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"Snow Leopard Street" booms for night markets

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      China

      China

      "Snow Leopard Street" booms for night markets

      2024-08-05 16:48 Last Updated At:17:07

      A street in Xining City, northwestern China, featuring the locally famous snow leopard species, has become a popular night market for locals and tourists alike.

      "Leopard Street" is one of the busiest and liveliest places in Xining, Qinghai Province, this summer, as it turns into a large night market after dusk. Dancing parades in beautiful ethnic costumes move along the street every weekend evening, attracting residents and visitors to watch and dance to the rhythm.

      The name of the street refers to the snow leopard, a big cat native to the high mountain ranges of Asia, including Qinghai Province. Listed as a first-class national protected animal in China, the whitish leopard with dark spots has recently been adopted as the provincial cultural symbol.

      Elements of snow leopard are very common in Leopard Street. The animal can be seen from the signs, banners, light boxes, to merchandise including dolls, postcards, hair ribbons, and even handicrafts with intangible cultural heritage skills, such as filigree, paper cutting, embroidery, dough sculptures.

      Due to the high altitude, the weather in Xining is rather cool compared to most cities in China. People go to open-air markets to enjoy supper and snacks in the evening. Leopard Street has gathered more than 60 classic local dishes to attract visitors from all over the country.

      Leopard Street has seen more than 2.04 million visitors so far since May.

      "Snow Leopard Street" booms for night markets

      "Snow Leopard Street" booms for night markets

      Members of the Shenzhou-19 crew aboard China's Tiangong Space Station successfully completed their second series of extravehicular activities (EVAs) at 01:12 (Beijing Time) on Tuesday, after performing multiple tasks including the installation of space debris protection devices and an extravehicular inspection.

      Astronauts Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze worked for over eight hours to complete the tasks, with Cai and Song undertaking spacewalk duties. They were assisted by the space station's robotic arm and a team on Earth.

      Song stepped out of Tiangong's Wentian lab module at 16:55 on Monday. Cai exited the module about two hours later to join Song on device installation tasks. Meanwhile, Wang stayed in the station's core module to provide support.

      "The primary task is to install debris protection devices outside the module to safeguard its external cables from debris impact. Given the increasingly severe risk of space debris collisions in the orbital environment, we have carefully selected appropriate materials and made specialized designs. Additionally, the protection devices are designed to be easily and securely installed on the exterior of the space station, ensuring effective protection," said Li Zhihai, an aerospace engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

      During their previous extravehicular mission in December, the Shenzhou-19 crew primarily installed protective devices for the external pipelines and cables of the Tianhe core module. Their second spacewalk put a focus on strengthening the Wentian lab module.

      "Since the operational area for this mission differs from the previous one, the entire path planning process for the robotic arm must take into account the specific conditions around the Wentian module. It is essential to avoid any interference or collisions with the module itself or its solar panels. This requires maintaining a safe distance, which necessitates optimization in the design phase on the ground, along with extensive testing and validation," Li said.

      The crew has completed all tasks smoothly and the two astronauts conducting the EVAs have returned to the Wentian lab module safely.

      "The astronauts showed exceptional efficiency and speed throughout the entire process, and all installations were done perfectly," Li said.

      The Shenzhou-19 crew have completed nearly half of their space journey and are scheduled to carry out a significant number of in-orbit scientific experiments and technological tests, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

      Shenzhou-19 crew strengthens Tiangong station's debris protection in second spacewalk

      Shenzhou-19 crew strengthens Tiangong station's debris protection in second spacewalk

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