A great number of migratory birds including the rare species have arrived in a wetland in Quanzhou City, east China's Fujian Province, for stopover, forage and molt as the area has become an ideal habitat and wintering site along the East Asia-Australasia flyway for migratory birds.
According to experts, migratory birds have been arriving at the Weitou Bay since late September, with continuously growing number.
Among them, black-billed gulls and black-bellied plovers are regular visitors to the Weitou Bay to spend the winter.
Spoon-billed sandpipers, under first-class national protection in China, have also been spotted at the area.
Experts said that currently four spoon-billed sandpipers have been found. Measuring only 14 to 16 centimeters in length, these birds arrived at the Weitou Bay nearly a month earlier compared to previous years.
The rich variety of food at the bay offers migratory birds a diverse choice, making it one of the key reasons why they are drawn to the bay.
The bay is expected to see a peak arrival period of wintering migratory birds in just over a week.
To provide a safer wintering environment for rare migratory birds, local forestry department manages human activities along migration routes. They also use technologies such as satellite remote sensing and drones to conduct real-time monitoring and assessment of the important habitats for the migratory birds.
In addition, local government continues to advance the protection and restoration of wetland ecosystems to enhance the wintering habitats for birds.
"Across the Quanzhou Bay area, spanning five counties and cities, high-definition cameras are used for the identification and monitoring of birds. Additionally, through the construction of the blue bay area, we are working to enhance habitat diversity, providing birds with a beautiful environment and a variety of food sources," said Xu Jianlin, forestry engineer at the Jinjiang City Forestry and Landscaping Bureau.
Ideal habitat in Fujian lures flocks of wintering migratory birds
China is at the forefront of financial technological innovations that include mobile payment and artificial intelligence (AI), according to industry watchers at the SWIFT International Banker's Operation Seminar, or Sibos, in Beijing.
The four-day Sibos 2024 financial conference concluded on Thursday.
The theme of this year's conference was "Connecting the Future of Finance," with discussion that focused on the digital transformations shaping the industry.
Experts in attendance said China is at the forefront of adopting certain areas of fintech innovations such as mobile payment.
"I think the estimate is that in the next few years, the domestic mobile payment will already exceed 100 trillion U.S. dollars in the next few years," said David Chan, managing director and partner of Boston Consulting Group.
Another area of focus is called embedded finance, which integrates financial services directly into non-financial platforms or applications, such as shopping and travel apps.
The approach allows businesses to seamlessly offer services like payments, loans, insurance and investment options within their existing user experiences.
Most of the services leverage insights from collected customer data to provide tailored financial solutions.
"Also leveraging on the data to do better risk management so that they can actually allow more SMEs, more underbanked populations to be able to access funding," said Chan.
China is also leading in the research and adoption of generative AI, including chatbots that use large language models, or LLMs, to simulate real human communication.
"Even the foundational LLM is at the developing stage, but many of the global banks and insurance companies have been active in adopting use cases which are at the forefront, for example, I think these customer enablement, customer service, call centers," said Nicole Zhou, senior partner of McKinsey and Company.
However, combining AI with financial services is still at an early stage. Experts suggest for the financial industry to fully harness the power of AI, a deeper shift in the operating models of institutions is necessary, but this is expected to take time.
China takes lead in fintech innovations: experts
