Cities across China have come to life with dazzling displays of lanterns and lights in the lead-up to the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a significant traditional Chinese festival celebrated on the night when the moon reaches its fullest and brightest on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival will fall on Sept 17.
During the festival, family members would come together, share mooncakes while admiring the moon, and light up lanterns to enjoy the happiness of family reunion.
In Nanning City of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a vibrant light show in Qingxiu Mountain captivated both residents and tourists alike as they enjoyed lights in shapes of exotic flowers, fire flies, dragons and swans.
"Seeing all these beautiful lights in Qingxiu Mountain is thrilling. We took so many great photos and had a wonderful time," said Shandong tourist Li Xianyan.
At the Beijing Garden Expo Park, more than 200 creative lanterns have been installed to celebrate both Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day Holiday. Incorporating traditional crafts of the time-honored Zigong Lanterns with Beijing characteristics, the lantern festival will run from Sept 15 to Oct 31.
"It's wonderful to have such a large lantern festival in Beijing. The variety of elements is amazing, and it's so nice to celebrate this traditional holiday here with my friends," said local resident Niu Chunchen.
In Chongqing, a light show on water is alluring scores of people with a colorful display of creative designs resembling a fish, rabbit, and the moon. This event will run until December, offering a breathtaking view of the city's skyline reflected in the shimmering water.
Dazzling lights, lanterns usher in Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations across China
China in 2024 saw a faster transformation and upgrading of investment in manufacturing industry, a strong growth of investment in high-tech industries, and a rebound of investment in infrastructure construction, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday.
The investment in manufacturing industry grew by 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, or six percentage points higher than the growth rate of overall investment. In particular, investment in technological upgrades of manufacturing industry increased by eight percent, or 4.8 percentage points higher than overall investment growth.
Private investment in manufacturing grew by 10.8 percent, driving up overall private investment by 5.3 percentage points.
The structure of investment continued to optimize. Investment in high-tech industries rose eight percent compared to the previous year, which was 4.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of overall investment. In particular, investment in high-tech manufacturing grew by seven percent, and that in high-tech service industry grew by 10.2 percent. Investments related to high-tech industries, such as aerospace equipment manufacturing and professional technical services, increased by more than 30 percent.
In 2025, China plans to moderately increase central government budgetary investments, issue ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and local government special bonds, and enhance efforts to support projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas, as well as implementation of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs, with the aim of stimulating private investment activity through various measures, effectively leveraging government investment to drive social investment, improving investment efficiency, and promoting steady growth in investments.
Transformation, upgrading of China's manufacturing investment accelerates in 2024