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2022.01.14 21:50 GMT+8

Panda facial recognition and a huge earthquake: 10 stories you may have missed from China this week

Updated 2022.01.14 21:50 GMT+8
CGTN

 

China's big airport plans

China aims to have more than 270 civil airports by 2025, part of the nation's next five-year development plan for the aviation sector, an aviation regulator official told an online news conference.

China plans to have more than 270 civil airports by 2025. /CFP

 

A 6G milestone

China has realized the world's fastest real-time transmission for terahertz wireless communication (THz), which is 10 to 20 times higher than 5G networks, the Purple Mountain Laboratory announced.

 

Facial recognition tech helping save pandas

While facial recognition technology continues to impact many aspects of human life, it is now also being applied to aid the protection of giant pandas.

A nature reserve in northwest China's Gansu province has built an AI-enabled video monitoring system to better protect wild giant pandas.

Giant pandas are being helped by AI facial recognition technology. /CFP

 

First privately owned high-speed rail line

January 8 marked a big day in China's railway history when Hangzhou-Taizhou railway began official operation in east China's Zhejiang province, as the country's first high-speed railway founded and held by a public-private partnership. 

The rail line connects three major cities – provincial capital Hangzhou and Shaoxing and Taizhou.

 

The line under joint commissioning and testing in in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province last September. /CFP

 

Fatal canteen collapse prompts safety review

Authorities in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality say a building collapse that killed 16 people has prompted a thorough review of the city's safety standards.

The city said it is launching an overhaul of safety protocols to eliminate potential safety hazards and prevent similar tragedies from happening again.

 

COVID-19 hits basic supplies in Tianjin

North China's Tianjin Municipality, which has witnessed the latest COVID-19 resurgence, has launched an emergency response mechanism to ensure the supply of daily necessities.

According to the Tianjin municipal bureau of commerce, local authorities have mobilized major wholesale suppliers, supermarkets and vegetable markets to add inventory to cope with the demand for meat, eggs and vegetables.

A market in Tianjin, where an emergency response mechanism has been triggered to ensure the supply of basic goods. /CGTN

 

Earthquake leaves huge crack 

A magnitude-6.9 earthquake left a 22 km crack in the ground in Menyuan Hui Autonomous County in northwest China's Qinghai province on Saturday, according to the local seismological bureau's measurements.

The surface rupture is located in the Lenglong Ridge Fracture Zone, which has experienced three moderate to strong earthquakes above magnitude-6.0 since 1986, according to Li Zhimin, a senior engineer of the provincial seismological bureau. 

 

First 8K chip released

China's first AI image processing chip for 8K TV was released by Hisense on Tuesday in Beijing, which is seen by government officials as a milestone in the country's development of key TV technologies.

The chip, named Hi-View HV8107, uses AI-assisted technology to process 8K TV output, making it clearer, more colorful and more fluent in showing motion.

The Hisense Hi-View HV8107 chip displayed at the press release in Beijing, China. /Gong Zhe/CGTN

 

More than half of Tesla's sales are in China

Tesla's Shanghai plant delivered more than 480,000 vehicles in 2021, said the U.S. electric car maker on Tuesday, counting for over half of the company's total sales.

The global delivery volume of Tesla in 2021 was 936,000, and the Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 484,130 vehicles and accounted for 51.7 percent of the total, with an increase of 235 percent from 2020.

Tesla's logo is seen next to a bridge in China. /CFP

 

Rate of producer price rises slows

China's official producer price index (PPI), which reflects the cost of goods at the factory gate, rose by 10.3 percent year-on-year in December, easing from a 12.9-percent rise in November, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Wednesday.

The figure was lower than Bloomberg's prediction of 11.3 percent growth and Reuters' forecast of 11.1-percent growth.

The NBS said the easing in PPI was due to measures containing high raw material prices and a drop in the prices of major commodities, including oil. 

A supermarket in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, January 6, 2022. /CFP

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