High-speed rail brings Liaoning's intangible cultural heritage to larger global audience

High-speed rail is making it increasingly convenient for tourists, especially enthusiasts of paleontology, from around the world to visit the intangible cultural heritage of Chaoyang, a city in northeast China's Liaoning Province known as the "fossil city". 

Located in the west of Liaoning, Chaoyang has a long and rich history and has been the site of many important paleontological discoveries. During the 1990s, many unique and fascinating fossils were discovered in the city. Some of the finds have completely revolutionized humans' ideas of dinosaurs and shed new light on the origin of birds. 

The Chaoyang Bird Fossil National Geopark houses one of the world's largest biological fossil displays. Over the past few years, it has seen increasing numbers of visitors since the opening of high-speed rails such as the Beijing-Shenyang High-speed Railway and the Chaoyang-Linghai High-speed Railway. 

"Here you can find fossils of creatures that once flew in the sky, ran on the ground, and swam in the water. It's truly a gift from nature. Our Chaoyang Bird Fossil National Geopark holds over 10,000 fossils," Liu Changchua, the park director, told China Global Television Network (CGTN) in a recent interview. 

With the high-speed rails greatly cutting down on travel time, these world-class fossil collections are now more accessible. More and more people are now taking the train to visit Chaoyang to see these fossilized wonders, according to Liu.

Chaoyang's Niuheliang site is the largest known sacrificial site and tomb group of northeast China's Hongshan culture, an important prehistoric archaeological culture dating back approximately 5,000 to 6,000 years. 

Thanks to high-speed rail links, the site's rich varieties of unearthed objects and exhibitions can now reach a much larger global audience. 

"Niuheliang pushes the benchmark of Chinese civilization's origins back by an additional 500 to 600 years, making it a key piece of ancient Chinese history. The development of high-speed rail has made it easier for scholars and experts to excavate and research the site, while also attracting more visitors to experience its intriguing mysteries," said Feng Shuyi, deputy director of the Niuheliang National Archaeological Site Park. 

"I live in Canada, but I'm currently back visiting my relatives here. Hongshan Culture is quite famous abroad, so I brought my kids along to experience it," said a tourist. 

Not only natural landmarks but also local industries are benefiting from the development of high-speed rail. 

Despite its rich history and traditional craftsmanship, Liaoning Tacheng Mature Vinegar Brewing Company previously struggled to expand its market due to limited access. 

"In the past, we had only one slow train a day, which took 12 hours to reach Shenyang or Beijing. Since the high-speed rail opened, both passenger flow and logistics have greatly improved. Our annual production has now reached 6,000 tons, doubling from before," said Yu Runyuan, the company's production manager.

High-speed rail brings Liaoning's intangible cultural heritage to larger global audience

China's scientific expedition team on Thursday obtained critical ice cores during their investigation of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is known as Asia's "water tower".

The region encompasses "one glacier, two lakes and three rivers". It is home to Purog Kangri Glacier, the world's largest glacier in the mid to low-latitude regions, as well as Siling Lake and Namtso Lake, the largest and second-largest lakes in Xizang, respectively. It is also the birthplace of the Yangtze River, Nujiang River and Yarlung Zangbo River.

The climate in the region is complex and changeable, and its ecosystem is very fragile, and meanwhile it is a pivotal area for Xizang's economic and social development.

During their expedition, the team drilled for ice cores at different depths overnight on Thursday, aiming to capture climate records from different time scales.

Ice core drilling is typically conducted during the night and early morning when the ice temperature is sufficiently low.

Ice cores serve as vital records of global climate and environmental changes. The sediments and bubbles within these cores are clues to understanding the history of Earth's climate. By studying the bubbles captured in ice cores, scientists can analyze atmospheric composition, including carbon dioxide levels, over hundreds of thousands of years.

Yao Tandong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and leader of the expedition, and Lonnie Thompson, a renowned American glacier expert and foreign academician at CAS, conducted their scientific expedition on the glacier Thursday morning.

Through helicopter observations, thickness-measuring radar, satellite image comparison and other methods, the scientific expedition team has found that the surface area of the Purog Kangri Glacier has shrunk by 10 percent over the past 50 years.

The average altitude of Purog Kangri Glacier is 5,748 meters, with the highest point reaching 6,370 meters. Due to global warming, the glacier is melting rapidly.

"So does the melting of glacier surface -- the higher the altitudes, the less the ablation volume, while at lower altitudes, it accumulates and forms branch-like rivers on the ice surface. Currently, these branches extend up to altitudes of 6,000 meters," said Xu Baiqing, a research fellow of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the CAS.

Research indicates that the accelerated retreat of glaciers on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau over the past 40 years reflects a broader trend, and the melting rate of the Purog Kangri Glacier is relatively slow compared to the overall situation of the plateau.

The temperature changes within the glacier also attributed to the great difficulty of drilling, said Xu.

"Due to climate warming, the temperature within the glacier has risen, which suggests that under the same backdrop of temperature variations, the ablation may show abrupt shift with accelerating growth," said Xu.

The expedition was launched on Aug 18, 2024 and is scheduled to continue until October.

Scientists obtain critical ice cores during expedition in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau