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Special English You're listening to Special English.
Here's the news. As night fell, coffee vendors prepared their stalls to soft melodies while young office workers queued up.
Xia Lanying, general manager of Palm Tianjin and organizer of the coffee festival, said that youth are redefining how and when they spend, and the festival is designed for both comfort and engagement.
A young entrepreneur said, saw the festival as more than a sales opportunity, saying it's their gateway to the city's nightlife and nighttime consumers as young people gather there for coffee, cold drinks, and music on summer nights.
In recent years, Tianjin has expanded its night economy through upgraded streets, displays of intangible cultural heritage, pop-up art, and immersive cultural experiences.
Citywide bridge concerts, Italian opera flash mobs, and traditional folk performances have now turn urban areas into nighttime stages across Tianjin.
Demand for night cruises has surged with the arrival of the summer peak tourist season.
According to the cruise operator, 29 boats operate over 70 nightly trips every night.
Themed performance cruises featuring comedy or opera transform sightseeing into memorable experiences.
At Tianjin's Dongli Lake, an immersive lakeside show captivated audiences.
Tourist Feng Nan said, It's a comfort with breeze, water, and storytelling.
Many linger afterward to explore nearby scenic areas.
Tianjin's vibrancy mirrors China's nighttime economy boom, with regions including Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Chongqing enhancing offerings.
Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, said that nighttime cultural consumption has inter-regional development strategies.
A report from the academy indicates that 63% of China's five A-level scenic spots operated at night last year, up from 23% in 2020, with over one third of national museums hosting after dark events during summer.
Dai noted that night tourism spurs innovation and expands industry boundaries, adding that its future lies in cultural creativity and sustained high-quality development.
This is Special English. As marine tourism surges in popularity, China has reported an explosive cruise passenger throughput increase during the first half of this year.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the total cruise passenger throughput surged 40.1% year on year during the period.
The ministry attributed the surge to supportive policies, improved supply and rising travel demand.
From January to June, the marine tourism sector generated an added value of 771.8 billion yuan, about 108 billion U.S. dollars, which was up 8% year on year.
The ministry said that with the peak summer travel season now underway, Cruises and other areas of marine tourism are expected to rise to even greater popularity.
You're listening to Special English. As global temperatures hit record highs and heat waves blanket most of the northern hemisphere, Chinese manufacturers are stepping up with innovative cooling solutions, from advanced textiles to smart gadgets, to meet surging global demand for heat relief.
At a new material technology company in east China's Zhejiang province, a batch of cooling fabric rolled off the production line and was then neatly packaged before being loaded into 18 containers for export.
Measuring approximately 4 million meters in length, This load of fabric valued at more than 7 million yuan will be sold to markets in the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
Since 2021, This cool-touch material has driven average annual sales growth of about 25% for its manufacturer, eBay, a company based in Huzhou in Zhejiang Province, while delivering heat relief solutions to consumers worldwide.
Originally designed as a garment lining, this material's affordability and skin-friendly comfort have fueled unexpected demand for it as a primary fabric, especially after the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. when it gained viral traction in countries like Egypt, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates to make scarves and robes.
The EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service has confirmed the year 2024 recording a global average temperature of 15.1 degrees Celsius as the warmest year globally since 1850 and June 2025 as the world's third warmest June on record. reaching 16.46 degrees Celsius globally.
Amid the global warming trend, Chinese textile manufacturers like eBay are innovating their products and scaling production to satisfy surging demand for cooling products.
Before Father's Day this year, a US content creator recommended a hat as a gift in her short video on TikTok, amassing over 9 million views and sparking a buying frenzy.
The star of the video, A sun hat designed with two solar-powered fans aimed at delivering a cool summer experience hails from the city of Yiwu, also in Zhejiang.
At Zhejiang Senwai Garments Company, which holds the patent for this fan hat's production and research and development, General Manager Jiang Yongtao revealed that the hat, priced at almost US$40, began test marketing in March before surging to popularity two months later.
Within just 28 days of its official launch, 11,100 units were sold, generating over 3.2 million yuan in revenue.
To date, the company has sold some 500,000 units of these fan hats.
The company is also developing a winter version, a heated cap intended to transform headwear from mere accessories to therapeutic tools, thereby extending the reach of this made-in-China phenomenon beyond summer.
Jiang said that hit products may become outdated, but the ability to consistently identify needs and create best sellers never will.
This is Special English. Chinese researchers have succeeded in synthesizing the diamond, a material primarily found in meteorites, which is harder than the ordinary diamond found on Earth.
The study, published in the journal Nature, promises to redefine the limits of super hard materials, according to the researchers.
The Earth diamond owes its as the king of hardness to its carbon atoms arranged in a tetrahedral lattice, making it extremely hard and wear resistant.
However, this structure has a weakness. Certain planes can easily slip and shift when force is applied, thereby limiting its strength.
As a consequence, scientists have turned their attention to another type of super diamond with a more exquisite structure and superior properties, namely the hexagonal diamond.
Chinese researchers involved in the published study innovatively proposed a method for transforming graphite into a hexagonal diamond.
Under controllable high temperature, high pressure, and quasi-hydrostatic conditions, they compressed and heated graphite single crystals to ultimately obtain a high purity hexagonal diamond.
Previous attempts to synthesize a hexagonal diamond were largely unsuccessful due to extremely stringent formation requirements.
Under high temperature and high pressure conditions, the end result tends to be the formation of a cubic diamond and not a hexagonal diamond.
According to Yang Liuxiang, one of the authors of the paper and a researcher at the Center for High-Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, The successful synthesis of a high purity hexagonal diamond by the Chinese research team is attributed to their choice of high purity natural graphite single crystals, as well as their use of high pressure in situ X-ray observation. to monitor changes in samples.
Hou Kuang Mao, a scientist in high-pressure science and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that this study lays a methodological foundation for future research on diamond-like materials.
Mao added This synthesized hexagonal diamond is expected to pave new pathways for the development of super hard materials and high-end electronic devices.
You're listening to Special English. An air route linking the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou and Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates, has launched, marking the official introduction of Emirates, one of the world's leading airlines, to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.
The route, operated by Emirates, is served by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with daily flights.
Li Xun, General Manager of Emirates in China, said that the launch of the new route will create more opportunities for cooperation between the two cities in the fields of digital economy, international trade, and passenger travel.
According to the Hangzhou Airport, After the new routes launch, the total number of flights between Hangzhou and Dubai has increased from 3 to 10 per week.
This is Special English. China has released an action plan aimed at improving environmental conditions to safeguard public health.
Jointly issued by China's National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control and several other departments, the plan outlines 16 concrete measures to create greener, safer, and more livable environments.
In recent years, China has made notable progress in building a healthy environment with advances in waste sorting and recycling, strengthened measures to curb air pollution, and improved emergency response capabilities for public health incidents.
However, intensifying global climate change is posing new challenges.
The proposed measures include encouraging balanced diets and regular exercise among the public, improving community waste sorting systems, and expanding and maintaining green spaces and walking trails.
The plan also calls for better policy integration across sectors, as well as strengthening monitoring, risk assessment, early warning, and public health advisories.
By 2030, the plan targets two key outcomes, continuous improvement in drinking water quality and an increase in public awareness of the environment and health.
The National Administration of Disease Prevention and Control will work closely with relevant departments to enhance coordination, strengthen public communication, and guide local authorities in advancing healthy environment initiatives based on local conditions.
You're listening to Special English. That's the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I'm going to read two of the news items again at normal speed.
Please listen carefully. As night fell, coffee vendors prepared their stalls to soft melodies while young office workers queued up, bringing the 4th Tianjin Coffee Culture Festival to its pinnacle.
Xia Lanying, general manager of Palm Tianjin and organizer of the coffee festival, said that youth are redefining how and when they spend, and the festival is designed for both comfort and engagement.
A young entrepreneur surnamed Tian saw the festival as more than a sales opportunity, saying it is their gateway to the city's nightlife and nighttime consumers, as young people gather there for coffee, cold drinks, and music on summer nights.
In recent years, Tianjin has expanded its night economy through upgraded streets, displays of intangible cultural heritage, pop-up art, and immersive cultural experiences.
Citywide bridge concerts, Italian opera flash mobs, and traditional folk performances now turn urban areas into nighttime stages across Tianjin.
Demand for night cruises has surged with the arrival of the summer peak tourist season.
According to the cruise operator, 29 boats operate over 70 nightly trips every night. transforms sightseeing into memorable experiences.
At Tianjin's Dongli Lake, an immersive lakeside show captivated audiences.
Tourist Feng Nan said it's a comfort with breeze, water, and storytelling.
Many linger afterward to explore nearby scenic areas.
Tianjin's vibrancy mirrors China's nighttime economy boom, with regions including Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Chongqing enhancing offerings.
Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, said that nighttime cultural consumption has entered regional development strategies.
A report from the academy indicates that 63% of China's 5A-level scenic spots operated at night last year, up from 23% in 2020, with over one-third of national museums hosting after-dark events during summer.
Dai noted that night tourism spurs innovation and expands industry boundaries, adding that its future lies in cultural creativity and sustained high-quality development.
You're listening to Special English. As marine tourism surges in popularity, China has reported an explosive cruise passenger throughput increase during the first half of this year.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the total cruise passenger throughput surged 40.1% year-on-year during the period.
The ministry attributed the surge to supportive policies, improved supply and rising travel demand.
From January to June, the marine tourism sector generated an added value of 771.8 billion yuan, about 108 billion US dollars, which was up 8% year-on-year.
The ministry said that with the peak summer travel season now underway, areas of marine tourism are expected to rise to even greater popularity.
This is the end of today's program. I hope you'll join us every day to learn English at a slower pace.
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