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4 | Thursday, January 24, 2019 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA FROM THE FRONT LINE Going strong at 117 Special wells New digital map guides proliferate migrant workers making to monitor way home by motorcycle groundwater By QIU QUANLIN in Zhaoqing, Guangdong By LI HONGYANG [email protected] We are joining [email protected] On Wednesday morning, hands with traffic To better conserve groundwater Zhang Aiping joined hundreds of authorities and resources, more professional moni­ migrant workers as he began his toring wells that can test water journey home by motorcycle for a social organizations quality have been set up across wid­ Spring Festival family reunion. to offer better er areas of China, the China Geo­ The journey of 600 kilometers logical Survey, an institute under from Zhaoqing, Guangdong pro­ services for this the Ministry of Natural Resources, vince, to Liuzhou, in neighboring special group — said at its annual conference on Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Wednesday. region, was particularly difficult migrant workers.” By the end of last year, the num­ because of harsh weather condi­ Dong Zhenning, ber of monitoring wells nationwide tions and difficulty in finding vice­president of Gaode Map had risen to more than 10,100 com­ motorcycle maintenance shops. pared with 5,100 in 2017. And 93 “The first time I traveled home testing indexes for groundwater three years ago, I lost my way,” “We are joining hands with traf­ have been added to monitoring said Zhang, 48, who has been fic authorities and social organiza­ results, according to the CGS. working for a furniture company tions to offer better services for Li Wenpeng, senior engineer at in Zhaoqing, about 100 kilome­ this special group — migrant Zhang Xueli, 117, receives cataract surgery on his left eye at a local eye hospital in Jia county, Henan the CGS, said that previously they ters from Guangzhou, Guang­ workers,” said Dong Zhenning, province, on Tuesday. According to the health and longevity branch of the China Association of Ger­ had often used local residents’ dong. vice­president of Gaode Map. ontology and Geriatrics, it is rare to see a healthy male over 110 years old in China. Zhang is thought to monitoring tools, but now their Showing a digital map on his Dong said the navigation service be the healthiest man of his age in the country, it said. ZHANG CONG / FOR CHINA DAILY own tools are more professional mobile phone, which provides a for motorcyclists was aimed at and evenly distributed across the designated route for his journey ensuring a safe and happy journey. country. home, Zhang said he was no “Because of the service, motor­ “About 3.5 million square kilo­ longer afraid of losing his way. cyclists will have a reduced risk of meters in 31 provinces, including The navigation service, known breaking traffic rules because major plains, basins and cities, are as Gaode Map, can show specially motorcycles are not allowed to be covered with standardized wells. designed routes for motorcyclists on some roads and the map will China drives tourism It’s like equipping groundwater during the travel rush of the help them to avoid taking such spots with eyes, which helps us Spring Festival holiday. routes,” Dong said. make decisions regarding conser­ The map service also includes Gaode also offers traffic infor­ vation,” he said. information on 75 motorcycle mation seven days ahead for The latest data from the Ministry maintenance shops in Guang­ motorcyclists and car drivers, of Water Resources shows that in dong, Guangxi and the nearby based on its artificial intelligence in Asia­Pacific region 2017, the country’s groundwater provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Hu­ technology and big data resources, supply was 101.7 billion cubic nan, Guizhou and Sichuan, as he said. meters, 16.8 percent of the total well as weather conditions along High­tech traffic measures were Mobile payments contribute to trend, tourism development in the first water supply. the routes. The map includes 75 widely used in Guangdong during nine months of 2018, with nearly However, an environmental maintenance shops. the once­a­year Spring Festival as they’re key to good travel experience 60 percent of the investment com­ report released by the Ministry of “It was very easy to see the traf­ travel rush, according to the ing from China. Ecology and Environment in May fic conditions on the road. The Guangdong traffic police and By CHENG SI In addition, China received said that more than 60 percent of map informs us which road to transport operators. [email protected] 140 about 110,000 visits from Kazak­ the groundwater was graded as take to avoid heavy traffic,” Zhang For example, the Guangdong million stan in the first half of 2018, up 12.7 poor quality in 2017. said. traffic police are employing drones China showed eye­catching per­ percent year­on­year. Li said that more indexes can be outbound trips were made by According to Gaode Map, about to monitor traffic. The drones will formance in tourism development Chinese travelers last year, up Booming mobile payment servi­ provided by the monitoring system 2.46 billion trips will be made fly over major bus terminals, in the past year, strongly propel­ from 129 million in 2017. The ces in China are also facilitating in time to help with evaluation and overland during the Spring Festi­ ports, harbors and along busy ling travel­related industries in number of inbound travelers tourism, the report said. protection of groundwater quality. val travel rush. Thousands of highways in 13 major cities to the Asia­Pacific region and around staying overnight in China Song Rui, director of the Chi­ “We have arranged specific wells migrant workers in Guangdong monitor traffic operations and the world, according to a recent reached 60.7 million in 2017, nese Academy of Social Sciences’ for different layers to make the and neighboring provinces and help transportation companies report by the China Tourism Acad­ up 2.5 percent from 2016, the Tourism Research Center, said at a monitoring clear and results more regions will choose motorcycles avoid problems or handle emer­ emy. China Tourism Academy said. news conference that, “Payment is accurate. Before, we only tested to take them home. gencies. Tourism around the world will rather important to traveler’s about 20 water indexes, but now we steadily grow in 2019, with experience. Now, e­payment has check more than 90. inbound overnight trips projected The number of inbound travel­ overtaken credit cards to emerge “Also, with big data technology, to increase by 5 percent, while the ers staying overnight in China as the most popular payment cloud platforms have been estab­ Asia­Pacific area will see the fast­ reached 60.7 million in 2017, up 2.5 method among travelers.” lished so the wells can send the est growth of inbound tourism, percent from 2016 and ranking She said that in 2018, e­pay­ results automatically and immedi­ the report said. fourth globally behind France, ments accounted for 36 percent of ately to our monitoring center,” he In 2017, international visitors Spain and the United States. all payments, while credit cards said. bound for China accounted for According to the report, China accounted for 23 percent. Although China’s monitoring nearly 20 percent of travelers and has been powering the world’s “E­payment is seeing rapid technology has been modernized 8.4 percent of the tourism revenue tourism development since the growth in the Asia­Pacific region, and is in the top tier of the world, generated in the Asia­Pacific Belt and Road Initiative was especially in China, whose e­pay­ the number of monitoring facilities region. announced in 2013. ment volume ranks first in the is far from enough and engineers The academy said Chinese travel­ For example, Cambodia attract­ world. E­payments will take about still cannot manage to take ground­ ers made 140 million outbound trips ed $4.7 billion to support its infra­ 47 percent of the payment market water samples to test using the cur­ in 2018, up from 129 million in 2017. structure construction and in next five years,” she said. rent technology, he added. Nation inches up in English language performance Migrant workers head home by motorcycle for Spring Festival By ZOU SHUO most, the white paper said, from 5.9 of Chinese IELTS test­takers are testing, domestic college enroll­ family reunions after getting free oil from a gas station in Foshan, [email protected] points in the 2012­13 period to 6.15 weaker than their language input ment and job applications. Guangdong province, on Monday. XIAO XIONG / FOR CHINA DAILY points in the 2017­18 period, while abilities (listening and reading). Chu Zhaohui, a senior researcher Academic test­takers for the speaking scores only saw minimal Data also shows that female test­ at the National Institute of Educa­ International English Language improvement and only increased takers generally achieved a higher tion Sciences, said the English profi­ Testing System on the Chinese by 0.02 points during the same score than males. ciency of people in China has Briefly mainland improved in all four lan­ period. Candidates in Shanghai ranked improved steadily thanks to educa­ guage skills from 2012 to 2018, The white paper is based on the first place in listening, speaking, tion reforms adopted by the govern­ according to a new IELTS white results of all mainland IELTS test­ reading and writing skills. ment and the opening­up of Chinese BEIJING said. One of them operated and paper. takers from June 1, 2017 to May 31, The white paper also said that society.

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