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　　A visitor views the Min Fanglei， an ancient bronze vessel， at an exhibition showcasing retrieved cultural relics at the National Museum of China in Beijing on September 17.
　　Since 1949， more than 150，000 Chinese cultural relics have been returned from overseas through law enforcement cooperation， lawsuits， negotiations and donations， according to the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

Steady Employment

　　A total of 9.84 million new urban jobs were created in China in the fi rst eight months of the year， representing 89.5 percent of the target for the whole year， the National Bureau of Statistics （NBS） said on September 16.
　　The surveyed urban unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage point to 5.2 percent in August， NBS data showed.
　　Among people aged 25-59， who represent the majority of the labor market， the surveyed unemployment rate stood at 4.5 percent for the same month， down from 4.6 percent in July.
　　Meanwhile， the surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 5.2 percent.
　　The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas， including migrant workers.

Postal Services

　　All administrative villages in China had had access to direct postal services by August， according to the country’s postal service regulator.
　　The target of establishing postal service outlets in every township across the country has also been realized， said Ma Junsheng， head of the State Post Bureau， at a press conference on September 16.
　　China will next strengthen the synergy between improving the postal network and the development of rural e-commerce to promote poverty reduction and rural vitalization， according to Ma.
　　China’s rural areas have become bright spots in e-commerce growth. Rural online retail sales totaled 777.1 billion yuan （$110 billion） in the fi rst half of the year， surging 21 percent year on year， according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Green Transport

　　China has achieved great progress in green commuting， serving 300 million trips each day， a senior transport offi cial said on September 16.
　　A total of 37 cities have opened rail transit systems， with a total operating distance of more than 5，300 km. The urban public transport system serves over 90 billion passenger trips annually， and the average daily users of shared bicycles exceeds 40 million， Liu Xiaoming， Vice Minister of Transport， said. 　　Currently， there are 340，000 new-energy vehicles out of the 670，000 buses and trolleybuses in the country， ranking fi rst in the world， according to him.

Integrated Care

　　Currently， there are nearly 4，000 institutions providing integrated medical and elderly services in China， while over 20，000 medical institutions have established contracted cooperation with senior care institutions， according to a press conference held by the National Health Commission （NHC） on September 17.
　　A total of 90 state-level pilot cities have been selected， and provincial-level pilot units have been set up in 22 provincial-level regions for integrated medical and elderly care services.
　　The NHC will give more priority to communities and rural areas to advance the integration of medical and senior care， said Wang Haidong， Director of the NHC Department of Aging and Health.
　　More facilities will be built to provide concentrated or homebased elderly healthcare services for those who are unable to take care of themselves， Wang said， adding that social investment in building institutions of this kind will be encouraged.

Developing Sports

　　The State Council， China’s cabinet， unveiled a document on promoting mass sports， sports consumption and the high-quality development of the sports industry on September 16， laying out measures in 10 aspects in a bid to turn the industry into one of the pillars of the national economy.
　　According to the plan， sports industry-related fi nancial policies will be refi ned and improved， and more exercise sites will be made available to the public.
　　The government is studying the creation of a sports industry investment fund to be drawn from the private sector.
　　The document called for the promotion of interscholastic tournaments and winter sports as well as the introduction of professional sports training in schools.
　　In 2014， the Chinese Government announced plans to develop the sports industry and raise the sector’s annual output to 5 trillion yuan （$705 billion） by 2025， while promoting fi tness as one of the country’s priorities.

Healthy Growth

　　Students at Juhua Primary School have a meal during break time in Shengfang Town of Bazhou， north China’s Hebei Province， on September 16. The Bazhou City Government started a nutrition improvement program in September to provide free milk and eggs for more than 60，000 rural students at 128 primary schools.

Milky Way Observation

　　Chinese astronomers have completed about 71.4 percent of a grand project to paint a portrait of the vast Milky Way， according to the Qinghai station of the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
　　It’s expected to take another four to fi ve years to complete the whole project， Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting， which was launched in 2011， said Lu Dengrong， a senior engineer at the station.
　　The project aims to probe the distribution， structure and physical properties of molecular clouds to get a relatively complete picture of the structure of the Milky Way， according to Lu. “It will change our understanding of our galaxy，” he said.
　　The observation of the galaxy was carried out with a 13.7-meter millimeter-wave telescope located in the Gobi Desert at an altitude of 3，200 meters in the northwestern province of Qinghai.
　　The telescope， China’s only large radio telescope working at the millimeter wave band， is mainly used to study molecular clouds and the formation of stars， as well as planetary nebula， the evolution of stars and interstellar matter.
　　It provides data for a series of key astronomical studies and is accessible to astronomers worldwide.

Unmanned Ships

　　The fi rst test base for unmanned ships in China will be operational by the end of the year， according to Science and Technology Daily on September 16.
　　The Xiangshan Marine Scientifi c and Technological Port is located in Zhuhai， south China’s Guangdong Province， and will provide an innovation platform for the design， research and testing of unmanned marine systems and intelligent equipment.
　　The base will help develop the industrial chain of unmanned ships and foster research on advanced equipment manufacturing as well as the new generation of information technology.
　　It will occupy an area of 32，000 square meters， consisting of laboratories， test pools， docks and a sea trial area.

A Safe Cyberspace

　　People visit a cybersecurity expo held at the Meijiang Convention Center in north China’s Tianjin on September 14， the opening day. More than 100 cybersecurity and Internet enterprises took part in the event.

University Rankings

　　The Chinese mainland for the fi rst time has the top two universities in Asia， according to the recently published Times Higher Education （THE） World University Rankings 2020.
　　Currently in its 16th year， THE reviews over 1，300 institutions across 92 countries based on 13 calibrated indicators that measure performance across teaching， research， citations， industry income and international outlook.
　　The Chinese mainland has 81 institutions on the table， which is nine more than last year and solidifi es its fourth-place position.
　　Tsinghua University leads the continent in 23rd place， while Peking University ranks 24th， overtaking the National University of Singapore as second place in Asia.
　　In all， the Chinese mainland has seven universities in the top 200， the same as last year.
　　THE said universities in the Chinese mainland consistently show improvement in their scores for research environment， citation impact and teaching environment， but fall behind their U.S. and European competitors in terms of international outlook.

Cap Removal

　　The lifting of investment quota limits for approved foreign investors is conducive to the long-term development of China’s fi nancial market， an offi cial with the country’s foreign exchange regulator said.
　　“The removal of investment caps will attract more long-term investors， promote stability of the yuan exchange rate and help maintain the balance of international payments，”said Zhang Xin， deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange （SAFE）， in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency.
　　The SAFE announced that it will abolish the investment quota restrictions for the Qualifi ed Foreign Institutional Investors （QFII） and Renminbi Qualifi ed Foreign Institutional Investors （RQFII） to boost fi nancial reforms and opening up.
　　As qualifi ed foreign investors usually have a long-term investment view， their increased holdings of Chinese stocks and bonds may gradually change the overall investment style in China’s capital market， Zhang said.
　　In terms of market capitalization， QFII holds 41 percent of stocks owned by all foreign investors， but the proportion comes down to 23 percent in terms of market turnover， indicating these investors prefer not to make frequent transactions， he said.
　　The SAFE is working on relative matching regulations to support the removal of investment caps and strengthen supervision to forestall fi nancial risks， Zhang added. 　　Since the implementation of the QFII system in 2002 and the RQFII system in 2011， more than 400 institutional investors from 31 countries and regions have invested in China’s fi nancial market in this way， according to the SAFE.

Arctic Route

　　Workers unload paper pulp from the Tian Xi vessel at Qingdao Port in east China’s Shandong Province on September 17. The vessel， from China’s COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co. Ltd.， arrived through the Arctic shipping route and has transported nearly 30，000 tons of high-quality paper pulp back to China.

Power Road to Heaven

　　The world’s highest power transmission and transformation project started construction on September 17 in southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.
　　With a total length of 1，689 km， the project， which goes from Xigaze City to Ali Prefecture， stretches across permafrost， no man’s land and swamps.
　　The project requires a total investment of 7.4 billion yuan（$1.05 billion） and is planned to be completed in 2021， benefi ting nearly 380，000 people along the line.
　　With towers at an average eleva- tion of over 4，000 meters， the project is said to be an extremely diffi cult“power road to heaven” due to the harsh construction environment， dangerous road conditions， high altitude， poor logistics support and strict environmental protection requirements.
　　The project connecting 10 Tibetan counties will end the days when the power grid of Ali is isolated from the rest of Tibet， thus improving the reliability of power supply in the prefecture， industrial sources said.
　　It will also help reduce Tibet’s poverty and pave the way for the supply of Tibet’s clean energy to South Asia.
　　Since 2007， the State Grid Corp. of China has injected 14.5 billion yuan （$2.05 billion） into Tibet’s power grid construction， effectively improving the local power supply.

New Container Line

　　Guangzhou Port Group opened its fi rst container line to the east coast of the United States on September 16.
　　According to the company based in south China’s Guangdong Province， the route is operated by international shipping giants including Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping， with a total of 12 large container ships of 8，200 to 8，500 TEUs.
　　The new line is expected to transport goods from Guangzhou’s Nansha Port to the U.S. Newark Port in 32 days， and its Charleston Port in 37 days. 　　Prior to the new line， the company had been operating container freight routes to ports on the west coast of the United States.
　　Guangzhou Port is the largest comprehensive main hub port and container trunk port in south China.
　　Statistics from the Guangzhou Port Group show that by the end of August， the company had a total of 154 container liner routes， with 109 for foreign trade and 45 for domestic trade.

Fastest AI

　　Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. launched Atlas 900， a superfast artifi cial intelligence （AI） training cluster， at its annual Huawei Connect conference in Shanghai on September 18.
　　Hu Houkun， Vice Chairman of the Chinese tech giant， said Atlas 900 is the “world’s fastest AI training cluster，” which combines the power of thousands of Ascend processors， and can handle models in seconds that used to take several months to train.
　　The cluster fi nished the entire training of the ResNet-50 model， an industry standard for measuring AI training performance， in 59.8 seconds， about 10 seconds faster than the previous world record， Hu said.
　　The speedy AI computing will bring new possibilities to different fi elds of scientifi c research and business innovation， from astronomy to oil exploration.
　　Huawei has deployed Atlas 900 on Huawei Cloud as a service to let its clients have a small taste of the AI training product， according to Hu.
　　The company， headquartered in Shenzhen of south China’s Guangdong Province， pledged to invest more in its AI computing strategy.
　　“We need to beef up our computing power， explore new architecture and develop processors that meet people’s needs across all scenarios，” Hu said.
　　Huawei is also looking to build an open ecosystem for its computing strategy.
　　The company will further invest$1.5 billion in its developer program in the next fi ve years， expanding the program to 5 million developers and better enabling its partners around the world to develop the next generation of intelligent applications and solutions.

Agricultural Fair

　　An exhibitor displays passion fruit during an agricultural product trade fair in Du’an Yao Autonomous County， south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region， on September 17. Hechi City’s fi rst such trade fair kicked off that day， with over 100 types of agricultural products from more than 80 companies and 33 poverty-stricken villages in Guangxi participating.

Sound IPR Environment

　　The National Intellectual Property Administration （NIPA） has been actively fostering an environment of strict protection of intellectual property rights （IPR） by law， as the number of foreign patent applications is growing.
　　From January to July， foreign applicants in China fi led 92，000 invention patent applications， with a year-on-year growth of 8.3 percent， and 149，000 trademark registration applications， up 13.1 percent compared to the same period last year， said Gan Shaoning， deputy head of the NIPA.
　　During a meeting with a group of foreign journalists， Gan attributed the rapid increases to the implementation of a series of measures to strengthen IPR protection in the country， including amending laws and regulations， accelerating the construction of the IP Credit System and carrying out coordinated punishment of unlawful behavior.
　　On September 12， the foreign journalists visited the NIPA’s Patent Examination Cooperation （Beijing） Center， where they saw exhibitions about the history and development of China’s modern patent system and watched a demo on the process of examining a patent application of a robotic surgical arm.
　　The event was organized by the State Council Information Offi ce to demonstrate China’s progress in IPR protection to foreign journalists.
　　“China places great importance on IPR protection， not only for creating a good environment for opening up， but more importantly， for its own development，” said Gan in response to a question raised by a Russian journalist. “The Chinese Government has put forward the idea of innovation-driven development. Without strict IPR protection， there will be no innovation or economic and social development.”
　　China’s progress in IPR protection has been widely recognized. The global ranking of China’s business environment rose to 46th place in 2018 from 78th in 2017， according to the Doing Business 2019 released by the World Bank.
　　Recently， the 2019 Member Survey by the U.S.-China Business Council showed that 58 percent of U.S. enterprises—a record high since the survey was established in 2011—share the view that China enhanced its IP protection in 2018.

Smart Sorting

　　Visitors watch a garbage sorting robot during the 2019 China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on September 17. The fair ran on September 17-21， with over 2，600 exhibitors from 27 countries and regions.