1. Chinese astronauts enter space station module

The three Chinese astronauts on board the Shenzhou-12 spaceship entered the country's space station core module Tianhe on Thursday. 

Having launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gobi Desert atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, they are expected to stay in space for three months as part of the country's space station mission.

2. Dragon Boat Festival gets China moving

Domestic tourist trips in China during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival were up 94.1 percent on last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said, with more than 89 million trips enjoyed – way up on last year's pandemic-affected numbers. 

One of China's biggest annual festivals, commemorating the death of Chinese poet and politician Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), the Dragon Boat Festival is held on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calendar – which this year was June 14.

3. China hits 900 million vaccinations

China's vaccination program passed another landmark on Monday with more than 900 million doses administered, the National Health Commission (NHC) announced. It is the sixth successive time that China has administered 100 million vaccinations within a week. 

China aims to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the target population by the end of this year, according to Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the NHC. 

4. Replica of the Titanic is being built in China

Perhaps the most famous ship in history is being painstakingly replicated – at full size – for a theme park in Sichuan Province. 

Engineers have confirmed details with Titanic experts to be as faithful as possible to the original, but despite costing $1.5 billion it will never set sail, staying put on safe ground. 

5. The human story behind China's wandering elephants

The epic adventure of 15 wild Asian elephants wandering for hundreds of kilometers through southwest China's Yunnan Province continues to fascinate the world, but it is also raising awareness of the interplay between humans and animals. 

Forestry authorities in Yunnan will compensate residents affected by the trampling elephants, which have top-level protection under Chinese law – and now a new national park may be built to safely house them.

6. Theater in the sea

The inaugural Aranya Theater Festival has been breaking new boundaries in immersive performance – by staging plays on horse ranches, soccer fields and even in the sea. 

The 10-day festival in Qinhuangdao City of north China's Hebei Province shakes up audience expectations with unusual timings and locations: director Chen Minghao's remake of Romeo and Juliet, which started at 3 a.m. on the water's edge with some of the action taking place within the waves. 

7. Historical 'red tourism' popular during holiday season

Red tourism was a popular choice during this year's three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday that ended on Monday, according to China's largest online travel agency Trip.com.

Red tourism refers to historical sites with a modern revolutionary legacy, with travel orders for such destinations up by around 60 percent compared with last year's holiday.

8. Brand new museum for a 1,500-year-old canal

Yangzhou City in eastern China's Jiangsu Province has a new visitor attraction – for a canal started in the 5th century AD. 

The 80,000 square meter Yangzhou China Grand Canal Museum celebrates the Grand Canal, which was designed to help unify communication across China. By the 13th century, it consisted of more than 2,000 kilometers of artificial waterways, linking five of China's main river basins.

9. Farewell to a renowned translator

Xu Yuanchong, China's most renowned master translator, died in Beijing at the age of 100. With his "Three Beauties Theory" – that a language's attractiveness should be conveyed semantically, phonologically and logically – Xu spent more than 60 years translating Chinese literature into English and French, gaining worldwide recognition.

"The greatest joy on earth is to introduce the beauty created by a people to the whole world," Xu once said.

10. Meet the man holding back the desert

The Tengger Desert is China's fourth-largest, spanning 36,700 square kilometers across the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu Province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. But it has a hard-working foe in Tang Ximing. 

Tang uses wheat straw – formerly burned by farmers as waste – to form one-meter-square cubicles which stabilize the sand and allow vegetation to take root. And he's helping to reclaim 50 square kilometers per year into useful land.