CHINA TO SEE SURGE IN TRAIN TRIPS AS HOLIDAY DRAWS TO CLOSE

China will see a surge in train trips on Thursday as an eight-day national holiday draws to a close, according to the China State Railway Group Co Ltd.

On Thursday, 13 million train trips are expected, and 1,234 additional trains have been put into operation to handle the spike in trips involving tourism and family visits.

China's daily train trips had exceeded 10 million for eight consecutive days by Wednesday, the railway operator said.

China celebrates its National Day on Oct 1, and the weeklong holiday this year has been extended to Oct 8 as it overlapped with the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional festival symbolizing family reunion that falls on Aug 15 on the lunar calendar.

Due to COVID-19, self-driving tours have grown popular in the holiday, bringing more road travel risks. Before the festival, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism had predicted the proportion of self-driving trips would exceed 60 percent during the holiday.

The office of the State Council production safety committee and the Ministry of Emergency Management on Tuesday held a virtual meeting to boost safety precautions during the holiday.

The meeting stressed traffic flow was heavy, and road transport safety risks were high during the holiday, with high risks of rear-end collision on expressways and more accidents involving private vehicles such as motorcycles.

The Ministry of Public Security also held a virtual meeting on Tuesday to further boost traffic safety for the remaining holiday.

MULTINATIONALS STEP UP INVESTMENT IN CHINA

Foreign multinational companies are stepping up investment activities in China this year, noting its economic resilience reflected by its quick recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and its huge market potential, according to industry insiders.

Felix Gutsche, president and CEO of the China branch of Boehringer Ingelheim, said the company will continue to direct investment to China as it is "a market of the present and of the future".

Entering China 25 years ago, and as one of the fastest growing multinationals in the country, the company, headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, plans to invest more than 450 million euros ($529 million) in China over the next five years across its main business areas, including pharmaceuticals, animal health, and biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing.

Gutsche said the investments will go into production sites, research sites and clinical development. The company has entered a fourth business in China, called healthcare solutions, to provide services with a stroke rehabilitation clinic in Shanghai.

"I think we probably all realize that the Chinese economy is projected to be the only economy that will have positive growth at the end of the year, which is a very good news, particularly in times of COVID-19," he said.

With all of its clinical programs globally coming to China, Boehringer Ingelheim is continuously investing in research collaborations.

In July, it opened in Shanghai the first branch of its digital lab, BI X, outside Germany because it believes China is one of the fastest developing markets for digital solutions.

Also, in July, Boehringer Ingelheim launched in Shanghai its External Innovation Hub China, which is expected to consolidate the company's innovation capability while tapping into the unique technologies and expertise of partners in multiple fields.

The hub will identify new technologies, propel them into the research and development pipeline and leverage venture funds to accelerate transforming results into products that benefit patients.

Shi Lichen, founder of Beijing Dingchen Consultancy, said China's pharmaceutical market, second only to that of the United States, has the greatest potential in the world due to the large population and to business opportunities arising from China's ever-deepening reform and opening-up.

"The domestic market is restructuring, with a focus on high-quality development and innovation, which is creating room for further cooperation between domestic and foreign companies," he said.

As China has been rolling out policy measures to ensure stability in employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, domestic investment and market expectations, it has been sharing markets and opportunities with foreign investors.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland grew 18.7 percent year-on-year to $12.3 billion in August, the fifth successive monthly increase.

Herbalife Nutrition, of the US, said it will open a Herbalife Nutrition Product Innovation Center by end of the year in Shanghai, its first product innovation center globally, with investments totaling $14.7 million.

It has accelerated new product launches in China since the second half of last year and expects to double its new products launched in China within five years, owing to the huge consumer market.

YOUTHFUL BUSINESSES BOOST POVERTY RELIEF IN YUNNAN TOWNSHIP

Ding Shanghua used to work in Dongguan, Guangdong province, one of the most developed coastal regions in China. But several years ago he chose to go back to Dulongjiang township in Southwest China's Yunnan's province, the place where he grew up.

The township was once one of the poorest areas in China, without paved roads or electricity, and people there lived in straw huts that leaked when it rained.

What drew Ding back? What are the factors contributing to Dulongjiang's development? And what is Dulongjiang township like now? Check out this video to find more.

LUCID WATERS, LUSH MOUNTAINS BRINGING RICHES TO VILLAGERS

As a hidden gem in the Daba Mountains, Chengkou county in northernmost Chongqing is the least known place in the municipality. It is the only county in Chongqing which cannot be reached by expressway so far.

Bordering the provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan to the north and west respectively, the county is a major corridor connecting the Qinling and Daba mountains with a history dating back to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC).

The geographic barriers led to poverty for Chengkou people in the past, but they also helped to preserve natural beauty and a traditional way of life.

In recent years, this isolated county has stuck to the path of green and sustainable development and transformed its lush mountains into mounds of gold and silver by developing tourism-related industries.

The Daba Mountains is a range in central China positioned between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers.

Environmental preservation is the priority of Chengkou as some 35 percent of the county sits in the Dabashan National Nature Reserve and about 63 percent of its land is within the ecological protection red line.

With about 70 percent forest coverage, nearly 90 percent of the county is in the mountains. Altogether, it boasts more than 4,900 kinds of animals and plants.

In 2013, Chinese Meteorological Society named Chengkou as "an ecoclimate pearl of China", thanks to its sound ecosystem, unique natural environment as well as diversified ecological and meteorological landscape.

But it was also a national-level poverty-stricken county with 15.6 percent of its people living below the poverty line at the end of 2014.

"Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets." This line put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2005 when he was the Party chief of Zhejiang province has evolved into a guideline for the country's quest for a greener future through sustainable development.

Guided by this concept, Chengkou finally found its way out of poverty.

"Considering the environmental protection and local conditions, we decided to make tourism one of our pillar industries," said Kan Jilin, Party chief of the county.

While maintaining a model ecological environment, the county achieved economic development. The poverty rate dropped to 0.42 percent in February, marking an exit from the national-level poverty stricken counties list.

LEADERS BACK BAN ON 'BLACK SHEEP' TEACHER

The deregistration of a Hong Kong teacher for designing teaching materials for a primary school curriculum that promoted separatism is a warning to the "black sheep" of its education sector, political and legal heavyweights said on Wednesday.

They urged schools and teachers to shoulder their responsibilities, draw a clear line against promoting "Hong Kong independence" and stay clear of acts that could pose a danger to national security.

Their remarks came after Hong Kong's Education Bureau announced on Monday that a teacher at Alliance Primary School Kowloon Tong had been permanently disqualified from teaching for deliberately designing a comprehensive lesson plan to teach his Primary 5 students about "Hong Kong independence" and the manifestoes of a now outlawed local separatist party in March last year.

The case occurred before Hong Kong's National Security Law came into effect on June 30. Kevin Yeung Yun-hung, Hong Kong's secretary for education, said on Tuesday that law is not retroactive but warned that teachers who advocate separatism in the future could face criminal investigation.

He said his bureau will talk to Hong Kong's Security Bureau and the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region about how to handle similar cases in the future.

Lawrence Ma Yan-kwok, a barrister and chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation said it will be necessary to refer cases to the law enforcement agencies if the Education Bureau finds similar acts suspected of violating the National Security Law in the future as the bureau lacks the legal knowledge to determine whether such acts break the law or not.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Chief Secretary for Administration Mathew Cheung Kin-chung threw their weight behind the Education Bureau's decision to oust the teacher for life.

WALKING ENTHUSIASTS IN STEP WITH NATION'S HEALTH PUSH

Accompanied by rhythmic music, Liu Shuangyao and dozens of his cohorts line up, evenly spaced, and walk in an orderly fashion along the banks of Labor Lake in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province.

Every day, the fitness enthusiast and his friends follow the same routine−always moving with a purpose and at a steady pace.

"There were a lot of people walking by Labor Lake, but everyone walked in different ways and at different speeds," explained Liu. "I used to play with my cell phone while walking. It was not easy to achieve my purpose of gaining fitness." In order to increase the intensity, Liu hung a small speaker from his waist to play rhythmic music, and fixed his walking speed.

"Later there were more and more people following me," Liu said. One of those is Li Meng.

"My knee is injured and I am not suited to running, so walking is very suitable for me, especially when I am driven on by music," said the 34-year-old Li.

"I don't want to be left behind when I walk alongside other people. Doing an hour of exercise will make me sweat a lot."

The daily gathering of walkers in the northeastern city has developed something of a community feel.

"Every day we exercise at a fixed time, one person and one position, it is easy to find who is not here," said Liu.

As well as Liu's group, there are many other walking 'teams' at Labor Lake. As Chinese people pay more attention to their health, many are choosing walking as their preferred method of exercise.

In Fujin, also located in Heilongjiang, two signs in the middle of the city square display the words: "Starting Point" and "End Point" respectively. Between the signs is a fitness trail that is hundreds of meters long, attracting many citizens to amble along it.

There are many water systems in Heilongjiang, and the riverside of each city is an important place for local people to exercise.

In Harbin, Jiamusi and Hegang, people can often be seen walking along rivers in the evening. The local government often organizes large-scale walking activities along rivers to attract more people to participate in exercise.

In order to better meet people's fitness needs, several new sports parks have been built in many cities in Heilongjiang province for people to walk in.

In Harbin, the government converted a golf course into a free sports park, with thousands of meters of fitness trails shuttled around the park and covered with shock-absorbing plastic.

Many cities have also converted shanty towns and abandoned factories into comprehensive fitness venues.

National Fitness Day was inaugurated on Aug 8, 2008−the opening date of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. With each passing year, mass sports and fitness continue to develop rapidly in China, strongly aided by government policies.

Today, the number of people in China who regularly participate in physical exercise is about 400 million, and there are more than 3 million sports venues across the country.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Friends are the family we choose ourselves. - Edna Buchman