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Here's the news. China has issued a set of guidelines to accelerate the construction of an open and unified transportation market.
The country will encourage and guide social capital to participate in railway construction and operations in accordance with laws and regulations.
Per a document issued by the General Office of the State Council.
Efforts will be made to promote diversification and moderate competition among entities engaged in railway transportation and to support qualified enterprises to independently operate Inter -City Railways as well as urban and suburban railways.
According to the guidelines, policies on clean energy substitution for transport equipment will be improved to promote the application of new and clean energy in medium and heavy -duty trucks, ships, and other transport vehicles.
Where conditions permit, China will promote institutional innovation in the transportation transportation sector in free trade pilot zones and at free trade ports amid efforts to strengthen cooperation on transportation connectivity with countries participating in the Belt and Road Work will also be done to accelerate the construction of a Global Logistics Supply Chain System, develop diversified international transport corridors, improve globally oriented transport services networks, and enhance the resilience and security level of the logistics supply chain.
WeChat Pay has introduced enhanced payment services for foreign visitors to the Chinese mainland, aiming to offer more diverse and convenient payment options.
According to Union Pay, travelers using any of eight overseas e -wallets, including Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking and Navar Pay can now make payments on the mainland by scanning China's WeChat QR codes.
This upgrade is a significant step in China's broader efforts to ease the entry and stay for foreign visitors.
China recently announced a relaxation of its visa -free transit policy extending the permitted stay duration for eligible foreign travelers from the initial 72 hours and subsequent 144 hours to 240 hours, or 10 days.
China has been working to make mobile payment processes more accessible to foreigners.
Foreign Travelers can now link credit cards from major issuers, such as Visa and Mastercard, to local platforms like OlliePay and WeChatPay.
In November 2024, the number of WeChatPay transactions made using foreign card payments increased 6 .4 times from the figure recorded in July 2023.
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Rock samples collected from the Moon's far side by China's Chang 'e -6 lunar probe provided groundbreaking insights into the evolution of the lunar body's magnetic field.
Analysis of the samples published in the journal Nature indicates the unexpected resurgence in strength of the Moon's magnetic field 2 .8 billion years ago following a sharp decline around 3 .1 billion years ago.
The find challenges the prevailing theory that the moon's lunar dynamo remained in a low energy state after that decline.
On Chang 'e 6 lunar probe returned to Earth with 1 ,935 .3 grams of lunar samples collected from the previously unexplored far side of the moon.
The researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, analyzed four basalt fragments from the Chang 'e -6 mission and found an increase of paleomagnetic field strengths, which indicates a possible lunar dynamo reactivation following an initial rapid decline.
According to the study, the researchers hypothesized that the dynamo's resurgence could be attributed to alterations in its primary energy sources or a reinvigoration of the initial driving forces.
Previous research on lunar samples has revealed revealed that the Moon's magnetic field, similar to Earth's, around 4 .2 to 3 .5 billion years ago, experienced too sharp declines and shut down some time after around 1 billion years ago.
However, current data concentrates predominantly on the era before 3 billion years ago, offering little insight into the evolution of the Moon's magnetic field in its middle to late phases and providing virtually no details about the moon's far side.
Tsai Shuhui, the corresponding author of the study, said that understanding the evolution The evolution of the lunar dynamo is of great significance for revealing the moon's internal structure, thermal history, and surface environment.
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An international team, led by Chinese paleontologists, has made significant advances in understanding resolution biodiversity curve spanning from 2 to 0 .5 billion years ago.
Fossils can offer key insights into life's evolution.
However, before 500 million years ago, the emergence of eukaryotic life and their first fossil traces remain uncertain.
Eukaryotes are organisms having cells, each with a distant nucleus within which the genetic material is contained, including fungi, plants, and animals.
The study published in the journal Science has elucidated the origins and early evolution of eukaryotic organisms, and offer some insights into potential extraterrestrial life and habitable planets.
The team invested 6 years in developing the world's biggest paleobiology database, including over 13 ,000 fossil events from around the world and integrated supercomputing and AI tech to build the first high -resolution biodiversity curve.
They They found that global glaciation events played a first role in the macroevolution of early life.
life, the evolutionary trajectory of eukaryotes was disrupted by two global glaciation events between 720 and 635 million years ago.
After that, the biodiversity surged and fluctuated with a significant radiation event that peaked at 580 million years ago, followed by the first major extinction in the history of eukaryotes.
Subsequently, complex macroscopic organisms, including animals, appeared but faced two major diversity declines between 551 and 539 million years ago, marking the earliest two mass extinctions in animal evolutionary history.
The research has revealed that life's evolution from simple to complex in about 1 .5 billion years is not a linear process but a pattern of alternating long -term stagnation and relatively rapid growth.
According to Tang Ching from Nanjing University, the first author of the paper, the results also highlighted the profound effects of sudden environmental shifts, such as temperature and oxygen level on early complex life, offering crucial implications for studying alien life in harsh conditions and evaluating the future habitability of Earth.
You're listening to Special English Anyone who has been to China or who has studied ancient Chinese buildings would find something interestingly identical in most ancient constructions or complexes.
Think of the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
Most of the entrances are in the South.
If we compare these buildings to a person, they're like someone sitting at the north and facing southbound.
Is it just a coincidence or or is there a reason for such a layout?
Now, imagine you're an ancient person living in the Yellow River Basin in Northern China, which is the cradle of Chinese civilization.
You live in the middle of temperate inlands, where winters are about three months long.
Cold and arid winds come from the Mongolian plateau in the north.
The south is where the Sun is, bringing with it the brightness and warmth that sustain local residents through the months of the year.
Now, would you want your house to face the north or the south?
China is located in the eastern part of Eurasia, in the northern hemisphere.
Most of the land is located north of the Tropic of Cancer.
It means the sun doesn't shine directly on the land, but at a certain angle to the South.
Having doors facing the South means you cannot only avoid the frigid north winds in winter, but also get sufficient sunshine and natural lighting in the day throughout the year.
So if you see an ancient building having south -facing entrances or doors, you know that its past owners had enjoyed the benefits of getting plenty of sunshine, warmth, brightness, vitamin D, strong immunity, happier moods, etc. Another subtle reason why most ancient buildings had south -facing entrances had something to do with the cultural connotation of directions since ancient China.
For most of Chinese history, the greatest external threats were various nomadic tribes from the North.
The North became a direction lacking a sense of security, symbolizing defeat and surrender.
Conversely, the South was regarded as supreme, honorable, and victorious.
That's why you can find a lot of South -facing royal palaces and temples, including the thrones of many emperors that also face the South.
It's interesting to note, the Chinese maps were once self -oriented.
Now when it comes to selecting a home or booking a hotel room, Chinese people would take many things into consideration, like people elsewhere, price, location, size, decoration, or whether the property is facing south or not.
Since most Chinese live in apartment buildings now, when talking about south -facing apartments, It basically means that the main functional rooms, such as the Living Room and the Master Bedrooms face south.
Apartments with south -facing rooms would usually sell or rent at a higher price than those without, at least in North China.
This may differ in subtropical and tropical areas of this country.
But, again, now you've at least got a brief idea of the importance the Southern Direction has to Chinese people.
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That's the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I'm going to read one of the news items again at normal speed.
Please listen carefully.
Chinese financial services provider Union Pay International, in collaboration with leading Chinese payment platform WeChat Pay, has introduced enhanced payment services for foreign visitors to the Chinese Mainland.
– aiming to offer more diverse and convenient payment options.
According to Union Pay, travelers using any of eight overseas e -wallets, including Bangkok Bank Mobile Banking and Navarpay, can now make payments on the mainland by scanning China's WeChat QR codes.
This upgrade is a significant step in China's broader efforts to ease the entry -and -stay for foreign visitors.
China recently announced a relaxation of its visa -free transit policy extending the permitted stay duration for eligible foreign travelers from the initial 72 hours and subsequent 144 hours to 240 hours or 10 days.
China has been working to make mobile payment processes more accessible to foreigners.
Foreign travelers can now link credit cards from major issuers such as Visa and MasterCard to local platforms like AliPay and WeChatPay.
In November 2024, the number of WeChatPay transactions made using foreign card payments increased 6 .4 times from the figure recorded in July 2023.
This is the end of today's program.
I hope you'll join us every day to learn English at a slower pace.
