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Here is the news. Chinese and Laos railway authorities have launched one more pair of trains for the China -Laos Railways International Passenger Service.
According to China State Railway Group, the pair of trains runs between Xi Shuang Ba Na in China, and Luang Prabang in Laos—two popular tourist destinations.
During the initial period, the additional trains run four days a week – every Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The whole trip has six stations and takes approximately five hours.
Passengers can make the round trip between the locations within one day.
April 13th marked the first anniversary of the launch of the China -Laos Railway's International Passenger Service.
A year ago, the China -Laos Railway launched its International Passenger Service with one pair of trains running between Kunming in China and Vientiane in Laos.
According to China State Railway Group, within the past year, the International Service of the China -Laos Railway transported 180 ,000 cross -border passengers from 87 countries and regions, the 1 ,035 -kilometre -long railway, a landmark project of high -quality Belt and Road cooperation, began operations in December 2021.
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China has launched its national supercomputing network marked by an inauguration event in North China's Tianjin Municipality.
The platform is intended to alleviate the imbalance of computing power supply and demand, and provide support for the development of the digital economy.
It will use artificial intelligence as an opportunity to drive collaborative innovation across hardware, algorithms, as well as applications and systems in the computing field.
That is according to Tian De Pei, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the leader of the Platforms Expert Panel.
More than 200 service providers offering applications, data and computing models, have joined the Network, contributing over 3 ,200 products that encompass cutting -edge digital innovations such as scientific computing, industrial simulation and AI model training.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the construction of the National Supercomputing Network began last April.
China has been actively developing space propulsion technology in recent years and the latest TON liquid oxygen and kerosene engine that will power the country's reusable carrier rockets.
Developed by an institute under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the new reusable engine was ignited twice earlier this month at a test site in China's Northwestern Shaanxi Province.
It has so far completed a total of 15 repetitive tests, featuring 30 ignitions, with the cumulative test time exceeding 3 ,900 seconds.
According to the developer, the number of repetitive tests on the engine has surpassed the previous record for liquid rocket main engine testing in China.
Serving as the primary propulsion system for China's reusable rockets, the engine model features outstanding comprehensive capability and reliability.
The engine maker also highlighted breakthroughs in intelligent manufacturing saying the research and development team has established a core technology system for producing reusable engines, which enhances the advancement and stability of engine process technology, ensuring consistent product quality and reliability.
A total of 71 National Intellectual Property Protection Centers are under construction or in operation in China.
They are distributed across 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, that is according to the National Intellectual Property Administration.
The regulator recently approved the construction of a national IP Protection Centre in southwest China's Chongqing municipality.
The new centre will carry out rapid collaborative IP protection work for the new generation of information technology and biological industries.
The approval for the new centre in Chongqing has further improved the regional layout of the National IP Protection After it is completed and put into operation, the centre will help accelerate the concentration of innovation resources, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, as well as optimise the business environment and promote high quality economic development.
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China added 56 new unicorn enterprises in 2023, which means the country added more than one such firm each week during the period.
That is according to the Hulrun Global Unicorn Index 2024, a ranking of the world's startups founded after 2000 that are worth at least US $1 billion and not yet listed on a public exchange.
The report shows that there are a total of 1453 unicorn enterprises in the world, with a total market value of USD 4 .6 trillion.
China alone has 340 unicorn enterprises is ranking second worldwide.
China's unicorn enterprises are mainly in the sectors of artificial intelligence, semiconductors and new energy.
The report also highlighted the fact that Hefei – the capital of East China's Anhui Province – is the fastest growing city in terms of the number of unicorn enterprises in China, followed by other major cities, including Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Suzhou.
According to the report, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, retained the title of the world's most valuable unicorn last year, worth some 1 .5 trillion yuan, about $220 billion US.
Meanwhile, the Shanghai -based Chinese games giant Mi Ho Yo shot up 91 places to the world's 12th, with an estimated market value of some 160 billion yuan.
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China's fifteenth National Games will be held between November the 9th and 21st, 2025 in the Great Bay Area.
The organizers said that Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau will co -host the 15th National Games for the first time in national games history, adding that the opening ceremony will be held in Guangzhou while the closing ceremony is to take place in Shenzhen.
Zhang Xin, deputy secretary -general of the organizing committee, noted that it is of great significance for Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau to jointly host the games.
Zhang disclosed that the 15th edition of the games would feature 34 competitive sports and 23 mass sports activities.
The majority of events will take place in Guangdong.
Hong Kong is set to host 8 competitive sports events including men's basketball, track cycling and fencing.
Meanwhile, Macau will host four competitive sports events, including the table tennis and women's volleyball.
Jiang added that 90 % of the venues for the competition are existing facilities, in an effort to lower the costs.
hosts. The national games, held every four years, is the country's largest multi -sport event.
The last edition, in 2021, saw more than 12 ,000 athletes compete in northwest China's Shaanxi province.
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The city of Beijing has commenced its 14th annual reading season, with almost 300 activities planned over the coming months to spark residents enthusiasm for reading.
At the launch ceremony, 23 books were awarded Books of the Year for 2023.
Interactive experience activities were also held at the launch event.
During this year's reading season, the city will organize various forms of activity, including a secondhand book market, a teenage reading festival and community reading booths.
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An archive with a collection of more than 40 ,000 antiquarian books has been inaugurated in Beijing.
The archive is affiliated with the People's Education Press, a renowned publishing house in China.
Its collection consists mainly of manuscripts and woodblock printing books in traditional thread -bound form.
The collection includes ancient classics, history books as well as some rare editions of school textbooks published in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Wang Richun, chief editor of the Publishing House, said that antique books are important carriers of the Chinese cultural tradition, adding that the archive will try its best to digitalize its collection and reprint books with academic significance.
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Fossils of a herbivorous reptile species dating back around 170 million years have been discovered in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in Yunyang County, in southwest China's Chongqing, with a head about the size of an apple, and three rows of large teeth in its mouth, the reptile is believed to have lived in the early -middle Jurassic period, that is according to the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Geology and mineral resources.
Wang Ping, a researcher at the Bureau said that the species is thought to have lived during the same period as ciated vertebrate species in the group.
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Chinese scientists have constructed a database of nutrient concentrations in Chinese lake sediments, which reveals the historical changes and can be used to predict water quality and environmental conditions in various lake areas.
Lakes subjects provide important reserves of fresh water resources for human survival and development, and an increase or decrease in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations can reflect the corresponding deterioration or improvement of water quality.
That is according to Chen Jianhui, leader of the researchers from the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lanzhou University.
However, the relatively brief history of monitoring nutrient levels in Chinese lake waters limits the understanding of the causes of the eutrophication and constrains effective lake management.
But as Chen noted, the nutrient concentrations in lake sediments can faithfully reflect the nutrient levels of lake waters and can also help to reconstruct their historical evolution, using a compilation of published nutrient data from lake sediments and data from newly collected lake sediment cores.
The research team obtained the historical records of changes in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of 69 lakes across China and, subsequently, reconstructed trends in nutrient accumulation in Chinese lakes between 1850 and 2020.
The research team also comprised scientists from the Institute of Xiuzhang Plateau Research research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hainan University.
They also conducted a quantitative analysis of this database and existing datasets of climatic, economic and environmental factors leading to the finding that nitrogen concentrations in lakes generally shows a decreasing trend from 2030 to 2100, while phosphorus concentrations will continue to increase in some Lake Districts.
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That is the end of this edition of Special English.
To recap, I am going to read two of the news items again, at normal speed.
Please listen carefully.
China's fifteenth National Games will be held between November the 9th and 21st, 2025 in the Great Bay Area.
The organisers said that Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will co -host the fifteenth National Games for the first time in National Games history, adding that the opening ceremony will be held in Guangzhou, while the closing ceremony is to take place in Shenzhen.
Zhang Xin, deputy secretary general of the organising committee, noted that it is of great significance for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau to jointly host the games.
Zhang disclosed that the 15th edition of the games would feature 34 competitive sports and 23 mass sports activities.
The events, including men's basketball, track cycling and fencing.
Meanwhile, Macau will host four competitive sports events, including the table tennis and women's volleyball.
Zhang added that 90 % of the venues for the competition are existing facilities in an effort to lower the costs.
The National Games, held every four years, is the country's largest multi -sport event.
The last edition in 2021 saw more than 12 ,000 athletes compete in northwest China's Shaanxi province.
This is Special English Chinese scientists have constructed a database of nutrient concentrations in Chinese lake sediments, which reveals their historical changes and can be used to predict water quality and environmental conditions in various lake areas.
Lakes provide important reserves of freshwater resources for human survival and development, and an increase or decrease in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations can reflect the corresponding deterioration or improvement of water quality.
That is according to Chen Jianhui, leader of the researchers from the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lanzhou University.
However, the relatively Brief history of monitoring nutrient levels in Chinese Lake waters limits the understanding of the causes of their eutrophication and constrains effective lake management.
But as Chen noted the nutrient concentrations in lake sediments can faithfully reflect the nutrient levels of lake waters and can also help to reconstruct their historical evolution.
Using a compilation of published nutrient data from lake sediments and data from newly collected lake sediment cores, the research team obtained the historical records of changes in nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations of 69 lakes in China and subsequently reconstructed trends in nutrient accumulation in Chinese lakes between 1850 and 2020.
The research team was also comprised of scientists from the Institute of Xi Zang Platter Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Hainan University.
They also conducted a quantitative analysis of this database and existing data sets of climatic, economic and environmental factors.
Leading to the finding that nitrogen concentrations in lakes generally shows a decreasing trend from 2030 to 2100, while phosphorus concentrations will continue to increase in some lake districts.
That is the end of today's programme.
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