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Here's the news. Beijing has unveiled ten new routes for curious and adventurous writers at night.
site. One of them covers major cultural landmarks, including the Bell and Drum towers and popular commercial sites.
Hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the routes Mounts feature the city's Central Axis Huitongs and Intangible Cultural Heritage.
According to the authorities, those routes are aimed to better tap into the city's cultural and tourism resources.
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The resumption of cruise travel in China has not only offered big opportunities for international regional cruise operators but also facilitated the rapid growth of domestic companies through the launch of more cruise routes.
Adora Magic City, China's first domestically -built cruise ship, will continue to be based in in Shanghai throughout the year of 2025, launching more than 80 trips to Japan and South Korea with itineraries ranging from four to seven nights.
Since its maiden commercial voyage at the beginning of this year, Adora Magic City has completed more than 50 trips and served over 200 ,000 guests at home and abroad.
Leo Hui, CEO of the operator Adora Cruises, noted that being a flagship Chinese cruise brand, the company will continue to explore the Chinese market via a wider range of cruise route offerings.
Adora, Mediterranea, another cruise ship operating under the company, will use several home ports, including Tianjin and Guangzhou offering three - to six -day cruises to destinations like Japan and Vietnam, Liu said that the two vessels are to operate nearly 170 international cruise routes for both domestic and foreign guests next year meeting the diversified travel needs of consumers.
In addition, Shanghai Blue Dream International Cruises is eyeing the launch of a thirty -three night route.
In November, the super -long cruise trip is to be operated by Blue Dream Melody and will visit 15 ports in South East Asia, Japan and South Korea.
Shu Ying, general manager of the cruise operator, said that besides paying tribute to the Chinese navigator and maritime explorer Zheng He's voyages 600 years ago.
The new route will also fill the gap of super long cruise trips departing from Chinese home ports, offering a new option for travelers.
Thanks to the resumption of international cruise trips and China's policies facilitating international travel, cruise trips in Shanghai have recovered rapidly.
According to Shanghai Border Inspection authorities, the city's cruise ports have seen over 180 entries and exits made by international cruise liners in the first half of this year, with more than eight hundred and forty thousand people on board.
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A team of Chinese scientists has established a novel brain -inspired network model based on internal complexity to address challenges faced by traditional artificial intelligence models, such as high consumption of computing resources.
That is according to the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
One of the key objectives in the current development of the artificial intelligence is to build more general purpose AI, enabling models to possess a broader and more general cognitive ability.
Lee Guo Chi, a researcher from the Institute of Automation, noted that the current popular approach used by large models is to build larger, deeper and wider neural networks based based on the Law of Scale, which can be referred to as a method for achieving general intelligence based on external complexity.
However, this approach faces challenges such as unsustainable consumption of computing resources and energy, as well as a lack of interpretability.
On the other hand, a human brain has about 100 billion neurons and nearly 1000 trillion synaptic connections, with each neuron having a rich and diverse internal structure.
But the power consumption of a human brain is only around 20 watts.
facts. Inspired by the dynamics of brain neurons, the scientists from the Institute of Automation and other research institutions, including Qinghua University and Peking University, used an internal complexity approach to achieve general intelligence." Their experiments verified the effectiveness and reliability of the internal complexity model, in handling complex tasks, providing new methods and theoretical support for integrating the dynamic characteristics of neuroscience into AI and also offering feasible solutions for optimizing and enhancing the practical performance of AI models.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Computational Science.
China's central bank has issued a set of commemorative coins that feature the world's tallest wooden pagoda.
According to the People's Bank of China, the set of three coins, all legal tender in and China consists of two gold coins and one silver coin.
All three coins have the image of Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fo Gong Temple on the obverse side.
The architecture is located located in Yingxian County, in north China's Shanxi Province.
The pagoda, better known as the wooden pagoda of Yingxian County, was built in 1056 with Tenon and Mortis work.
work, standing 67 .31 metres high, the building is recognised by the UNESCO, as the tallest and oldest wooden multi -storey structure in the world, the 100 gram round gold coin with With a denomination of fifteen hundred yuan, about 210 US dollars has a maximum circulation of six hundred pieces.
The reverse side features swift birds, auspicious clouds and distant mountains.
The 5 gram round gold coin has a denomination of 80 yuan and a maximum circulation of 10 ,000 pieces.
Its reverse side features the image of the Sakyamuni statue on the first story of the Pagoda.
The 30g round silver coin has a denomination of 10 yuan and a maximum circulation of 20 ,000 pieces.
It is adorned with the image of statues on the fourth story of the pagoda.
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Let's play a game of spotting the difference.
Which of these isn't like the others?
The Tower of London in Britain, the Taj Mahal in India, the Colosseum in Italy, the Great Pyramid in Egypt, the Parthenon in Greece, and the Forbidden City in China.
I'll give you a hint.
It's the building material.
material. All of these buildings were built primarily with stone, except for the last one.
Wood was the preferred building material for the landmark complex at the heart of Beijing.
What differentiates traditional Chinese architecture from others across the world is mainly the construction material.
If you look around, most of the world's ancient structures were made of stone.
But the buildings in China tend to be an exception.
Ancient Chinese builders seemed to have preference for wood over stone.
To find out why, let's first put ourselves in their shoes.
Imagine your living in ancient times long before brick and mortar houses were commonplace.
You are asked to construct a public building.
Now, among all the building materials available for the main structure, what would you choose?
Of course, you'd pick the most readily available materials.
For ancient Chinese builders, wood was abundant and easy to transport.
That's one score for wood.
Another reason why ancient Chinese preferred wood is that wooden frameworks are more flexible and better at absorbing shocks.
This may made the building safer in the earthquake.
The third reason for choosing wood is that it's easier and less time consuming to process.
For example, it's easier to carve decorations on the wood than it is on the stone, and the texture of the wood feels much warmer than stone.
And the fourth reason is that wood represents spring.
It represents life.
That's why people who believe in feng shui feel compelled to build their houses out of wood.
Now you might argue that wood has some obvious downsides.
It's flammable, perishable, and susceptible to the wind, the rain, as well as attacks by insects.
tanks, wooden structures need to be frequently repaired and parts replaced.
So why didn't ancient Chinese builders use or even think about using stone as the framework for the buildings like their western counterparts did?
That's because ancient Chinese builders never expected their works to last forever.
That might sound counterintuitive but there was a belief that wooden buildings last long enough for several generations to live under its roof, but not long enough to become an immutable part of history.
When something was built that did have to last forever, like a tomb, that's when the builders used stone and brick.
Of course, cultures change and modern Chinese architecture offers a whole different story.
Over the centuries, Chinese people developed a tradition of building wood houses and wood has stood the test of time as the mainstay in traditional Chinese architecture.
According to archaeological discoveries, Chinese people began to develop their own unique style of wooden construction as far back as 7 ,000 years ago.
Today, some of the most symbolic ancient wooden buildings in China are still standing, such as the Yingxian Pagoda, in Northern China.
As we mentioned above, it's the oldest and tallest surviving tower made almost entirely from wood and it has been with us for over 900 years!
It's a living proof of how ancient Chinese used wood to make some of the world's most eye -catching architecture.
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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.
The resumption of cruise travel in China has not only offered big opportunities for international cruise operators, but also facilitated the rapid growth of domestic companies through the launch of more cruise routes.
Adora Magic City, China's first domestically built cruise ship, will continue to be based in Shanghai throughout the year of 2025, launching more than 80 trips to Japan and South Korea, with itineraries ranging from four to seven nights.
Since its maiden commercial voyage at the beginning of this year, Adora Magic City has completed more than 50 trips and served over 200 ,000 guests at home and abroad.
Liao Hui, CEO of the operator Adora Cruises, noted that being a flagship Chinese cruise brand, the company will continue to explore the Chinese market via a wider range of cruise route offerings.
Adora, Mediterranea, another cruise ship operating under the company, will use several home ports, including Tianjin and Guangzhou, offering three -to -six -day cruises to destinations like Japan and Vietnam.
Liu said that the two vessels are to operate nearly 170 international cruise routes for both domestic and foreign guests next year, meeting the diversified travel needs of consumers.
In addition, Shanghai Blue Dream International Cruises is eyeing the launch of a 33 -night route in November.
The super -long cruise trip is to be operated by Blue Dream Melody and will visit 15 ports in Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea.
Xu Ying, general manager of the cruise operator, said that besides paying tribute to the Chinese navigator and maritime explorer Zhang He's voyages 600 years ago, the new route will also fill the gap of super long cruise trips departing from Chinese home ports, offering a new option for travelers.
Thanks to the resumption of international cruise trips and China's policies facilitating international travel, cruise trips in Shanghai have recovered rapidly.
According to Shanghai Border Inspection Authorities, the city's cruise ports have seen over 180 entries and exits made by international cruise liners in the first half of this year with more than 840 ,000 people on board.
This is the end of today's program.
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Imagine a world where past and present can coexist.
Bravo, Kuva -chan. You are getting ahead of it!
Higher. Absolutely incredible.
Stronger. A bit more.
You've done it! Together.
Kuva -chan must find a rhythm and work in perfect sync with these team members.
What universal spirit does the Olympic motto convey?
The essence of the Olympic spirit and ancient Chinese sports is strikingly similar.
Join Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Olympics, on an exciting journey with Sports Fantasia.
Dive into a fascinating world of ancient Chinese sports.
From thrilling archery contests to intense dragon boat racing.
Mr. Coubertin will be our wrestler today.
Listen to Spouse Fantasia on radio .cgtn .com and all major podcast platforms for an engaging mix of tradition and competition.