associations, and issued 15 individualized reports and suggestions." Zheng Guangfang, chief judge of the Civil Division of the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Court, introduced that since last year, the quality and efficiency of judicial protection of intellectual property within the jurisdiction has improved significantly.

Moving the threshold forward avoids risks; handling matters quickly after the fact improves efficiency.

As the market vitality of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone continues to be released, some simple intellectual property cases have emerged where the facts are clear and evident (事实清楚, shi shi qing chu - "fact, clear") and the disputes are not significant.

Targeting the pain points of long rights-protection cycles and high costs for enterprises, the Xiangyang Intermediate People's Court took the lead in exploring a "fast handling of simple cases" mechanism for intellectual property in the Xiangyang section of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone.

In July last year, a company in Chengdu, Sichuan, discovered that a video product sold in the online store of a company in Xiangyang had misappropriated segments from 8 of its original works, suspected of infringing on the company's right to disseminate works over information networks. The company subsequently filed 8 separate lawsuits, demanding that the merchant cease infringement and compensate for losses.

"In the 8 cases, the plaintiffs and defendants are the same, and the infringing acts are highly correlated." Zhou Guirong, Party Secretary and President of the Xiangyang High-tech Zone Court, said that in order to reduce the litigation burden on the parties and improve trial efficiency, the court decisively initiated a model of consolidated trial and pre-trial joint mediation.

The two sides ultimately reached a "package settlement plan," and the entire process, from case filing to completion of mediation performance, took 24 days.

It is reported that since the reform of "fast handling of simple cases" for intellectual property was implemented, approximately 85% of intellectual property cases in the two-level courts of Xiangyang have been tried under this model, with the average trial time for simple cases being less than 30 days, and approximately 65% of cases being mediated, withdrawn, and immediately performed before trial.

Reform breaks new ground, and the law provides protection. Hubei, guided by pioneering new practices and reforms (先行先试, xian xing xian shi - "first go, first try") in the pilot free trade zones, is striving to build a full-chain intellectual property protection system of "prevention beforehand, quick handling afterward." As of June 2026, Hubei had 208,600 invention patents, with 14.38 high-value invention patents per 10,000 people.

"Hubei will comprehensively implement the construction project of the intellectual property protection system, continuously strengthen full-chain intellectual property protection, and help accelerate the transformation of the 'experimental field' into a 'high-yield field'." Chen Yi, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Intellectual Property Administration, said.

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Nanjing builds a first-class business environment with high standards (a solid start for the 15th Five-Year Plan)

By: 本报记者 邓建胜 申 琳 姚雪青

On September 16, the "China Energy Storage Guoneng Hundred-Megawatt Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage System Equipment Manufacturing Base" project, located in the Jiangning Development Zone of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, has entered its final sprint phase. When the project landed, after signing the land transfer contract, it took only five working days to complete all "five certificates" in one go. "Start construction upon land acquisition" has boosted the project's "accelerated run." In Nanjing, "issuing all five certificates simultaneously" has gradually become the standard for "efficiently handling one matter" and building a first-class business environment.

In July 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection tour in Jiangsu: "Jiangsu possesses advantages including a solid industrial foundation, abundant scientific and educational resources, a favorable business environment, and a huge market scale, and it has both the capability and the responsibility to take the lead and set an example in advancing Chinese modernization." At the 2025 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference sessions, when General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in the deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation, he emphasized: "Treat all forms of enterprises with ownership treating all people or things equally (一视同仁, yi shi tong ren - "one, look, same, treat"), and continuously optimize the business environment."

To thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, Nanjing has written "building a first-class business environment to a higher standard" into the city's outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, comprehensively constructing a policy environment with better overall strength, a fair and orderly market environment, an efficient and convenient government affairs environment, a just and transparent rule-of-law environment, and a people-oriented environment that is friendly to business and reassuring to merchants.

From "opportunity supply" to "capability supply" —

Recently, Nanjing released its first batch of government affairs AI (artificial intelligence) demand scenarios, open for enterprise application. Nanjing has innovatively built a unified government affairs large-model platform and a government affairs intelligent agent experimental workshop, establishing a closed-loop mechanism of "departments posing questions — enterprises verifying — government paying," where settled enterprises can obtain supporting resources such as computing power, models, and data for free.

"The ultimate goal of building a first-class business environment is to help enterprises grow." Zhao Chengjun, director of the Nanjing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said that Nanjing is actively exploring the transformation of services to enterprises from "opportunity supply" to "capability supply," helping more enterprises find suitable scenarios through multi-dimensional support in technology, talent, finance, and digitalization, turning the entire city into a "super testing ground" for innovative products.

In January this year, the "Nanjing Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Application of New Scenarios and Building a City of Open Scenarios at a High Level (2026–2028)" was issued, focusing on key industries such as artificial intelligence, smart grids, and embodied intelligence, planning to systematically advance the construction of 10 city-level and 100 industry-level comprehensive scenarios, helping enterprises become "partners in urban development."

From "government serving the dishes" to "enterprises ordering the dishes" —

Nanjing Chuangfeng Precision Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Eka Intelligent Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Lishui Economic Development Zone, originally had no connection. "Service specialist" Shi Jin, while visiting Chuangfeng Precision, captured the cooperation demand and immediately activated the cross-jurisdiction service hotline, quickly contacting the enterprise service center of the development zone.

In just one week, the two sides established direct contact; within half a month, Eka Intelligent Vehicle completed an on-site inspection; three months later, the first order landed. From nothing to something, from distant to close, this "marriage" facilitated by one specialist and one hotline has made enterprises truly feel the people-oriented environment that is friendly to business and reassuring to merchants.

In recent years, Nanjing has focused on clearing the "last mile" of serving enterprises, accelerating the standardized and normalized construction of three-tier enterprise comprehensive service centers at the municipal, district, and park (sub-district) levels, providing enterprises with comprehensive services covering the full life cycle and running through the entire process, achieving "responding to every request, not disturbing when there is nothing." Dong Xiaojun, vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Industry and Commerce, introduced that Nanjing has configured "service specialists" like Shi Jin for more than 20,000 key enterprises.

Doing "subtraction" to reduce interference, doing "addition" to promote development —

Kang Xiaoqiang, chairman of Nanjing Leads Biolabs Co., Ltd., was once troubled by "surprise attack" inspections. "It's not that we don't welcome regulation, but we hope for predictability."

In response to problems reported by enterprises such as multiple-department inspections and inconsistent standards, on June 15, the "Nanjing Measures for Regulating Administrative Inspections Involving Enterprises" was officially implemented. Strictly controlling the gateway for inspection access, strictly prohibiting inspections without basis or arbitrary inspections, clearly defining the rigid red lines of "five prohibitions" and "eight must-nots," and relying on the integrated law enforcement supervision platform to achieve closed-loop management of enterprise demands. "Now with institutional safeguards, we have a clear picture of when inspections will come, who will inspect, and what will be inspected," Kang Xiaoqiang said.

While doing "subtraction" to let enterprises travel light, "efficiently handling one matter" continues to do "addition," extending from government services to the entire chain of services for enterprises.

Since Nanjing launched the "efficiently handling one matter" reform, the processing time and application materials for key matters have been reduced by an average of 66% and 70% respectively, benefiting a cumulative total of 9.06 million enterprise and public transactions. Special "one matter" scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce filing and enterprise going global have been successively implemented. Enterprise-benefiting measures such as "issuing all five certificates simultaneously" have been accelerated, and the "Ninggongpin Promotion" supply-demand matching activity for key industrial chains has helped 246 enterprises establish stable contact channels with target customers.

Optimizing the business environment stimulates economic vitality. The share of Nanjing's private economy value added in the total economic output has risen to 47.6%, becoming the main driving force for the city's economic growth.

Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions, Nanjing will place serving enterprises, cultivating industries, and deeply cultivating the real economy in a more prominent position, striving to become a hot land for all kinds of enterprises to invest and develop, and a city of choice for talents from all walks of life to realize their dreams.

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Answer Sheets of Talent Development, Written on the Vast Land of the Motherland (Today's Commentary)

By: 高世林

Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to Jilin University on the occasion of its 80th anniversary, conveying the message to "focus on national strategic needs, continuously optimize the disciplinary and specialty layout, raise the level of teaching and scientific research, and strive to cultivate more high-quality talents." These earnest instructions point the way forward.

At present, the once-in-a-century transformation of the world is accelerating, placing new demands on talent cultivation. From the research and development of major national equipment, to breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technologies, to the exploration and development of deep-sea resources... wherever there is a "national need," there lies the "direction of scientific research." Only by advancing educational development, scientific and technological innovation, and talent cultivation as an integrated whole, connecting the classroom with practice and allowing knowledge to respond to reality, can we cultivate outstanding people or talents (栋梁之材, dong liang zhi cai - "beam, pillar, particle").

In the rejuvenation of a strong nation, youth are the main force. On the front line of research and development, Jilin University's research teams have delved deep into automotive intelligent chassis, overcoming industry challenges; in the fields, students from China Agricultural University's "Science and Technology Backyards" bend down to the soil, helping to keep the rice bowl firmly in our own hands; on the vast frontiers of the desert, graduates of Baoding University have taken up the torch of teaching in relay, sowing the seeds of dreams... Guided by the needs of scientific and technological development and national strategy, paving the way with youth and letting ideals shine, countless young students are growing and thriving where the Party and the country need them most.

The answer sheet of achievement is written on the land of the motherland. Advancing on the new journey with a spirited attitude and writing new glory with practical responsibility, we will surely make greater contributions to advancing Chinese modernization.

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Water conservancy investment hits 690.3 billion yuan in first eight months

(People's Daily, Beijing, September 19) (Reporter Wang Hao) The reporter learned from the Ministry of Water Resources: Since the beginning of this year, China has accelerated the construction of the national water network. In the first eight months, the country completed water conservancy construction investment of 690.3 billion yuan, continuing to maintain a high level of operation; the country implemented 38,000 various water conservancy projects nationwide, and water conservancy project construction absorbed 1.723 million people in employment.

In the first eight months, 22,000 water conservancy projects were newly started. Among them, 28 major water conservancy projects were newly started, including the Three Gorges New Water Transport Channel, the first phase of the Taihu River follow-up project, and the Shangboshi Water Control Hub in Fujian, exceeding the number of projects started in the entire previous year.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Water Resources has continuously deepened reform of water conservancy investment and financing, coordinating "hard investment" and "soft construction." For projects included in the "two major" category in the water conservancy field, it has jointly worked with the National Development and Reform Commission to promote the attraction of private investment in major water conservancy projects, guiding localities to adopt multiple models such as equity cooperation and franchising to attract social capital, especially private capital, to participate in water conservancy construction and operation. In the first eight months, the country's water conservancy construction implemented a total of 312.81 billion yuan in local government special bonds, bank loans, and social capital, of which 13.43 billion yuan was introduced from private capital, a year-on-year increase of 80.1%.

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First 8 Months See Revenue Growth Outpace Business Volume Growth

(People's Daily, Beijing, September 19) (Reporter Han Xin) The reporter learned from the State Post Bureau: In the first eight months of this year, cumulative express delivery business revenue reached 1,028.92 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%; cumulative express delivery business volume reached 134.06 billion parcels, a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of express delivery revenue has consistently exceeded the growth rate of business volume, and the breakthrough of the trillion-yuan mark came one month earlier than last year, reflecting the positive results of the industry's governance against "involution."

According to the monthly postal industry operating conditions published by the State Post Bureau since the beginning of this year, from January to February, express delivery revenue grew 7.9% year-on-year, and express delivery business volume grew 7.1% year-on-year, with the growth rate of express delivery revenue beginning to surpass the growth rate of business volume. From March to August, the growth rate of express delivery revenue continued to outpace the growth rate of business volume.

"The revenue growth rate overtaking the business volume growth rate, the continuous return of per-parcel revenue to a reasonable range, and the increased share of high-value business mean that the industry is shifting from trading lower prices for higher sales volume (以价换量, yi jia huan liang - "use, price, exchange, volume") to improving quality and increasing efficiency (提质增效, ti zhi zeng xiao - "raise, quality, increase, efficiency")." A relevant official from the State Post Bureau said that this is not only conducive to improving corporate profitability and helping the industry escape the predicament of "increased volume without increased revenue," but also conducive to the stability of the terminal network and the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of couriers, consolidating the foundation for the industry's high-quality development.

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Painting a Colorful Picture of Harvest

General Secretary Xi Jinping has stressed, "Ensuring the stable supply of grain and other important agricultural products is the top priority in agricultural production."

The ninth "Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival" is approaching, and across the length and breadth of the country, a colorful picture of harvest is being painted—

In the large fields, golden waves of rice surge with the wind, and soybean pods hang in clusters; in the vegetable plots, spinach is emerald green and tender, cabbage is firm and full; in the orchards, apples, pomegranates, and kiwifruit are ripening one after another, wafting waves of sweet fragrance…

The colorful harvest embodies a change in concepts. Eating is not just about "eating grain"; meat, eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables, fish, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots are all delicacies. In recent years, all localities have established and practiced the concept of a big agriculture and a big food approach, achieving stable and secure supply of grain and important agricultural products. At present, China's per capita grain possession exceeds 500 kilograms, higher than the internationally recognized food security line of 400 kilograms. At the same time, the "vegetable basket" and "fruit plate" supply is stable and abundant in variety, the sugar self-sufficiency rate exceeds 70 percent, the capacity for self-sufficiency in oil crops continues to improve, and the total number of green, organic, famous, special, superior, and new agricultural products with geographical indications nationwide exceeds 88,000. The rich and diverse agricultural products continue to meet the demands of diversified food consumption and nutritional health needs.

The colorful harvest reflects the driving force of innovation. The seed supply guarantee rate of national-level seed industry bases exceeds 80 percent, achieving full coverage of varieties including grain, cotton, oil, sugar, fruits, vegetables, tea, and medicinal materials; in hilly areas and orchards where mechanical farming was previously difficult, equipment such as drones and self-propelled orchard operation platforms are now being used, and in some areas, facility greenhouses have achieved mechanization-friendly renovation… The surging momentum of innovation continuously consolidates the foundation of production capacity for expanding food source channels.

How can the capacity for diversified food supply be continuously improved? Leveraging the integrated effectiveness of multiple factors is the key. On the one hand, it is necessary to continuously optimize the regional layout of production according to market demand, adjust and improve the variety and maturity period structure, and guide various agricultural products to form a pattern of differentiated and diversified development; on the other hand, it is necessary to continuously strengthen scientific and technological support, take into account both production and consumption demands, make efforts in areas such as improved variety breeding and mechanization application, and promote industrial quality improvement and efficiency enhancement.

At present, the food consumption of Chinese residents is transforming from a staple-food-oriented model to a diversified consumption model of "grain, meat, vegetables, fruits, and fish." We must ensure not only quantity, but also quality and diversity—on the bountiful land of harvest, this confidence in stable production and guaranteed supply is upholding the daily life of countless households.

(People's Daily reporter Yu Jingxian)

Rice harvest about to begin in Yingshang County, Fuyang, Anhui—

"Stabilize output while also ensuring quality"

People's Daily reporter Tian Xianjin

Wind blows through the rice waves, and the grains are gradually ripening.

In Shanjian Village, Chenqiao Town, Yingshang County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province, contiguous rice fields spread across the land, and layers of rice waves gently rise and fall in the breeze.

At the edge of the field ridge, Cai Junjun, chairman of the Yuanfeng Agricultural Professional Cooperative, bent down to part the rice plants, held up an ear of rice, and twisted open the husk for a closer look—the kernels were full of milky sap and uniform in grain size. "The rice is in the grain-filling stage, and the growth is good this year. The per-mu yield is expected to reach over 700 kilograms," Cai Junjun said.

In about ten more days, the cooperative's 2,000 mu of rice will be ready for harvest. Recently, Cai Junjun has been busy clearing warehouse space and servicing agricultural machinery. "A moment's delay by a person can cause a year's delay for the land (人误地一时, ren wu di yi shi - "person, err, land, one, time"). If the machines and granaries are prepared a day earlier, there will be more ease during the autumn harvest."

Mechanized operations are nothing new for Cai Junjun. "A few years ago, we bought four rice transplanters at once. The government provided subsidies, which saved a lot on purchase costs; we also built a rice seedling cultivation base with a capacity of 2,000 mu, which also received subsidies," Cai Junjun said. "Everyone's enthusiasm for growing rice was immediately boosted."

Equipment is being upgraded, and varieties are also being iterated. Cai Junjun explained that in the past they grew ordinary rice varieties, and later gradually switched to two-line hybrid rice. The new rice has strong tillering ability, large panicles with many grains, developed root systems, and grows more vigorously. Cai Junjun said: "In the past, we pursued output more; now we stabilize output while also ensuring quality."

High yield and good quality depend on new varieties and are inseparable from new technologies. This year, all of the cooperative's rice has adopted full biodegradable mulch film covering technology, which preserves moisture, suppresses weeds, and increases temperature. "Less herbicide is used, the rice field ecology has improved, and the quality of the rice has also been raised accordingly," Cai Junjun said.

The rice planting area in Yingshang County has remained at around 700,000 mu year-round, making it a major grain-producing county in the northern Anhui region. "The harvest is imminent. We are guiding farmers to promptly promote grain filling, increase grain weight, and prevent pests and diseases, adding another layer of insurance for a bumper grain harvest," said Hu Guanlin, a relevant official from the Agricultural Technology Extension Center of Yingshang County.

(Li Peng participated in writing)

Busy mechanical soybean harvesting in Nenjiang City, Heihe, Heilongjiang—

"Make the 'oil bottle' more secure"

People's Daily reporter Guo Xiaolong

On both banks of the Nen River, soybeans rustle like bells.

Standing on the field ridge of Changfu Town, Nenjiang City, Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province, and looking out, contiguous soybean fields spread to the horizon, full pods bending the soybean stalks, gleaming with a warm luster under the sunlight.

The roar of the harvester approaches from far to near. Where it passes, the soybean stalks lie neatly flattened, and golden beans continuously pour into the machine's hopper—another heavy harvest year.

"Look at the growth this year—another good year!" Shang Jiying, a large-scale planter from Donggang Village, Changfu Town, casually split open a pod, and four plump, round soybeans rolled into his palm.

As a well-known veteran grain grower in the surrounding area, in previous years his more than 500 mu of land was planted entirely with corn. "Back then, I was convinced that growing staple crops was the safe choice, with no worries about sales." But years of continuous cropping reduced the fertility of the black soil, and fluctuations in corn prices also made him uneasy.

In 2022, agricultural technical experts promoting soybean cultivation came to his door, explaining the principles of crop rotation for soil conservation and calculating the detailed accounts of planting benefits. Shang Jiying was persuaded and set aside 30 mu of land to trial-plant soybeans.

"My heart was pounding the first year. Fortunately, agricultural technicians provided full-process tracking guidance from seed selection and sowing to field management." He recalled that when the accounts were settled in autumn, the per-mu yield was nearly 450 jin, and with the soybean producer subsidy, the benefits were a notch higher than growing corn.

Now, on the land Shang Jiying plants, corn and soybeans each account for half, achieving equal emphasis on grain and oil crops. "To make the 'oil bottle' more secure, the land produces both grain and oil, and crop rotation also nourishes the soil—only then is this black soil not shortchanged!" Shang Jiying said.

This year, the soybean planting area in Nenjiang City exceeds 7 million mu, with output expected to surpass 1.7 billion jin. Looking at the entire province of Heilongjiang, soybean output accounts for more than 40 percent of the national total, becoming an important ballast stone for safeguarding national grain and oil security.

From planting only staple crops to placing equal emphasis on grain and oil, more and more planters like Shang Jiying are emerging, and the harvest map on the black soil is becoming more complete and substantial because of these "golden beans."

Sugarcane accumulating sugar in Fusui County, Chongzuo, Guangxi—

"This season's harvest must be secured steadily"

People's Daily reporter Zhang Yunhe

In September in southern Guangxi, large expanses of dark green spread across the sugarcane fields. The cane stalks stand tall, each node full, and it is the right time for sugar accumulation.

Mo Huixin, a large-scale sugarcane planter in Fusui County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, squatted at the edge of the field, broke off a piece of sugarcane, and chewed it—

He smacked his lips, then gently shook his head: "The 'sugar' is coming up, and the growth is good this year, but we'll need to find quite a few people."

The sugarcane is not yet fully mature, but he has already planned ahead for the cutting and harvesting, entrusting people to seek labor teams in Yunnan and Guizhou. This season's sugarcane harvest is expected to require 80 to 100 workers, working continuously for 3 months. Sugarcane cutting is paid by the ton, and expenses such as collection and loading are expected to be 145 yuan per ton. "If we assemble the workforce in advance, then when the crushing season comes, we can cut and transport in a timely manner. This season's harvest must be secured steadily," Mo Huixin said.

Having dealt with sugarcane for about twenty years, he has seen many changes in the fields.

In the past, plowing relied on oxen pulling, which plowed shallowly and harrowed unevenly, making weed removal difficult and yields low. Now, "small plots have been merged into large ones," paired with high-sugar, high-yield varieties such as Guitang No. 44, and using tractors with built-in navigation for land preparation, saving labor and effort.

Two drones shuttle over the sugarcane fields, spraying pesticides and foliar fertilizer; the integrated water and fertilizer drip irrigation equipment is controlled with one touch on a mobile phone, saving 200 yuan per mu. "In the past, work that required dozens of people can now be managed by just 4 people," Mo Huixin said.

The sugarcane keeps growing upward, node by node. Of the 600 mu of newly planted cane sown in February this year, the tallest stalks already have 23 nodes and exceed 3 meters in height. Mo Huixin peeled off old leaves as he walked, estimating that the average per-mu yield could reach 9 tons.

He has transferred 1,500 mu of land from villagers in Bapen Township, of which 1,300 mu is planted with sugar cane, and 200 mu is set aside for short-term crop rotation or intercropping.

The sugarcane fields support the farmers' livelihoods. "The per-mu return on sugar cane is about 1,000 yuan. Villagers can receive transfer rent and also come to work in the fields," Mo Huixin said.

Fusui is a major sugarcane-growing county, developing characteristic industries to revitalize villages and enrich the people. In the 2025/2026 crushing season, it drove an increase of 570 million yuan in sugarcane farmers' income.

Looking at Guangxi as a whole, the sugar cane planting area has ranked first in the country for 35 consecutive crushing seasons. In the 2025/2026 crushing season, farmers' total income from sugarcane cultivation increased by 24.7 percent, setting a new historical high.

The sugarcane waves surge with a rustling sound, and the sweetness of a new season is about to arrive.

Apples ripening and hitting the market in Ansai District, Yan'an, Shaanxi—

"Once the fruit turns red, the heart feels sweet"

People's Daily reporter Zhang Danhua

Yan'an's apples are ripe.

On the hilltops of Nangou Village, Gaoqiao Town, Ansai District, Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province, apple trees are layered one upon another. At present, the bright red "Qincui" apples are bending the branches.

Before dawn, Zhao Yongdong, a 70-year-old fruit grower, entered the orchard. With a lift and a twist, the fruit landed steadily in the bamboo basket.

His son Zhao Shengsheng, meanwhile, sells apples "in the cloud." He carries a tripod around the mountains, filming short video material. Thanks to one short video after another and live streams every night, he now has 300,000 followers.

"Once the fruit turns red, the heart feels sweet!" Zhao Shengsheng said with a smile.

The villagers of Nangou Village have not forgotten the hardships of the past—located in the loess hilly and gully region, the soil layer is deep but cannot retain water, and sunlight is abundant but cannot withstand drought.

Zhao Yongdong pointed at the terraced fields at his feet: "At that time, they were 'three-run fields'—after a heavy rain, the water ran off, the soil ran off, and the fertilizer ran off too."

Since 2015, Nangou Village has been determined to "declare war" on the hilly and mountainous land: bulldozers went up the mountains to merge narrow strip fields into wide terraces; 7 water-retention dams were built on the gully roads, 9 reservoirs were built on the hilltops, and drip irrigation pipe networks were laid to the roots of the trees; 18 kilometers of orchard production roads were paved, and machinery was driven up the mountains… "The water was stored, the soil was fixed, the fruit trees were given special care, and the sloping land was finally enriched," Zhao Yongdong recalled.

Today, Nangou Village has built 2,100 mu of mountain apple orchards and 1,060 mu of dwarfed, densely planted apple demonstration orchards, leading the city in introducing new varieties and promoting new technologies.

Seeing the villagers' apple trees increasing in number, Zhao Shengsheng saw a new path. In September 2024, he tried selling apples online. "Fewer buyers came, and when they did, they pressed down the prices. Through live streaming, I can sell each jin for two yuan more," Zhao Shengsheng said.

In 2025, the per capita disposable income in Nangou Village reached 24,500 yuan, and the village collective economic income reached 690,000 yuan. According to statistics, the city's apple planting area is 3.321 million mu, with output expected to exceed 5 million tons this year, and the comprehensive output value of the entire industry chain is moving toward 62 billion yuan.

Overall planning for this issue: Qi Jiarun

Layout design: Zhang Fangman

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One World, One BeiDou

By: 本报记者 申智林

From constellations in the sky to ground terminals, from transportation emergency response and smart cities to field production and ocean-going navigation, in recent years, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has injected new momentum into economic and social development.

The Fifth BeiDou Scale Application International Summit, themed "One World, One BeiDou — Empowering the Globe," was recently held in Zhuzhou, Hunan. Since the inaugural summit in 2021, BeiDou's market reach has continued to strengthen, its industrial support capacity has been continuously consolidated, and its international influence has grown increasingly profound.

Performance and Service Upgrades

In July this year, the BeiDou system completed the in-orbit iterative upgrade of all its satellites. "It has formed the capability for nationwide real-time centimeter-level positioning services, high-precision positioning services with global coverage and rapid convergence, and support capabilities for connecting 1 billion terminals, with 100 million mass-market users and one million industry users stably online," said Gou Ping, Chairman of China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., describing today's BeiDou.

All-domain, high-precision, high-stability, and high-reliability spatiotemporal service capabilities are the cornerstone of BeiDou's scale application.

Zhang Nu, Chairman of China Spatiotemporal Information Group Co., Ltd., introduced that currently, more than 70 mobile phone terminal models worldwide support BeiDou short message functionality, with the number of activated users exceeding 450 million.

Scientific and technological innovation is driving the continuous improvement of BeiDou system performance and service quality. Hunan, leveraging its advantage as a source of core BeiDou technologies, promotes the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent, builds national-level innovation platforms such as key laboratories for satellite navigation technology and the National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Measurement, Control and Navigation Technology, and establishes a number of the integration of industry, academia, research, and application (产学研用, chan xue yan yong - "industry, academia, research, application") consortia including the China Satellite Network Spatiotemporal Information Industry Security Innovation Center and the BeiDou Laboratory Alliance, having cumulatively participated in the formulation of 36 national and industry standards.

Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan, China will coordinate the resource deployment of space-based navigation augmentation and ground-based navigation augmentation, promote the fusion of BeiDou with multi-source spatiotemporal information including low-orbit navigation augmentation, 5G/6G, inertial navigation, laser radar, and vision; build a multi-level, three-dimensional integrated positioning and navigation system, and advance the full coverage of spatiotemporal services from outdoor to indoor, from deep sea to deep space.

Expanding Application Scenarios

In Waigang Town, Jiading District, Shanghai, on more than 10,000 mu of high-standard farmland, various types of intelligent agricultural machinery, supported by BeiDou technology, are demonstrating a new paradigm of smart operations covering the entire rice cultivation process of plowing, planting, management, and harvesting.

"The automatic navigation and driving system for agricultural machinery integrated with the new generation of BeiDou positioning terminals offers more precise positioning and more stable signals, and has been applied to farms in the western and northern regions of China," Liu Bolin, planning director of Shanghai ComNav Technology Co., Ltd., introduced at the summit.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the scale of the BeiDou industry grew by more than 53 percent. As of the end of 2025, the BeiDou navigation industry covers key industry sectors including transportation, energy, urban construction, and emergency disaster reduction, and continues to expand into new fields and new scenarios such as the low-altitude economy, the marine economy, and cultural and sports events.

From "niche and specialized use" to "mass popularization," the application boundaries of BeiDou terminal products continue to expand. "On the sixth day of the first lunar month this year, Amap's daily BeiDou positioning calls reached 1 trillion times, supporting a total daily navigation mileage of 9 billion kilometers on Amap," said Liu Zhenfei, Alibaba partner and Chairman of Amap.

Improve support and guidance policies, strengthen the synergy of industry, academia, research, and application, and promote the integrated development of the upstream and downstream of the BeiDou industry chain and of large, medium, and small enterprises. Led by units including China Spatiotemporal Information Group, a new system for spatiotemporal short messages was released, driving down the cost of short message chips by 70 percent and driving shipments of chips under the new system to 50 million units.

Zhuzhou, the host city of the summit, is vigorously developing the BeiDou industry and scale applications, gathering 188 enterprises and forming a full industry chain layout of "satellite—rocket—network—terminal—data." In 2025, the scale of Zhuzhou's BeiDou spatiotemporal information industry cluster reached 22.96 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of over 30 percent in the past three years.

Extensive International Cooperation

The BeiDou system is one of the four global satellite navigation systems recognized by the United Nations. To date, related products have been exported to more than 140 countries and regions.

"Space technology has increasingly become an important component of digital infrastructure and the digital economy," said Chea Vandeth, Minister of Post and Telecommunications of the Kingdom of Cambodia and Chairman of the Digital Government Committee, stating that BeiDou, together with other global navigation systems, has enhanced the diversity, availability, and resilience of global satellite positioning, navigation, and timing services.

Promoting the internationalization of BeiDou scale applications and advancing international cooperation in the field of satellite navigation align with the common vision of all countries.

Deep in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, Sinopec Geophysical Corporation is using high-efficiency 3D seismic exploration acquisition technology to help local oil companies search for oil and gas resources.

"Every geophone point distributed across thousands of square kilometers, and every excitation point of the vibrator truck, requires high-precision positioning and timing," said Wang Zhongwen, production operations expert at Sinopec's BeiDou Operations Service Center. He explained that after integrating the BeiDou system with spatiotemporal information terminals, construction precision and operational efficiency have been greatly improved, and the re-survey rate of measurement operations has been reduced by 85 percent.

The "BeiDou Industry Development Research Report (2026)," compiled by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, points out that BeiDou's global expansion is upgrading from product export to the coordinated expansion of "products + solutions + services + ecosystem."

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"New Era United Front Forum · 2026" Held in Beijing

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 19) 2026 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Central Institute of Socialism. On September 19, the "New Era United Front Forum · 2026" hosted by the institute was held in Beijing. Wu Weihua, Vice Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee and President of the Central Institute of Socialism, attended and delivered a speech.

Wu Weihua stated that over the past 10 years, guided by the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's congratulatory letter on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Central Institute of Socialism, the institute has made steady and continuous progress (长足发展, chang zu fa zhan - "long, foot, develop"). The Central Institute of Socialism has trained more than 100,000 representatives from various fields of the united front and united front cadres, 47 provincial-level and sub-provincial city institutes have trained nearly 1.4 million people, and the national online institute has trained more than 1 million people. We must continue to uphold the principle that "the institute bears the character of socialism," highlight political training, strengthen political consensus, promote high-quality development of the work of the institutes of socialism, and make new contributions to the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation.

More than 260 people attended the forum, including responsible persons from the central committees of various democratic parties and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, heads of relevant departments of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, heads of central and local institutes of socialism, and current trainees at the institute.

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China-Europe Railway Express Links Asia and Europe (Cultivating More 'China Service' Brands)

By: 本报记者 李心萍

Opening Remarks for the Column

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Promote the extension of producer services toward specialization and the high end of the value chain, promote the high-quality, diversified, and convenient development of consumer services, cultivate more 'China Service' brands, and strive to open up a new situation in the high-quality development of the service industry."

Following the direction charted by the General Secretary, various localities and departments are actively planning and accelerating the building of service brands. Starting today, this newspaper launches the "Cultivating More 'China Service' Brands" column, systematically reviewing the new explorations and new progress in cultivating "China Service" brands across various localities, and showcasing the distinctive highlights, innovative measures, driving roles, and industrial benefits of service brands in various fields.

At around 12:00 noon on September 14, at Putian Station in Zhengzhou, Henan, the Zhengzhou–Hamburg China-Europe Railway Express departed for overseas; at 3:55 a.m. on September 16, at Xi'an International Port Station in Shaanxi, the Xi'an–Duisburg full-timetable China-Europe Railway Express roared out of the station...

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the adoption of a unified brand for the China-Europe Railway Express. Data show that the cumulative number of China-Europe Railway Express trips has exceeded 130,000, transporting goods worth more than 520 billion U.S. dollars, making it an internationally recognized logistics brand.

Why has the China-Europe Railway Express grown so rapidly? The unified brand has been crucial.

In 2011, the Yu-Xin-Ou (Chongqing–Xinjiang–Europe) train departed from Chongqing for the first time. Subsequently, routes such as Han-Xin-Ou, Xiang-Ou Express, and Zheng-Xin-Ou were opened, with the number of train trips climbing rapidly from 80 in 2013 to 815 in 2015.

However, during this phase, trains from various localities were acting independently without coordination (各自为战, gè zhì wéi zhàn - "each, itself, act, war"). High internal friction, high costs, low efficiency, and weak branding became pain points constraining development.

On June 8, 2016, the unified brand for the China-Europe Railway Express was officially launched. The brand logo features a speeding train and flowing silk, incorporating elements such as the China Railway emblem and the English abbreviation of China Railway, with Chinese red and black as the primary colors.

Since then, the China-Europe Railway Express has unified brand building, train naming, brand identity, brand usage, and brand promotion, pooling the strength of all localities to enhance competitiveness. The annual number of departures grew from 1,702 in 2016 to 20,022 in 2025, an increase of 10.8 times, with an average annual growth rate of 31.5%.

Today, the brand advantages of the China-Europe Railway Express—"fast and punctual, safe and stable, green and environmentally friendly"—are increasingly recognized by countries along the routes.

Uniting individual strengths into a single powerful force (握指成拳, wò zhǐ chéng quán - "grasp, fingers, become, fist") to build a comprehensive network.

The foundation of logistics lies in connectivity. With unified branding and unified planning, the China-Europe Railway Express has established three major corridors in China—western, central, and eastern—and has mapped out 96 scheduled routes with a speed of 120 kilometers per hour, weaving lines into a network.

At present, 129 cities within China have opened China-Europe Railway Express services, reaching 236 cities in 26 European countries, an increase of 113 and 216 domestic and overseas cities respectively compared with 2016, with service coverage basically spanning the whole of Asia and Europe. This three-dimensional layout provides a solid logistics foundation for cross-border trade.

Unified standards to improve transport efficiency.

In logistics competition, efficiency is key. First, consider transport speed: at present, the operating speed of the China-Europe Railway Express on the domestic section is uniformly 1,600 kilometers per day, and on the overseas section reaches 1,000 to 1,300 kilometers per day, one-third faster than traditional international intermodal transport.

Next, consider transport capacity. After systematic upgrades, the maximum number of cars per train and the traction weight of the China-Europe Railway Express have been increased to 55 cars and 3,000 tons respectively, offering large capacity and high speed.

Finally, consider customs clearance efficiency. Walking into the Safety Dispatch and Command Center at Horgos Station in Xinjiang, telephone rings sound from time to time, and on the display screen, small dots representing the train reception signals at Altynkol Station in Kazakhstan blink continuously.

"Since the inter-station transparency system was put into use, our operational efficiency has increased by 11%," said dispatcher Zhang Dongchang. Previously, operational staff at the Chinese and Kazakh stations could not view each other's train operations in real time and had to communicate repeatedly by phone. Now, train operation information is synchronized within seconds, saving 10 minutes of customs clearance time for each train.

In recent years, relying on the "railway fast clearance" model and the "digital port" system, the customs clearance time for China-Europe Railway Express trains at ports has been compressed to as little as 30 minutes.

Clear division of labor to improve service quality.

The China-Europe Railway Express portal website is an online one-stop service platform (一站式, yī zhàn shì - "one, station, style"). Mr. Chen, the person in charge of Hangzhou Qianjin Conveying Equipment Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang, logged onto the China-Europe Railway Express portal website and handled everything from door-to-door transport and agency customs declaration to integrated logistics in one go: "The goods departed from Zhengzhou and arrived safely in the heart of Europe in just 17 days."

The ultimate in service is often reflected in the details. When this batch of goods arrived in Europe in the early morning, the customer service team of the China-Europe Railway Express portal website, in front of their screens, remotely guided the overseas consignee through unpacking and unloading, striving to ensure the safe and intact handover of the goods.

Connectivity, efficiency, and meticulousness have forged the unique advantages of the China-Europe Railway Express.

Xi'an Yingtuo International Logistics Co., Ltd. once received an urgent task: to help an overseas chemical company import 310 containers totaling 18,600 tons of raw materials from China, with a transport deadline of 35 days.

At that time, the shipping cycle was as long as 45 to 60 days, while road transport required the deployment of more than 600 trucks, and freight rates fluctuated greatly with oil prices. "The China-Europe Railway Express has an end-to-end transit time of 10 to 20 days, with large capacity, and total logistics costs can be reduced by 29%, efficiently ensuring that the enterprise starts production on time," said Su Lu, general manager of the company.

With the high-quality development of the China-Europe Railway Express, transport prices on both domestic and overseas sections have fallen by more than 40% compared with the early days of operation. The goods transported cover 53 categories and more than 50,000 types of commodities. High value-added goods such as automobiles and auto parts, machinery and equipment, and electronics and electrical products have become the main sources of export cargo for the China-Europe Railway Express, while European timber, pulp, specialty agricultural and sideline products, and daily consumer goods also enter the Chinese market via the trains.

Today's China-Europe Railway Express is still being continuously upgraded.

On June 24, the first "zero-carbon" China-Europe Railway Express from the Yangtze River Delta arrived smoothly at Yiwu West Railway Station. This train operated on the full timetable of the Duisburg–Yiwu route, using 100% green electricity on electrified sections; on non-electrified sections, the remaining emissions were offset through carbon offset projects certified under the Gold Standard, achieving "zero carbon dioxide emissions" during train operation.

"The China-Europe Railway Express has had green genes since its inception," praised Martin Koubek, director of the Silk Road division of Czech company METRANS Group.

With the continued advancement of electrification renovation of facilities along the railway lines, and the deployment of clean transport vehicles such as new-energy container trucks in cargo collection and distribution, the green foundation of this "steel camel caravan" spanning Asia and Europe is becoming increasingly pronounced.

Today's China-Europe Railway Express is still expanding its influence.

At Ganzhou International Land Port in Jiangxi, containers are neatly arranged and gantry cranes shuttle back and forth. Relying on the land port, cross-border e-commerce is profoundly changing the way enterprises in southern Jiangxi go global.

"Previously, Ganzhou had no cross-border e-commerce customs clearance channel, and I had to go to Shenzhen in Guangdong to handle exports. Now, customs clearance can be completed at the Ganzhou International Land Port at our doorstep, and the China-Europe Railway Express directly transports goods to overseas warehouses in foreign parks, helping enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency and win more customers," said the person in charge of Jiangxi Dashijie Home Furnishing Co., Ltd., describing the convenience brought to enterprises by the "dual-zone linkage" mechanism.

After a decade of dedicated cultivation, the "steel camel caravan" is no longer merely a transport route; with its stable capacity, efficient coordination, and green philosophy, it has become a widely welcomed international public good.

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Helping Build an Even Closer China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future

By: 本报记者 罗珊珊 李 琰 庞革平 祝佳祺

On September 17, the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit opened in Nanning, Guangxi. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and is also a key year for accelerating the implementation of the Protocol on Upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area to Version 3.0 after its signing. Against this backdrop, this year's Expo, centered on the theme of "Sharing 3.0 Opportunities, Creating a Better Life Together," leverages its platform role through new explorations, helping to build an even closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

New Products on Display, Artificial Intelligence Takes Center Stage

At this year's Expo, artificial intelligence is deserving of the title (当之无愧, dang zhi wu kui - "be, that, no, doubt") of the protagonist. The AI exhibition area adopts a "dual-venue, differentiated" approach, with the main venue at the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center, focusing on displays of hardcore technology applications such as large models and AI chips; the sub-venue is set up in the NanA Community, presenting a realistic display of various typical application scenarios for ASEAN countries.

What can embodied intelligence do now? Dancing and making tea are no longer enough. In industrial fine-operation scenarios, the robots brought by Zhiyuan Innovation (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. possess application capabilities such as loading and unloading, inspection, and cleaning. "This year we have brought our full product line of robots, covering multiple scenarios including cultural tourism guidance, commercial services, industrial loading and unloading, and security inspection." The company's relevant person in charge introduced that the company has currently established teams in ASEAN countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, hoping to expand potential partners through the Expo.

The Wuxiang Yungu Token Factory built by Runjian Co., Ltd. packages computing power into quantifiable, tradable, and settleable services, allowing enterprise users to use computing power like water or electricity — pay for what you use, settle as you go — with an hourly throughput of approximately 200 billion tokens, attracting many ASEAN business visitors. To date, Runjian Co., Ltd. has undertaken more than 500 localized projects in ASEAN countries cumulatively and delivered approximately 80 computing power center and data center projects.

"Artificial intelligence can help Indonesian exporters and MSMEs obtain market information more quickly and efficiently, understand the regulations and product requirements needed to enter the Chinese market, and adjust products to suit target market requirements." Deddy Muhammad, Director of the Industrial Products Export Directorate of Indonesia's Ministry of Trade, stated that in the era of artificial intelligence, Chinese technology can help Indonesia improve its local AI systems and enhance trade efficiency between ASEAN and China.

Currently, global AI technology innovation has entered an unprecedented period of activity, presenting both enormous opportunities and governance challenges. At the 2026 China-ASEAN AI Ministerial Roundtable, representatives from the AI competent authorities of China and ASEAN countries conducted in-depth exchanges on topics such as building a cross-border AI ethics and security governance system and consolidating security barriers in the digital domain, promoting the formation of regional governance consensus, cooperation mechanisms, and practical outcomes.

Low Yen Ling, Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth of Singapore, stated that AI governance requires strengthened exchanges and experience-sharing among regulatory agencies. Singapore and China have established a digital policy dialogue mechanism, and she hopes to strengthen cooperation with all parties in the AI field, turning technological potential into momentum for economic development.

Institutional Innovation, Demand-Driven Cooperation

The first-ever ASEAN Country Demand Exhibition, the first China-ASEAN AI Supply-Demand Matching Meeting, and the first "Export to China" Thailand special event... In the Expo's organizing approach, enterprises have always been the main body. In the past, the Expo mainly showcased "what we can do," which is supply-side thinking; this year it places greater emphasis on "what ASEAN needs," starting from demand to promote practical cooperation between Chinese and ASEAN business communities.

"Targeted invitations are extended to importers, wholesalers, and brand owners who hold procurement budgets and decision-making power, focusing on tracks such as industrial parks, artificial intelligence, and the green economy, achieving a two-way journey of going global and importing." Liu Wentian, President of the Singapore China South China General Chamber of Commerce, was deeply impressed by the precise matching model of the ASEAN Country Demand Exhibition. In his view, the upfront demand screening shifts business negotiations from "casting a wide net" to precise matching, effectively converting on-site negotiation results into momentum for ASEAN-China economic and trade cooperation.

At this year's Expo, Timor-Leste appeared for the first time as an official ASEAN member state and co-host. This is the first time the 11 countries have gathered together in Nanning since ASEAN's expansion. Sidonio, Vice President of the Timor-Leste Chamber of Commerce and Industry, regards the Expo as an important platform for promoting his country's products and enterprises. "We are promoting development through sustainable agriculture, fisheries, ecotourism, and the 'blue economy,' and we are prepared for close cooperation with all parties." He stated, "We look forward to further strengthening two-way economic and trade exchanges with China, and hope to see more and more young Chinese people enjoying Timorese coffee in the future, and more and more young Timorese people drinking tea from China."

At the booth of Timor AR Coffee International Development Co., Ltd., many visitors tasted coffee and inquired about products. Chen Lisong, a director of the company, introduced that coffee exports account for approximately 90 percent of Timor-Leste's total national agricultural product exports. This is the company's first time participating in the Expo. In the future, it hopes to rely on the newly opened Pinglu Canal to reduce shipping costs and transport cycles, using Guangxi as a distribution node for Timorese coffee and gradually radiating to China's inland market.

Renewed Opportunities, Promoting Practical Business Cooperation

Serving the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 is one of the key topics of this year's Expo. At the exhibition, people from various sectors in China and ASEAN conducted in-depth exchanges on promoting practical cooperation among business communities.

"The deepening construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 has created favorable conditions for all parties to expand cooperation in areas such as the digital economy, green and low-carbon development, and supply chain connectivity. The business community is both a beneficiary of the free trade rules and a builder of institutional innovation and the integration process." Lin Honghong, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, stated that the CCPIT is willing to work together with ASEAN business institutions to truly translate the rule dividends into tangible cooperation results.

Zhang Lizhong, Secretary-General of the ASEAN-China Centre, believes that China and ASEAN have been each other's largest trading partners for many consecutive years, and both sides are accelerating the implementation of trade and investment facilitation mechanisms such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0. These efforts promote close ties in regional industrial and supply chains while enhancing the momentum and resilience of coordinated development between the two sides.

"The ASEAN-China Free Trade Area Version 3.0 extends cooperation to new areas such as the digital economy, green economy, and supply chain connectivity, bringing new development opportunities to regional enterprises." Li Kuntai, President of the Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, stated that Cambodia is actively promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, and welcomes Chinese enterprises to expand investment and cooperation in areas such as digital infrastructure, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, modern agriculture, and logistics parks.

"The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 incorporates the green economy into the institutional framework for the first time, opening up greater space for cross-border cooperation in areas such as clean energy, low-carbon technology, and environmental protection industries." The relevant person in charge of China Energy Engineering Group Gezhouba Corporation stated that the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation 2026-2030 proposes that renewable energy will account for 45 percent of ASEAN's total installed power capacity by 2030. Gezhouba Group will fully leverage its technical advantages in hydropower, wind power, photovoltaic, energy storage, and source-grid-load-storage integration, and actively participate in the construction of clean energy systems in ASEAN countries.

Liu Hanyan, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries, stated that after the Pinglu Canal officially opens to navigation, water transport from Bangkok to Nanning will become more convenient. In the future, the Pinglu Canal can bring more convenience and create more benefits for China-ASEAN trade.

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The SCO Continuously Radiates New Vitality and Dynamism (International Forum)

By: 谢里克·科尔茹姆巴耶夫

The SCO is continuously radiating new vitality and dynamism, and will make new contributions to promoting regional peace, stability, prosperity and development, as well as to reforming and improving global governance.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Over the past 25 years, the SCO has grown step by step into a new type of regional cooperation organization with the largest territory, the largest population, and enormous development potential in the world. Its member states differ in political systems, development paths, and cultural traditions, yet they have always been able to build consensus amid differences and enhance mutual trust through cooperation, demonstrating robust vitality and strong appeal.

At this year's SCO Bishkek Summit, President Xi Jinping summarized the 25-year development journey of the SCO with "the most significant development achievements," "the most precious spiritual asset," and "the most important experience of cooperation." These three "mosts" profoundly reveal the internal logic of the SCO's successful development from three dimensions: development achievements, values and principles, and practical pathways. In particular, the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for the diversity of civilizations, and pursuit of common development has always been an important guideline for the SCO's continuous growth. The correct way of coexistence featuring non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of any third party has also enabled the SCO to blaze a new path of regional cooperation distinct from traditional alliance-based confrontation, increasingly making it an important force leading the direction of global governance reform.

The key to promoting higher-quality development of the SCO lies in continuously translating political consensus into tangible outcomes of practical cooperation. President Xi Jinping proposed adhering to a development-first approach, prioritizing security, putting people first, and upholding dialogue and consultation, which has clarified the priority directions for the SCO's development and cooperation in the next stage. Development and security are complementing each other or working in tandem (相辅相成, xiang fu xiang cheng - "mutually, complement, mutually, complete"). Without a stable and secure environment, sustained economic development is difficult to achieve; without industry, employment, infrastructure, and development opportunities, long-term security also lacks a solid foundation. At present, the SCO's cooperation areas have expanded from traditional fields such as economic and trade investment and connectivity to emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, the digital economy, and clean energy, with regional cooperation continuously deepening, solidifying, upgrading, and improving in quality.

For Kazakhstan, the development-oriented approach of practical cooperation has important practical significance. Kazakhstan is located in the heart of the Eurasian continent and is one of the founding member states of the SCO. In recent years, Kazakhstan and China have actively advanced the construction of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor and port infrastructure, making cargo transportation between the two countries more convenient and further driving the development of industries such as warehousing, logistics, processing and manufacturing, and e-commerce, creating new employment and investment opportunities. Political mutual trust creates conditions for investment cooperation, security safeguards help maintain the stability of transport corridors, and infrastructure development promotes trade exchanges—all of which ultimately translate into tangible outcomes that improve people's livelihoods and well-being.

What is encouraging is that the SCO's practical cooperation is gaining support from more mechanisms and projects. At the SCO Bishkek Summit, the Chinese side announced the establishment of the China-SCO Port Economic Cooperation Center and the Basic Education Cooperation Center, and will jointly implement 100 science and technology cooperation projects with SCO member states over the next three years. These measures cover areas such as trade facilitation, educational cooperation, talent cultivation, and scientific and technological innovation, providing new platforms for member states to deepen practical cooperation. In the SCO's practical cooperation, cooperation in scientific and technological innovation deserves particular attention. At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is advancing in depth, and the potential for cooperation in fields such as artificial intelligence, industrial digitalization, green energy, and modern agriculture is continuously emerging. SCO member states have distinct resource endowments and development needs, with strong complementarity. China has accumulated rich experience in digitalization, artificial intelligence, cross-border e-commerce, modern logistics, and industrial upgrading. Through the SCO mechanism, sharing this experience with other member states will further unleash regional development potential and inject new momentum into the SCO's high-quality development.

After 25 years of development, the SCO's influence has extended from regional cooperation to the field of global governance. At this year's "SCO Plus" meeting, President Xi Jinping elaborated in depth on the core essence of an equal and orderly multipolar world from four dimensions—fundamental principles, inevitable requirements, key pathways, and development direction—and called on the SCO to drive the prosperity and common development of the Eurasian continent with "SCO strength," promote the growth and strengthening of the Global South with "SCO wisdom," and lead the reform and improvement of global governance with "SCO action," contributing the SCO's shaping force to the advancement of world multipolarization and further expanding the space for the SCO to play a role in international affairs.

Standing at the new starting point of the 25th anniversary of its founding, the SCO will continue to hold high the banner of the Shanghai Spirit, further deepen cooperation in the political, security, economic and trade, scientific and technological, and people-to-people and cultural fields, translate more consensus on cooperation into tangible outcomes of practical cooperation, and benefit more people. The SCO, continuously radiating new vitality and dynamism, will make new contributions to promoting regional peace, stability, prosperity and development, as well as to reforming and improving global governance.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Kazakhstan's Delovoy Kazakhstan newspaper)

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“Raise a Stronger Voice of the Global South”

By: 本报记者 郑 翔

"President Xi Jinping emphasized that BRICS countries should be pioneers in promoting mutual learning among civilizations. The BRICS TV Africa Channel is willing to continuously transform the vision of people-to-people and cultural exchanges into concrete practice, contributing to mutual understanding and friendship among the people of BRICS countries." Ayanda Holo, head of the BRICS TV Africa Channel, recently said in an interview with a People's Daily reporter.

"Since its establishment, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has always upheld the spirit of openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation, and has become the most influential cooperation platform for emerging markets and developing countries in today's world." Holo said that China is promoting the development of BRICS practical cooperation toward a higher quality direction, continuously enhancing the resilience and vitality of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. "China is a participant, builder, and promoter of BRICS cooperation. It continues to deepen its efforts in areas such as infrastructure, economic and trade investment, and the digital economy, while also expanding in areas such as capacity building and people-to-people and cultural exchanges, injecting strong confidence and momentum into the common development of BRICS countries."

Holo believes that BRICS countries should proactively avoid falling behind in the new round of technological revolution, actively strengthen cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence, and promote technological openness and the sharing of achievements. "China has joined hands with all parties to promote the establishment of the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, and is building an international AI application cooperation center oriented toward BRICS countries and others, providing an important platform for the Global South to deepen AI cooperation." Holo stated, "China's proposed BRICS AI-empowered New Industrialization initiative deserves attention. It is hoped that countries, through cooperation in research and development and application, can truly benefit development and people's livelihoods with the achievements."

"The BRICS cooperation mechanism conforms to the trend of the times of the rise of the Global South and has brought tangible and substantive development opportunities. It is precisely for this reason that more and more countries hope to become members of BRICS." Holo stated, "BRICS countries should promote the building of a more just and equitable global governance system, jointly safeguard an open, fair, and non-discriminatory trade environment, and promote an international order that better reflects the aspirations of the Global South."

In recent years, BRICS countries have fully utilized mechanisms such as the BRICS Seminar on Governance, the BRICS Forum on People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges, and the Women's Innovation Competition to deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges. Holo believes that people-to-people and cultural exchanges are an important component of BRICS practical cooperation, gathering positive energy for the stable development of inter-state relations, and can enable the people of BRICS countries to understand each other's true stories. "China has proposed the establishment of a BRICS Engineers Training Alliance, carrying out joint training of engineers and mutual recognition of competency standards, and will also implement a BRICS Youth Science, Technology, and Innovation Exchange Program, which will further increase the endogenous driving force for the development of BRICS countries."

BRICS TV was established in 2017 and is committed to disseminating information on the humanities, economy, and other fields of BRICS member and partner countries. "We are willing to continue strengthening sincere cooperation with Chinese media to promote the integration of different societies and cultures, bringing the hearts of the people of our two countries closer together." Holo said, "We plan to set up a studio in Beijing and dispatch African journalists to be stationed in China. We also plan to co-produce programs with the Chinese side to jointly tell the stories of each other's development. People-to-people and cultural exchanges that take a long-term perspective and take root among the people will continuously enhance the internal cohesion of BRICS countries and send out a stronger voice of the Global South."

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Feeling China's Tides Along the Yangtze

By: 本报记者 姜 峰

Literary people and ink guests, upon reaching the Three Gorges, are sure to compose poetry. Recently, the 2026 World Great Rivers Poetry Festival was held in Chongqing. Mooring overnight outside Baidi City at the mouth of Qutang Gorge, Chinese and foreign guests sailed the Yangtze River by boat, staging a "poetry competition" in Fengjie County, Chongqing, the "Chinese Poetry City."

"In my homeland spring has just begun, while here autumn has already arrived." Mark Tredinnick, the renowned Australian poet and winner of both the Montreal International Poetry Prize and the Cardiff International Poetry Prize, won rounds of applause with his apt opening lines. He said he deliberately modeled this poem on the works of Du Fu, titling it River Autumn, as a tribute to the ancient sage — "Along the riverbank, red lychee fruits" / "Among the reeds, brown pheasants appear" / "Nearby a long bridge spans the dawn, distant mountains exhale a fine drizzle"... Tredinnick's poem is filled with the ecological splendor of the Yangtze, its livable and beautiful environment, capturing in full the vivid observations and genuine feelings of this journey.

The 2026 World Great Rivers Poetry Festival was hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and the Chinese Ethnic Minority Writers Association, under the theme "The Yangtze's Invitation & Civilization Dialogue." Poet representatives from nearly 20 countries across the basins of the world's major rivers — the Nile, the Mississippi, the Thames, the Danube, the Amazon, and others — traveled with Chinese writers and poets of various ethnicities through central Chongqing and along the Three Gorges Reservoir area, experiencing the surging pulse along China's Yangtze. This year's festival built a platform for exchange and mutual learning between Yangtze civilization and the literature of the world's great rivers, promoting poets and writers of different mother tongues to read, translate, and critique one another's works on the same stage, deepening understanding through exchange and consolidating consensus through mutual learning.

After touring Chongqing's use of bridges and tunnels to link its modern metropolis between mountains and river, and enjoying a nighttime drone light show over the water at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze rivers, Rodrigo Escobar Vanegas, a bilingual poet and visual artist from Colombia, was filled with wonder: "China's level of development is admirable. Life here is very comfortable and very safe. I hope to bring China's advanced practices back to my homeland, so that more people can come to exchange and learn."

Sailing downstream to Zhong County in Chongqing, the guests climbed Shibaozhai — the largest and tallest existing chuan-dou (column-and-tie) timber structure in China — in a fine drizzle. "I have been fascinated by China's Yangtze since childhood. Now my dream has come true, and experiencing it in person is truly wonderful," said Anna Ganin, a Russian lyric poet and recipient of the Pushkin Medal. Because of the impoundment of the Three Gorges Project, a giant cofferdam encircles Shibaozhai, creating the marvel of a "bonsai in the river" surrounded by water on all sides. This ingenious approach to heritage protection and living transmission drew Anna's admiration: "There is incomparably profound history here, and it has given me abundant inspiration."

In addition to visiting cultural landmarks such as Longmenhao, Zhang Fei Temple, and Panshi City, the guests also went to Wanzhou District in Chongqing, where they admired the vast expanse of water where "a high gorge emerges as a level lake." Sailing all the way through the Three Gorges Reservoir area, they saw no "scars" of the water-level fluctuation zone on either bank; through systematic ecological governance, everything in sight was green mountains and clear waters. "The Yangtze is extremely beautiful, and experiencing it firsthand (身临其境, shen lin qi jing - "body, arrive, that, scene") is even more awe-inspiring," said Gregory Pardlo, the renowned American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry.

At the end of the itinerary, the guests ascended to the Summit of the Three Gorges at an elevation of 1,388 meters, where they saw rolling seas of clouds and magnificent mountains and rivers. Moved by the scenery, with Chinese poets taking the lead, everyone recited — some fluently from memory, some haltingly imitating — the famous lines "the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains," and laughter carried over the hills.

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Spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce Answers Reporter Questions on China-U.S. Economic and Trade Consultations

(Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 19) (Reporter Xie Xiyao) In response to questions from reporters on China-U.S. economic and trade consultations on the 19th, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce stated that, as agreed by both China and the United States, He Lifeng, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, will lead a delegation to the United States from September 19 to 23 to hold economic and trade consultations with the U.S. side. The two sides will be guided by the important consensus of the two heads of state and will conduct consultations on economic and trade issues of mutual concern.

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“China Inbound Tourism” Gains Favor Among Arab Countries

By: 本报记者 焦 翔 王旭琛

"Our family of eight—can we book a separate group tour to Chongqing?" Muhammad, from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, asked with full of enthusiasm (兴致盎然, xing zhi ang ran - "interest, high, abundant, full") as he chatted with a tourism promotion officer from Chongqing, China. Muhammad has previously traveled to cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and his trips to China left him with a wonderful impression. "I want to go to China again."

From September 14 to 17, the 2026 Arabian Travel Market was held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, and the Chinese pavilion, participating for the third consecutive year, became the focus of the entire event. Themed "Nihao! China," the Chinese pavilion was one of the largest exhibition areas among all Asian countries. The pavilion's design used an elegant teal-green as the primary visual tone, with an overall classical landscape aesthetic that organically blended Eastern aesthetics with modern exhibition technology, attracting numerous local and international visitors and demonstrating the appeal of "inbound travel to China."

Shahbaz, a businessman from Pakistan, told reporters that his company maintains close trade ties with China, but every business trip to China has been for meetings and negotiations. This exhibition opened a window for him to gain an in-depth understanding of China and Chinese culture.

The latest data from China's National Immigration Administration shows that in the first half of this year, the number of foreigners entering China increased by 20.4 percent year on year, and exports of travel services grew by 31.1 percent, leading the top five service export sectors. Liu Yang, director of the China Cultural Center in the UAE, said that the center has participated in the exhibition for three consecutive years and has organized more than 60 Chinese tourism-related enterprises to engage in matchmaking and discussions with regional companies, promoting China's tourism resources, new inbound tourism products, and tourism facilitation policies. According to statistics, in the full year of 2025, citizens of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries made more than 150,000 entries into China, an increase of 100.78 percent over 2024, with entries by Saudi and UAE nationals growing by 110 percent and 113 percent, respectively.

Shahab Shayan, Director of the Asia-Pacific region in the International Operations Division of Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism's Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing, had just visited cities such as Shanghai, Changsha, and Shenzhen not long ago. His trip to China allowed him to fully experience the development of China's tourism market while gaining a deeper understanding of how Chinese consumers, enterprises, and relevant institutions view Dubai. He said that since 2016, Dubai has been steadily advancing its "Welcome China" strategy, offering tourism products and services better suited to the needs of Chinese tourists through visa-free policies, localized services, and customized market strategies. At present, Dubai is further strengthening cooperation with leading Chinese companies in the tourism and internet sectors, maintaining communication with Chinese platform enterprises, and exploring the possibility of promoting more China-UAE cooperation in the tourism industry ecosystem.

"China has both pioneering artificial intelligence cities like Shenzhen and cultural ancient capitals and leisure destinations like Xi'an and Chengdu. China is rich in tourism resources, and its inbound travel facilitation services continue to improve. Arab people are welcome to come and experience it for themselves," said Ou Boqian, Chinese Consul General in Dubai.

(People's Daily, Dubai, September 19)

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China's Permanent Mission to the UN Office at Geneva Hosts Exhibition Themed "Accessibility for All"

(People's Daily, Geneva, September 19) (Reporter Liu He) During the 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and the United Nations Office at Geneva jointly held an exhibition themed "Accessibility for All" at the Palais des Nations.

Jia Guide, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland, stated that strengthening the construction of barrier-free environments is an important manifestation of the protection of human rights. China practices the Global Governance Initiative and actively promotes the concept of "Accessibility for All" on United Nations platforms. On the occasion of the third anniversary of the implementation of the Law on the Construction of Barrier-Free Environments, China will again take the lead in submitting a resolution on accessibility at this session of the Council, providing new ideas and injecting new momentum into accessibility construction. Holding this exhibition is an important measure to implement the relevant resolution and also a good platform for sharing experience in accessibility construction. China is willing to take the first anniversary of the proposal of the Global Governance Initiative as an opportunity to work with the international community to promote the improvement of global human rights governance and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind.

The Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and other units brought more than 100 exhibits to the exhibition, comprehensively showcasing the vivid practice of "Accessibility for All" from the perspectives of science and technology, culture, employment, and the rule of law. The guests at the scene gave the exhibition an enthusiastic response (反响热烈, fan xiang re lie - "reaction, response, hot, intense").

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“Parks + Technology” Makes Green Spaces at Your Doorstep More Thoughtful (Striving Toward the 15th Five-Year Plan: Reports from the Frontline)

By: 本报记者 窦瀚洋

Improve urban parks, greenway networks, and slow-traffic transportation systems.

— Excerpted from the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan

Jiang Yunjuan lives in Jiangcun Subdistrict, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Right below her building is Shizigang Park, a place surrounded by waterways and lush vegetation, ideal for enjoying the cool air and taking a stroll.

After dinner, many residents bring their children to play in Shizigang Park, where there are almost no mosquitoes. Jiang Yunjuan said: "There are far fewer mosquitoes now. I come to the park every day. Today I sat in the park for half an hour without being bitten once."

Shizigang Park has flowers, trees, and water, and is also a child-friendly park, yet it once made some residents shrink back in fear or hesitation (望而却步, wang er que bu - "look, and, retreat, steps") because of the mosquito problem. "To get the public to come more often and stay longer, we need to work hard on the details of service," said Fu Shinan, a member of the Party Working Committee of Jiangcun Subdistrict.

At the end of 2024, Jiangcun Subdistrict launched a whole-area future community construction project, which focused on functional enhancement, facility renewal, and spatial weaving of Shizigang Park for an overall renovation and upgrade. In the second half of last year, the subdistrict actively explored a "park + technology" model and introduced a new type of mosquito trap.

The head of the equipment provider explained that the mosquito trap combines simulated human body temperature, carbon dioxide release, mosquito-preferred spectral values, and attractant liquid to lure mosquitoes, then captures them with a fan that runs continuously for 24 hours. At present, Jiangcun Subdistrict has introduced a total of 55 mosquito traps, which are deployed not only in Shizigang Park but also in Xixi Wetland.

After more than a year of operation, what are the actual results? Fu Shinan produced a set of data: since the start of summer this year, each machine has captured about 10,000 mosquitoes per day. "The effect is especially notable along the riverbank. Many people are now willing to play in the water and enjoy the cool air on the waterfront platforms."

The changes do not stop there. During the renovation and upgrade, the park added a reading base covering about 200 square meters, and this summer its popularity has surged. Jiang Xinmei, head of the base, said: "The average daily number of visitors has increased by 30 percent compared with the same period last year. Our activities such as traditional Chinese culture classes and parent-child reading are very popular."

Looking across Hangzhou, the "park +" model is further improving park functions and activating the vitality of urban spaces. For example, the Grand Canal Hanggang Park in Gongshu District is exploring "park + industrial heritage," building a public cultural venue that integrates performances, cultural and creative incubation, and more; the Li Ning Sports Park in Shangcheng District is exploring "park + sports," basing itself on the public-welfare operation of sports facilities and integrating sports training and event operations into the daily lives of surrounding residents...

Since 2022, Hangzhou has built or renovated 212 urban parks, producing a batch of urban park construction achievements with composite functions, friendliness to all age groups, and prominent ecological effects. "Striving for the 15th Five-Year Plan, we will take 'urban renewal + parks' as the main thread, and through park design guidance services, 'one park, one strategy' planning, and other means, help comprehensively improve the quality of urban public spaces in the context of urban renewal," said a relevant official from the Landscaping Division of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Gardens and Cultural Relics.

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Aim at People’s Needs, Do a Good Job of “Park +” (Editor’s Notes)

By: 张雪妍

In recent years, localities have actively explored the "park +" model, integrating functions such as sports, culture, and technology into urban green spaces, enriching the connotation of urban public spaces. However, in some places, persistently and blindly seeking (一味追求, yi wei zhui qiu - "one, way, pursue, seek") landscape effects, copying internet-famous templates, simply stacking various facilities, and neglecting the site's natural endowments and residents' real needs, has turned "park +" into a formalistic addition.

At Hangzhou's Shizigang Park in Zhejiang, the introduction of a small mosquito trap precisely resolved the mosquito problem that had long troubled residents, becoming a vivid footnote to "park + technology."

The essence of "park +" is not the piling up of functional facilities, but the organic integration of spatial value. By targeting the needs of the masses and precisely matching functional formats, urban parks can truly integrate into citizens' lives and continuously release public-welfare value.

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A Bowl of Tuotuo Dumplings Evokes Deep Affection Between Army and People

By: 本报记者 杨 迅

At 5:30 in the morning, in Changzheng Village, Liujiaping Bai Ethnic Township, Sangzhi County, Hunan, the faint glimmer of dawn (晨光熹微, chen guang xi wei - "morning light, faintly bright") was just breaking, and the "Authentic Liujiaping Old Dumpling" shop on the street had already lit up. The shop owner, Liu Juan, tied on her apron and deftly kneaded dough and chopped filling, pinching and shaping them into the locally famous tuotuo dumplings.

Sangzhi is the hometown of Marshal He Long and the departure point of the Long March of the Second Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. In November 1935, He Long, Ren Bishi, and other revolutionaries of the older generation led their troops, setting out in full formation from Liujiaping, where today's Changzheng Village is located, to embark on a magnificent journey.

"According to the older generation, on the night before their departure, the villagers stayed up all night making dumplings to see off the Red Army. At that time, the military situation was urgent, and everyone had no time to shape them finely, so they simply gathered the filling into rough lumps and pinched them into ball shapes — that is how tuotuo dumplings were born," Liu Juan said. The villagers told the soldiers that after eating this bowl of hot dumplings, they could set out with peace of mind and fight the enemy bravely. These dumplings, imbued with the deep bond between the army and the people, are also affectionately called "reassurance pills" by the local villagers.

Growing up listening to the stories of the Long March, Liu Juan began learning to make tuotuo dumplings from her father at the age of six or seven, and took over the family dumpling shop in 2008. At that time, the shop was still just three tiled bungalows, and business was not particularly brisk.

The change began when Changzheng Village developed red culture tourism. Less than one kilometer from the dumpling shop, the monument to the departure point of the Long March of the Second Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army stands tall. In 2018, the Memorial Hall of the Departure Point of the Long March of the Second Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army opened, systematically displaying the glorious achievements of the Second Front Army, and more and more tourists came from elsewhere. Over the years, Liu Juan's dumpling shop has undergone two renovations, its area has expanded two to three times, four or five villagers have been hired to help, and during holidays it is often hard to find a seat.

Liu Juan is both a guardian of the tuotuo dumpling craft and a narrator of the Long March stories: "When the Red Army set out back then, the dumpling filling was mainly wild vegetables from the fields and radishes from the plots; now life is better, and the fresh meat filling is plump and savory, but the technique of making the dumplings and the original aspiration passed down have never changed..."

The red stories have brought popularity to the dumpling shop and also made Liu Juan a locally well-known red docent. Whenever the township holds cultural tourism events, she signs up as a volunteer, and she has also joined a folk arts troupe and become a short-video blogger, incorporating Sangzhi folk songs and Bai ethnic zhanggu dance into her videos, hoping that more people will learn about Changzheng Village.

In recent years, Changzheng Village has continued to polish its red brand, hosting events such as the Sangzhi Rural Cultural Tourism Festival. 2025 marks the 90th anniversary of the departure of the Second Front Army's Long March, and on November 16 of that year, the "Liujiaping Torch Night" event was held, attracting many tourists. "During the event, the number of visitors exceeded 80,000, driving consumption of 2.15 million yuan," said Zhang Yi, Party secretary of Liujiaping Bai Ethnic Township.

Red tourism has given the countryside jobs and a stage. Liu Juan has noticed that many of the dumpling shop's regular customers are young people who have returned to develop their hometown — some work as docents at the memorial hall, some run distinctive homestays, and others shoot short videos about red culture tourism. "Many fellow villagers, like me, have come to make a living from cultural tourism," Liu Juan said with emotion.

Speaking of the future, Liu Juan plans to continue running the dumpling shop well. A steaming bowl of tuotuo dumplings preserves an unchanging sincerity and also links the years of the Long March with the everyday life of the new era.

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2026 Tribute to Doctors Ceremony Held in Beijing

(People's Daily, Beijing, September 19) (Niu Yulei, Zhang Bingyu) On the afternoon of the 19th, the 2026 Tribute to Doctors Ceremony, co-hosted by Global Times, Health Times, and Life Times, was held at the People's Daily building. The Tribute to Doctors selection project aims to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instruction on "fostering a favorable atmosphere across society of respecting doctors and valuing healthcare," to tell well the touching stories of Chinese doctors' benevolence and skilled healing, to carry forward the lofty professional spirit of "reverence for life, rescuing the dying and helping the wounded (救死扶伤, jiu si fu shang - "save, dying, assist, wounded"), willingness to dedicate, and limitless and boundless love (大爱无疆, da ai wu jiang - "great, love, no, boundary")," and to foster across society a favorable atmosphere of understanding doctors, trusting doctors, and respecting doctors. Wang Chen, Vice Chairman of the 12th and 13th NPC Standing Committee, attended and delivered a speech.

The Tribute to Doctors selection comprises two lists, "Glorious Doctors" and "National Famous Doctors," which select and commend exemplary doctors nationwide with exquisite and profound medical skills (医术精湛, yi shu jing zhan - "medical, skill, exquisite, profound"), noble medical ethics (医德高尚, yi de gao shang - "medical, ethics, lofty, noble"), and outstanding medical conduct. A total of 105 doctors and teams were selected for the "Glorious Doctors" list, receiving awards including the "Golden Scalpel Award," the "Chinese Medicine Contribution Award," and the "Gold Team Award." Song Xuewen, chief physician of the Department of Neurology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University; Dong Zhenxiang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Hepatology at Beijing You'an Hospital, Capital Medical University; Zhu Xueguang, chief physician of the Department of General Surgery at Peking University People's Hospital; Wu Husheng, chief physician of the Department of Neurology at Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University; Cai Lianxiang, chief physician of the Department of Gynecology at Xiyuan Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences; Liao Wanqing, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief physician of the Department of Dermatology at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Shanghai Changzheng Hospital); and Zhu Xuejun, chief physician of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology at Peking University First Hospital, received the "Honor of Life" award.

A total of 103 doctors were selected for the "National Famous Doctors" list, receiving awards including "Outstanding Achievement," "Excellent Demeanor," and "Young Rising Star." Cao Zeyi, former executive vice president of the Chinese Medical Association and chief physician of gynecology; Wu Tianyi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, recipient of the "July 1 Medal," and senior researcher in high-altitude medicine at Qinghai Provincial Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease Hospital; Lin Lan, chief physician of the Department of Endocrinology at Guang'anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences; Sun Yougang, chief physician of the Department of Ultrasound at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University; Zhou De'an, chief physician of the Department of Acupuncture at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University; Wang Yehan, chief physician of the Department of Neurosurgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China (Anhui Provincial Hospital); Shao Yongfu, chief physician of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery at Hainan Cancer Hospital; and Chen Shaohong, national master of Chinese medicine and chief physician of the Department of Emergency at the Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, received the "Special Tribute" award.

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Flag-Raising Team Representatives from Hong Kong and Macao Schools Head to Beijing for "Salute to the National Flag" Themed Activity

(People's Daily, Hong Kong, Macao, September 19) (Reporters Feng Xuezhi, Fu Zimei) On the 18th, representatives of flag-raising teams from 121 primary and secondary schools and 21 universities in Hong Kong and Macao, about 1,000 people in total, departed from Hong Kong and Macao respectively for Beijing to participate in the "Salute to the National Flag" themed activity.

That morning, several hundred Hong Kong students gathered at Hong Kong West Kowloon Station to attend the departure ceremony. Choi Yuk-lin, Director of the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, delivered a speech at the ceremony, stating that the themed activity fully demonstrates the central government's high regard for the growth of young people in Hong Kong and Macao, and is of special significance. She hoped that the students would cherish this rare opportunity, observe and record with care, and through the national flag, come to understand history and responsibility, deepening their knowledge of and identification with the country.

A representative of Yan Oi Tong Chan Wong Suk Fong Memorial Secondary School in Hong Kong expressed the hope that through this visit to Beijing, the students would gain an in-depth understanding of the country's history and development, broaden their horizons through exchange, and striving forward with determination (砥砺前行, di li qian xing - "grind, sharpen; move forward"), deepening their identification with the country. Chan Chun-ping, Chairman of the Hong Kong Youth Military Corps, said that the young people from Hong Kong and Macao going to Beijing would watch the flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square and feel the solemnity of the national flag, which would help strengthen the young people's feelings of attachment to the family and the country.

On the morning of the same day, young people from Macao participating in the activity departed from Macao International Airport. "Participating in the 'Salute to the National Flag' themed activity is of great significance. I hope the students will cherish this valuable opportunity, participate in all activities with a serious and rigorous attitude, and become practitioners of the spirit of patriotism," said Kong Chi Meng, Director of the Education and Youth Development Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government. Ao Kai Chon, Principal of Escola Secundária Keang Peng in Macao, expressed the hope that the students would make full use of this opportunity for on-site visits and study to learn about the origin of the national flag and the history of the country.

The themed activity was organized by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, with the aim of promoting the in-depth development of patriotic education among young people in Hong Kong and Macao. The delegation is led by Chan Kwok-ki, Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, and Ao Lan, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macao Special Administrative Region Government.

During their stay in Beijing, the delegation members will attend the national flag-raising ceremony at Tiananmen Square, visit the Great Hall of the People, the Palace Museum, and the National Museum of China, visit and study at the station of the Guard of Honor of the People's Liberation Army, visit primary and secondary schools and universities in Beijing, and make special study visits to cultural and science and technology venues, enterprises, and rural communities.

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Nanjing builds a first-class business environment with high standards (a solid start for the 15th Five-Year Plan)

By: 本报记者 邓建胜 申 琳 姚雪青

On September 16, the "China Energy Storage Guoneng Hundred-Megawatt Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage System Equipment Manufacturing Base" project, located in the Jiangning Development Zone of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, has entered its final sprint phase. When the project landed, after signing the land transfer contract, it took only five working days to complete all "five certificates" in one go. "Start construction upon land acquisition" has boosted the project's "accelerated run." In Nanjing, "issuing all five certificates simultaneously" has gradually become the standard for "efficiently handling one matter" and building a first-class business environment.

In July 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during an inspection tour in Jiangsu: "Jiangsu possesses advantages including a solid industrial foundation, abundant scientific and educational resources, a favorable business environment, and a huge market scale, and it has both the capability and the responsibility to take the lead and set an example in advancing Chinese modernization." At the 2025 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference sessions, when General Secretary Xi Jinping participated in the deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation, he emphasized: "Treat all forms of enterprises with ownership treating all people or things equally (一视同仁, yi shi tong ren - "one, look, same, treat"), and continuously optimize the business environment."

To thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions, Nanjing has written "building a first-class business environment to a higher standard" into the city's outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan, comprehensively constructing a policy environment with better overall strength, a fair and orderly market environment, an efficient and convenient government affairs environment, a just and transparent rule-of-law environment, and a people-oriented environment that is friendly to business and reassuring to merchants.

From "opportunity supply" to "capability supply" —

Recently, Nanjing released its first batch of government affairs AI (artificial intelligence) demand scenarios, open for enterprise application. Nanjing has innovatively built a unified government affairs large-model platform and a government affairs intelligent agent experimental workshop, establishing a closed-loop mechanism of "departments posing questions — enterprises verifying — government paying," where settled enterprises can obtain supporting resources such as computing power, models, and data for free.

"The ultimate goal of building a first-class business environment is to help enterprises grow." Zhao Chengjun, director of the Nanjing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said that Nanjing is actively exploring the transformation of services to enterprises from "opportunity supply" to "capability supply," helping more enterprises find suitable scenarios through multi-dimensional support in technology, talent, finance, and digitalization, turning the entire city into a "super testing ground" for innovative products.

In January this year, the "Nanjing Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Application of New Scenarios and Building a City of Open Scenarios at a High Level (2026–2028)" was issued, focusing on key industries such as artificial intelligence, smart grids, and embodied intelligence, planning to systematically advance the construction of 10 city-level and 100 industry-level comprehensive scenarios, helping enterprises become "partners in urban development."

From "government serving the dishes" to "enterprises ordering the dishes" —

Nanjing Chuangfeng Precision Sheet Metal Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Eka Intelligent Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Lishui Economic Development Zone, originally had no connection. "Service specialist" Shi Jin, while visiting Chuangfeng Precision, captured the cooperation demand and immediately activated the cross-jurisdiction service hotline, quickly contacting the enterprise service center of the development zone.

In just one week, the two sides established direct contact; within half a month, Eka Intelligent Vehicle completed an on-site inspection; three months later, the first order landed. From nothing to something, from distant to close, this "marriage" facilitated by one specialist and one hotline has made enterprises truly feel the people-oriented environment that is friendly to business and reassuring to merchants.

In recent years, Nanjing has focused on clearing the "last mile" of serving enterprises, accelerating the standardized and normalized construction of three-tier enterprise comprehensive service centers at the municipal, district, and park (sub-district) levels, providing enterprises with comprehensive services covering the full life cycle and running through the entire process, achieving "responding to every request, not disturbing when there is nothing." Dong Xiaojun, vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Industry and Commerce, introduced that Nanjing has configured "service specialists" like Shi Jin for more than 20,000 key enterprises.

Doing "subtraction" to reduce interference, doing "addition" to promote development —

Kang Xiaoqiang, chairman of Nanjing Leads Biolabs Co., Ltd., was once troubled by "surprise attack" inspections. "It's not that we don't welcome regulation, but we hope for predictability."

In response to problems reported by enterprises such as multiple-department inspections and inconsistent standards, on June 15, the "Nanjing Measures for Regulating Administrative Inspections Involving Enterprises" was officially implemented. Strictly controlling the gateway for inspection access, strictly prohibiting inspections without basis or arbitrary inspections, clearly defining the rigid red lines of "five prohibitions" and "eight must-nots," and relying on the integrated law enforcement supervision platform to achieve closed-loop management of enterprise demands. "Now with institutional safeguards, we have a clear picture of when inspections will come, who will inspect, and what will be inspected," Kang Xiaoqiang said.

While doing "subtraction" to let enterprises travel light, "efficiently handling one matter" continues to do "addition," extending from government services to the entire chain of services for enterprises.

Since Nanjing launched the "efficiently handling one matter" reform, the processing time and application materials for key matters have been reduced by an average of 66% and 70% respectively, benefiting a cumulative total of 9.06 million enterprise and public transactions. Special "one matter" scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce filing and enterprise going global have been successively implemented. Enterprise-benefiting measures such as "issuing all five certificates simultaneously" have been accelerated, and the "Ninggongpin Promotion" supply-demand matching activity for key industrial chains has helped 246 enterprises establish stable contact channels with target customers.

Optimizing the business environment stimulates economic vitality. The share of Nanjing's private economy value added in the total economic output has risen to 47.6%, becoming the main driving force for the city's economic growth.

Bearing in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest instructions, Nanjing will place serving enterprises, cultivating industries, and deeply cultivating the real economy in a more prominent position, striving to become a hot land for all kinds of enterprises to invest and develop, and a city of choice for talents from all walks of life to realize their dreams.

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Judicial Protection "Precision Irrigation" for the Soil of Innovation (Deepening the Strategy to Upgrade Pilot Free Trade Zones)

By: 本报记者 范昊天

Robotic arms swing and dance, precisely locking onto the tightening points of every vehicle.

At the Wuhan Economic Development Zone section of the Wuhan Linkage Innovation and Development Zone of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone, at the Voyah Automobile Smart Factory, on average one new car rolls off the production line every 40 seconds.

Having accumulated 6,866 patent applications, of which 5,877 are invention patents, accounting for 85.6%, "the enterprise's intellectual property 'family assets' are substantial, but there are shortcomings in intellectual property protection, and challenges remain." Liu Mingjiao, the relevant person in charge of Voyah Automobile Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that Voyah Automobile was at one point troubled by trade secret leaks, patent right infringement, and difficulties in providing evidence for rights protection.

A judicial "physical examination report" drew repeated praise from Liu Mingjiao.

This year, Voyah Automobile was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Upon learning of the enterprise's urgent needs for the protection of intellectual property such as patents and trademarks, the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Court organized a team of judges to visit the enterprise on-site, providing full-chain, targeted legal services.

"Conduct intellectual property review of promotional materials and establish a proprietary library of legitimate materials," "Strengthen the pre-collection and preservation of litigation evidence and enhance the enterprise's evidence awareness"... Analyzing the company's previous litigation cases, the judge team conducted "consultations" one by one on multiple high-frequency risk points such as contract disputes, labor disputes, and intellectual property disputes, and put forward legal suggestions from the perspectives of contract formation and internal corporate norms.

"We have provided precise 'physical examinations' for more than 20 key enterprises in the zone and two geographical indication associations, and issued 15 individualized reports and suggestions." Zheng Guangfang, chief judge of the Civil Division of the Wuhan Economic Development Zone Court, introduced that since last year, the quality and efficiency of judicial protection of intellectual property within the jurisdiction has improved significantly.

Moving the threshold forward avoids risks; handling matters quickly after the fact improves efficiency.

As the market vitality of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone continues to be released, some simple intellectual property cases have emerged where the facts are clear and evident (事实清楚, shi shi qing chu - "fact, clear") and the disputes are not significant.

Targeting the pain points of long rights-protection cycles and high costs for enterprises, the Xiangyang Intermediate People's Court took the lead in exploring a "fast handling of simple cases" mechanism for intellectual property in the Xiangyang section of the Hubei Pilot Free Trade Zone.

In July last year, a company in Chengdu, Sichuan, discovered that a video product sold in the online store of a company in Xiangyang had misappropriated segments from 8 of its original works, suspected of infringing on the company's right to disseminate works over information networks. The company subsequently filed 8 separate lawsuits, demanding that the merchant cease infringement and compensate for losses.

"In the 8 cases, the plaintiffs and defendants are the same, and the infringing acts are highly correlated." Zhou Guirong, Party Secretary and President of the Xiangyang High-tech Zone Court, said that in order to reduce the litigation burden on the parties and improve trial efficiency, the court decisively initiated a model of consolidated trial and pre-trial joint mediation.

The two sides ultimately reached a "package settlement plan," and the entire process, from case filing to completion of mediation performance, took 24 days.

It is reported that since the reform of "fast handling of simple cases" for intellectual property was implemented, approximately 85% of intellectual property cases in the two-level courts of Xiangyang have been tried under this model, with the average trial time for simple cases being less than 30 days, and approximately 65% of cases being mediated, withdrawn, and immediately performed before trial.

Reform breaks new ground, and the law provides protection. Hubei, guided by pioneering new practices and reforms (先行先试, xian xing xian shi - "first go, first try") in the pilot free trade zones, is striving to build a full-chain intellectual property protection system of "prevention beforehand, quick handling afterward." As of June 2026, Hubei had 208,600 invention patents, with 14.38 high-value invention patents per 10,000 people.

"Hubei will comprehensively implement the construction project of the intellectual property protection system, continuously strengthen full-chain intellectual property protection, and help accelerate the transformation of the 'experimental field' into a 'high-yield field'." Chen Yi, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Intellectual Property Administration, said.

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Unleash the Potential of the "Sea," Activate the Vitality of the "Rivers," and Make Full Use of the Advantages of the "Border"

By: 本报记者 刘 泉 韩 鑫 罗珊珊

"Guangxi's development potential lies in opening up, and its staying power also lies in opening up." "We must build on our unique geographic position, unleash the potential of the 'sea,' activate the vitality of the 'rivers,' and make full use of the advantages of the 'border.'"

— Xi Jinping

After four years of construction, the Pinglu Canal recently opened to full navigation, not only changing Guangxi's history of "being by the sea yet unable to reach the sea via its rivers," but also rewriting the pattern of China's inland waterway network.

"Build the Pinglu Canal to high standards and with high quality." General Secretary Xi Jinping personally planned and mapped out the project, turning into reality the vision set forth in The International Development of China more than 100 years ago.

This canal is the first grand canal connecting rivers to the sea built since the founding of New China;

This canal is a backbone project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and a landmark project in accelerating the building of a strong transportation country;

This canal is a milestone in Guangxi's efforts to "emancipate the mind, pursue innovation and change, strive seaward for strength, and pursue opening-up and development."

Unleashing the potential of the "sea" —

"Connecting rivers to the sea and river-sea intermodal transport — this is where Guangxi's future development potential lies"

One canal carries the dream of striving seaward for strength.

"The ocean nurtures life, connects the world, and promotes development." "To advance Chinese modernization, we must develop and utilize the ocean efficiently." "Building a maritime power" — General Secretary Xi Jinping "has always held this conviction."

On the shores of the Beibu Gulf, at the Qinzhou port area, cargo ships line up in rows, and freight trains shuttle back and forth.

The country's first automated rail-sea intermodal container terminal is located here. Looking out from the railing, gantry cranes tower overhead; goods arriving from Sichuan, Chongqing, and other places are "unloaded from trains and directly loaded onto ships" here, bound for destinations around the world.

"Build the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Port to a high level." At present, the Beibu Gulf Port has opened shipping routes to more than 200 ports in over 100 countries and regions, becoming an important hub connecting western China with the global market.

From one port to one region: as the only coastal province in the western region, Guangxi is likewise a gateway where land and sea converge.

With more than 6,700 square kilometers of jurisdictional sea area, over 1,600 kilometers of coastline, more than 600 islands, and over 10 harbors... Backed by the southwest and facing Southeast Asia, Guangxi is endowed with unique maritime and land resources.

"Connecting rivers to the sea and river-sea intermodal transport — this is where Guangxi's future development potential lies." Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has visited Guangxi on multiple occasions for inspection, his gaze always fixed on the ocean, urging Guangxi to "write a new chapter in the Maritime Silk Road," "vigorously develop the seaward economy," and "strive seaward for strength and pursue opening-up and development."

To strive seaward for strength, one must connect rivers to the sea!

The Xijiang River stretches a thousand li — a golden waterway. Yet, separated by layers of mountains, most of Guangxi's rivers cannot flow southward into the sea nearby; instead, they flow eastward into the Pearl River and out to sea.

More than a hundred years ago, Dr. Sun Yat-sen wrote with bold strokes in The International Development of China: connect the Pearl River, the Xijiang River, and the Beibu Gulf, and "all places west of Qinzhou will choose this port to reach the sea... the economic benefits will be considerable."

The passage of time and changing of the stars (斗转星移, dou zhuan xing yi - "turn, rotate; star, move"), the vision has now been realized in the new era.

Amid towering mountains and deep valleys, more than 20,000 builders toiled for four years, and the Pinglu Canal is now open through its full length, opening up the road to the sea: the vast waters of the Xijiang River flow southward from Pingtang River Estuary in Nanning, along the Qinjiang River, and surge into the sea through the Beibu Gulf.

One river connected through — Guangxi turns toward the sea.

In the Nanning Liujing Industrial Park, projects spread across contiguous plots and factory machinery roars.

"It's as if we landed on 'wind-fire wheels'!" said Li Zeyu, General Manager of Qinshi Group's Guangxi-Yunnan Region. "We signed the contract in February, got the land approved in May, and started construction in September. At present, the new-energy shipbuilding and intelligent manufacturing base is accelerating construction, racing to start partial production within the year."

With rivers and sea connected, industries come at the call of "transport": in the first seven months of this year, the Liujing Industrial Park achieved industrial output value above designated scale of over 14.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.3%; the total investment in newly signed major industrial projects exceeded 15.6 billion yuan.

From the canal to Guangxi, new vitality is being nurtured.

In the Beibu Gulf port cluster, inland river cargo ships and oceangoing vessels meet where river and sea converge.

"We are in full swing or with great urgency (紧锣密鼓, jin luo mi gu - "tight, gong, dense, drum") carrying out adaptive renovations," said Song Haitao, General Manager of Guangxi Qinzhou Bonded Port Area Honggang Wharf Company. Five 5,000-ton-class dedicated river-sea intermodal berths have already broken ground. In the future, thousand-ton-class vessels and ten-thousand-ton-class seagoing ships will achieve rapid "ship-to-ship" transshipment here.

"The road to the sea is an important path for a country's development." Following the direction charted by the General Secretary, Guangxi is managing the ocean with rapid progress and a steady pace (蹄疾步稳, ti ji bu wen - "hoof, fast; step, steady"), driving the seaward economy to increasingly become the "blue engine" of high-quality development: since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, the cumulative import and export trade volume of provinces along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor through Guangxi has exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, with the corridor's radiating and driving role further strengthened; from 2017 to 2025, Guangxi's gross ocean product grew from 137.7 billion yuan to 268.78 billion yuan, with its share of the region's total GDP rising from 7.7% to 9%.

"The Pinglu Canal is vital to Guangxi's development," said Li Wenyong, President of Guangxi Transport Vocational and Technical College. In Guangxi's "leaf-vein-style" seaward layout, the canal is precisely like the "leaf stalk."

"After years of development, the hardware foundation, industrial support, and opening-up system of the seaward economy have become increasingly mature, and it is now moving from the initial stage of laying foundations and building frameworks into a new stage of comprehensively improving quality and efficiency," said a responsible comrade from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Using the canal as a passage to achieve river-sea intermodal transport, Guangxi is step by step transforming its coastal advantages into an opening-up advantage.

Activating the vitality of the "rivers" —

"We must strengthen internal-external linkages and build a more dynamic open economic system"

One canal creates a pattern of connecting rivers to the sea.

As the whistle of the Pinglu Canal pierces the sky, in Xing'an, Guilin, to the north, the Lingqu Canal flows gently, its waters never ceasing. Wandering along it, one's thoughts reach back a thousand years —

In the Qin Dynasty, the Lingqu Canal was cut to connect with Lingnan; in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the Grand Canal was opened to link north and south; in the Ming and Qing dynasties, waters were constrained to flush sediment and grain transport was kept smooth... Waterways flow, culture continues, and the wisdom of prospering through water management has a long and continuous history (源远流长, yuan yuan liu chang - "source, far; flow, long").

"Managing water is managing the state; the way of water management is an important way of state governance."

From the cutting of the Lingqu Canal more than 2,000 years ago to the Pinglu Canal connecting rivers to the sea in the new era, two monuments of water transport, spanning time and space, illuminate each other, resounding with a powerful call for opening-up and development.

"Coordinated development and opening-up development must be pursued by every region";

"We must adhere to promoting major development through major opening-up and raise the level of opening-up to both domestic and international markets in the western region";

"Integrate into the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative and jointly build the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor to a high level";

"Guangxi must continue to expand opening-up to both domestic and international markets. We must strengthen internal-external linkages and build a more dynamic open economic system";

Since the beginning of the new era, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to the development of the western region, leading and promoting the formation of a new pattern of opening-up and development in the west.

In August 2019, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor was elevated to a national strategy, and in October 2022 it was written into the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Covering 18 provinces domestically and reaching 584 ports in 127 countries and regions, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor integrates multiple logistics organization models, links the western hinterland with coastal and border ports, and has become the main passage for goods from western China to exit by sea or across the border.

To promote coordinated regional development, the inland waterway shipping network is of vital importance.

"Give full play to the role of inland waterway shipping and develop river-sea intermodal transport," "truly enable the golden waterway to produce golden benefits." With keen insight into the country's conditions and water conditions, General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed the way.

With the opening of the Pinglu Canal, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor has entered a new stage of "capacity expansion, upgrading, and elevation."

The Xijiang River, flowing upstream to Yunnan and Guizhou and traversing Guangdong and Guangxi, is Guangxi's "mother river" and the main stream of the Pearl River system.

Sailing upstream along the Pinglu Canal, through the Xijiang River and into the Youjiang River, tower cranes at Funing Port in Yunnan swing into action, with construction in full swing.

This is the "first port on the upper reaches of the Pearl River." On the riverbank surrounded by mountains, a slogan stands out prominently: "Yunnan goes to the sea from here." Beneath the slogan, construction of the first phase of Funing Port's three 1,000-ton-class cargo berths is racing to completion, and a cross-provincial golden waterway running directly from Yunnan to the Beibu Gulf is about to take shape.

Guizhou is also accelerating its embrace of the Pinglu Canal.

The Huangbai Railway is under intensive construction, and the second line of the Qian-Gui Railway is being accelerated... In the future, Guizhou's goods can travel south via the Huangbai Railway to Baise, transfer to ships along the Youjiang River into the Pinglu Canal, and exit to sea from Beibu Gulf Port. The rail-highway-water multimodal transport system will effectively clear bottlenecks in opening-up and development.

New corridor, new momentum. After goods from the southwestern region enter the Xijiang River system by highway, railway, or waterway and exit to sea via the Pinglu Canal, compared with detouring through the Pearl River Delta, the inland waterway distance is shortened by more than 560 kilometers, and comprehensive logistics costs are reduced by 18%–30%. From the southwestern region to ASEAN countries, there is now a water transport passage that is shorter in distance, more economical, and more convenient.

"For the western region, the value of the Pinglu Canal lies not only in optimizing transport costs on a single route, but more importantly in enhancing the capacity, resilience, and breadth of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, enabling more 'openness dead-ends' to become 'openness highlands,'" said Li Yutao, a researcher at the Comprehensive Transport Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Wherever rivers reach, vitality bursts forth (生机勃发, sheng ji bo fa - "life, machine; surge, emit").

The canal connects the Xijiang River, and on the shores of the Beibu Gulf, a number of port-adjacent industrial clusters are rising rapidly — Qinzhou has built the first 100-billion-yuan specialized chemical park in the southwest; Fangchenggang has built a 10-million-ton-class advanced steel manufacturing base; Beihai has built a seaward industry cluster with daily photovoltaic glass production capacity exceeding 10,000 tons and annual pulp and paper production capacity exceeding 10 million tons... With the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor as the main axis and the Xijiang River Seaward Economic Belt and the Beibu Gulf Coastal Economic Belt as the two wings, Guangxi's development vitality surges.

Rivers surge onward, reaching in all directions.

According to the National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transport Network Planning Outline, by 2035 China will have basically built a national high-grade waterway network of about 25,000 kilometers with a "four vertical, four horizontal, and two network" layout. From one river to one network, with the opening of the Pinglu Canal as the starting point, a "Han-Xiang-Gui Corridor" stretching more than 3,000 kilometers and linking multiple provinces including Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, and Guangxi has added its stroke at the southernmost end, and the pattern of China's water transport network being "strong east-west and weak north-south" will be gradually rewritten.

Making full use of the "border" —

"To enliven the chess game of Guangxi's high-quality development, the key move lies in expanding opening-up"

One canal elevates the realm of opening-up and development.

Early morning, Chongzuo, Guangxi: at the Aidian Port in Ningming, trucks loaded with Vietnamese cashews and tropical fruits pass through customs in an orderly manner.

Dozens of kilometers away, in the Ningming area of the Pingxiang Industrial Park, workshops are bustling. "Shipped from Vietnam in the morning, arriving at the Ningming plant for processing in the afternoon, and sold across the country within a few days," said He Jianqing, General Manager of Guangxi Ningming Weipinyuan Food Co., Ltd.

From customs clearance at the port, to processing in the park, to shipping out from the port — the shift from a "transit economy" to a "port economy" has become a vivid microcosm of Guangxi's deep cultivation of border trade and expansion of opening-up.

Opening up is a distinctive hallmark of Chinese modernization. How to "better transform unique geographic advantages into opening-up and development advantages"?

"One gulf embraces eleven countries, with positive interactions across the east, central, and west" — this is a vivid portrayal of Guangxi's unique geographic advantages. Opening up to foster harmony at the "border," developing industries to prosper the "border": as the only region in China connected to ASEAN by both land and sea, this former southwestern frontier of the motherland is developing into a frontline hub for China's opening-up and cooperation with ASEAN. At present, Guangxi has a total of 22 open ports, with "full port coverage" achieved across 8 counties in 3 border cities; relying on platforms such as industrial cooperation parks and border-adjacent port industrial parks, it has built cross-regional and cross-border industrial and supply chains with ASEAN, with nearly 200 leading enterprises based in Guangxi "venturing into ASEAN."

Infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade and investment, and deepening and solidifying opening-up and cooperation. To date, China has maintained its position as ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, and ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for 6 consecutive years.

Standing at a new starting point, how to reach a new level?

"To enliven the chess game of Guangxi's high-quality development, the key move lies in expanding opening-up." General Secretary Xi Jinping earnestly encouraged Guangxi: "Deepen and expand cooperation with ASEAN countries in all fields, actively serve the building of a China-ASEAN community with a shared future, take the initiative to act, and accelerate development."

"Take the initiative to act, and accelerate development" — cooperation will grow ever deeper.

In the Wuxiang New Area of Nanning, Guangxi, amid lush greenery, a "digital ecological jungle" is thriving. This is the China-ASEAN Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Cooperation Center, better known by the name "Nan-A Center."

With deployed computing power of 5,000 PFLOPS (quadrillions of floating-point operations per second) and a utilization rate as high as 75%; with more than 100 domestic and international AI projects signed cumulatively and 19 foreign-invested AI enterprises settled... Aligning, accelerating, integrating — in just one year, computing power has surged and enterprises have clustered.

Walking through Yongcheng (Nanning), with the Nan-A Center as the "sea outlet," a "cloud river" of "R&D in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou + integration in Guangxi + application in ASEAN" is taking shape.

"ASEAN is China's largest trading partner and is at a critical stage of digital transformation." In the view of Zhang Hongshi, President of the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, located at the convergence point of China's market of more than 1.4 billion people and ASEAN's market of 700 million people, Guangxi has broad opportunities for opening-up and development.

Not long ago, the "Foreign Enterprises' Guangxi Tour" event attracted 141 foreign-invested enterprises from more than 30 countries and regions, facilitating 36 cooperation projects in areas such as modern finance and high-end manufacturing.

"Take the initiative to act, and accelerate development" — exchanges will grow ever closer.

"The value of major national projects is ultimately reflected in serving national development strategies," said Ni Yuping, a professor in the History Department of Tsinghua University. If the Lingqu Canal solved the question of "how Lingnan was incorporated into the unified national transport system," then the Pinglu Canal answers the contemporary question of "how the western region can more conveniently integrate into the global economic system."

Accelerating the revision of the cultural and tourism development plan for the Pinglu Canal Economic Belt, planning a "Lingqu Canal–Pinglu Canal–Beibu Gulf" waterway cultural tourism route; this October, Guilin will host the World Canal Conference, with the Lingqu Canal and the Pinglu Canal as the dual main threads, showcasing to the world the Eastern wisdom of canal civilization... Facing the question of the times, Guangxi continues to explore and actively answer.

Connecting rivers to the sea, sailing toward the blue.

  

This year marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March.

In April five years ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping, during an inspection tour in Guangxi, visited the Memorial Park for the Red Army's Long March Xiangjiang River Campaign in Caiwan Town, Quanzhou County, Guilin, to pay tribute to revolutionary martyrs and carry forward the spiritual lineage of Communists.

"Sweeping away a thousand troops as if rolling up a mat." General Secretary Xi Jinping said firmly: "We should hold such a conviction of certain victory in achieving the next centenary goal and realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

The new journey is a new Long March.

With the opening of the Pinglu Canal, Guangxi's development has opened a new chapter, and the sons and daughters of Guangxi have embarked on a new journey.

Striving seaward for strength, pursuing opening-up and development.

(People's Daily reporters Zhu Jiaqi and Zhang Yunhe contributed to this report)

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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 4 editors: Yuan Zhenxi, Bai Zhiyu, Han Chunyao

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Youth in Motion, Opening a Brilliant Chapter (Asian Games Panorama)

By: 本报记者 范佳元 陶相安

On September 19, the opening ceremony of the 20th Asian Games was held at the Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium in Nagoya, Japan. Delegation members from 45 countries and regions across Asia gathered together in one place (齐聚一堂, qi ju yi tang - "together, gather, one, hall"), and the Asian sports gala officially began.

A heart-shaped stage was set in the center of the main stadium, with undulating light bands simulating the rhythm of heartbeats, and color blocks spreading outward from the stage from light to deep shades, symbolizing the emotions of people from different parts of Asia converging in the same time and space.

Mountains and seas are linked, cultures and peoples are close, and the people of Asia are full of expectation for the gala. After parting in Hangzhou, gathering once again this time, the Asian Games is both an arena for displaying the beauty of competition and a platform for friendly exchange. As OCA President Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck said, "The Asian Games conveys one and the same voice: Asian sports are united, and Asia is one." Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck was elected OCA President in January this year, and the Nagoya Asian Games is the first Asian Games since he took office.

Accompanied by rhythmically distinct music and lighting, the athletes entered. Flags fluttered, and athletes from each delegation walked onto the stage, full of pride and ideals. They will offer wonderful competitions to all of Asia, and waves of applause rose from the stands. At this moment, people cross mountains and seas, coming together through sports, injecting new hope and vitality into Asia.

The Chinese sports delegation entered seventh, with men's basketball player Hu Mingxuan and women's boxing athlete Wu Yu holding high the five-star red flag side by side at the front, followed by 196 athlete representatives from events including boxing, sailing, and cricket.

This is the 14th time the Chinese sports delegation has participated in the Asian Games, with 815 athletes competing in 38 major sports and 369 minor events. This team, with an average age of 24, will showcase the spirit and demeanor of Chinese athletes in the new era, strive for a double harvest in athletic performance and spiritual civilization, and make new contributions to the development of the Asian and international Olympic movement.

In this Chinese sports delegation, 548 people are participating in the Asian Games for the first time, with those born after 2005 accounting for 27 percent, and youthful energy becoming the most distinctive label. Men's handball athlete Li Shuo said at the opening ceremony site: "It is a great honor to participate in the Asian Games for the first time, and the rich atmosphere has let me feel the charm of sports. Next, I will live up to my mission, giving my all to the task (全力以赴, quan li yi fu - "all, strength, go, towards") and winning glory for my country (为国争光, wei guo zheng guang - "for, country, strive, glory")."

As the OCA flag rose once again, Asia is closely connected in the name of sports. Founded in 1951, the Asian Games, after 75 years, has become the most broadly covered and most highly participated comprehensive sports event in Asia.

This edition of the Asian Games features events with rich Asian characteristics such as wushu, cricket, and kabaddi, while mixed martial arts, teqball, virtual taekwondo, and padel tennis are included as official competitions for the first time. The games feature a total of 43 major sports and 71 disciplines, and will produce 469 gold medals. Sporting traditions and innovative trends from different regions converge here, and the expansion of the event landscape also reflects the diverse development of Asian sports.

At the time of the opening, Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck said: "Sports possess the power to unite people, transcending language, culture, borders, and differences. I believe this edition of the Games will deepen friendship across Asia, showcase diversity, and inspire future generations. I sincerely hope that a new story of Asian friendship begins here."

At around 19:42 local time, the torch entered the main venue. The sacred flame of this edition was formed by the convergence of flames from three cities — Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagoya — all three being cities in Japan that have hosted the Asian Games. After a relay by six torchbearers, the heart-shaped symmetrical main cauldron, symbolizing "One Asia, One Heart," was lit.

The stage of dreams has been built, and the moment of glory has arrived. Over the next ten-plus days, athletes will hone their skills and enhance exchanges on the field, connecting Asia through the Asian Games and promoting unity through sports.

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Sweating it out in the ring keeps me focused (Asian Games and Me)

By: 吴 愉

Being able to serve as the flag bearer for the Chinese sports delegation at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games fills me with immense excitement and pride. As the flag bearer, behind me stand the athletes of every event, carrying the expectations of the motherland and the people. This is an honor for Chinese boxing and also recognition from the delegation of my hard training.

Stepping onto the competition floor, the goal of the Chinese boxing team has always been to raise the national flag and play the national anthem. At this Asian Games, we hope to turn the sweat shed in training into a brilliant display on the field of play, push our own limits, and win honor for the motherland. For myself, I still need to act in a practical and down-to-earth manner (脚踏实地, jiao ta shi di - "foot, tread, solid, ground"), making steady progress step by step (一步一个脚印, yi bu yi ge jiao yin - "one step, one, a, foot, print") toward the highest podium.

Winning the championship at the 2024 Paris Olympics allowed me to complete the "Grand Slam" of champions at major international competitions including the Olympic Games, World Championships, and Asian Games. Along the way, I have experienced the joy of success and also endured the grinding of day-after-day training. The conviction of winning glory for the country supports me in continuously advancing and challenging myself.

In the past, when my results fluctuated, my mentality also wavered, but with the encouragement and help of the team, I saw my own progress and changes in training and competition, and felt myself maturing day by day. Sweating profusely as if it were raining on the boxing ring has made me focused and made me forget the distractions; I think this is the charm of competitive sports.

In the current Chinese boxing team, there are quite a few young athletes about to experience their first major international competition, and they are very eager to fully exert their abilities on the international stage. As a veteran team member, I will do my best to be the best in every aspect, continuously improve myself, and strive to pass on the experience I have accumulated to more young people, helping them grow as quickly as possible.

On September 21, the boxing events of this Asian Games will begin. In the final stage of the sprint, we must be fully prepared and attend to every detail. After the Asian Games, we will also face more important competitions such as the Los Angeles Olympics. Although I do not know how far I can "run," as long as the motherland needs me, I will keep "running" on.

(The author is an athlete of the Chinese boxing team; compiled and edited by People's Daily reporters Liu Shuoyang and Tao Xiang'an)

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Asian Games Welcomes 'New Friends' — These Events Are Pretty Cool

By: 本报记者 孙龙飞

At this Asian Games, there are quite a few "new friends" making their debut, combining tradition and innovation, reflecting the trend toward youthfulness and globalization in the event categories of the Asian Games.

The mixed martial arts event offers 6 gold medals, with competitors facing off in the ring using a variety of techniques including boxing, kicking, wrestling, and jiu-jitsu. Mixed martial arts has a large pay-per-view market and a mature commercial event system; its appearance at the Asian Games marks a key step forward in the sport's competitive standardization and regularization in Asia.

Surfing is a "dance between man and the waves." The outcome of a competition does not depend on who reaches the finish line first, but rather tests difficulty, creativity, speed, power, and overall performance, giving competitors ample room to express themselves. This Asian Games adds surfing for the first time, with 2 gold medals in men's and women's shortboard, and serves as a qualifying event for the Los Angeles Olympics. Chinese team member Yang Siqi and other competitors are participating. Surfing made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Olympics, and is now accelerating from a niche beach culture into the mainstream public eye. Surfing not only has extremely strong social media appeal, but the industrial chain behind it—equipment retail, trendy apparel, outdoor tourism—has also become an important growth driver in the sports consumer market.

The taekwondo event embraces digital technology, introducing virtual taekwondo. Competitors wear VR (virtual reality) headsets and motion-tracking sensors, depleting their opponent's virtual energy bar through real kicks. The novel format makes the competition interesting and also opens a window for event innovation.

Padel tennis is a "combination of tennis and squash." The court is surrounded by tempered glass walls plus metal fencing; the ball can bounce off the walls and continue to be played after rebounding, similar to squash, but the scoring rules are consistent with tennis. The court boundaries can also be "breached"—if an opponent's shot lands and bounces out of the court, as long as the ball has not bounced a second time, the player can run outside the court to return it. This sport has strong social attributes and is beloved in many parts of the world; entering the Asian Games for the first time, it features 2 events: men's doubles and women's doubles.

Teqball and the extreme kayak sub-event under canoe slalom will also make their debuts at this Asian Games. More and more emerging sports, carrying mature commercial models and large audience bases, are joining the Asian Games, not only injecting vitality into the event but also continuously expanding the boundaries of sports, promoting deep integration of competitive sports with national fitness, the digital industry, and popular culture.

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First competition day after the opening: what to watch

By: 本报记者 李 硕 高 佶

After the Asian Games opening ceremony, more events will enter their competition days, and the first gold medal will also be born.

The race for the first gold medal has always been a focus after the Asian Games opening. On September 20, multiple finals will be held intensively, including the men's individual triathlon, the women's individual time trial in road cycling, and the women's individual and team modern pentathlon, from which the Games' first gold medal will emerge. Since the 2002 Busan Asian Games, the Chinese sports delegation has won the first gold medal at six consecutive Asian Games.

On the first competition day after the opening, swimming is expected to become a major gold-medal event for the Chinese team. The swimming competitions are held in Tokyo, with 7 gold medals to be decided on the 20th, and the Chinese team has the strength to contend for gold in all of them. Wang Shun, competing in his fifth Asian Games, Olympic champion Pan Zhanle, as well as Xu Jiayu, Li Bingjie, and Tang Qianting will all begin their title-defense campaigns.

Within the Chinese sports delegation, a host of young athletes are highly anticipated. Yu Zidi, only 13 years old, broke the Asian record in the women's 200-meter individual medley last year; 17-year-old Chen Yujie set the Asian youth record in the women's 100 meters with 11.08 seconds this August; 18-year-old Yan Ziyi created the Asian record and world youth record in the women's javelin at the Xiamen leg of the Diamond League this May... The collective debut of the new generation gives audiences a sudden flash of brilliance or something eye-catching (眼前一亮, yan qian yi liang - "eye, front, one, bright").

While the newcomers are striving bravely to be the first (奋勇争先, fen yong zheng xian - "strive, bravely, compete, first"), a host of veterans hold the field and continue their legends. Sun Yingsha and Wang Manyu in table tennis, Chen Yuxi and Wang Zongyuan in diving, Zou Jingyuan in gymnastics, Sun Mengya in canoe sprint, and Li Wenwen in weightlifting have all won gold medals at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics consecutively, and many other Chinese team athletes are expected to achieve new results.

At the Hangzhou Asian Games, the Chinese sports delegation harvested 201 gold medals, topping the Asian Games medal table for the eleventh consecutive time. For the Chinese sports delegation, this Asian Games is not only a key "midterm exam" for the Los Angeles Olympic cycle, but also an important comprehensive rehearsal before the Los Angeles Olympics. The Chinese sports delegation will compete in 38 major sports and 369 minor events. Archery, tennis, triathlon, squash, surfing, sailing and windsurfing, hockey, and other events will directly produce qualification spots for the Los Angeles Olympics, and the athletes will go all out to seize the initiative in Olympic preparation.

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Chinese Women's Basketball Team Gets Off to a Winning Start

(People's Daily, Nagoya, September 19) (Reporter Tao Xiang'an) On the 19th, the Chinese women's basketball team faced Thailand, its first opponent in the group stage of this Asian Games. In the end, China defeated its opponent 111:46, achieving a successful start (开门红, kai men hong - "open, door, red").

In this match, the Chinese team quickly found its rhythm from the opening tip, taking a double-digit lead with a 12:1 scoring run. Thereafter, China played steadily on both ends of the floor and ultimately defeated its opponent by a 65-point margin. Over the course of the game, six Chinese players scored in double figures, with Yang Shuyu recording a game-high 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Luo Xinyu and Chen Yujie each scored 16 points, Chen Mingling contributed 15 points and 9 rebounds, and Liu Yutong tallied 12 points and 5 rebounds. Yang Shuyu said after the game: "Everyone's overall mental state is very good; there is no fatigue from the consecutive games played since the World Cup ended."

Chinese women's basketball head coach Gong Luming affirmed the players' performance. He said that through the first game, one could see that the players had adjusted their form well. Before this Asian Games, the Chinese women's basketball team had just gone through the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup and advanced to the quarterfinals. After the World Cup ended, the Chinese team made a brief stop in Beijing before heading to Nagoya. Speaking of the situation of playing in consecutive tournaments, Gong Luming said that despite facing many challenges such as a dense schedule, injury troubles, and jet lag, the team has responded actively and prepared for the Asian Games.

A total of 11 teams are competing in the women's basketball tournament at this Asian Games, divided into three groups, with China in Group A alongside Indonesia and Thailand. According to the competition rules, the top two teams from each group, along with the two best third-place finishers, advance to the knockout stage. In Gong Luming's view, the various Asian teams have different characteristics and playing styles, and China will take every game seriously, adjusting tactics and strategies in a timely manner according to the opponent while leveraging its own strengths.

On September 21, the Chinese women's basketball team will face Indonesia, its second opponent in the group stage.

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Chinese Women's Handball Team Secures First Victory

(People's Daily, Nagoya, September 19) (Reporter Liu Shuoyang) On the morning of the 19th, the women's handball event at the Asian Games officially began. The Chinese team defeated Kazakhstan 34:24, securing a winning start.

At the start of the match, the Chinese team took the lead. But after 10:7, Kazakhstan scored 4 consecutive points to overtake the score. With 5 minutes remaining in the first half, the Chinese team's head coach called a timeout. "Our problem at that time was missed shots," team member Liu Chan recalled after the match. "The opponent had a very large post player; the coach told us not to move her on defense, to focus on grabbing fast breaks and creating outnumbered situations," said team member Liu Xuedan.

The deployment yielded immediate results (立竿见影, li gan jian ying - "erect pole, see shadow"), and the Chinese team quickly tied the score. Goalkeeper Huang Sitong deflected high shots and low shots effectively (高接低挡, gao jie di dang - "high receive, low block"), and the Chinese team went on a 5:0 run to pull away, ending the first half at 17:12. Liu Xuedan noted that in the early part of the first half, everyone was a bit tense, but after the timeout adjustment, they performed at the expected level.

In the second half, the Chinese team maintained a lead of more than 5 points throughout, ultimately defeating Kazakhstan 34:24 and securing a winning start to this Asian Games. On the 22nd, the Chinese team will face its second opponent, Uzbekistan.

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Page editors: Luo Yan, Gong Yuhua, Shi Zhe

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Doing a Good Job on the "Overseas Chinese" Chapter and Building a "Bridge of Hearts" (Overseas Chinese Community Report)

By: 本报记者 洪秋婷 李 纵 姜晓丹

In an old arcade building on Haiping Road in the Xiaogongyuan (Small Park) Opening-up District of Shantou, Guangdong, staff opened a rust-speckled iron box, inside which lay dozens of yellowed letters neatly stacked, most signed with closings such as "May my wife be well" and "seeing the letter is like meeting in person" (见字如面, jian zi ru mian - "see, words, like, face") — these are the physical prototypes that moved many audience members to tears in the film Love Letters to Grandma.

Silver letters crossed the sea, one end tied to the cooking smoke of the homeland, the other end linking the hardships of overseas sojourners. In those years, families depended on a single silver letter to make ends meet; today, using overseas Chinese as a bridge to attract investment, talent, goods, and culture, the "heart-connecting bridge" between Chinese sons and daughters overseas and their hometowns is being built ever wider.

As an important hometown of overseas Chinese, Guangdong Province has in recent years continuously done well the "overseas Chinese" article of the new era, establishing a special work team for overseas-Chinese-assisted economic high-quality development, implementing a series of measures such as the "Guangdong Overseas-Chinese-Assisted High-Quality Development Action" and "Gathering Overseas Chinese Wisdom, Pooling Overseas Chinese Strength", persisting in using culture to attract overseas Chinese, platforms to unite overseas Chinese, policies to benefit overseas Chinese, and the economy to gather overseas Chinese, broadly rallying overseas Chinese hearts, strength, and wisdom, guiding overseas Chinese to actively participate in the economic and social development of their hometowns, transforming the overseas-Chinese heritage and bond advantages into development momentum for industry and technology, opening up, and mutual learning among civilizations.

Attracting investment and talent, jointly promoting hometown development

"My grandfather's generation went south to the Nanyang (Southeast Asia) from Chaoshan, Guangdong, and by my generation we have come back." On the Xinjin River bank in Longhu District, Shantou City, Malaysian-Chinese overseas Chinese youth Huang Yonghao stood before three restored "mountain-descending tiger" (下山虎) old houses, telling a reporter the family story spanning three generations.

Coinciding with a weekend mealtime, diners came and went, waiters busily served dishes, and Huang Yonghao's Nanyang-flavored chicken pot business was especially brisk."The chicken pot uses traditional Nanyang cooking methods as its base, combined with Chaoshan people's taste preferences, blending common Nanyang spices such as lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime leaves with Chaoshan clay-pot techniques, and it is very popular here," Huang Yonghao said.

"Returning to Shantou to start a business is not only my root-seeking journey, but also because I have confidence in Shantou's development," Huang Yonghao said. In 2023, he invested more than 900,000 yuan to lease three idle, dilapidated "mountain-descending tiger" old houses by the Xinjin River and open a shop."At first I lacked connections and was unfamiliar with the market, but fortunately the local government was very supportive and Chaoshan fellow townsfolk were also very friendly, so the business gradually grew and became increasingly brisk. I hope more young overseas Chinese will come back and take a look — there are many opportunities here, having great potential for success" (大有可为, da you ke wei - "great, have, can, do").

"More and more overseas Chinese youth like Huang Yonghao are returning to their ancestral homeland to innovate and start businesses. We use overseas-Chinese-youth entrepreneurship as a starting point to achieve the revitalization and utilization of old houses, cultivate distinctive cultural-tourism business formats, and inject fresh overseas-Chinese youthful energy into upgrading the neighborhood," said a relevant official of Longhu District.

According to incomplete statistics, at present, the total number of overseas Chinese exceeds 60 million, distributed across nearly 200 countries and regions, of whom those of Chaoshan ancestry exceed 15 million.

Using overseas Chinese as a bridge, sharing opportunities and seeking common development. Shantou continuously invites Chaoshan overseas Chinese to come to Shantou for exhibitions, inspections, exchanges, and cooperation. Since 2022, Shantou has received approximately 950 batches of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese delegations, totaling nearly 13,000 person-times. In recent years, through overseas Chinese leaders making connections, industry associations and enterprise representatives have been organized to go to Southeast Asia, the United Arab Emirates, and other places for economic and trade matchmaking, facilitating nearly 100 cooperation projects with a total amount exceeding 30 billion yuan.

In recent years, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Province has implemented the work deployments of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, consecutively holding the "Guangdong Overseas-Chinese-Assisted High-Quality Development Action" promotion conferences, awarding the "Overseas Chinese Industry-Technology Mutual Promotion Dual-Strengthening Demonstration Park" plaques to the "Overseas Chinese Dream Park" in Zengcheng, Guangzhou, Jiangmen, and Shantou, as well as seven overseas-Chinese-related industrial parks in Shenzhen, Meizhou, and other places. Extensively mobilizing and guiding overseas Chinese forces, promoting overseas-Chinese affairs departments at all levels across the province to facilitate 167 overseas-Chinese-related projects each worth over 10 million yuan, with a total landed capital of 31.596 billion yuan, covering cutting-edge fields such as robotics and intelligent manufacturing, biotechnology, and advanced materials, injecting surging momentum into Guangdong's economic high-quality development.

"In the future, we will further improve and refine the working mechanism of provincial-level overall planning, province-city linkage, and broad participation of overseas Chinese at home and abroad, vigorously strengthen the construction of platforms and positions, promote the landing of key projects, and promote overseas-Chinese-assisted economic high-quality development to achieve greater results," said the main responsible person of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Province.

Using overseas Chinese as a bridge, promoting "Guangdong goods" going global

Not long ago, 1,600 fans produced in Enping, Jiangmen, traveled across the sea to Curaçao in the southern Caribbean Sea, opening up new market sales channels. This export order is precisely the fruit of overseas Chinese actively making connections and empowering hometown development.

"I hope I can push more attention in my location to my hometown's products and help high-quality 'Jiangmen-made' goods go global." Chen Dangjian, president of the Curaçao Jiangmen Wuyi Youth Association, has deep experience in the Latin American market for many years and is familiar with local consumer demand and market rules. At the Zhongshan (Enping) Smart Home Appliance Industrial Park investment promotion conference, he took the initiative to return to his hometown for matchmaking and coordination, precisely linking hometown source factories with overseas markets, facilitating the landing of this batch of home appliance orders.

Chen Dangjian's story of helping enterprises go global is a vivid microcosm of Guangdong's overseas Chinese strength empowering foreign trade development. As times evolve, the ways overseas Chinese give back to their hometowns continuously upgrade, transforming from traditional models such as donating for charity and returning home to build factories in the past, to bringing resources, carrying channels, and expanding markets, becoming the "guides" for local enterprises to set sail globally. At present, overseas Chinese of Jiangmen ancestry have established business networks and personal connections in 145 countries and regions worldwide, helping hometown quality products go global.

In June this year, the deep cooperation between Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group and Shantou's textile and apparel industry achieved phased results. The two batches of direct-purchase orders between the two sides have all been fulfilled and delivered, totaling 31 containers and 1.9229 million pieces of intimate apparel, which will fully enter Thailand's mass consumer market.

"As an important domestic production base for intimate apparel, Shantou possesses a mature and complete textile and apparel industry chain. Enterprises previously acting alone without support" (单打独斗, dan da du dou - "single, hit, single, fight") found it hard to break into international markets; now, through overseas Chinese business networks, they can more precisely connect with demand," said Yu Shaofen, secretary-general of the Shantou Textile and Apparel Industry Association. This cooperation has not only successfully leveraged high-quality overseas first-hand order resources, but also empowered 23 factories in the industrial belt to enhance their comprehensive capabilities from R&D design, standardized production, to export order-taking, opening up the "Shantou factory direct supply to Thailand" export pathway.

In recent years, Guangdong has built platforms and carriers for promoting trade through overseas Chinese. In 2025, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Province promoted the establishment of the overseas-Chinese "Yue Trade Global" alliance, attracting nearly 60 institutions from 30 countries and regions to join, holding 40 economic and trade exchange activities. Dongguan held the"Overseas-Chinese-Assisted Thousand Enterprises, Ten-Thousand Products Going Global Action"(Guangdong) Dongguan special event, reaching intended procurement amounts of 2.14 billion yuan. Shenzhen's Overseas Chinese Industry and Trade Fair has over three years held 16 overseas smart technology exhibitions, with cumulative intended procurement amounts reaching 13.23 billion yuan.

Pooling hearts and strength, inheriting Chinese culture

In a four-story building pasted with the character "fortune" in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sun Ailing, over seventy years old, was teaching Chinese via computer online courses to students from many places around the world.As a 2007 doctoral graduate in linguistics from the College of Chinese Language and Culture of Jinan University, the Hanhan Academy she founded has become an important bastion of Indonesian Chinese-language education.

Sun Ailing was born in Indonesia and grew up immersed in Chinese culture from an early age. Through decades of wandering and displacement, she worked as a Chinese-language tutor, practiced medicine, and devoted herself to the art of dance. In 2007, at over fifty years old, she entered Jinan University to pursue a doctorate in linguistics."Jinan University's teaching of Chinese as a foreign language is excellent, especially its linguistics instruction aimed at overseas students — it is exactly what I needed."

In 2012, Sun Ailing founded Hanhan Academy."Han" means Chinese characters, "han" means connotation, and "the connotation of Chinese characters" embodies her understanding of Chinese-language education. After 2020, the school's teaching activities fully shifted online. Though over seventy, Sun Ailing remains adept at using online course software, expanding her teaching reach to Australia, Singapore, Canada, and other places."As long as someone is willing to learn, as long as someone still seeks me out, I will keep teaching," Sun Ailing said with emotion."Now that the internet is so developed, staying at home, I can still teach Chinese to students around the world."

As an overseas Chinese university, Jinan University adheres to the school-running policy of"facing overseas, facing Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan", cultivating talent through fine traditional Chinese culture. The reporter learned that Jinan University has cumulatively compiled nearly 300 textbooks including Chinese and Chinese Language and Culture, with global distribution exceeding 50 million copies. It has taken the lead in forming the"Global Alliance of Chinese Schools", connecting more than 3,000 Chinese schools in over 60 countries, achieving coordinated linkage in textbook distribution, teacher exchange, and standard promotion.

If Chinese-language education is the classroom for inheriting Chinese culture, then the rich and colorful cultural activities of overseas Chinese hometowns are the bonds that unite the spiritual strength of overseas wanderers.

The Shantou Overseas Chinese Silver Letter Cultural Relics Museum, the Xiaogongyuan Opening-up District, and the Chaoshan History and Culture Expo Center form a"root-seeking route", carrying out the 2026"Understanding Overseas Chinese Hometown Feelings of Family and Country·Shantou Chapter"; holding China-US youth football exchange matches, promoting the establishment of the"Maritime Silk Road Overseas Chinese Museums Alliance", and holding the"Lingnan Culture·Shared by the Four Seas" series of activities; carrying out the collection of overseas Chinese manuscripts and letters, establishing a provincial silver letter archive management system, compiling the"Guangdong Overseas Chinese Silver Letter Documents Collection", and holding silver letter culture touring exhibitions in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and other places, as well as activities such as seeking out descendants of silver letter writers and essay contests for overseas Chinese youth... Overseas Chinese affairs departments at all levels in Guangdong have further burnished a series of brand programs, created a number of local overseas-Chinese-hometown cultural brands, and various silver-letter-themed activities have cumulatively reached over 130 million person-times, achieving notable results.

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From the "Tiangong Classroom" Winning Hearts of Hong Kong and Macao Youth (Guan Canghai)

By: 张 烁

A dialogue between heaven and earth has built a "bridge of hearts" linking Hong Kong and Macao youth as they pursue their dreams of the vast sky and embrace the motherland. Recently, the "Tiangong Classroom · Hong Kong and Macao Special Session" space lecture activity was held, with the Shenzhou-23 crew connecting live with Hong Kong and Macao youth, sparking widespread attention and enthusiastic response across Hong Kong and Macao society. This lively and interesting space science popularization lesson ignited the children's passion for science and inspired their feelings of family and country, also writing a vivid footnote for Hong Kong and Macao, under "One Country, Two Systems," walking in step with the motherland and jointly contributing to the great cause of national rejuvenation.

Behind this space science popularization lesson spanning heaven and earth lies the central government's consistent and unchanging throughout the process (一以贯之, yi yi guan zhi - "one, through, continue, reach") deep care and strong support for Hong Kong and Macao. This time, the "Tiangong Classroom" set up a special session exclusively for Hong Kong and Macao for the first time, with Hong Kong's first astronaut, Lai Jiaying, participating in the teaching — this in itself is a vivid manifestation of the central government's attention to Hong Kong and Macao's development and support for Hong Kong and Macao integrating into and serving the national development overall situation. In recent years, with the strong support of the central government, Hong Kong and Macao have gained more and more opportunities to deeply participate in the building of a space power; in the "Chang'e" lunar exploration and "Tianwen" Mars exploration, there are traces of Hong Kong and Macao's participation, and Hong Kong and Macao universities have also obtained the precious opportunity to research lunar soil samples… The motherland is the most solid backing and the broadest stage for Hong Kong and Macao;, under the solid safeguard of "One Country, Two Systems," Hong Kong and Macao's participation in the national space endeavor has continuously expanded its fields and steadily elevated its levels, and the road of striving to explore the vast sky is growing ever broader.

The value of science popularization lies in planting a seed in children's hearts. From the explanation of the composition of the Tiangong space station to the display of the "space kitchen" and "space vegetable garden," from wringing a wet towel and playing "table tennis water balls" under microgravity to the extravehicular operation of the Hong Kong scientific payload "Tianyun Camera," the knowledge in textbooks suddenly came alive. "It brought me tremendous shock""Space, it turns out, is not that far away from us"… In the classroom, children eagerly raised their hands, and the interactive atmosphere of the heaven-earth connection was warm. The future of science lies in youth; those who fall in love with science, understand science, and carry this curiosity and passion forward may perhaps grow into the scientific and technological talents of the future. In recent years, delegations of the manned space program have visited Hong Kong and Macao for exchanges and inspections, astronauts have shared their stories of chasing dreams face-to-face with Hong Kong and Macao youth, and activities such as space-themed touring exhibitions, "Tiangong Classroom" lectures, and space science popularization entering campuses have landed in Xiangjiang and Haojiang, allowing the spirit of aerospace and the spirit of science to permeate the hearts of young people.

Jointly fulfilling the space dream, jointly contributing to the great cause of rejuvenation. In the "Tiangong Classroom," there was a moving scene: a small and exquisite "bauhinia flower" flew out from Lai Jiaying's hand —"I hope this bauhinia flower carries the heartfelt wishes of every student and every Hong Kong citizen, soaring in the China Space Station, jointly witnessing Hong Kong and Macao, together with the motherland, chasing dreams with one heart and journeying to the sea of stars." This was both a vivid lesson in science and technology education and a profound lesson in patriotic education. In the approximately 5,200 "letters from home" flying toward Tiangong, children wrote with immature strokes their admiration for the space heroes, their curiosity about the mysteries of space, and their pride in the strength of the motherland. When Hong Kong and Macao youth personally experience the hard-core strength of China's aerospace industry and directly feel the pulse of the motherland's changing with each passing day (日新月异, ri xin yue yi - "sun, new, moon, change") development, a sense of national pride and identification with the nation's development wells up spontaneously. "I hope that in the future I can be like Senior Sister Lai Jiaying, devoting myself to the national cause"… Hong Kong and Macao youth excitedly felt that, as long as one cherishes lofty ideals, strives with determination, and integrates one's personal pursuits into the national development overall situation, one will have the opportunity to become the next "Lai Jiaying" and contribute strength to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

When youth have aspirations, the family and country have hope; when hearts chase dreams together, the future is promising. The successful holding of the "Tiangong Classroom · Hong Kong and Macao Special Session" not only planted seeds of scientific dreams and feelings of family and country in Hong Kong and Macao youth, but also vividly interpreted the powerful vitality and superiority of "One Country, Two Systems." When seeds of science sprout in curiosity, when aspirations to serve the country take root in hearts, we have reason to believe that the Hong Kong and Macao youth who gaze at the stars today will surely become an important force in building a science and technology power and jointly contributing to the great cause of rejuvenation tomorrow.

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Dazzling Fireworks Light Up Macao

Recently, the 34th Macao International Fireworks Display Contest was held. This year's contest, themed "Silk Road Maritime Chart · Rendezvous in Macao," was divided into three chapters — "Rendezvous of History," "Rendezvous of Civilization," and "Rendezvous of the Future" — and was staged spectacularly on the evenings of September 12, 19, and 25, as well as October 1 and 4. The photo shows the scene of the fireworks contest.

Photo by Deng Guohui (People's Vision)

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Cultural Identity Flows Naturally (Micro Commentary)

By: 江 琳

Recently, the mainland urban workplace drama Early Spring Sunshine has sparked a binge-watching craze on the island, with many island viewers urging online for more episodes;the Taiwanese family drama Fairy Tale Under the Stairs (Fairy Tale Part Two) has drawn attention as it airs on mainland television.The two-way flow of film and television across the strait is a natural outpouring of emotional resonance.

From Qiong Yao dramas and Justice Bao sweeping the mainland, to Empresses in the Palace and Blossoms Shanghai sparking binge-watching trends in Taiwan, a series of dramas spanning the strait have become shared screen memories for compatriots on both sides.Cross-strait film and television exchange has not stopped at mutual broadcasting; talent exchange and joint creation have pushed exchange and cooperation to a deeper level. Taiwanese film and television professionals are deeply involved in the production of mainland dramas, and the mainland's vast market and resources have also provided them with a stage to display their talents. Dramas such as Hard to Please (First Frost) and Wild Dog Bones, directed by Taiwanese directors and produced on the mainland, have been loved by island audiences and have become part of the daily binge-watching routine of many compatriots on both sides.As Taiwanese director Huang Tien-jen put it, this is not about "one side bringing something to the other," but rather "mutual integration."

This integration shows even greater vitality under favorable policies. In April this year, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee, upon authorization, released ten policy measures to promote cross-strait exchange and cooperation, which clearly state that Taiwanese industry players may participate in mainland micro-drama creation in various ways, and that film and television cultural works conducive to showcasing cross-strait kinship and a better life will be promoted for screening and broadcast on both sides of the strait. The recently launched micro-drama Emperor Jiaqing Visits Taiwan (Emperor Jiaqing Tours Taiwan) is a vivid example:Taiwanese actors perform in it and take on Hokkien voice dubbing, the micro-drama incorporates Hokkien culture, and uses glove puppet theater performance as an important plot thread—amid the play of light and shadow, the shared cultural roots of both sides of the strait are vividly presented. Though micro-dramas are "micro," their symbolic significance is not small; the track for cross-strait film and television cooperation is continuously widening, extending from long-form dramas to newer, more flexible forms closer to young audiences.

In front of the screen, audiences on both sides of the strait follow the same drama, feeling the vicissitudes of human life (悲欢离合, bei huan li he - "sadness, joy, separation, reunion") and being extremely anxious or concerned about something (牵肠挂肚, qian chang gua du - "pull, intestine, hang, belly") over the same couple; behind the screen, film and television professionals on both sides jointly polish their works, weaving the lives they know well and the cultural memories they share into the storylines. This two-way flow is, in essence, a natural outpouring of cultural identity and emotional connection that no person or force can sever.

Compatriots on both sides of the strait are bound by blood and share cultural ties, and cross-strait film and television cooperation has a deep foundation and broad prospects. The mainland side actively supports cross-strait film and television cultural exchange and cooperation, welcomes artists, creators, and production institutions from both sides to collaborate and co-create, and to produce more outstanding film and television cultural works, creating more beautiful memories of the times and visual enjoyment for audiences on both sides of the strait.

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Visiting the "Front Line" of Sci-Tech Collaboration in the Greater Bay Area (Tides Surging in the Greater Bay Area)

By: 本报记者 洪秋婷

Walking into the exhibition hall of PCI Technology Group Co., Ltd. in Guangzhou, Guangdong, the "Urban Transportation Brain" system on the screen is updating urban road network operation information in real time. Through large-model technology, PCI Technology is driving the transportation system to upgrade toward "being able to understand, able to judge, and able to decide," helping improve traffic efficiency.

In 2023, PCI Technology assisted in the equipment renovation of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong integrated card, enabling one card to travel smoothly through Hong Kong and 327 cities on the mainland. In April this year, PCI Technology officially signed an agreement to become a key enterprise introduced by the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, settling in the Hong Kong Science Park to establish an overseas R&D center.

"In the process of mainland technology enterprises developing innovation and technology in Hong Kong, what matters is combining the technology, industry, and application capabilities already formed on the mainland with Hong Kong's strengths in scientific research, internationalization, and professional services," said Wang Yuemiao, Executive Dean of the Central Research Institute of PCI Technology. The overseas R&D center in Hong Kong will undertake functions such as adaptation of international technical standards and overseas product R&D, becoming a "transformation hub" for Chinese solutions to go global.

This year marks the opening year of the national "15th Five-Year Plan." Hong Kong and Macao are proactively aligning with the national "15th Five-Year Plan." Hong Kong's first five-year plan and Macao's "Third Five-Year Plan" have both been published, and the coordinated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has drawn much attention. Recently, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and the All-China Journalists Association jointly held the second phase of the joint interview activity themed "Aligning with the '15th Five-Year Plan' — Leveraging New Advantages" in Guangdong, focusing on the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the complementary advantages and in-depth cooperation in scientific and technological innovation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The interview delegation visited vivid practices of high-quality development in the science and technology innovation industry of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Walking into the Hengqin pre-positioned cargo station of Macao International Airport, locking, dispatching, customs clearance... The first batch of trucks loaded with more than 10,000 toys, watches, and other cross-border e-commerce retail export goods slowly started moving. Not long ago, witnessed jointly by representatives from Guangdong and Macao, the "first order, first flight" of the air cargo palletization business at the Hengqin pre-positioned cargo station of Macao International Airport was officially launched.

"Macao Airport's cargo capacity is currently about 100,000 tons per year, while the designed logistics processing capacity of the pre-positioned cargo station can reach 300,000 tons per year, providing strong support for the development of Macao Airport," introduced Wu Chuangwei, Director of the Industry Development Bureau of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

Leveraging the unique advantages of Hong Kong and Macao, new pathways are being built for enterprises to expand into global markets. "Guangzhou Pharmaceutical plans to invest 1 billion yuan to build a traditional Chinese medicine internationalization intelligent manufacturing center in Hengqin, producing products benchmarked against advanced international standards," introduced Chen Jiehui, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited. Based on the "Macao registration + Hengqin production + overseas sales" model, the group is actively laying out the Hengqin internationalization intelligent manufacturing center and the Macao Qingzhou pharmaceutical factory, leveraging policy and location advantages to promote the standardization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine. Currently, some of Guangzhou Pharmaceutical's traditional Chinese medicine products have completed Macao registration and achieved local production.

"For Hong Kong and Macao youth coming to the mainland to start businesses, not being familiar with policies is a major pain point," said Huang Yuanfeng, Secretary-General of the Guangzhou Tianhe District Hong Kong and Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Service Center. The center provides one-stop entrepreneurship incubation and acceleration services for Hong Kong and Macao youth. It has so far brought in more than 30 venture capital institutions to form the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Alliance, with cumulative investment of nearly 120 million yuan, successfully incubating more than 600 Hong Kong and Macao startups, 16 of which are valued at over 100 million yuan.

In Songshan Lake, Dongguan, stories of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao talent mobility promoting industry-university-research collaborative innovation are existing everywhere in large numbers (比比皆是, bi bi jie shi - "compare, compare, all, are"). Since its founding, the XbotPark robotics base has incubated more than 80 technology companies, with many growing into unicorn enterprises. About 3 kilometers away, City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) welcomed its first batch of master's graduates this year.

"Around the school are clustered national major scientific facilities such as the China Spallation Neutron Source and the Advanced Attosecond Laser Facility, as well as research platforms and leading enterprises including the Institute of Materials Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Dongguan and Huawei," said Zhao Zhiyu, Vice President of City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan). The school's program offerings are closely aligned with the needs of building the modern industrial system of the Greater Bay Area and Dongguan, helping promote deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation.

On September 8, the University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic University, and Macao University of Tourism jointly held a flag-raising ceremony and opening ceremony at the first-phase campus of the Aoqin International Education (University) City in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin. More than 1,450 graduate students began studies in fields including artificial intelligence, microelectronics, big data and the Internet of Things, and cultural and creative industry management. It is reported that the three universities will break down barriers and promote cross-university course auditing, cross-university course selection, and credit recognition for "micro-majors."

The Aoqin International Education (University) City operates under a "one university, two campuses, integrated management" model, marking a substantive step in Macao universities extending their education to Hengqin. "The extended schooling model is not simply an expansion of branch campuses, but rather the achievement of deep interconnection of scientific and educational resources between Macao and Hengqin," said Sun Lin, Deputy Director of the Talent Development and Social Security Bureau of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.

On September 10, a special meeting on advancing the construction of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin was held in Hengqin. The meeting accelerated the implementation of the "package of policy measures for deepening the construction of the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin," supporting Macao in proactively aligning with the national "15th Five-Year Plan" and implementing the SAR's new five-year plan, and advancing the construction of Hengqin to a new level.

Today, from industries going global to rule alignment, from youth entrepreneurship to educational connectivity, Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao are drawing a "concentric circle" of Bay Area science and technology innovation through deep collaborative integration and high-quality development.

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Page editors: Jiang Lin

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2026 World Manufacturing Convention: Intelligent Manufacturing for a Better World

Highlights of the Conference

●Prominent international elements: The United Kingdom was invited to serve as the Guest Country of Honor. More than 40 enterprises from countries and regions including the United States, France, and Russia participated in the exhibition in groups, and over 1,000 global guests (including more than 500 foreign representatives) attended the conference.

●Achievements in frontier intelligent manufacturing: Focusing on future industries such as quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and biomanufacturing, academicians from home and abroad and leading industry experts were invited to conduct exchanges and discussions, jointly exploring the iteration directions of frontier technologies and new trends in industrial transformation. Outcomes released included the Annual Report on Industrial Foundation Development (2025–2026) and the Manufacturing Digital Transformation Capability Level (2026). The total exhibition area reached 70,000 square meters, comprising a 20,000-square-meter zone showcasing achievements in manufacturing development and a 50,000-square-meter market-oriented exhibition zone, collectively displaying a batch of breakthrough innovation results, including a 180-qubit superconducting quantum processor, the BEST compact fusion energy experimental device, the "Lingjing Zaowu" (Spirit Realm Creation) platform of the Scientific Intelligence Material Creation Center, solid-state transformers, and a planetary environment ground simulation facility.

●Emphasis on interactive experience: An exhibition zone of nearly 2,000 square meters was set up for robots and embodied intelligence, displaying 16 robots. Adopting a "physical object + scenario + experience" model, the zone allowed visitors to immersively experience frontier embodied intelligence products.

●Strengthened regional coordination: Sichuan Province was invited to serve as the Guest Province of Honor, and other provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) were widely invited to attend and exhibit, deepening industrial connectivity and resource sharing.

Conference Activities

The conference built a multi-level activity system of "major events leading + special matchmaking platforms + professional seminars empowering," mainly including:

●4 major events: the opening ceremony and keynote speeches, a tour of the exhibition halls, and others.

●6 major project matchmaking events: the China Manufacturing Industry Private Enterprise Cooperation and Exchange Matchmaking Conference, the Anhui Province Emerging Industries Multinational Corporation Matchmaking Conference, the Anhui-Taiwan Advantageous Industries Cooperation Promotion Conference, the Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurship Project Matchmaking Conference, and others.

●21 key special activities: the 2026 National Manufacturing Power Construction Forum, the Manufacturing Digital and Intelligent Transformation Matchmaking Activity, and others.

●Prefecture-level city activities: In Wuhu, Chuzhou, and Tongling, the 2026 Low-Altitude Economy Development Conference, the Advanced Photovoltaic and New Energy Storage Industry Innovation Achievement Matchmaking Conference, and the China Copper Processing Industry Annual Conference and China (Tongling) Copper Industry High-Quality Development Conference were held respectively.

Intelligent Manufacturing in Anhui, Creating a Better Future

New Energy Vehicles

In the first half of 2026, Anhui ranked first nationwide in automobile output, new energy vehicle output, and automobile export volume.

Integrated Circuits

In 2025, Anhui ranked first nationwide in DRAM dynamic random access memory production capacity; with ChangXin Memory Technologies as the leader, Anhui's storage chip sector is accelerating its rise.

Robots

In 2025, Anhui ranked fifth nationwide in industrial robot output, constituting an important part of Anhui's advantageous industrial clusters gaining momentum and forming a pattern (成势, cheng shi - "become, pattern").

New Display

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, nearly one-tenth of the world's display panels were "Made in Anhui," and Anhui's new display industry stands out in scale and global share.

Advanced Photovoltaic and Energy Storage

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, one-third of the nation's photovoltaic inverters were "Made in Anhui." With Sungrow Power Supply as the leader, Anhui's photovoltaic and energy storage industry leads globally in comprehensive competitiveness.

Quantum Information

Relying on the Key Laboratory of Quantum Information of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Anhui is building a source of scientific and technological innovation with significant influence.

Fusion Energy

Anhui has built, is building, or is conducting preliminary research on 13 major scientific facilities, with fusion energy as one of the core directions.

Deep Space Exploration

Anhui is promoting its advantageous tracks of quantum information, fusion energy, and deep space exploration to maintain their leading position, focusing sustained efforts on potential tracks such as artificial intelligence and life sciences, and building a "3+N" leading highland for scientific and technological innovation.

Data source: Executive Committee Office of the World Manufacturing Convention

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One Heart, One Vision: Painting a Bond Across Mountains and Seas

By: 何占福

At the eastern foot of the Helan Mountains, beside the Yellow River, Minning Town in Yongning County, Ningxia, has drawn much attention. This is a migrant town born of east-west regional cooperation, its name taken from the abbreviations of the two provinces of Fujian and Ningxia—it is itself a mark of a bond spanning mountains and seas. Thirty years ago, this was still a stretch of Gobi wasteland, with few birds overhead and grass struggling to grow on the ground, called "dry sand beach" by the locals. In 1996, the Party Central Committee made the strategic deployment for east-west poverty alleviation cooperation, designating Fujian and Ningxia as paired partners in assistance. A year later, Minning Village laid its foundation on the Gobi, and people who had moved from deep in the mountains of Xihaigu took root here anew. This migrant village, initially home to just over 8,000 people, has grown step by step into a modern ecological demonstration town with a population of more than 60,000.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Minning cooperation, and multiple themed events and art exhibitions have continued to focus on this story of shared endeavor across mountains and seas, showcasing a portrait of the times in which mountains and seas thrive together. Not long ago, the "New Era in Art—China Artists Association 'Going Deep into Life, Taking Root Among the People' Grand Fieldwork Activity (Ningxia Section)" was launched. Artists from all over gathered at the foot of the Helan Mountains, with their first stop in Minning Town, at the front line of east-west cooperation, seeking out the true stories of how the "dry sand beach" became a "golden sand beach," listening to the moving experiences of ordinary people relocating, farming, and starting businesses, capturing the pulse of the times and accumulating creative material through on-the-ground visits. At venues such as the Ningxia Art Museum and the Yinchuan Art Museum, exhibitions including "Mountains and Seas Sharing the Bright Moon—Themed Art Exhibition on Minning Cooperation" and "Stories of Aid to Ningxia in Art—Joint Exhibition of Minning Comic Strips" have been held one after another. As seen in the works on display, artists are no longer content with simply depicting natural scenery; instead, they take root at the grassroots, capturing moments in the lives of ordinary people and portraying the new picture of industrial revitalization, telling the big story of Minning cooperation and development through small entry points.

This shift in creative perspective stems from the deepening understanding of Minning cooperation among artists over the past 30 years. In the early years, artistic creation on the theme of Minning cooperation tended to focus its narrative on Fujian cadres bringing technology to Ningxia and bringing new changes to the land beyond the Great Wall. The figures in the paintings also tended toward homogeneity—the cadres aiding Ningxia were always traveling in haste and looking weary (风尘仆仆, feng chen pu pu - "wind, dust, travel, weary"), while the local people were always full of gratitude. Such artistic expression is not incorrect; it is simply that the perspective is relatively one-dimensional. Only by going deep into the field can one understand that Minning cooperation is not a simple one-way assistance. While experts such as Lin Zhanxi helped fellow villagers escape poverty and achieve prosperity hand in hand, the migrants who moved from Xihaigu were also reclaiming wasteland shovel by shovel, turning sandy ground into fertile fields, and their unyielding spirit equally moved the helpers who had come from afar. This bond between mountains and seas is the fruit of a two-way endeavor between the two regions. To capture the weight of this joint effort, two things are key: first, planting one's feet on the ground; second, pouring one's emotions into it. Planting one's feet on the ground means creators must reach the scene itself and cannot sit shut in their studios, constructing images from imagination alone. Not a single one of those works that truly move people was "squeezed out" in a studio; all of them were "fished out" of life. Pouring one's emotions in means creators must hold the people they depict in their hearts, not merely treat them as "props" for composing a picture; they must deeply observe the great transformations of the land beyond the Great Wall and present a moving page of the Chinese story with brushwork that carries warmth.

Minning cooperation has not only built a bridge for the two regions to tackle challenges together, but has also paved a thoroughfare for regional cultural and artistic exchange. Facing the same theme of Minning cooperation, the creative output of artists from the two regions shows clear differences. The works of Fujian painters tend to feature agile brushwork and meticulous detail. When they confront the vast Gobi and the towering Helan Mountains, their hearts are filled with awe, and their works carry the freshness of a first glimpse of the "south of the Great Wall beyond the frontier," with bright and vivid colors. When Ningxia painters depict their homeland, it is a different scene altogether. Which gully in the Helan Mountains has stones, when the Yellow River water is at its yellowest—Ningxia painters already have a thorough understanding of it (了然于胸, liao ran yu xiong - "understand, clearly, in, chest"), so their works are more substantial and solid, exuding the very flavor of the land itself. The joint exhibitions of the two regions' art have not only deepened the mutual understanding between painters from Minning's two sides, but have also broadened their artistic horizons. Fujian painters admit that only after seeing the works of Ningxia painters did they understand what the vast and desolate northwestern spirit truly is; Ningxia painters remark that only after seeing the compositions and colors of Fujian painters did they realize that northwestern scenery could be painted with such agility.

Three decades of two-way endeavor across mountains and seas have painted a new picture of united struggle and common prosperity. Thirty years is long, long enough for a stretch of Gobi to turn into an oasis; and short, so short that it seems the sandstorm that blew when the migrants first arrived in Minning Village is still echoing in one's ears. As artists, all we can do is use the brush in our hands and the sincerity in our hearts to record these stories and pass on the deep affection of mountains and seas leaning on each other. Though mountains and seas are far apart, when hearts are together, a beautiful picture can be painted.

(The author is chairman of the Ningxia Artists Association)

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Forging Faith and Strength

By: 王志刚

In inheriting the red spirit and engraving firm faith, sculpture, with its full three-dimensionality and sense of space, possesses a unique power distinct from text, painting, and video.Through its volume, texture, and structure, it transforms the abstract red spirit into intuitive, perceptible visual images, allowing ideals and beliefs that transcend time and space to continuously strike the hearts of viewers. Recently, the "Carrying Forward the Torch of the Long March, Steadfastly Practicing the Original Aspiration of Struggle — Thematic Sculpture Exhibition Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Victory of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army's Long March" held at the Art Museum of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts brought together 90 outstanding works, not only constructing an immersive field for viewers to comprehend the great Long March spirit, but also building a bridge for dialogue for contemporary red-themed sculpture creation.

One sculpture after another seems to bring people back to those eventful years. These works do not focus on grand narratives, but rather on delving deeply into the delicate emotional worlds of heroic figures, using techniques that combine traditional realism with contemporary expression to bring the red narrative closer to people's hearts. For example, Chen Gang's "New Sprout" is quite symbolic — on a withered tree trunk, a tender and vibrant new sprout grows, and the old Red Army soldier and the young Red Army soldier sitting at either end of the trunk both cast their gaze upon this new sprout. This contrast between the immense and the minuscule, the withered and the newborn, intensifies the visual impact and thematic expression, prompting viewers to reflect on life and hope. Zhang Lingyu's "Long Snowy Night" (see figure), with its heavy texture and stable composition, depicts the difficult trekking survival state of Red Army soldiers on a bitter night of wind and snow. Zong He's "Strongman of the Snowy Mountains" abandons fine and intricate carving, using rough, solid texture to make the figures blend and coexist with the snow-capped mountains, fully displaying the Red Army's unyielding character in resisting the harsh environment. Each sculpture transforms the Long March stories scattered in the annals of history into visible, tangible artistic images, allowing audiences to more deeply comprehend the suffering and glory of that journey and to understand the weighty mission and responsibility borne on the shoulders of the revolutionary forebears.

The creation of red-themed sculpture focuses on presenting profound spiritual connotations through vivid images, which means creators cannot create things based on conjecture rather than practice (闭门造车, bi men zao che - "close, door, build, vehicle") or pile up techniques, but must base themselves on historical facts and shape forms with emotion. Its creation cannot be separated from three key elements: first, topic selection, which requires a deep understanding of the spiritual connotation of the red theme; second, conception, which requires flexible use of techniques such as narrative, symbolism, and the transformation of time and space; third, expression, which requires innovating artistic language to enhance appeal, so that through diverse exploration the works achieve the unity of historical truth, artistic truth, and spiritual symbolism. In this Long March-themed creation, many art workers went into the historical scenes and deeply comprehended the faith and spirit of their forebears. For example, in order to portray well the story of Chen Shuxiang's "declaring his resolve by severing his intestines," Deng Ke rushed to Chen Shuxiang's hometown, visited the old battlefield of the Xiangjiang River Campaign, and, relying on historical materials and local customs, traced back the hero's short but magnificent life. His work "Loyal Soul" avoids depicting the tragic scene, instead capturing Chen Shuxiang's calm and resolute spiritual countenance. The hero in the sculpture, though his body has suffered severe wounds, still has a determined gaze; the restrained and poetic artistic language interprets the revolutionary's faith of preferring death to surrender. Wang Zhongle, in order to create "Passing on the Torch," retraced the Long March route; the rugged mountain roads underfoot and the howling mountain wind in his ears allowed him to understand the difficulty and grandeur of the Long March as he walked. When he picked up his carving knife again, the "Long March" he understood in his heart was no longer an empty historical term in books. Through cross-temporal shaping, his work lets Red Army soldiers and contemporary young students walk forward side by side, realizing a dialogue between history and reality, symbolizing that the Long March spirit is passed down from generation to generation.

As an important carrier for inheriting the red gene, the vigorous development of red-themed sculpture is rooted in youth. In cultivating young sculpture talent, one cannot only focus on teaching modeling techniques and simply assigning propositional exercises, but must also attach importance to nurturing their feelings for family and country; otherwise, the works of young students will easily fall into the rut of symbolization and templating, lacking the spiritual warmth that strikes the heart. To this end, Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts has in recent years, by building an annual themed sculpture exhibition brand, formed a virtuous closed loop of "promoting creation through exhibitions, driving teaching through creation," allowing students to step out of the studio, take root in the era, generate empathy through being personally present at the scene (身临其境, shen lin qi jing - "body, arrive, that, scene"), and elevate their creation through empathy in their hearts.

Sculpture, its value lies in shaping form and sculpting the soul. Although the eventful years have passed, the red spirit is passed down from generation to generation. Sculpture creators should deeply cultivate red culture, condensing faith and strength with knife and pen, so that people can both hear the distant echoes of history and draw from it the great power to strive forward.

(The author is the Deputy Director of the Academic Committee of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts)

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Rethinking the "Canons and Standards" of Painting and Calligraphy (Art World Notes)

By: 焦东华

When millennial brush and ink transcend time and space to appear before today's viewers, a proposition worthy of deep reflection emerges: How were the "canons and standards" (dianze) of Chinese painting and calligraphy established? And how should they be inherited and developed? Recently, the first phase of the "Canons and Standards: Exhibition of Tang and Song Painting and Calligraphy" opened in the Hall of Literary Brilliance (Wenhua Dian) of the Palace Museum, bringing together a number of treasured works, such as Zhan Ziqian's handscroll Spring Outing from the Sui Dynasty, Yan Liben's handscroll The Imperial Sedan Chair from the Tang Dynasty, and Du Mu's running-script handscroll Poem for Zhang Haohao, systematically sorting out the evolutionary thread of painting and calligraphy from the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties through the Two Song Dynasties, offering many insights for people to understand the "canons and standards."

The term "canons and standards" (dianze) originates from the Book of Documents: "Having canons and having standards, bequeath them to descendants," originally referring to the statutes and institutions passed down by former kings to later generations. Dou Meng of the Tang Dynasty, in his Explanations of Terms in the Rhapsody on Calligraphy, interpreted it from an artistic dimension: "Following a master and observing the rules is called canon; what can be transmitted is called standard." Its meaning is: "Canon" is the artistic rule of taking models from former worthies; "standard" is the brush-and-ink norm that can be transmitted and upheld. "Canons and standards" are not rigid brush-and-ink formulas, but rather an aesthetic and creative system accumulated by the ancients through learning from nature.

For Chinese painting and calligraphy, which take brush and ink as their vehicle, the spiritual core lies not in copying the forms of external appearances, but in using brush and ink to apprehend the great Way of heaven and earth and to entrust human sentiments and aspirations. The supreme pursuit of painting and calligraphy creation is to transcend formal resemblance, capture the ceaselessly flowing vitality between heaven and earth, and achieve the artistic realm of surpassing nature in artistic skill (巧夺造化, qiao duo zao hua - "skillfully, snatch, creation, transformation"). The principle of learning from nature while drawing from one's inner spirit (外师造化，中得心源, wai shi zao hua, zhong de xin yuan - "outside, teacher, creation; middle, obtain, heart, source") articulates this essential point of creation: taking nature as teacher, fusing inner comprehension, and letting brush and ink become a vehicle communicating between "heaven, earth, humanity, and spirit." The swiftness or slowness, lightness or heaviness, dryness or moistness, emptiness or solidity of the line are no longer merely changes in technique, but rather an artistic translation of yin-yang movement and stillness between heaven and earth.

This aesthetic ideal took shape and came to maturity during the Wei and Jin period. Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin used brushwork that was "firm and forceful, continuous and linked, circling and transcending," developing the "high-ancient gossamer-thread" line drawing and establishing the aesthetic foundation of Chinese painting and calligraphy that values spirit-resonance. Wang Xianzhi's "one-stroke calligraphy" of the Eastern Jin and Lu Tanwei's "one-stroke painting" of the Southern Dynasties likewise emphasized the continuous flow of vitality in a work—not the unbrokenness of line form, but the thoroughgoing connection of the life-force. By the Tang Dynasty, artists condensed the Wei-Jin pursuit of spirit-resonance into complete and grand orthodox rules, forming numerous brush-and-ink paradigms. For example, Yan Zhenqing reached back to the brush intent of the Two Wangs and drew from the ancient seal and zhou script methods of the Qin and Han, opening up a style that is vigorous, majestic, and dignified (沉雄正大, chen xiong zheng da - "deep, heroic, upright, great"). The calligraphic rules he established were not rigid technical standards, but a life-order derived from nature and creation. The brush-and-ink interest evoked by the "leaky roof mark" (wulouhen) was precisely distilled from natural phenomena. By the Five Dynasties, artists continued the rules of the Sui and Tang, yet strove to break out of existing formulas, enriching landscape composition and expanding brush-and-ink layers through learning from nature, becoming the forerunners of the Song Dynasty's emphasis on intent. It was precisely through such layer upon layer of accumulation that Chinese painting and calligraphy continuously advanced, building one artistic peak after another.

It can be seen that the evolution of Chinese painting and calligraphy has never been an isolated succession of styles or a renewal of techniques, but rather a dynamic process of inheritance, following the principle of "maintaining integrity as the foundation (守正为根, shou zheng wei gen - "guard, upright, as, root"), with transformation as the soul"—what is upheld is the pure and correct rules and aesthetic spirit; what changes is the language of brush and ink and the forms and content. Looking back at contemporary painting and calligraphy creation, the crux of some problems often lies not in technique, but in the creator's lack of understanding of the cultural lineage. Some creators slight spirit-resonance and style, chasing visual novelty, and their works lack metaphysical contemplative meaning; some creators blindly and mechanically imitate the ancients (机械摹古, ji xie mo gu - "mechanical, imitate, ancient") without grasping their spiritual core, and the images under their brushes lack a sense of vitality. Faced with these problems, returning to the origins of painting and calligraphy and rereading the classics becomes especially urgent.

Re-understanding the "canons and standards" of painting and calligraphy reveals: true inheritance is not imitating outward appearance, but continuing the artistic spirit of learning from nature and illuminating principle while fully realizing one's nature; true innovation is not severing tradition, but carrying out creative transformation and innovative development on the basis of artistic rules. For contemporary painting and calligraphy creators, only by taking root in the times, deeply understanding the aesthetic spirit and artistic laws of painting and calligraphy, neither being confined to ancient methods nor blindly following impetuosity, can one fuse ancient meaning into the heart and expand new realms with the brush, allowing traditional painting and calligraphy to radiate fresh brilliance in the contemporary era.

(The author is an associate research curator at the Palace Museum)

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Unrolling the Long Scroll, Visiting the Famous Gardens (Reading Paintings)

By: 黄 晓

In the second year of Shaosheng of the Northern Song Dynasty (1095 AD), Li Qingzhao's father Li Gefei traveled throughout Luoyang and wrote a work titled Record of the Famous Gardens of Luoyang. Among the 19 famous gardens he described, one was quite distinctive: it was "humble and small, not to be ranked with the other gardens," yet it was admired by contemporaries for the character and aspirations of its owner. This was Sima Guang's Garden of Solitary Joy. Sima Guang composed famous pieces for it, including Record of the Garden of Solitary Joy and Seven Themes of the Garden of Solitary Joy; literary figures such as Su Shi, Su Zhe, and Huang Tingjian all wrote poems for it; Wen Zhengming and Qiu Ying, among the "Four Masters of the Wu School" of the Ming Dynasty, painted it; and many later generations imitated its garden design, giving rise to a distinctive "Phenomenon of the Garden of Solitary Joy."

Among the works depicting the Garden of Solitary Joy across the ages, Qiu Ying's Painting of the Garden of Solitary Joy (detail shown in the figure) provides an intuitive visual reference for later generations to imagine the appearance of this famous Northern Song garden. The painter uses a long handscroll composition to link together the seven scenic spots within the garden — the Water-Splashing Pavilion, the Hall of Reading, the Fishing Hut, the Bamboo-Planting Studio, the Herb-Gathering Garden, the Flower-Watering Pavilion, and the Mountain-Viewing Terrace — each independent yet mutually echoing. These seven scenic depictions are combined with specific figural narratives, unfolding the more than a decade of life Sima Guang spent in the Garden of Solitary Joy at a leisurely pace. As the scroll unrolls, the viewer's gaze wanders with the imagery, just as if strolling through the garden, with changing scenery with every step (移步换景, yi bu huan jing - "step, move; scenery, change") and feelings changing in accordance with the scenery (情随景迁, qing sui jing qian - "emotion, follow; scenery, shift"). This work has also become a representative example of the fusion and mutual flourishing of traditional Chinese painting and garden aesthetics.

Every scenic spot in the Garden of Solitary Joy pays homage to a worthy of antiquity. The Water-Splashing Pavilion pays homage to the gifted scholar Du Mu, "of naturally lofty and refined temperament"; the Flower-Watering Pavilion pays homage to the poet Bai Juyi, who "withdrew from office and dwelt on the Way"; the Mountain-Viewing Terrace pays homage to the lofty recluse Tao Yuanming, who "shook out his robes and went far away forever"... The character and moral fiber of these worthies were blended into the plants, trees, pavilions, and terraces of the garden, building up Sima Guang's richly abundant spiritual world. To express his inner reverence, Sima Guang specially made a set of ancient-style garments in accordance with the Book of Rites, and "donned them whenever he entered the Garden of Solitary Joy." The ancient-costume garden outings that young people are enthusiastic about today — Sima Guang had already set the trend a thousand years ago.

Qiu Ying's Painting of the Garden of Solitary Joy vividly reproduces scenes of Sima Guang's life in the garden wearing ancient-style garments. In the second scenic spot, he wears a black soft-winged futou headdress and a white cross-collared robe, seated beside a desk, head tilted and brows lowered in contemplation, as if in the next moment he is about to take up his brush and write. The figural depiction is concise and simplified, the drapery lines smooth and elastic, fully displaying the bearing of a literatus.

The chamber where Sima Guang sits is named the "Hall of Reading," paying homage to the great Western Han Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu, who "devoted himself to the classics and guarded his solitary seclusion." As the main hall of the Garden of Solitary Joy, it should have been the most imposing building in the entire garden, yet it is extraordinarily simple. With meticulous and delicate brushwork and clear, elegant coloring, the painter carefully depicts the environmental details of the Hall of Reading: the roof is thatched with straw, part of the exterior wall plaster has fallen away, the side bays of the building use simple straight-lattice windows, and the courtyard is densely planted with pines, cypresses, and green bamboo. It was precisely within this plain chamber that Sima Guang "gathered five thousand volumes of books," emulating Dong Zhongshu in devoting his mind to scholarship, and ultimately completing the great historical work Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance.

The spiritual taking precedence over the material is the shared aesthetic core of Chinese painting and garden design, and it is also the important reason why the "humble and small" Garden of Solitary Joy could become famous throughout the world. Although this famous Northern Song garden was long ago destroyed in the chaos of war, through the Painting of the Garden of Solitary Joy, people today can still appreciate Sima Guang's diligence and frugality, perceive his noble character of holding fast to his aspirations and self-restraint, and grasp his spiritual realm of maintaining one's own integrity in isolation (独善其身, du shan qi shen - "alone, preserve; its, body") while keeping the whole world in his heart.

(The author is an associate professor at Beijing Forestry University)

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Photo Report

Oil painting Coconut Grove in the Afternoon, by Wang Hui.

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Art Freezes the Beauty of the Microscopic World

By: 林 勐

During the National Science Popularization Month, a macro photography exhibition blending the truth of science with the beauty of art opened at the Shenzhen Art Museum. Themed "Secrets of the Lingnan Wilderness & Butterflies Dancing in Shenzhen," the exhibition brings together more than 300 natural microscopic images, allowing rational scientific observation to reach the public in the form of beauty through each insect and butterfly.

The charm of macro photography lies in breaking the limits of conventional perspectives, artistically freezing the microscopic world that people find difficult to perceive in daily life, bringing viewers a brand-new visual impact and aesthetic experience. The works in this exhibition all originate from non-intrusive observation of urban mountains and wilderness, recording the true living conditions and natural appearances of Lingnan species. At the same time, the photographers examine nature from different perspectives, seeking visual anchors amid the complex landscapes, and combine soft forest light and side- and back-lighting to shape the layers of objects and images, making butterfly wing scale patterns, moss textures, and flower stamens and leaf veins more lyrical and evoking endless reverie in viewers. These works are both artistic creations and a precious natural archive.

If photographic creation is the first artistic refinement of nature, then the professional curation and spatial presentation of the art museum constitute the second humanistic elevation of the works. Macro photography works often freeze a moment and focus on a part — exquisite yet fragmentary, easily confined to "seeing details" but struggling to reach "understanding life." Through systematic unit-based narration, atmosphere creation, and visual design, the exhibition turns scattered images into a complete context of life, endowing microscopic art with a richer and more three-dimensional aesthetic dimension.

Among these, the ultra-large-scale display of the original works is particularly ingenious. Presenting macro photography works at an ultra-large scale is not merely to restore details clearly and bring visual impact, but is intended to break humanity's inherent scale of viewing, liberate the audience's aesthetic imagination, and reconstruct the relationship between humans and tiny life forms. The work Lantern Fungus is highly representative: the lantern fungus, only about 5 millimeters tall in reality, hides in the forest, utterly inconspicuous, yet the exhibition enlarges its photograph nearly 600 times. In the giant image, a faint glow drifts gently, delicate fungal hyphae stretch softly, and the originally tiny fungus transforms into a strange, ethereal beauty of a secret realm. Such a mode of presentation changes people's ingrained perceptions of size, priority, and height. Through the artificial equalization of artistic scale, the exhibition dissolves the physical size gap between humans and all things, so that viewers are no longer bystanders observing nature from a condescending posture, but perceivers standing within the secret realm, gazing face to face with living beings. When viewers step into the poetic world of the microscopic dimension, a true dialogue of life quietly unfolds.

At the same time, the atmosphere creation and arrangement of works in the exhibition hall further perfect the humanistic narrative of natural aesthetic education. The exhibition uses a quiet dark-green matte tone as its foundation, supplemented by soft and restrained lighting design, creating a sense of the deep tranquility of Lingnan mountain forests. The first unit, "Wilderness Habitats of Mountain and Field," presents the three-dimensional habitats of Lingnan mountains, wetlands, and streams, as well as the microbial world; the second unit, "The Laws of Insects," records the survival wisdom of insect mimicry, camouflage, and group cooperation; the third unit, "Butterfly Shadows of Pengcheng," focuses on interpreting the unique value of butterflies as natural indicators of ecological quality; the fourth unit, "The Beauty of Life," uses pure natural light and shadow to display the artistic beauty of microscopic life, conveying the concept of natural aesthetic education through non-intrusive observation and gentle guardianship. The four thematic units progress step by step or level by level (层层递进, ceng ceng di jin - "layer, layer, advance, advance"), and the orderly display logic ensures that no single work stands in isolation, transforming the abstract "biodiversity" into visible, tangible stories of life.

These macro photography works remind us that the beauty of nature lies not only in distant wilderness, but also in every overlooked detail around us. It is hoped that more people will step into the exhibition hall, read the ecological warmth and natural poetry of a city here, and understand the true meaning that all things are equal and coexist in mutual interdependence.

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Page editors: Wu Yanli, Ma Suwei

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