Through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), Chinese mainland residents can take international flights directly from Hong Kong International Airports (HKIA) without entry permit. The new policy, set to take effect on Tuesday, will further facilitate international travel for travelers from the Chinese mainland and drive passenger growth at HKIA.

This policy aims to simplify foreign travel procedures for mainland travelers through HKIA, and take advantage of the airport's direct international flights.

The move is expected to increase mainland passenger traffic at HKIA and create demand and business opportunities for Zhuhai International Airport in South China's Guangdong Province. According to media reports, Zhuhai Airport operates flights to nearly 90 mainland destinations, while HKIA offers direct flights to nearly 200 international destinations.

Zhuhai Airport will also open a multimodal passenger terminal to provide shuttle bus service for passengers traveling to Hong Kong Airport for transit flights. Passengers will board buses at Zhuhai Airport and go directly to the Skypier Terminal of Hong Kong International Airport after completing exit procedures and collecting boarding passes at Zhuhai Highway port. 

Following the implementation of northbound travel for Hong Kong and Macao vehicles, allowing Chinese mainland travelers to travel via HKIA without entry permit will further integrate the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The action is also conducive to deepening business cooperation between airports in the area. 

The border control of HZMB has set up a designated inspection channel in Zhuhai highway port to differentiate ordinary travelers and travelers to HKIA for inspection, and to provide convenient and high-quality customs clearance services, Lin Meihong, a senior official of HZMB boarder control was quoted as saying.

This policy will further leverage the bridge's central role of connecting the Greater Bay Area and influencing the western part of Guangdong, helping to promote the formation of a world-class airport cluster in the area, Lin said. 

At this stage, Chinese mainland travelers to HKIA will need to check in and complete exit procedures at Zhuhai Highway porter, in the future, travelers traveling via HKIA are expected to be able to complete their flight procedures directly at Zhuhai Airport, according to news.cctv.com. 

HKIA is one of the busiest airports in South China. In the first 10 months of 2023, the airport's passenger traffic had reached 31.4 million, up 9.5 times compared to the same period last year, according to the Airport Authority Hong Kong. 

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is accelerating integration and facilitating convenience for  local residents. On Sunday, the Digital Bay Area Development Forum in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province announced a new application which provides integrated transportation, payment and healthcare services to residents of the Greater Bay Area, it is now online on multiple platforms such as Alipay, Wechat, AlipayHK and MPay, according to Chinanews.com.cn. 

A college research team from East China’s Jiangsu Province has recently released China’s first large language model (LLM), a type of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that uses deep learning techniques and massively big data sets to help conduct research on Chinese ancient books.  

The LLM for ancient books was designed to intelligently process ancient texts, promote innovative development in the research and preservation of Chinese ancient books, enhance the efficiency and quality of the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture, and facilitate deep integration between LLMs and the processing of ancient books.  

The LLM “Xunzi,” named after Xun Zi, one of the most famous philosophers in ancient China for his Confucian classic Xunzi, contains the vast majority of Chinese ancient books and documents including the collections of the “Complete Library in Four Sections” or “Siku Quanshu,” with a large-scale corpus of over 2 billion Chinese characters and words.  

The research on Chinese traditional classics is a painstaking and laborious work even for scholars and experts, let alone for average learners. Thus, translating ancient texts into modern Chinese is one of its most important functions, Wang Dongbo, professor from College of Information Management of Nanjing Agricultural University in Nanjing, Jiangsu, who led the research team told the Global Times. 

With the model, researchers can swiftly summarize the ancient texts and know about the themes of the ancient books. The model can also extract key information from the ancient texts, such as characters, events and places, to sort out the information with efficiency.  

Besides, the model can also automatically generate ancient poems that comply with grammar and prosody rules with the prompts the users give to it to provide inspiration for poetry lovers. It can also precisely translate ancient texts into modern Chinese to help researchers understand the original meaning and connotation of ancient texts. 

Led by Wang, the research team has been working in the area of digitization of ancient books and documents for a decade. Supported by the presence of the university’s strong computing power and based on the application scenarios provided by Zhonghua Book Company, the research team accomplished China’s first open-source LLM for ancient texts in AI.  

The LLM has been published on websites such as github.com and modelscope.cn as open-source software, allowing users to download and use it for free. 

“We trained Xunzi using big data built on ancient books which can be obtained for free on the internet just like the way OpenAI trained ChatGPT. Although we spent great effort, labor force and money into it, we still share it for free with the aim to encourage more people to study and pay attention to traditional Chinese culture,” Wang said. 

The death toll caused by the devastating earthquake that rattled Northwest China Monday night reached 134 as of Wednesday press time - 113 in Gansu Province and 21 in Qinghai Province. Rescue work is drawing to an end, and the focus will now turn to the treatment of the injured and the resettlement of those affected, Gansu authorities said at a press conference on Wednesday.

At present, more than 87,000 people have been temporarily evacuated and resettled in safe places, Gansu officials said at the press conference, revealing that 14,939 houses collapsed and 207,204 more were damaged during the quake, affecting 145,736 people.

A total of 78 trapped individuals have been rescued, with 6,653 people evacuated as of 6:00 am on Wednesday. Additionally, 360 tents have been set up, 683 hazardous areas have been cleared, and 47 tons of supplies have arrived at the disaster-stricken sites.

Several shelters were erected overnight in both Gansu and Qinghai. When the Global Times reporters visited shelters in Dahe village of Gansu Province and Jintian village of Qinghai Province, earthquake victims were living in tents newly set up.

"Every tent is equipped with electricity and stoves to keep us warm. We have food and material pouring in from all over the country. We don't need anything now," 54-year-old Li, who lives in Jintian village, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Vegetables, meat, bread and hot soup were served as lunch on Wednesday in the Jintian village shelter. When the food was ready, people in the tents waited patiently. "We let the PLA soldiers eat first. They helped us a lot," said Li.

Li Kai, an officer from the PLA's Western Theater Command, told the Global Times on Tuesday night that he helped transfer the victims and move their belongings, such as furniture and livestock. "Some of those people are not rich so we are doing what we can to reduce their losses."

After 10 hours of nonstop efforts, all damaged roads and highways leading to the disaster area, especially near the epicenter, were cleared and reopened, including all 24 severely damaged rural roads, so that relief and supply vehicles were able to access impacted communities, the Gansu transport bureau said at the press conference.

All routes within the Lanzhou Railway Bureau, which had been delayed significantly due to the impact of the earthquake, also resumed normal operations on Wednesday morning.

Damage to the main power grid in earthquake-stricken areas of Gansu and Qinghai had been fully repaired as of Tuesday evening, according to the State Grid Gansu Electric Power Company.

A total of 423 aftershocks have been recorded as of 8 am Wednesday, including 10 aftershocks measuring 3.0 magnitude or higher.

The China Geological Survey organized 33 experts to rush to the disaster-stricken areas in Gansu and Qinghai provinces on Wednesday. The working groups will cooperate with the emergency management departments and local governments to carry out on-site geological disaster investigation and surveys, aerial drone surveys, monitoring and early warning tasks, risk assessment and emergency disposal of hazardous material.

They will also conduct seismic analysis and research on the earthquake and submit materials for disaster relief use.

The strong earthquake triggered various secondary disasters. In Minhe county, Qinghai, which borders the epicenter in Jishishan county, two villages experienced sand boils shortly after the earthquake. A significant number of houses were buried and washed away by mudslides, resulting in 16 individuals going missing. Following the incident, the Qinghai Provincial Fire Rescue Team swiftly organized overnight rescue operations.

The houses of 36 families, totaling 177 villagers, were destroyed by sand boils in Jintian village, and 13 individuals are still missing, including a pregnant woman. A firefighter on-site told the Global Times that after overnight search and rescue efforts, as of Wednesday morning, four bodies had been discovered.

When asked why usually dry areas such as Jintian village, which is also far away from rivers and has seen no rainfall, suffered such a severe landslide, Wang Tun, head of a key earthquake early warning laboratory in China's Sichuan Province, told the Global Times that after a strong earthquake, due to the shaking of the Earth's crust, water-saturated sand and soil deep underground undergo a phenomenon called liquefaction. This liquefied sand layer is then forced through certain channels and reaches the surface directly.

A rescue worker at the scene told the Global Times that rescue work in Jintian village has been difficult as the mud makes it impossible for workers to walk, and a floating bridge made of wooden planks must be used to enter the location. Moreover, when excavating the soil, the mud flows like liquid. "Whenever you remove a spoonful of it, it immediately fills up again. There is simply no way to carry out rescue efforts."

The rescue worker said he and his teammate pulled an all-nighter on Tuesday night. "We switched shifts every two hours because the night was freezing at sub-zero temperatures."

What does it feel like to dive 100 meters deep under the surface of the ocean with one breath? "The hydrostatic pressure will be 11 times than that a person feels on the ground," Xu Tongtong, Chinese freediver and the country's record breaker, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

A person now titled with two record-breaking champions, the 35-year-old Xu is now the first woman of China reaching 100 meters under the sea level in history, after she claimed a gold in Constant weight (CWT) freediving discipline in Asian Freediving Cup in the Philippines in June.

The win of her first 100-meter try gave her courage. 

During July, in another competition she participated in AIDA Panglao Depth Championship in Bohol Island, the Philippines, Xu finished her another 100-meter challenge in the Constant weight bi-fins (CWTB) depth discipline, ranking second place in the world.

"If we compare the 100 meters to the height of a building, it means we are about to jump from the 30th floor to the ground and then climb back to the roof top, with one breath," Xu added. "I feel so happy when I touched and grabbed the tab underwater. 

This was a goal I set for myself three years ago, and I feel nice that the world can see the efforts we made as Chinese freediving athletes," she told the Global Times in an interview on the phone at her home in the Philippines.

The two records Xu set pushed China to reach the next level: Since then the depth record of Chinese women in freediving has entered the 100-meter level.

'First try'

Xu now lives in Boho Island, an area covering an area of 3,269 kilometers and known as top island in the Philippines.

The Boho Island has been boasting its hospitality of the freediving lovers. And it is also among the most popular freediving destinations in the country where international competitions are often held here.

But for Xu, the place means much more than a freediving heaven, as both of the two competitions she participated in with record breaking also took place here in Boho Island.

June's competition is her first ever try in challenging 100 meters freediving. "I made it," recalled Xu. "That was an unprecedented experience for me as I remembered my smile as I swam up out of the surface." 

Before heading to the competition, she undergone a three-month systematic training where her coach developed a training program cut out for her. 

"There were different proportions I needed to devote to in including the physical training and muscle training."

Based on her training plan, the last training Xu had the free diving reached 98 meters under the water. "By two meters deeper during each try, I would reach 100 meters by the time of my competition day."

"This needs a stable state of mind. If you're nervous you fail, but if you're not you win," Xu added.

Explaining the trick of the sport, Xu said that it is the opposite of the others as one needs to calm her/him down to be "as stable as possible in order to slow down the heart rate, which is essential to reduce the oxygen consumption."

A yearn for ocean

Born in Anhui, a landlocked province in East China, the 35-year-old free diver has a nickname Mutou, translated as wood often known by her friends. She also named her social media atlas after Mutou.

She believed in the flexibility of the wood as "a piece of wood can be carved into anything you want. And I wish I can have the quality just as the wood."

Xu started her swimming training as early as 8. Being a professional swimmer, Xu has participated in a string of competitions nationwide, where she won second place as her best result. 

Xu's free diving enlightenment came from a video she accidentally came across on social media. As early as 2012, when she saw the famous French freediving champion Guillaume Néry "flying" in the ocean.

"Normally we swim horizontally, but I never try swimming vertically. And I decided to have a try."

From 2012 to 2017, Xu has traveled to islands across the world for freediving, where she would immerse in the enjoyment the ocean brought her.

"If we carry gas cylinders, the bubbles that pop out will keep those sea creatures from approaching us. We are just 'guests' in the ocean, and in the ocean, we are so small," said Xu.

In the years of her career in ocean, she also received help from Israeli freediving legend Aharon Solomons, who she met in China when the later traveled there for freediving classes.

According to Solomons, freediving is a kind of sport that requires intelligence, commitments and common sense, where he believed that Xu has all of them. 

Among many sports, freediving can be dangerous, but "she has been outstanding," Solomons told the Global Times in an interview.

"I also feel honored that he coached me during my entering stage of the sport, and I've never experienced from a single injury," Xu recalled her experience when learning from Solomons.

Now in Israel, Solomons is still preparing for more competitions as he told the Global Times.

Former Liaoning sports official Song Kai was elected as president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) at the organization's membership national conference on Monday. Soccer fans have pinned their hopes on Song to revitalize Chinese soccer following the start of an ongoing anti-graft campaign since November 2022 that has seen more than a dozen soccer-related officials investigated.

The 58-year-old has been working as a vice head of the preparatory group for the CFA election since June. Song has been the man at the helm of China's sports powerhouse Liaoning Province in Northeast China since 2016. 

During his tenure, the province successfully revitalized its "three major ball" games - soccer, basketball and volleyball - highlighted by its basketball team the Liaoning Flying Leopards' triple triumphs in the domestic basketball league CBA. 

"We will try our best to build a more united, more hardworking, more open, more transparent and more courageous CFA in the future," Song was quoted as saying at the conference.

Li Yingchuan, an incumbent deputy minister of China's General Administration of Sport, was elected the Party secretary of the CFA.

"We should learn from the profound lessons of systemic corruption in soccer, resolutely abandon the idea of quick success and instant benefits, be prepared for a long and hard struggle and adhere to the long-term success step by step," Li was quoted as saying.

Sun Wen, Yuan Yongqing, Yang Xu and Xu Jiren were elected as vice presidents of the CFA, with Chinese women's soccer legend Sun being the only vice president who remains in her position from the previous membership conference.

The 50-year-old Yuan, also named the CFA secretary-general, has past experiences serving in the Chinese Basketball Association. Yang, previously president of China's softball governing body, has been tasked to supervise China's professional soccer leagues in the future. Xu is a senior sports journalist from the Xinhua News Agency.

Gao Hongbo, a former vice president of CFA who remained intact amid the ongoing anti-graft campaign and was among the preparatory group for the CFA election, has been elected as the technical director of the association.

In addition to the president and vice presidents, the new 20-member executive committee elected by the conference includes female soccer star Wang Shuang and former men's national team captain Zheng Zhi. 

Earlier this year, Du Zhaocai, former deputy head of the General Administration of Sport of China and CFA vice chairman; Chen Xuyuan, former CFA president; as well as several other senior Chinese soccer officials have been put under probes for taking bribes since November 2022.

As the anti-corruption campaign is still underway, the possibility still exists that other soccer officials will be investigated, according to a Beijing-based soccer industry insider.

"It is wishful thinking to say that the damage done to the CFA due to corruption can be fully removed with new leadership," the expert said.

H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, launched the Dubai Economic Leadership Programme, which aims to prepare the next generation of competent Emirati talent to lead Dubai's vital sectors by enriching them with knowledge of the latest economic trends and expertise.

The programme, organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Leadership Development (MBRCLD) in collaboration with strategic international partners prominent in the field of economy, aims to prepare national talent through quality education and targeted activities that help them gain essential future leadership.

Investing in people

In a post published on his official account on X, H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: "Today we launch the 'Dubai Economic Leaders Programme'. Our goal is to prepare Emirati talent who will assume the responsibility to elevate Dubai's economy and its future, fulfil its economic agenda, D33, and ensure sustainable growth.

"I will personally oversee the progression of this year-long programme, which falls under the supervision of the Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Leadership Development (MBRCLD). The nomination and application process is open to those who see themselves as part of the future of Dubai and the UAE.

"With a wealth of creative minds across all sectors, Dubai has enough resilience and proactivity to ensure a leading position at the forefront of the world's most diverse and fastest-growing economies," he added.

Promising opportunities

The Dubai Economic Leadership Programme aims to develop quality new themes that help develop promising national competencies, provide the right conditions to nurture leadership skills and support outstanding talent, while also working towards the goals of D33, in terms of doubling Dubai's economic growth over the next decade, and bolstering its position among the world's top three cities.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Centre for Leadership Development will open registration in the programme between September and October.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Friday that the relocation of Gaza residents from the north to the south as ordered by the Israeli military is extremely dangerous.

After days of airstrikes, the Israeli military has ordered the Palestinians in Gaza City and its surroundings to move to the south of the territory, said Guterres. "Moving more than 1 million people across a densely populated warzone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is extremely dangerous - and in some cases, simply not possible."

Hospitals in the south of Gaza are already at capacity and will not be able to accept thousands of new patients from the north. The health system is on the brink of collapse. Morgues are overflowing; 11 healthcare staff have been killed while on duty; and there have been 34 attacks on health facilities in the past few days, he said before walking into a Security Council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The entire territory of Gaza faces a water crisis as infrastructure has been damaged and there is no electricity to power pumps and desalination plants, he added.

Guterres said the situation in Gaza has reached a dangerous new low.

The horrific terror attacks by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and injured thousands more on Saturday were followed by intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has already killed 1,800 people and injured thousands more, he noted.

Guterres called for immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza so that fuel, food and water can be provided to people in need. He called for respect for international humanitarian law and human rights law, and for the protection of civilians. He also called for the immediate release of hostages in Gaza.

"It is imperative that all parties - and those with influence over them - do everything possible to achieve these steps," said Guterres.

The UN chief also warned against hate speech stoked by the conflict - across the Middle East and around the world.

"Dehumanizing language that incites violence is never accepted. I call on all leaders to speak out against Antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and hate speech of all kinds. This is a time for the international community to come together around protecting civilians and finding a lasting solution to this unending cycle of death and destruction," he said.

China has dispatched its special envoy to the Middle East in a bid to bring the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas to an end. Peace activist, writer and teacher KJ Noh said the US response exposed its warmongering nature.

The US has unmasked its true nature by blocking efforts by China and other nations to bring peace to the Middle East, says a peace activist.

Chinese special envoy to the Middle East Zhai Jun said on Monday he had already visited Qatar and Egypt and would now travel to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries in the region "to further strengthen coordination with relevant parties to promote ceasefire, end violence and mitigate the situation."

More than 5,700 civilians have been killed and some 18,000 injured in the besieged Gaza Strip by Israeli Defence Forces bombing since the armed wing of the Hamas movement launched a surprise attack into southern Israel on October 7. The victims include 2,360 children, almost 1,300 women and 300 elderly people.

Last week the US blocked UN Security Council motions moved by Russia and Brazil calling for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian territories and for civilians to be protected. Washington has also sent two US Navy aircraft carrier strike groups and a seaborne assault flotilla to the region to back up Israel.

Peace campaigner KJ Noh told Sputnik that Washington was directly opposed to Beijing's attempts to broker a peace deal between Israel, Hamas and other states and movements in the region.

"China is using its good offices, scrambling to do shuttle diplomacy to try and de-escalate and find a peaceful resolution," Noh said. "And the United States is saying: 'Don't even dare talk about de-escalation. Nobody mention a ceasefire'."

"It only wants to make sure that whatever Israel does, it does it with a minimum of PR blowback," he added. "And so it's trying to mitigate the PR damage rather than prevent the horrific war crimes and atrocities that are sure to happen and that are already happening."

The writer said this was a "mask-off moment" when the West's true nature was exposed to the nations of the global south.

"The US could plausibly mystify many countries by pretending to be something that it was not," Noh argued. "But when it came out all in favor of Israel's violence and was ignoring the ground realities as well as international law, then at that point you can't keep up the pretence any more."

"Even the quisling leaders of US allies have had to make a conscientious statement because the outrage on the street, the outrage globally is so extraordinary that they cannot but speak up against what the US and Israel are doing," he stressed.

Western media has tried to dismiss China's peace initiatives as an attempt to position itself as a geopolitical rival to the US — a narrative which Noh called "extraordinary".

"The notion that somehow peace is nefarious, that China is being unprincipled in that it's trying to work for peace — China is on the side of peace. That much is clear because that it stands to gain from peace," he said.

"Everybody benefits from peace. It just is because China's model is win-win cooperation," Noh said. "On the other hand, the empire benefits from war. The US is built on more genocide, primitive accumulation and geopolitical oppression and bullying."

The Embassy of Belgium invited Belgians and friends of Belgium in China to the ambassador's residence to celebrate the country's National Day on July 21, which also marked the 10th anniversary of HM King Philippe's accession to the throne.
Departing ambassador Jan Hoogmartens gave a speech that concluded his China chapter for himself and four other Belgian diplomats.

The speech was followed by an artistic showcase by Jehanne de Biolley, a Belgian designer that works in fashion, interior design, fragrance and other artistic mediums, and whose ability to weave her Belgian origins into Chinese culture has been recognized by HM King Philippe. For her achievements, she was granted the title of Knight in the Order of Leopold. 

Guests enjoyed classic Belgian delicacies such as fries, a selection of exquisite beers and the delicious waffles as well.

The Zhongshan and Spain Exchange Festival kicked off in South China's Guangdong Province on August 2 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Spain, and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of ties between Guangdong and the Spanish Autonomous Community of Catalonia. 

The month-long festival was co-hosted by the Consulate General of Spain in Guangzhou and Foreign Affairs Office of Zhongshan. 

A diplomat with the Consul General of Spain in Guangzhou said that cultural exchanges are the foundation, and she hoped that promoting exchanges between the two sides economically and in trade, among other fields, would be achieved through the exchange festival.

The festival hosted a series of activities to launch the "Encuentro conel Prado (Meet the Prado)" exhibition, Spain's merchandise festival, Spain's economic, trade, and tourism promotion, and food festival to further promote exchanges and cooperation between Zhongshan and Spain. Throughout the month of August, citizens in Zhongshan can sample the flavor of Spain.