China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has emerged as a vital lifeline for fishermen along the country's southeastern coast, ensuring maritime safety through real-time monitoring of typhoons and vessel positions.
For Lin Xiaokeng, a veteran fisherman from Lianjiang County of east China's Fujian Province, the BDS technology has been a game-changer, marking a stark contrast to the perilous fishing days of the past.
"I graduated from a fishery high school in 1970. Since graduating, I've been working in fishery production. In the past, everything depended on the captain's judgment. Back then, we'd just go out onto the vast sea as if we were birds," said Lin.
The county's expansive 3,112-square-kilometer sea area, combined with the treacherous conditions in the Taiwan Strait, posed significant threats, with up to seven typhoons striking the region annually, along with the added challenges of the northeast monsoon and cold fronts.
Fisherman Lin Xiaokeng said during those days, the families of the fishermen were filled with worry as they spend their days at sea.
Now, BDS provides an invaluable safety net.
"Now, with the help of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, we'll timely make plans against typhoons based on the vessels' locations before the arrival of typhoon," said Lin Xiaoli, director of Emergency Command Center of Lianjiang Department of Ocean and Fisheries.
The platform displays all registered fishing vessels and township vessels on a single map, providing a comprehensive overview of maritime activity, according to the director.
"There's a lot of equipment installed on the ships now, such as satellite and anti-collision positioning devices as well as ocean broadband. At any time, the equipment can observe if the pilot is on duty or if he's dozing off. So, for fishermen there's now a better guarantee of safety at sea. Safety makes everything easier," said fishermen Lin Xiaokeng.
Lianjiang County boasts over 500 varieties of seafood and is renowned for abalone and kelp production. In recent years, approximately 135 fishing boats have been upgraded, supported by over 300 million yuan (about 41 million U.S. dollars) in government subsidies. These improvements have significantly transformed the outdated and dilapidated fleet, ensuring better conditions for local fishermen.
The investment, coupled with the enhanced safety provided by BDS, is contributing to a more prosperous and sustainable future for the local fishing industry.
China's BeiDou technology helps keep fishermen safe
A special team of electricians is skiing between power facilities in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius in the snow-laden mountains of northeast China just to guarantee the power supply of the upcoming Asian Winter Games.
The 9th Asian Winter Games, or Harbin 2025, will kick off on Feb 7 in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang.
The four-member inspection team is part of State Grid's innovative approach to maintain power supply at the Yabuli ski resort, where steep slopes, deep snow and distributed substations pose unique challenges for the maintenance work.
The team has to routinely patrol more than 50 kilometers of 10-kilovolt power lines to guarantee the smooth operation of all the electric facilities.
Sun Yanfeng, head of the team, said that skiing could save their travel time by tenfold and is much more efficient than foot patrols.
"There is a backend digital power support system, which monitors the compliance operation of these devises in real time. In case it spots abnormality in the data collected in certain places, it will dispatch us to rush to the location. Previously we had to patrol on foot and it took much longer time. Now we can ski, even if at the lowest speed of 20 kilometers per hour, it's way faster than the foot patrol at two kilometer per hour. So we can rush to spots of these power supply facilities," he said.
The digital power support system he mentioned is the digital command center the power supply departments built for the Asian Winter Games, which can track real-time data from every piece of electrical equipment.
"The power supply guarantee points are scattered at eight competition venues of alpine and cross country skiing, and 15 reserve venues, featuring complex terrain at high altitudes with low temperatures. In order to guarantee power supply during the Games, we have specially set up a ski inspection team and a drone-based smart patrolling team, who are in charge of equipment inspections in the alpine areas of the ski resorts. At present, we have completed the circuit mapping of all competition resorts and key gymnasiums, making sure to do a good job of power guarantee for the smooth run of the Asian Winter Games," said Zhang Yong, deputy manager of Shangzhi Power Supply Branch of State Grid Heilongjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd.
For Sun and his team, their daily work is to ski through forests on the snow land and check and maintain the equipment in the cold. But Sun said it's worth it as it is part to guarantee the success of the Asian Winter Games.
"The environment is tough, but now if you look at it this way, say our work is to ski, and it's fast to ski to work, but more importantly it's of great fun. If I could ever get one chance to serve such a big event like the Asian Winter Games, my happiness doubles," Sun said.
Electricians ski to guarantee Asian Winter Games operation
