Category: Uncategorized

By Yuan Taoxiong, People’s Daily
Digital technology-assisted conservation of ancient city wall in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi province, was recently listed among the top-10 cases of digital innovation in the Chinese culture and tourism industry of 2022.
Assisted by digital technologies, the ancient city wall in the Chinese city is showing its attractiveness in more diverse aspects.
The ancient ramparts trace back to more than 1,400 years ago. As the city develops, they are now surrounded by busy commercial districts, and there are metro lines that cross them underground.
The conservation of the city wall is about not only the wall itself but also its wooden annexes and the city moat. Today, the digital technologies that are employed to protect the city wall are like sentries that never feel fatigue.
On the path over the Yongning Gate, the south gate of the ancient city wall, there are three small cylinders every few dozens of meters.
“They are vertical in-place inclinometers, which are able to precisely monitor the horizontal displacement of the inner wall of the barbican at the gate,” said Xie Zhiyuan, who works for the management committee of the Xi’an city wall.
According to Xie, devices are installed in all sections of the city wall that stretches 13,74 kilometers to monitor the safety of the wall and annexes.
“We have designated 31 underwater monitoring sites along the moat and set up vibration monitoring points at the gates that metro lines cross. These digital devices offer massive data and lay a solid foundation for targeted conservation of the city wall,” said Gao Heng, head of the cultural relics preservation and tourism department of the Xi’an city wall management committee.
Based on the data collected by the devices, the management committee built a warning system that sets four warning thresholds for the settlement and cracking of the city wall, Gao told People’s Daily, adding that response measures will be taken according to different levels of warning.
From adopting simplistic and palliative approaches to taking preventative measures, Xi’an’s city wall conservation has gone through fundamental transformation with the assistance of digital and information technologies, Gao said.
“We’ll further exploit 3D-scanning and automatic monitoring technologies to extend the life of the city wall,” Gao noted.
“It’s so high,” shouted tourist Zhao Yan, wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and closely holding the hands of her friend. A drone had already flown far outside the glass ceilings above her head and begun filming the magnificent view of the city wall from above.
Apart from bikes, electric bikes, and rowing boats, VR drones have expanded the options for sightseeing along the city wall.
According to an employee of the city wall scenic area, the drones are remotely controlled by a cloud platform and very popular among tourists.
At the information center of the Xi’an city wall management committee, there’s a big screen that shows real-time passenger volume, temperature, and other statistics. The center has a big data management platform that is connected to over 1,000 sets of security equipment, which are able to monitor cultural relics preservation, record passenger flow, and perform other monitoring tasks.
“It’s necessary to upgrade cultural and tourism resources with digital means. Intelligent transformation of scenic spots brings newer experiences to tourists and makes management more efficient,” said Su Ning, general manager of Xi’an Qujiang City Wall Tourism Development Company Ltd.
Today, the development of online museums is creating opportunities for tourists who cannot make in-person visits.
A relics museum near the Hanguang Gate of the Xi’an city wall has made a digital replica of itself in a mini program based on 3D data capture. It also developed a H5 game that has aroused the interest of many children in the city wall.
“Novel digital cultural products can better enhance the public’s sense of identity for and pride in traditional culture. We’ll keep working to find what tourists like based on digital information and better promote and display cultural relics with digital technologies,” Gao said

By Luo Shanshan, People’s Daily

Jan. 1 this year marked the first anniversary of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Over the past year, China advanced high-quality implementation of this world’s largest trade deal and the policy dividends of the deal kept releasing, which effectively promoted regional economic integration.
In a smart workshop of Zhejiang Cayi Vacuum Container Co., Ltd. in east China’s Zhejiang province, thermal cups were rolling off the production line and ready to be shipped to European and Asian markets. Last year, the company’s exports exceeded $100 million.
“In early 2022, we got the first RCEP certificate of origin in Zhejiang province, and the tariff rate for our thermal cups to be exported to Japan was reduced to 3.2 percent from 3.9 percent. It saved us over 200,000 yuan ($29,498) last year,” said Gu Lili, manager of the company’s foreign trade department.
According to Gu, the rate has been further lowered to 2.8 percent this year, which makes the company’s products more competitive.
“We are confident in further expanding our exports,” she said.
The reduced cost brought about by lowering tariffs is the most direct benefit of the RCEP for enterprises. According to the trade pact, more than 90 percent of merchandise trade among members that have approved the agreement will eventually be subject to zero tariffs. Those include immediate cutting of tariffs to zero and cutting of tariffs to zero gradually in 10 years. This has significantly boosted the will for trade in the region.
In recent years, China has seen an increase in the number of fruits imported from ASEAN countries. Since the RCEP took effect, agricultural trade between its members has become closer and more frequent. A large number of fruits, such as bananas from Myanmar, longans from Cambodia, and durians from Vietnam, are entering the Chinese market and enriching the choices of Chinese consumers.
Yuan Bo, associate director of the institute of Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told People’s Daily that RCEP tariff cuts and trade facilitation measures have brought tangible benefits to enterprises, and RCEP members now stand as an important market for Chinese enterprises and an important source of imports from China.
According to the General Administration of Customs, China’s trade with the other 14 RCEP member countries reached 12.95 trillion yuan last year, up 7.5 percent and accounting for 30.8 percent of its total foreign trade.
The country achieved double-digit trade growth with eight RCEP members. In particular, that with Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos was over 20 percent.
Experts believe that RCEP members enjoy high economic complementarity, and the region features complete capital, technological, and labor factors.
Thanks to the accumulation of origin, facilitation of customs procedures and trade, as well as negative list-led investment liberation, RCEP members have further lowered market access for commodities, services, and investment. It promotes the free flow of economic factors in the region and strengthens the division of labor and cooperation among members, thus making industrial and supply chains more reasonable.
The favorable policies under the RCEP framework have constantly enhanced industrial cooperation and increased direct investment between RCEP member countries. Last year, China’s imports and exports of intermediate products to other RCEP member countries reached 8.7 trillion yuan, an 8.5 percent increase, accounting for 67.2 percent of China’s total imports and exports with other RCEP member countries in the same period.
It’s noteworthy that the implementation of the RCEP has brought fiercer market competition to some Chinese enterprises. To promote high-quality implementation of the RCEP, China must build its international competitiveness.
“Though the RCEP has been in effect for only around a year, it has done a good job in facilitating trade, integrating industrial chains, making regional development more attractive, and benefiting small- and medium-sized enterprises and citizens with development results,” said Gu Qingyang, associate professor with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Nanyang Technological University.
He believes that China plays an important role in the RCEP, and the country’s robust economic growth in the future will create broader room of development for the trade deal.
It is believed that as RCEP members further fulfill their promises to open up under the trade pact, the potential for regional economy and trade will be further activated and thus contribute more to global economic and trade recovery.

By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily
The current U.S. administration has been obsessed with building “small circles” around the world in an attempt to contain China, slow and even hinder China’s development.
The practices, including fueling group politics and provoking bloc confrontation, run against the trend of the times and have aroused wide concerns of the international community.
More and more U.S. allies have realized that blindly following in the footsteps to oppose China will lead them nowhere. Instead, keeping the U.S.’ China policy at arm’s length and strengthening strategic autonomy is in their own interests, and adopting rational and pragmatic policy toward China is the right way.
Insisting on regarding China as its imaginary enemy, the U.S. has identified China as “America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge”.
U.S. politicians have hyped up the so-called “China threat” all over the world and sown discord between China and relevant countries. By taking advantage of allies’ traditional reliance on the U.S., it has taken a carrot-and-stick approach to persuade and even coerce its allies to choose sides.
The U.S. has concocted the so-called “democracy versus authoritarianism” narrative, attempting to create an alliance in a bid to expand its military bloc.
Such practices of the U.S. aimed at provoking bloc confrontation have posed serious challenges to the stability of international order and threatened the peace and security of the Asia-Pacific region and the world.
When it talked about “allies”, “values”, and “international rules”, what the U.S. is truly thinking about are “America’s interests”, “America First”, and “American hegemony”.
The country has taken submarine orders worth tens of billions of U.S. dollars away from France, introduced the Inflation Reduction Act to protect and even expand its manufacturing in a way that has almost bled the European manufacturing dry and recklessly forced its allies into “decoupling” from China.
Facts have proved that the U.S. regards its allies merely as its pawns and takes for granted that the interests of its allies must give way to the selfish interests of American hegemony.
As John Menadue, former Australian Ambassador to Japan, put it bluntly, the U.S. is a “dangerous, erratic and risky ally.”
America has always wanted to maintain a technological edge over other economic powers, and these days, however, it is pursuing that goal in a new way: “We have moved from a ‘run faster’ to a ‘run faster and trip the other guy’ policy,” pointed out an article published on the website of British weekly magazine The Economist.
History has proved time and again that confrontation only brings catastrophic consequences. The U.S.’ attempt to contain and suppress China by copying the old “Cold War playbook” represents its serious misjudgment of the international situation and the trend of the times.
The world is no longer what it used to be. Today, the interests of countries are deeply entwined. As the proverb goes, “One who tries to blow out other’s oil lamp will get his beard on fire.”
Protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one; they ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one’s own. Even worse are the practices of hegemony and bullying, which run counter to the tide of history.
A stable international order is a global public good that is essential for every country. Deliberately provoking confrontation and creating divisions will only damage the common interests of the international community.
As a major trading partner for more than 140 countries and regions, China has been deeply integrated into the world economy and international systems. Isolating China and limiting cooperation with China serves no one’s interests and will by no means become a reality.
China’s development generates opportunities for world peace and development. The wishful thinking of certain people in the U.S. to contain China can find no support in the international community.
As many far-sighted personages, including former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, pointed out, nearly two-thirds of countries trade more with China than with the U.S. Instead of decoupling or deintegrating, many countries are deepening their trade with China.
Many of the U.S.’ allies have realized that the Cold War mentality is outdated and that following the U.S. in provoking a new Cold War does not conform to their interests.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on China and the U.S. to avoid confrontation and stressed that the China-U.S. power struggle poses a huge risk and challenge.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said China is an important trading partner for Germany and for Europe as a whole, and that Germany firmly supports trade liberalization, supports economic globalization, and opposes decoupling.
Germany stands ready for closer trade and economic cooperation with China, and supports more mutual investment by Chinese and German businesses, he said, noting that a multi-polar world is needed and that Germany opposes bloc confrontation.
China does not pursue expansion, pointed out President of the European Council Charles Michel, noting that China is an important partner for upholding the purposes of the UN Charter and supporting multilateralism.
The EU is ready to become a reliable and predictable cooperation partner for China, Michel said.
Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have also stayed vigilant to U.S.’ provocation of bloc confrontation.
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC) Nguyen Phu Trong emphasized that Vietnam will not allow any country to establish a military base in Vietnam, or join any military alliance, or use force against any country, or work with one country to oppose another.
Leaders of the Philippines, Thailand, and other Asia-Pacific countries have also made it clear that they will not choose sides between China and the U.S.
The U.S. should let go of its obsession with the Cold War. It should understand that the American hegemony can find no support, bloc confrontation would only lead to a dead end, building “a small yard with high fences” would result in isolation and retrogression, and “decoupling” would hurt others without benefiting itself.
It should adopt a calm, rational, and realistic attitude toward its relations with China and stop containing and suppressing China. In particular, it should truly put into practice its promise that the U.S. side has no intention to seek “de-coupling” from China, to halt China’s economic development, or to contain China.
As a major country in the world, the U.S. ought to shoulder its due responsibilities for the peaceful development of the world.

By He Yin, People’s Daily
The strong economic vitality shown in China during the Chinese New Year holiday heralded a rebound of the Chinese economy in 2023.
The country will keep injecting confidence and impetus into the stable progress and recovery of the world ecomomy.
This year’s Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, was the first one after China optimized its COVID-19 response. It attracted high attention from the international media. The country’s recovering tourism sector, rising box office, booming catering industry, and busy travel rush, in the eyes of foreign media outlets, all indicated the energy and vitality of consumption as well as strong impetus of economic recovery.
During the Chinese New Year holiday, about 226 million railway, road, waterway and air passenger trips were made in China. The country measured about 308 million domestic tourist visits, up 23.1 percent year on year, with its domestic tourism revenue increasing 30 percent from a year ago to hit 375.84 billion yuan ($55.4 billion). The holiday box office sold 129 million tickets totaling 6.7 billion yuan, up 13.16 percent. Besides, sales revenue of China’s consumption-related sectors rose 12.2 percent from the same holiday period in 2022 and 12.4 percent from that in 2019.
The remarkable performance fully indicated the resilience, potential and vitality of the Chinese economy. A foreign research institution said the country’s demand is being released as people swarm to tourist sites, restaurants and hotels. International public opinion holds that China is now well prepared to speed up its economy.
Such energy reinforced the international community’s confidence in the country’s economic prospects.
Recently, many international institutions and investment banks have lifted their forecasts on China’s economic growth in 2023, claming that the country’s faster growth will forcefully drive global recovery.
The United Nations, in its report World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023, projected that world output growth will decelerate to 1.9 percent this year, but China’s economic growth will accelerate as a result of the country’s efforts to optimize COVID-19 response and adopt favorable economic policies. The report said China’s economic recovery will assist the growth of the whole region.
The latest Global Fund Manager Survey by the Bank of America said growth expectations for China are at a 17-year high. Financial Times reported that investors are piling into emerging market stocks and bonds at a near-record rate and most of them are investing in China.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said China’s successful economic reopening is very likely the single most important factor for global growth in 2023.
China’s economic energy strengthened the resilience and dynamics for global recovery and development. As China optimized its COVID-19 response and resumed outbound tourism for Chinese citizens, many Chinese people went abroad for vacation, which brought important benefits to local tourism and even economic recovery of the destinations.
With local traditional songs and dances, Indonesia’s famed resort island of Bali welcomed back the first batch of Chinese tourists by charter flight after the Chinese government optimize its COVID-19 rules, and Maldives welcomed the first direct flight from China with a water cannon salute at the Velana International Airport.
Besides, officials of Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia received Chinese tourists at airports in person, and the Jungfrau ski region in Switzerland made a rabbit ice sculpture for Chinese tourists and decorated cableway stations with Chinese New Year ornaments and red lanterns.
Reuters said Chinese tourists have always been a pillar of global retail and tourism industries, and their comeback will no doubt revive the global tourism that had been severely impacted.
According to a recent report issued by the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office, the rising number of Chinese outbound tourists is expected to boost economic growth in the region.
Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings also believes that the resumption of outbound tourism in China will revitalize the growth prospects for economies that enjoy developed tourism.
As China has entered a new phase of COVID-19 response and accelerated the resumption of work and life, it will see strengthened internal forces driving economic growth and constant releasing of dividends from deepening reform and opening up.
The Chinese economy will continue demonstrating strong resilience, enormous potential and huge vitality, and will inject confidence and impetus into the stable progress and recovery of the world economy, despite the complex and unpredictable international situation and bigger downward pressure on global economy.

By Wang Jue, People’s Daily
Yangzhou, a city in east China’s Jiangsu province, known as “capital of guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither),” is seeing thriving development of the musical instrument manufacturing industry, frequent guzheng-playing competitions, as well as vibrant exchange and training activities of the ancient Chinese musical instrument.
Over the recent years, the city has been leveraging technology for better development of the guzheng manufacturing sector.
Xiong Liqun, honorary president of the Yangzhou City Guzheng Association, has developed an electric guzheng. Different from traditional models, the electric one is made of environment-friendly composite materials, which makes the instrument lighter and more portable.
Besides, the electric guzheng comes with a worm drive tuning device that makes tuning much more easier. In addition, the instrument can be connected to earphones and speakers to avoid disturbing neighbors while playing and to ensure clear sound in big classrooms.
Xiong has not only redesigned the appearance of guzheng but also developed an artificial intelligence teaching system that makes guzheng teaching convenient, interesting, and more efficient.
Jia Hongliu, a guzheng manufacturer from Yangzhou’s 486 Intangible Cultural Heritage Center, has also invented an intelligent teaching support system, which can recognize and rate guzheng sound quality, finger exercise, and playing posture. It supports guzheng teaching with interactive projection, as well as audio and video materials, and enables tuning through smart string recognition and projection calibration technologies.
“We hope to make breakthroughs in guzheng teaching with the latest technologies, so as to better popularize the instrument,” said Jia.
After some 40 years of development, Yangzhou now stands as the largest guzheng manufacturing base and cultural base in China.
Li Tongzhi, president of the Yangzhou City Guzheng Association, told People’s Daily that Yangzhou is home to over 280 enterprises engaged in the guzheng industry. Each year, the city produces around 650,000 sets of guzheng, 65,000 sets of guqin, another type of plucked string Chinese musical instrument, and more than a million sets of guqin and guzheng accessories.
About 20 of these enterprises boast annual income of 10 million yuan ($1.48 million), and three rank among the top 50 musical instrument makers in China.
Relevant industries are prospering in the city because of the sound development of guzheng manufacturing. At present, there are more than 80 enterprises in Yangzhou involved in the making of guzheng accessories, such as radens, jade, cases, stands, strings, and hardware. Besides, the city receives over 100,000 tourists attending guzheng activities on an annual basis, which has facilitated consumption in catering, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, culture, and training. According to incomplete statistics, more than 25,000 people in Yangzhou are engaged in the guzheng industry.
Yangzhou is home to more than 100 guzheng training facilities and millions of guzheng learners. It has launched a campaign that encourages every elementary and middle school in the city to open extracurricular courses about intangible cultural heritage items, such as guzheng, guqin, Yangzhou opera, oral performing arts, and puppetry. The campaign helps introduce guzheng to more people and will lay a solid foundation for the future development of the instrument.
It is culture and craftsmanship that vitalize Yangzhou’s guzheng manufacturing, and now technology is leading the traditional Chinese musical instrument to a brighter future. The guzheng industry of Yangzhou is bound to see further improvement as it is inherited, popularized, and expands its influence both in China and in the rest of the world.

By Liu Zhiqiang, Qiu Chaoyi, People’s Daily

A rebound in travel and consumption during the 2023 Spring Festival illustrates the resilience of the Chinese economy.
The 2023 Spring Festival was the first public holiday held since China downgraded its management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B on Jan 8.
Spring Festival couplets, temple fairs and Chinese New Year decorations were seen everywhere, bringing back the Spring Festival vibes that people missed in the past a few years.
The increasing numbers of orders received by enterprises, expanded production capacity, rebound of the catering industry and recovery of the tourism sector all indicated accelerated resumption of work and life.
People were seen returning home by high-speed rail, by plane and by bus to reunite with their families and friends. The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as “the largest annual human migration on earth”, was in place again.
During the 2023 Spring Festival, the Beijing Daxing International Airport opened all of its nearly 200 gate positions, and over 40 flights landed on and took off from the airport every hour. Besides, the airport was seeing over 110,000 passengers per day on average during the festival.
At the Zhengzhou East Railway Station, a big hub of China’s high-speed rail in Henan province, 120,000 passengers were seen taking trains each day during the Spring Festival holiday.
During the week-long holiday which started on Jan. 21 and ended on Jan. 27, about 226 million railway, road, waterway and air passenger trips were made in China, obviously higher from a year ago.
The Chinese movie box office made a strong comeback.
At 10:00 am on Jan. 22, the first day of the Chinese New Year, the tickets of many showings at a cinema in Huaxian county, Henan province, were already sold out.
“Fortunately I booked my tickets yesterday,” said citizen Xu Yan who went to the cinema to watch movies, adding that a number of blockbusters were hitting the theaters during the Spring Festival holiday.
According to statistics released by China Film Administration on Jan. 28, China’s movie box office revenue reached nearly 6.76 billion yuan (about $998.5 million) during the Spring Festival holiday this year, making for the second-highest gross figures for this holiday to date.
The Chinese consumer market was booming.
In Yujiang district, Yingtan, east China’s Jiangxi province, a home appliance store launched a grand promotional event and attracted large numbers of consumers. “Consumers can get a 300-yuan voucher for every payment of 3,000 yuan,” said Chen Zhihua, who shopped at the store, adding that the promotion saved him 600 yuan.
During the Chinese New Year holiday, the 480 stores of Wanda Plaza, a Chinese commercial building chain, saw a total of 160 million visits and reported revenue of 12.68 billion yuan. Both figures hit a record high in history.
Tourist attractions across China were crowded.
“I finally made the trip that I have dreamed about so long,” said tourist Zhang Yile in the Harbin Ice-Snow World in northeast Heilongjiang province, where splendid ice sculptures were on display.
During the holiday, beaches in Sanya, south China’s Hainan province were packed, and the Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City, a commercial pedestrian street in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi province, had to set restrictions on the number of visitors because of the huge influx of tourists. Besides, the outbound tourism market was also on a fast recovery.
Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region received over 4.78 million visits during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, up 32.79 percent year on year, according to the regional culture and tourism department.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism estimated that 308 million domestic trips were made in China during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, up 23.1 percent year on year, recovering to 88.6 percent of the 2019 level.
“The demand for catering, accommodation, traveling, tourism and entertainment released fast during the Spring Festival holiday, which led to obvious recovery of the offline retailing, catering and hospitality, and culture and tourism industries. It demonstrated the strong resilience and huge opportunities of the Chinese market,” said Yang Guangpu, associate researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.
The country will take recovering and expanding consumption as a priority in the new year, to constantly release the potential of its domestic demand and inject strong impetus into economic development, Yang added

By Liu Zhiqiang, Qiu Chaoyi, People’s Daily

A rebound in travel and consumption during the 2023 Spring Festival illustrates the resilience of the Chinese economy.
The 2023 Spring Festival was the first public holiday held since China downgraded its management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B on Jan 8.
Spring Festival couplets, temple fairs and Chinese New Year decorations were seen everywhere, bringing back the Spring Festival vibes that people missed in the past a few years.
The increasing numbers of orders received by enterprises, expanded production capacity, rebound of the catering industry and recovery of the tourism sector all indicated accelerated resumption of work and life.
People were seen returning home by high-speed rail, by plane and by bus to reunite with their families and friends. The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as “the largest annual human migration on earth”, was in place again.
During the 2023 Spring Festival, the Beijing Daxing International Airport opened all of its nearly 200 gate positions, and over 40 flights landed on and took off from the airport every hour. Besides, the airport was seeing over 110,000 passengers per day on average during the festival.
At the Zhengzhou East Railway Station, a big hub of China’s high-speed rail in Henan province, 120,000 passengers were seen taking trains each day during the Spring Festival holiday.
During the week-long holiday which started on Jan. 21 and ended on Jan. 27, about 226 million railway, road, waterway and air passenger trips were made in China, obviously higher from a year ago.
The Chinese movie box office made a strong comeback.
At 10:00 am on Jan. 22, the first day of the Chinese New Year, the tickets of many showings at a cinema in Huaxian county, Henan province, were already sold out.
“Fortunately I booked my tickets yesterday,” said citizen Xu Yan who went to the cinema to watch movies, adding that a number of blockbusters were hitting the theaters during the Spring Festival holiday.
According to statistics released by China Film Administration on Jan. 28, China’s movie box office revenue reached nearly 6.76 billion yuan (about $998.5 million) during the Spring Festival holiday this year, making for the second-highest gross figures for this holiday to date.
The Chinese consumer market was booming.
In Yujiang district, Yingtan, east China’s Jiangxi province, a home appliance store launched a grand promotional event and attracted large numbers of consumers. “Consumers can get a 300-yuan voucher for every payment of 3,000 yuan,” said Chen Zhihua, who shopped at the store, adding that the promotion saved him 600 yuan.
During the Chinese New Year holiday, the 480 stores of Wanda Plaza, a Chinese commercial building chain, saw a total of 160 million visits and reported revenue of 12.68 billion yuan. Both figures hit a record high in history.
Tourist attractions across China were crowded.
“I finally made the trip that I have dreamed about so long,” said tourist Zhang Yile in the Harbin Ice-Snow World in northeast Heilongjiang province, where splendid ice sculptures were on display.
During the holiday, beaches in Sanya, south China’s Hainan province were packed, and the Grand Tang Dynasty Ever Bright City, a commercial pedestrian street in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi province, had to set restrictions on the number of visitors because of the huge influx of tourists. Besides, the outbound tourism market was also on a fast recovery.
Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region received over 4.78 million visits during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, up 32.79 percent year on year, according to the regional culture and tourism department.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism estimated that 308 million domestic trips were made in China during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, up 23.1 percent year on year, recovering to 88.6 percent of the 2019 level.
“The demand for catering, accommodation, traveling, tourism and entertainment released fast during the Spring Festival holiday, which led to obvious recovery of the offline retailing, catering and hospitality, and culture and tourism industries. It demonstrated the strong resilience and huge opportunities of the Chinese market,” said Yang Guangpu, associate researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council.
The country will take recovering and expanding consumption as a priority in the new year, to constantly release the potential of its domestic demand and inject strong impetus into economic development, Yang added

By Wang Jue, People’s Daily
Yangzhou, a city in east China’s Jiangsu province, known as “capital of guzheng (a Chinese plucked zither),” is seeing thriving development of the musical instrument manufacturing industry, frequent guzheng-playing competitions, as well as vibrant exchange and training activities of the ancient Chinese musical instrument.
Over the recent years, the city has been leveraging technology for better development of the guzheng manufacturing sector.
Xiong Liqun, honorary president of the Yangzhou City Guzheng Association, has developed an electric guzheng. Different from traditional models, the electric one is made of environment-friendly composite materials, which makes the instrument lighter and more portable.
Besides, the electric guzheng comes with a worm drive tuning device that makes tuning much more easier. In addition, the instrument can be connected to earphones and speakers to avoid disturbing neighbors while playing and to ensure clear sound in big classrooms.
Xiong has not only redesigned the appearance of guzheng but also developed an artificial intelligence teaching system that makes guzheng teaching convenient, interesting, and more efficient.
Jia Hongliu, a guzheng manufacturer from Yangzhou’s 486 Intangible Cultural Heritage Center, has also invented an intelligent teaching support system, which can recognize and rate guzheng sound quality, finger exercise, and playing posture. It supports guzheng teaching with interactive projection, as well as audio and video materials, and enables tuning through smart string recognition and projection calibration technologies.
“We hope to make breakthroughs in guzheng teaching with the latest technologies, so as to better popularize the instrument,” said Jia.
After some 40 years of development, Yangzhou now stands as the largest guzheng manufacturing base and cultural base in China.
Li Tongzhi, president of the Yangzhou City Guzheng Association, told People’s Daily that Yangzhou is home to over 280 enterprises engaged in the guzheng industry. Each year, the city produces around 650,000 sets of guzheng, 65,000 sets of guqin, another type of plucked string Chinese musical instrument, and more than a million sets of guqin and guzheng accessories.
About 20 of these enterprises boast annual income of 10 million yuan ($1.48 million), and three rank among the top 50 musical instrument makers in China.
Relevant industries are prospering in the city because of the sound development of guzheng manufacturing. At present, there are more than 80 enterprises in Yangzhou involved in the making of guzheng accessories, such as radens, jade, cases, stands, strings, and hardware. Besides, the city receives over 100,000 tourists attending guzheng activities on an annual basis, which has facilitated consumption in catering, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, culture, and training. According to incomplete statistics, more than 25,000 people in Yangzhou are engaged in the guzheng industry.
Yangzhou is home to more than 100 guzheng training facilities and millions of guzheng learners. It has launched a campaign that encourages every elementary and middle school in the city to open extracurricular courses about intangible cultural heritage items, such as guzheng, guqin, Yangzhou opera, oral performing arts, and puppetry. The campaign helps introduce guzheng to more people and will lay a solid foundation for the future development of the instrument.
It is culture and craftsmanship that vitalize Yangzhou’s guzheng manufacturing, and now technology is leading the traditional Chinese musical instrument to a brighter future. The guzheng industry of Yangzhou is bound to see further improvement as it is inherited, popularized, and expands its influence both in China and in the rest of the world.

By Han Xin, People’s Daily
How much water is used for industrial purposes in China, the world’s largest industrial country?
In 2021, China’s industrial water consumption stood at 104.96 billion cubic meters, which accounted for 17.7 percent of the country’s total water consumption.
China’s water-use efficiency in steel and petrochemical industries has reached the international advanced level though the per capita water resource share in the country is only a quarter of the global average. However, that in some other industries is still seeing room for improvement due to certain reasons such as the backwardness in key technologies and equipment.
With the rapid development of industry, the varieties of industrial products are more diverse and the components of industrial wastewater becoming more complex. Apart from nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended matter, more poisonous and hazardous substances that are difficult to handle have been found in industrial wastewater, such as heavy metal and oil contamination.
Achieving efficient and cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater is key to promoting green development and balancing the supply and demand of water consumption.
After years of efforts, China has made positive progress in the cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater and has seen remarkable results in industrial water conservation.
The discharge of industrial wastewater in the country dropped to 1.34 million tons in 2019 from 2.37 million tons in 2010, a reduction of around 44 percent.
Among industrial enterprises above designated size, or those with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan (about $2.95 million) or more, the recycling rate of industrial water went up from 89 percent in 2015 to 92.9 percent in 2021, and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value in 2020 dropped 39.6 percent compared with 2015.
The recycling rate of industrial water of enterprises above designated size in steel and petrochemical industries stands at 97 percent and 95.2 percent, respectively.
Between 2016 and 2020, key medium- and large-sized iron and steel manufacturers in China reduced wastewater discharge by about 300 million cubic meters and saved 2.1 billion cubic meters of water consumption.
Internal recycling and treatment is the major way of cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater. To tackle the difficulties in the whole process of cyclic utilization, collaborative research in innovations of relevant technologies and equipment are proved to be effective solutions.
An enterprise in Zibo, east China’s Shandong province has launched cooperation with a university to develop technologies that recycle and treat wastewater generated by water jet looms. The enterprise has not only optimized the recycling and treatment of industrial and domestic sewage, but also succeeded in biochemically degrading the sewage, which helps tackle pollution in a targeted manner.
As a result, the recycling rate of industrial water of the enterprise was improved by 6 percent, which saves an annual water cost of 2 million yuan.
Many enterprises are actively exploiting big data, cloud computing and other new-generation information technologies to improve digital management and internet-based collaboration in wastewater recycling and treatment.
In Luzhou, southwest China’s Sichuan province, a chemical enterprise, by installing a monitoring system that covers production links including the reuse of reclaimed water, sewage treatment and circulating water, has basically realized automatic program control.
A big screen in a control room shows whether the industrial wastewater is discharged up to the standard and whether production equipment is running safely. The system can alert users to potential equipment dangers in time, and monitor the cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater in real-time.
In north China’s Tianjin municipality, a steel mill has replaced regular water sources with treated local municipal sewage and reclaimed water from sewage treatment works in nearby towns. The steel mill now achieves zero discharge of wastewater and zero exploitation of groundwater.
Some industrial parks in Beijing have also accelerated their steps of sewage utilization, providing high-quality treated water for production.
“In 2020, the utilization rate of reclaimed water in all Chinese cities stood at around 24 percent. The utilization of urban wastewater treatment is unsatisfactory, which could be further expanded for industrial use,” said Yang Benxiao, senior engineer with the China Electronic Product Reliability and Environmental Testing Research Institute, also known as the Fifth Electronic Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
Yang believes that increasing the use of urban reclaimed water will remain a key direction for industrial enterprises and parks in cyclic utilization of wastewater.
A plan on cyclic utilization of industrial wastewater jointly released by the MIIT and other departments at the end of 2021 noted that by 2025, the utilization rate of industrial water of enterprises above designated size should reach 94 percent, and their water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value should decrease 16 percent compared to 2020, which is expected to build a new paradigm of efficient cyclic utilization in major water-consuming industries.