The China Disabled Persons' Federation marked China's 34th National Day for Helping the Disabled on Sunday by signing an agreement with the Palace Museum in Beijing to improve accessibility at the tourist attraction, provide braille service for the visually impaired, and design sightseeing routes and open online reservation channels accessible to the disabled.
This is just one of countless nationwide initiatives to improve accessibility to cultural, economic and social venues for the disabled.
Cinemas in east China's Zhejiang Province have set up special screening halls for moviegoers in wheelchairs.
"After I enter the shopping mall, I take the elevator to the fifth floor. I can see signs of the cinema as soon as I get out of the elevator. There are staff members guiding us. The whole route is on flat ground," said Cai Lu, a resident in Hangzhou City of Zhejiang who uses a wheelchair.
Some buses in Harbin City of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have installed intelligent assistance systems for visually impaired passengers, enabling them to listen to voice prompts by shaking their cell phones to let them know where they are on the route.
In Qingdao City in east China's Shandong Province, high-tech devices designed to improve accessibility for disabled people are being promoted at an exhibition, while in Chengdu City in southwest China's Sichuan Province, a special foundation for the development of high-tech products to assist disabled people has been set up.
The center for assistance devices for the disabled in Liuzhou City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has launched a cooperation project with the Guangxi University of Science and Technology to develop new devices and promote the use of technology to improve the lives of disabled people.
China's National Day for Helping the Disabled falls on the third Sunday of May every year.
China marks National Day for Helping the Disabled with further improvements in accessibility
China’s first intelligent field plant phenotype precision identification platform went into operation recently in Sanya City, south China’s Hainan Province, which is a milestone in the country’s development of intelligent breeding.
The phenotype of a plant is a term used to describe observable characteristics of the plant, such as its appearance, and some inherent physiological characteristics, such as resistance to drought and diseases.
In an experimental field of the National Nanfan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, a large piece of equipment is moving across the field. The equipment, called the field plant phenotype precision identification platform, can move according to the preset track and can be remotely controlled. While moving, the equipment can scan the plants with its six sensors, just like a CT machine for plants.
"The ultimate goal is to achieve high-throughput, large-scale, efficient and precise collection of germplasm resources, which can be four to five times higher than the efficiency of the traditional manual collection," said Jin Xiuliang, a researcher at the institute.
Although the equipment looks simple from the outside, it contains six high-precision image acquisition devices such as multi-spectral, thermal infrared, and chlorophyll fluorescence devices. Data can be collected at fixed times and points according to experimental needs, and the collection of a germplasm material can be completed within 30 seconds.
After the data collected through this platform is transmitted to the data analysis center, researchers can more quickly and accurately screen out germplasm resources with excellent traits, laying the foundation for subsequent crop breeding.
"The plant phenotype identification facility at the National Nanfan Research Institute is a milestone in the field of crop science in China. It can greatly enhance the independent innovation capabilities of germplasm innovation, gene mining, and variety breeding, and enhance the international competitiveness of China's seed industry," said Li Huihui, vice president of the institute.
China makes major progress in smart crop breeding
