Taikonauts plan lessons from space

China's Shenzhou-13 crew will give a lesson as part of a space education series while in orbit, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said on Thursday. 

The program will be broadcast live globally. Mainly targeted at teenagers, the series, called the "Tiangong class," will be rolled out by Chinese astronauts, known as taikonauts, during the construction and operation of China's space station.

Education spending passed $5 trillion

China's spending on education totaled 5.3 trillion yuan ($831.3 billion) in 2020, up 5.69 percent from the previous year, the Ministry of Education said on Tuesday.

Fiscal spending on the sector grew by 7.15 percent year-on-year to around 4.3 trillion yuan in 2020, the ministry said, noting that the amount was 4.22 percent of China's GDP for the year.

China-Laos Railway opens

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project connecting Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan province with the Laos capital Vientiane, began operations on Friday.

The 1,035km-long railway is a docking project between China's Belt and Road Initiative and Laos's strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.

Understanding China conference begins

China's President Xi Jinping delivered a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Understanding China Conference in Guangzhou on Thursday.

The world is experiencing changes unseen in a century, said Xi, stressing that it is all the more important for people to exchange views, have more interactions and cooperation, and contribute their wisdom and strength to jointly address global challenges.

Tax exemption for overseas investors

China has extended tax preferential policies to overseas investors investing in the Chinese mainland bond market as part of ongoing efforts to encourage investment.

Overseas institutional investors will now be exempt from corporate income tax and value-added tax on their bond interest gains from investment in the Chinese market, according to an announcement by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

The exemption took effect on November 7 and will last until December 31, 2025, the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

New head coach of China's national soccer team

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) announced on Friday that it accepted Li Tie's resignation as the head coach of the men's national team, and appointed Wuhan FC head coach Li Xiaopeng to take charge.

"A few days ago, Li Tie made his request to resign as the head coach of the Chinese national team and his resignation was approved by the CFA. After extensive consultation, the CFA decided to hire Li Xiaopeng as the new head coach of the team," the CFA said in a statement.

Tracking China's mountain cats

The world's first project to track Chinese mountain cats with GPS collars has been completed in the Qilian Mountains National Park. Ten Chinese mountain cats, including seven females and three males, were fitted with collars and released into the wild.

The tracking data from 671 days recording 25,000 valid positioning sites revealed that shrub and farmland were their main habitats, accounting for more than 95 percent of all sites.

Qinghai Provincial Administration and Li Sheng's research team from the School of Life Sciences of Peking University launched the survey in 2019, with the aim of providing a clearer picture of the cats' population size and mating habits.

80th anniversary of first radio station

Eighty years ago, on December 30, 1940, the first radio station created by the Communist Party of China broadcast for the first time under the name of XNCR. X was the English letter of the call sign for China's radio stations under international regulations at that time and NCR stands for New Chinese Radio.

The predecessor of today's China National Radio and China Radio International of the China Media Group (CMG), XNCR reported on important documents, articles and editorials of the CPC and on international and domestic current affairs. International media outlets have expressed their warm congratulations on the 80th anniversary.

DiDi plans to ditch New York for Hong Kong listing

Chinese ride-hailing service provider DiDi Global announced it would begin work to delist from the New York Stock Exchange and pursue a listing in Hong Kong. The company said the decision was made after careful research and has been approved by the board.

"The company will organize a shareholders meeting to vote on the above matter at an appropriate time in the future, following necessary procedures," a DiDi statement said.

As of Monday, DiDi's shares had fallen 56.7 percent since the firm went public in late June.

CGTN talks to the founder of One Shoe Bank

In 2007, Luan Qiping came across two amputee friends, one wearing only a left shoe ,while another only the right one. After learning they had the same shoe size, Luan came up with the idea to support other amputees who share this problem.

Qiping, who has foot deformities from contracting polio when he was eight months old, decided to create a chat group named "One Shoe Bank" on QQ, a popular messaging app in China. People who needed either a left or a right shoe could exchange their shoes through the group. As more and more people wanted to join, Luan established more chat groups, with an eventual membership of more than 5,000.