Cities in east China's Zhejiang Province have provided meals at favorable prices to delivery workers and elderly people with mobility difficulties at community-based canteens, bringing them extra warmth and care in this cold winter.
In Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, a canteen in Gexiang Community has offered affordable and delicious meals with a variety of options, especially for delivery workers who hustle across the city every day.
"For me, a meal at other restaurants normally costs around 18 to 20 yuan (2.4 to 2.7 U.S. dollars), but it's much cheaper here. The food is tasty, with both meat and vegetables, soups, and everything is served warm," said deliveryman Yang Zhiqiang.
This year, the Gexiang Community began offering food delivery services for elderly people living alone, ensuring they can receive meals at home. In exchange, delivery workers can enjoy affordable meals at the community canteen, with charging, water, and other services at the newly established rest station within the community.
"We aim to provide a comfortable environment to them, and in the future, our services may be gradually expanded based on the situation," said Luo Jianqin, a community staff member.
In Wenzhou City, 83-year-old Zhang Lizhong goes to the seniors' canteen of Wanshun Community every day for meals. Every day, more than 80 elderly people come to the canteen.
The canteen offers discounts on meals for elderly people: three yuan (0.4 U.S. dollars) off for people over 60, five yuan (0.7 U.S. dollars) off for those over 70, and 8 yuan (1.1 U.S. dollars) off for those over 80.
"The servers here are very attentive and polite to us elderly people," said Zhang.
With subsidies from the local government and village collectives, five senior canteens have been established in Longwan District of Wenzhou this year, bringing the total number of such canteens in the district to 34. These canteens serve about 1,100 meals to the elderly each day.
"Our children are busy with work and don't have time to take care of us. Now with the canteen, we can have fresh and tasty meals every day. It's great, and we really enjoy it," said an senior citizen Chen Meihua.
Community canteens in Zhejiang Province feed appetites of delivery workers, seniors
China is continuing to accelerate its green energy transition while meeting the considerable power demand, with renewable energy representing over 80 percent of the country's new installed power generation capacity.
The latest data showed that China's newly installed capacity for new energy power generation reached 258 million kilowatts from January to November, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total newly installed power generation capacity.
Experts say the renewable energy expansion can be partly attributed to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of new energy bases in its western areas to promote the distribution of new energy production in the more populous central and eastern parts of the country.
"For the next step, China's new energy power generation will be both centralized and distributed. It will also be land-based and sea-based. The generated power will be transmitted to other regions and consumed locally. We will continue promoting the construction of the wind and solar power generation bases in the sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts in the shelterbelt program in the northeast, north, and northwest regions of China. We will push forward the development of the water, wind, and solar power generation bases in southwestern China and the offshore wind power generation bases in eastern China. We will work to strengthen coordination in an effort to comprehensively diversify the supply of new energy," said Rao Jianye, director of the Clean Energy Research Institute under the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.
China is also improving its new power system, keeping enhancing the system's capability for receiving and distributing new energy so as to support the country's energy transition.
As China races to construct more new energy storage projects like photothermal energy storage projects and compressed-air energy storage projects, so far, the country's new energy storage has a capacity of over 60 million kilowatts, marking a significant achievement in maintaining the stable operation of the country's power system.
By the end of July, China's total installed capacity of wind and solar power had exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, more than doubling the 2020 level and achieving the 2030 target six years ahead of schedule.
New energy represents over 80 pct of China's new installed power generation capacity
