Cultural, tourism events across China spark consumption growth

Local authorities across China are using their unique resources to continuously create new cultural and tourism experiences, attracting visitors for sightseeing and recreation.

The tourism department in north China's Hebei Province started a Hong Kong-Hebei cultural tourism week, launching a series of events in Hong Kong, including artistic performances and demonstrations of intangible cultural heritage.

The activities are aimed to provide the residents of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) with a deeper understanding of the charm of Hebei's culture and tourism.

"Today, I am very excited to be in Hong Kong. I brought these exhibits to allow residents of Hong Kong to experience traditional culture, which makes me feel very proud," said Ma Fuliang, a filigree inlay artist, also a national intangible cultural heritage (ICH) bearer.

"I have heard that the ancient town of Zhengding is very beautiful. I would like to go and see it," said a Hong Kong resident.

Leveraging its ice and snow resources, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has combined sports events with ice and snow tourist attractions and hosted an ice marathon on Wednesday, the first day of 2025, attracting over 2,000 marathon enthusiasts from across the country.

At the same time, a self-driving event was launched on Saturday in Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia in north China, bringing together thousands of vehicles from across the nation.

During the opening ceremony, parade formations and artistic performances were presented to offer a visual feast for the spectators.

"This is our second year coming here, and we are participating in the second race. It has been very enjoyable," said Guo Junke, a participant from Beijing.

Up to date, Xilingol League has received over one million visitors from across the country this winter.

Cultural, tourism events across China spark consumption growth

A Long March-3B rocket successfully sent test satellite Shijian-25 into space Tuesday morning, marking China's first rocket launch in 2025.

The Long March-3B is China's first carrier rocket series to complete 100 launches, having served the construction of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and China's lunar exploration program.

Mainly used to launch high-orbit spacecraft and satellites, the Long March-3B rockets will serve more than 10 major space missions this year, including asteroid exploration.

The Long March-3B rocket carrying the Shijian-25 test satellite blasted off at 04:00 Beijing Time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, bringing the payload into the preset orbit later.

The satellite is primarily used for the verification of satellite fuel replenishment and life extension service technologies, according to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, the Shijian-25's developer.

The launch marked the 555th mission of the Long March series carrier rockets.

"The Tuesday launch is the first mission of China's Long March series carrier rockets in 2025. The relevant teams dedicated to this rocket model have taken more than 40 strict measures to make full-scale preparations and ensure a complete success of the launch mission," said Qin Yi, an official of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Long March-3B rocket mission marks first launch of new year