The International Festival of Extreme Sports (FISE) World Series Shanghai concluded at the West Bund on Sunday, attracting top athletes from 29 countries and regions for passionate competitions while attracting growing fandom to explore the intriguing sport.
FISE, recognized as the world's biggest comprehensive extreme sports event, featured competitions in six disciplines in Shanghai, including freestyle BMX, skateboarding, and rock climbing. To mark its first appearance in Shanghai, FISE's arena designer Pascal Morrasse-Raymond added Chinese elements into competition fields.
"I want to make every venue distinctive. And I am quite fond of China's history and culture," said Raymond. With the competitions unfolding, the West Bund also hosted a FISE carnival featuring six themes, covering family activities, camping, music, and more, providing both athletes and residents with recreations beyond sports.
"I was here to compete and expected only a competition field. I have no idea that there are so many things to have fun. I am pleasantly surprised," said Yu Wentao, an athlete.
"There are quite many engaging activities, and different varieties of sports and competitions are also attractive," said Zhu Jingyi, a local resident.
The FISE extreme sports festival and the following recreations are part of the West Bund's broader initiative to enhance its influence and promote coordinated development, introduced Chen Anda, the man in charge of the event.
"The comprehensive development of the West Bund, encompassing commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and exhibition, was finally completed with the addition of 'sports' this year. In addition to the influence of the event on the build-up area, we expect that we could lead the southward development of the Xuhui District West Bund area with sports events," said Chen.
Global extreme sports event in Shanghai creates new recreational space
The key scientific infrastructure to generate attosecond laser, which started construction on Friday in Dongguan City, south China's Guangdong Province, will boost China's innovation ability in ultrafast optics field, said scientists.
The Advanced Attosecond Laser Infrastructure (AALI), including facilities in Dongguan and Xi'an City in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is being built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The AALI project is planned to set up 10 beamlines covering wavelengths in extreme ultraviolet, soft X-ray and terahertz radiation, along with 22 research terminals, forming a comprehensive attosecond science facility in the next five years, according to the Institute of Physics (IOP) of the CAS.
AALI demands driving lasers with exceptional stability and reliability, representing the pinnacle of ultrafast laser technology, thus facing numerous technical challenges.
To facilitate the smooth construction and operation of the AALI, the project has launched an innovation cluster for the high-performance laser industry. The initial members include 40 institutions, comprising 27 laser-related enterprises, 10 universities, and three research institutes. These entities are collaboratively working on establishing test platforms, streamlining supply chains, and developing industrial clusters to better integrate resources and advance the growth of related industries.
"We not only rely on the IOP (of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), but also tackle problems by working together with relevant scientific research institutes and other platform builders. After two years of effort, our team now has more than 100 members. With the development of this infrastructure, I believe it will bring more and more practical applications, including those promoting the development of related industries," said Wei Zhiyi, principal investigator of the AALI and a research fellow at the IOP.
The development of attosecond laser pulses has opened the door to the world of electrons, allowing physicists to investigate a wide range of electron behaviors. Scientists are expected to discover more novel phenomena at the attosecond scale, advancing both fundamental and applied sciences.
"In the field of ultrafast optics, attosecond lasers are at the forefront. If we can build such a large device in this field and serve a vast number of users, it will be like opening a new window and blazing a new trail in this area. It will have a great impact on our country's development in this field," said Zhao Kun, a research fellow at IOP and chief engineer of the Dongguan section of the AALI.
Attosecond laser infrastructure to boost China's innovation in ultrafast optics: scientists
