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A group photo of China’s Shenzhou-17 and Shenzhou-18 crews in the Tianhe core module of China Space Station (CSS), April 28, 2024. /CMG

A group photo of China’s Shenzhou-17 and Shenzhou-18 crews in the Tianhe core module of China Space Station (CSS), April 28, 2024. /CMG

China’s Shenzhou-17 crew transferred the keys of the China Space Station (CSS) to the Shenzhou-18 crew at a handover ceremony on Sunday. With all planned tasks completed, the Shenzhou-17 crew will return to Earth on April 30, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

At present, the Dongfeng landing site in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and all participating systems are making final preparations to welcome the astronauts back, as the search and rescue teams took part in the final rehearsal on Friday for Shenzhou-17’s return. 

The Shenzhou-17 crew members, Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, were launched to the CSS last October, and have remained in orbit for about half a year. On Thursday, China launched the Shenzhou-18 manned spaceship, sending three more astronauts, Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu, to its space station for another six-month mission. The trio entered the CSS and met with the Shenzhou-17 crew on Friday for an in-orbit crew handover.

The Shenzhou-17 crew have carried out 84 in-orbit experiments and tests for space application, producing more than 200 samples in multiple fields such as space life science and biotechnology, space medicine, and space material science. The crew will deliver the samples for scientific study, potentially leading to significant scientific advancements.

Previously, the cable of the Tianhe core module’s solar panels was hit by space debris, causing a partial loss in power supply. In response, the Shenzhou-17 crew carried out two extravehicular activities, completing China’s first-ever extravehicular repair mission.

A view of the “Haiyang Shiyou 302,” China’s first 12,000-cubic meter LNG transport refueling ship, in operation in Qidong City, east China’s Jiangsu Province, March 26, 2024. /CFP

A view of the “Haiyang Shiyou 302,” China’s first 12,000-cubic meter LNG transport refueling ship, in operation in Qidong City, east China’s Jiangsu Province, March 26, 2024. /CFP

“Haiyang Shiyou 302,” a 12,000-cubic meter liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport refueling vessel, was put into service in Qidong City, east China’s Jiangsu Province, on Sunday.

With a length of 132.9 meters and a deck bigger than a standard football pitch, the vessel can meet the needs of 480,000 households for natural gas for a month.

Using an electric power system, the vessel is able to sail on rivers and seas, boasting two tanks with a height of more than 20 meters. The mast of the vessel can also be folded when encountering bridges along the Yangtze River.

“The vessel will enhance the service capacity and competitiveness of ports in China,” Huang Guoliang, deputy chief engineer of oil production service branch of CNOOC Energy Development Co., Ltd. told China Media Group, adding that the vessel can replenish natural gas for a large number of foreign cargo ships and merchant ships in China more conveniently to promote green development of the global shipping industry.

Strong convective weather in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Saturday caused extensive flight delays, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said in a statement on Sunday.

Part of the lighting system in its Terminal 2 was temporarily cut off due to voltage fluctuations at a power station near the airport, which was caused by the strong convective weather, but it did not affect normal operations, the airport added.

As of 11:11 p.m. Saturday, a total of 70 flights were delayed by over an hour due to thunderstorms and heavy downpours, and the airport had launched a yellow emergency response for large-scale flight delays.

A tornado hit Zhongluotan Town in Guangzhou city’s Baiyun District on Saturday, causing five fatalities and 33 others injured as of midnight. /CFP

A tornado hit Zhongluotan Town in Guangzhou city’s Baiyun District on Saturday, causing five fatalities and 33 others injured as of midnight. /CFP

Meanwhile, a tornado hit Zhongluotan Town in the city’s Baiyun District at approximately 3 p.m. on Saturday, causing five fatalities and 33 others injured as of midnight.

Experts say the tornado was caused by multiple meteorological factors, including the increasing intensity of warm and moist stream from the southwest of the South China Sea, warm and humid near-ground air and low-level jet over the preceding period.

The provincial meteorological observatory forecasts frequent precipitation in Guangdong in the next five days, with the possible occurrence of thunderstorms, gale, hail and other strong convective weather.

(Cover image via CFP)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency

“Cycling alone is fun, but your fun will be doubled if you cycle with a group of people,” said Wang Yumeng, who has been biking for four years.

Wang’s interest in cycling started with a photo of a young woman waiting at the traffic light in a professional cycling jersey. She then decided to buy her first outdoor bicycle. “My first bike was a Giant Escape. The name attracted me. I thought it would help me escape my dreary daily routine,” Wang told CGTN.

At first, she realized other cyclists had cycling wearing and gear, so she joined a cycling club, which really boosted her love for the activity.

“Together with them, I rode to a lot of places I had never imagined. For example, I cycled for 200 kilometers into a mountain,” Wang said, adding that her two wheeler widened her boundaries of exploration.

Jeff is also a cycling enthusiast. He told CGTN that he started outdoor cycling as a fitness activity at the beginning of 2022 when he moved from Beijing to Shanghai. He had hiked a lot in Beijing but as the outskirts of Shanghai lack mountains, he tried to look for an alternative cardio workout.

“I have two friends in Shanghai, who are cyclists. I decided to join them so I bought my first bicycle,” said Jeff. His first bike cost him 6,900 yuan ($972) and he believed that’s pretty enough for a beginner.

Wang Yumeng bikes around the Drum Tower in Beijing, capital of China, in April 2023. /Provided by Wang Yumeng

Wang Yumeng bikes around the Drum Tower in Beijing, capital of China, in April 2023. /Provided by Wang Yumeng

Just like Wang, Jeff also enjoyed peddling with a group of people. He said cycling with others can reduce wind resistance and more professional cyclists can also lead other members to explore new routes and help solve problems such as tyre bursts.

Cycling through picturesque landscapes, camping under the stars, hiking to tranquil mountains, and even competitive bouts of frisbee are becoming popular over China. Data shows an increasing number of Chinese people engaging in outdoor activities in recent years, presenting promising opportunities for the outdoor sports market.

According to an industry development report released in October last year, individuals born in the 1990s have become the largest consumer group participating in outdoor sports, accounting for 36.1 percent. They are followed by those born in the 1980s with a share of 32.5 percent. It also revealed a year-on-year increase of 79 percent in outdoor sports-related orders in the first half of 2023, and a surge of 221 percent compared to the same period of 2019.

On the Chinese lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu, numerous daily posts share diverse experiences related to outdoor sports, ranging from sailing, off-roading and skiing to camping, fishing and city walks. Their love for outdoor activities originates from various needs such as getting fit, making friends, enriching their social life or just escaping from the urban life.

Jeff rides a bike with his friends in Shanghai, east China. /Provided by Jeff

Jeff rides a bike with his friends in Shanghai, east China. /Provided by Jeff

“I started hiking after the end of COVID-19. Before the pandemic broke out, I preferred indoor activities like visiting exhibitions and playing murder mystery and escape room games. But after the pandemic, I switched to outdoor activities. I have to go outside. Otherwise, it would be too depressing,” Liu Jiyi, told CGTN in Beijing.

Mark Thomas, a managing director at S2M Consulting, a China-focused sports event company, told Jing Daily, an online media company about China’s luxury consumer trends, that the country has witnessed an increasing long-term interest in health, fitness, and wellness among a fast-growing middle class. He said the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the growth of China’s outdoor sports sector which has tremendous potential. 

According to a development plan released by the General Administration of Sport and seven other departments in November last year, the total value of China’s outdoor sports industry is expected to surpass 3 trillion yuan (approximately $422.6 billion) by 2025, with the number of people participating in outdoor sports across the country already having exceeded 400 million by the end of 2021.

The scenery of Anaguo, a village in Lijiang City, southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, October 1, 2023. /Provided by Liu Jiyi

The scenery of Anaguo, a village in Lijiang City, southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, October 1, 2023. /Provided by Liu Jiyi

The Chinese government has also rolled out various policies to facilitate the development of the industry. 

From 2022 to 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the General Administration of Sport of China (GAS) and other departments issued several documents to boost the outdoor sports industry and promote the facilities and services for outdoor sports. The efforts include establishing trails for brisk walking, improving facilities for camping and mountainous outdoor sports, and constructing parks that provide sports facilities, enabling the public to integrate outdoor activities into their daily lives.

Meanwhile, the standardization of outdoor sports has progressed. Last year, the Chinese government released 11 national standards for ice and snow sports and eight industry standards, including those for sailing and skiing.

As of 2022, there were 127,800 fitness trails in China, up by 20.68 percent from 2021. 

By the end of June 2023, 32 national demonstration projects of hiking and mountaineering trails had been put into use, stretching for more than 3,000 kilometers. And there were 2,452 national-level ice and snow sports venues nationwide by the end of 2022, an increase of 8.45 percent over the previous year, according to a report released by five governmental departments.

“The development of China’s outdoor industry has achieved a historic leap forward in recent years, and is transforming into a mid-to-high-end whole industry chain,” Yang Xuedong, the economic department director of GAS said at a news briefing, adding that the Chinese government will focus on building flagship outdoor sports projects and introducing more high-level sports events to further develop outdoor sports.

The Chang’e 6 probe atop a Long March 5 carrier rocket is transported to the launch site in Wenchang, Hainan province. [Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Chang’e 6, China’s next robotic spacecraft to the moon, has been scheduled to set out on its journey in the coming days, tasked with bringing back samples from the silver celestial body’s little-known far side, according to the China National Space Administration.

A Long March 5 carrier rocket, with the 8.2-metric-ton Chang’e 6 probe on top of it, was vertically moved on Saturday morning to its launch service tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, the administration said in a news release, noting the flight will take place in due course in early May.

The Chang’e 6 was transported to the launch center in January, while the Long March 5 rocket arrived in March. They were assembled and tested at the spaceport.

In the next few days, engineers will conduct final functional examinations and pump propellants into the rocket, the release said.

If everything goes according to plan, after entering its moon-bound trajectory, the Chang’e 6 will make a series of flight maneuvers and finally land in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side.

/CFP

/CFP

From enhancing productivity to fostering sustainable development, artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping the industrial world, emerging as one of the most heated topics globally. At the 2024 Hannover Messe, Germany’s leading industrial trade fair, the overwhelming trend of AI was also apparent, as global industrial leaders converged to showcase cutting-edge products and innovations in the AI arena.

This year’s Hannover Messe, which focused on “energizing a sustainable industry,” kicked off on Monday and ran till Friday, featuring key areas including digitalization, energy transformation, AI, and machine learning.

As one of the world’s largest international events in the industrial sector, Hannover Messe is renowned as the “barometer of world industrial development.” Almost 4,000 exhibitors from around 60 countries and regions participated in this year’s event. Among them, Chinese exhibitors accounted for 30 percent of the participants, second only to the host Germany, according to the organizer.

“Innovation, the desire to develop new things, is what one feels here,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the fair. “AI could be found in even the smallest products.”

Jonas Gahr Store, prime minister of Norway, this year’s partner country, was also impressed, saying that “many of the things that we have seen here today would have been science fiction if introduced five years ago.”

Robots transfer an item at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

Robots transfer an item at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

At Hannover Messe 2024, Siemens presented the first generative AI product for engineering in an industrial environment. The Siemens Industrial Copilot, the generative AI-powered assistant, is now seamlessly connected to the Totally Integrated Automation Portal.

According to the company, with the new launch, the engineering of complex tasks will become less susceptible to errors. “This in turn reduces development times and boosts quality and productivity over the long term,” said Eric Scepanski, a technical expert with Siemens. “With the Industrial Copilot, we will augment different people along the whole value chain, from design to planning, to engineering, to operations.”

He further elaborated that by inputting requirements, the Industrial Copilot can swiftly generate an optimal solution within a matter of minutes. “This technological advancement will significantly address the shortage of skilled personnel while enhancing production efficiency,” he said.

“AI can become something like man’s best friend in the industrial world, where the Copilot is always at your side in a new era of human-machine collaboration. It helps us relieve ourselves of monotonous tasks so that we can concentrate on what is important. It helps us discover errors and find better solutions for them much faster,” said Cedrik Neike, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of the company’s digital industries division.

“AI has the potential to give people without technical know-how the chance to contribute with their ideas. It’s about building smarter applications with just a few clicks,” he said.

Neike said he is convinced that thanks to AI, people will be able to concentrate much more on developing ideas, thus improving products and production. “This will accelerate in the coming years.”

Gu Yue, vice president and head of Marketing, China and East Asia Operations of Schneider Electric, said, “Previously, if we encountered an issue at one link, we would halt all production lines, potentially reducing overall production capacity.”

“However, with the aid of AI technology now, we can address these issues efficiently. Simple actions such as drag-and-drop operations allow for fast and flexible segmentation without the need to rewrite code,” he said.

People look at a self-driving shuttle bus at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

People look at a self-driving shuttle bus at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

A technology expert at the trade fair said that 6G will become “the basis for the next industrial revolution.”

Frank Burkhardt, from the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (Fraunhofer IIS), said that 6G technology means those working in factories will be able to perform tasks which are currently “undreamed of.”

Experts believe the next generation of network technology will bring industrial manufacturing to a new high level.

According to Germany’s 6G Research and Innovation Cluster (6G-RIC), which showcased its progress at the trade fair, key technical innovation areas of 6G should include addressing the bandwidth limitations of existing infrastructure, and making large-scale networks able to connect a wide variety of devices.

AI and computing infrastructure in the network will play more critical roles in 6G, said 6G-RIC researcher Johannes Dommel at the event.

More sensors, data and computing capabilities will be available for the industry in the next-generation network, Dommel underlined. “I think 6G will provide the answers for the increasing trends in data and devices.”

Research engineer Marius Schmitz from the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau said that 5G technology already offers a strong network in terms of latency, data rate and reliability, but it cannot serve as one network for all purposes.

“In our vision, 6G could be a more versatile network that can fit into a bigger number of different applications simultaneously,” Schmitz said. However, it is currently unknown when 6G will be put into practical use, he added. “The standardization process of 6G could take a long time.”

While 5G paved the way for the development of cellular communication, 6G brings it to the next level, said senior technology architect from Belden, Christian Bauer, during the trade fair.

Whether in ports, mining or manufacturing, industrial requirements will not only be met but surpassed using 6G, he said. However, he added: “From my point of view, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

People walk past the booth of Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

People walk past the booth of Shanghai Electric Group Co., Ltd. at Hannover Messe 2024 in Hannover, Germany, April 23, 2024. /Xinhua

Established in 1947, the Hannover Messe is known as one of the leading industrial trade fairs worldwide.

This year’s trade fair also featured more than 500 exhibitors from the hydrogen and fuel cell industry, presenting their energy solution innovations.

At the opening ceremony of the trade affair, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the skyrocketing energy prices in the past few years have taken a massive toll on Germany’s economy, although wholesale prices for gas and electricity have recently returned to the pre-energy crisis levels.

He noted that the contribution of German industries to economic growth and employment remains unbroken even during the energy transformation.

“The key to transformation is to produce more electricity in a climate-friendly manner and at an affordable price,” said Scholz, adding that the government would strive to produce 80 percent of electricity from renewable solar and wind energy.

(With input from Xinhua)

The opening ceremony of the eighth China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing, China, April 27, 2024. /CGTN

The opening ceremony of the eighth China Science Fiction Convention in Beijing, China, April 27, 2024. /CGTN

“Dream of the Future,” an interactive short science fiction film integrating sound and light technology, kicked off the eighth China Science Fiction Convention on Saturday.

The opening ceremony was held at the No. 1 Blast Furnace SoReal Science Fiction Park in Shougang Park, Beijing. The venue, formerly a deserted furnace, has been turned into a “space starship” equipped with innovations such as Extended Reality or XR, space computing, and digital twin technology. 

The event incorporated cutting-edge technologies including holographic imaging, artificial intelligence and motion capture to create an immersive science fiction experience.

In recent years, Beijing has developed the science fiction industry across the entire chain, promoting the transformation of Shijingshan Shougang Park from a conference venue to China’s first science fiction industry cluster, attracting more than 200 related companies from around the country.

Over the past five years, around 50 percent of China’s science fiction film and television productions and 40 percent of science fiction books were produced in Beijing. The science fiction industry is an important starting point for the development of “new quality productive forces.”

Beijing has been accelerating the construction of common technology platforms such as the Zhongguancun Science Fiction Industry Innovation Center, facilitating the use of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence large language models to better support the upgrading and development of the science fiction industry.

Beijing has also stepped up the construction of science fiction master studios, encouraging the creation of more high-quality literature, film and television works. It continues to provide support for the expansion of Shougang Park as a science fiction industry cluster, and is implementing industry development action plans to attract more leading companies and key projects.

The China Science Fiction Convention, held in Shougang Park, Shijingshan District, will run until April 29 in conjunction with the annual Zhongguancun Forum. Under the theme “Scientific Dreams, Creating the Future” the event features eighteen activities across four sections, including the opening ceremony, forum meetings, industry promotion activities and a science fiction film week. The aim is to contribute to the construction of the Beijing International Science and Fiction Center while promoting the high-quality development of the science fiction industry in China.

02:03

An exquisite display of Chinese ink paintings by French philosopher Benoît Vermander graces the halls of Fudan University in Shanghai’s Yangpu District, marking a unique intersection of artistic traditions.

Featuring over 60 captivating pieces, Vermander’s exhibition at Fudan University offers viewers a glimpse into his decade-long exploration of the ever-changing nature of existence. Drawing inspiration from the fluidity of life itself, Vermander’s works evoke a dynamic ebb and flow akin to the waves of the sea or the vastness of the desert.

Influenced by renowned French artists such as Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, Vermander seamlessly integrates elements of Chinese ink painting into his oeuvre. Despite residing in Shanghai for the past 15 years, his journey into Chinese artistry began in 1987 during his initial visit to China. It was during his immersive experiences in Taiwan and Sichuan in the 1990s that he delved into the techniques of Chinese painting, laying the foundation for his distinctive style.

Reflecting on his artistic evolution, Vermander emphasizes the deep influence of both Chinese and French artistic traditions. He credits China for instilling in him the courage to pursue painting and says his exploration of calligraphy in China ignited his passion for visual expression.

Visitors to the exhibition can note the seamless fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics in Vermander’s works. Delving into traditional Chinese ink painting techniques, his pieces depict landscapes adorned with features like water and mountains, evoking a deep appreciation for Chinese culture. Yet, interspersed within are unmistakable Western motifs, such as birds and monochromatic elephants, characterized by a contemporary design sensibility.