Shanghai Daily
Foreign tourists fill suitcases as ‘China Haul’ goes viral
During this month’s National Day holiday, Shanghai recorded more than 20.2 million tourist visits, underscoring the city’s growing appeal as an international metropolis. According to the Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection, the city...
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Look to grassroots for next wave of innovative Shanghai services
Shanghai is already a service-oriented economy, with the sector accounting for nearly 80 percent of its gross domestic product. Yet growth across the segment has been uneven. Finance and information technology services have expanded rapidly, while more...
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CENTURY-OLD ISLAND GETS YOUNG IN AI ERA
The former industrial spaces on Shanghai’s Fuxing Island are being opened to anime fans, artificial intelligence developers and young entrepreneurs. Design, art and public recreation form part of Yangpu District’s broader island vision.
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NO FIXED FORM BUT A CAPACITY TO CHANGE
‘A Sense of Touch’ brings artists into collaboration with specialist craftspeople from China and France. Across the group exhibition, materials arrive carrying previous lives. What’s preserved in the craft is not a fixed form but a capacity to change.
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BEYOND STEREOTYPES, 9 DISTINCT VIEWS ON CITY
Nine international writers are taking part in the 2026 Shanghai Writing Program. Their observations offer nine distinct perspectives on the city. ‘Earth as Home’ is the theme for the two-month residency, which helps break Chinese stereotypes.
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A FASHION WEEK OF MOVEMENT, BUSINESS
The Shanghai Fashion Week is not just about what happens on the runway, where this time round movement that does much of the talking, with textures, layers and hems. Beyond the catwalk, much of the business takes place at the MODE fair.
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IBLAC’s annual meeting to focus on city’s service sector
Top executives of some of the world’s biggest companies are gathering in Shanghai this weekend to share with Mayor Zhu Zhongming and other top municipal officials their visions and suggestions on future development of the city during the annual meeting...
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Shanghai Fashion Week looks to expand its fashion footprint
Shanghai Fashion Week returns today with nearly 100 shows, brand debuts, trade fairs and consumer events to strengthen its role in Asia’s fashion business. The Spring/Summer 2027 season will stretch well beyond the runway. Alongside shows in Xintiandi...
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Big Three showdown and new off-court activities highlight 2026 Rolex Shanghai Masters
Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner are the three men’s singles Grand Slam champions this season, and they will join the world’s top players in October for the annual Rolex Shanghai Masters. A new Tennis Masters Carnival and a second...
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CITY LIGHTS UP FOR FESTIVAL
The third Shanghai International Light Festival is an extravaganza of light and shadow. Running through October 16, it reaches every corner of the city — from ancient towns and old streets to business districts, and from intangible cultural heritage...
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FOREIGN TOURISTS SEEK EVERYDAY CHINA
Foreign visitors are arriving in China in record numbers, seeking more than just famous landmarks — they aim to immerse themselves in daily life. However, small gaps in services like language barriers pose challenges. Now, the country aims to address...
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Shanghai enters WorldSkills time
Shanghai has officially entered WorldSkills time. The weeklong WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 opens tonight at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), where 1,385 competitors from around the world will showcase their skills on one of the...
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August hottest month ever as huge El Nino emerges
August was the hottest month ever recorded around the world, and Europe’s climate monitor has warned of worse to come as an unprecedented El Nino pattern grows stronger. Global temperatures over land and sea soared to all-time highs in August and...
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Buried in earnings reports is an emerging AI dividend
The most revealing AI figures don’t necessarily come exclusively from AI companies. They are also starting to surface deep inside the earnings of manufacturers whose core businesses aren’t generally considered connected to artificial...
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When aging meets opportunity: Rethinking urban life for seniors
Shanghai, with one in three residents over 60, is turning aging into a catalyst. From dedicated stores to reimagined malls, it’s showing how designing for seniors can reshape urban life for all. “Want to try a small stair-climbing machine as soon as...
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WHO DEFINES REALITY: The crux of the debate in a world awash with algorithms
Open three browser tabs. Ask the same chatbot the same morally charged question in English, Mandarin and Arabic. You may not receive three translations of one answer. Instead, you may encounter three moral weather systems. The center of gravity can...
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The Inclusion Conference on the Bund puts AI economy in focus
The Inclusion Conference on the Bund opened in Shanghai yesterday, under the theme “Building the AI Economy Together.” More than 600 scholars, scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and innovators will attend the four-day event, with over 300 global...
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China’s drugmakers show profit: one-off or durable?
Profit has finally hit the bottom lines of a growing group of China’s listed innovative drugmakers, but beneath the stronger earnings lies a sharp divide on how that money is made. At one end is Sino-US BeOne Medicines. It earned 3.27 billion yuan...
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Count sheep no more, tech-based sleep products enter market
For years, the Chinese industry aimed at helping people get a better night’s sleep was built around a familiar promise: Buy the right pillow and mattress, swallow the right supplement, download the right app and off you go into dreamland. That promise...
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Hongqiao’s five-year plan aims to turn transport hub into global business magnet
Foreign residents in Shanghai can renew a visa, convert a driver’s license or even register a pet all under one roof in Hongqiao — a small piece of a much bigger five-year plan for the central business district unveiled last week. The Hongqiao...
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On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas
Date: Through November 14, 2027 Venue: Shanghai Museum (People’s Square), 1F-3F Address: 201 People’s Avenue Ticket: Full-Price Ticket: 148 yuan (US$22) Designated-Date Ticket: 135 yuan (Valid during exhibition dates excluding July 9-August 31,...
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City’s grand theaters unveil new performance seasons
The Shanghai Grand Theater and the Shanghai Poly Grand Theater have announced their new performance seasons, with programs spanning all genres, from musicals and dramas to dance and classical concerts. The centerpiece of the Shanghai Grand Theater’s...
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THE INVISIBLE NETWORK
Founded in 1927, Zhongyang Teke was the CPC’s first intelligence agency. During its eightyear struggle, it not only pioneered the Party’s intelligence work system, and cultivated a large number of covert front talents, but also saved the Party Central...
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Retail trend: 24-hour robot coffee shop opens in Beijing
JD.COM’S 7Fresh Coffee has opened a 24-hour unmanned robot coffee shop in Beijing, marking a new push by the Chinese e-commerce giant to bring artificial intelligence and embodied robotics into physical retail, National Business Daily reported. The...
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CHINESE FILM AND A NUANCED WAR VIEW
Wen Muye’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the Middle East’ is a nuanced cinematic endeavor, with the 2003 US invasion of Iraq as the backdrop. The film demonstrates a growing maturity in Chinese cinema’s engagement with international themes.
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A field guide to Chinese tea, for the scam-wary
Ask most foreigners in Shanghai what they know about it, and they’ll probably mention the tea scam before they mention Longjing or Tieguanyin. That’s a shame because behind that well-known tourist con lies a tradition shaped by thousands of years of...
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Ithaca bets on hometown hero Odysseus for tourism boom
Standing on the ferry as it waits to dock on the Greek island of Ithaca, Giorgia Ongarato is only too keen to talk about the “Odyssey” — the epic poem that inspired Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film. The Italian lawyer said it was her dream to come...
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ZXMoto leads China’s charge to break into global market
Zhang Xue wept with joy and furiously waved a Chinese flag as he watched his company’s superbike scream across the finish line four seconds ahead of competitors in only its third world championship race. That victory at the Supersport World...
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How Shanghai’s AI brain is redefining manufacturing
Deep inside a massive precision machining plant, thousands of cutting tools once rested in silent order along storage racks tens of meters high. Historically, assembling the right set of tools for a single custom metal component with over a hundred...
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Games industry takes China myths, folklore to the world
Building on the monumental success of the action game “Black Myth: Wukong” two years ago, Chinese hard-core game developers are gearing up to write their next chapter on the global stage. At the recent digital entertainment event ChinaJoy 2026 in...
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Shanghai gives US students a taste of neighborhood life
Tyler Yoakum expected a massage. What he got, in his own words, “hurt” — and lasted only two minutes. “It was very rhythmic, very quick, very deep and fast, so it hurt more,” said Yoakum, a University of Hawaii student, describing his first experience...
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‘PET-FRIENDLY,’ CITY’S NEW CALLING CARD
Shanghai has an estimated 2.2 million pet cats and dogs but the city did not become ‘pet-friendly’ overnight. Urban redevelopment, local lifestyle changes and grassroots animal rescue helped shape the label organically.
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That cute souvenir could be your biggest travel mistake
Leaving China with the wrong souvenir in your bag can mean a fine, confiscation or worse. Here’s a brief guide to the items that are banned or restricted when you go through departures. Items banned from leaving China Under Customs Order No. 43,...
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Shaw and Lu Xun’s eight hours in 1933 still echo in Shanghai
Curt Evans mixed Irish whiskey coffee with Chinese yellow wine and poured it for scholars and diplomats gathering inside a century-old Bund building in Shanghai on Sunday for a symposium featuring Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and Chinese...
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EDITOR’S CHOICE POOLS
Best Value Puxi Oland Club at The Terrace makes our editor’s picks this year. Guests get pool access and gym access (only CNS readers). With the other amenities such as The Terrace restaurant, spa and basketball court, you can stay here all day. Oh,...
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Terrace food, riverside walks and Shanghai summer spell
Shanghai in summer does not ease you into it. One week you’re still reaching for a light jacket at night, the next you’re peeling your shirt off the back of a taxi seat. The city’s response, as always, is to move everything up, out, and near water....
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Foreign residents propose ideas for a better Shanghai
Alessandro Conti, from Italy’s Sicily, moved to Shanghai, opened an ice cream shop and staffed it with hearing-impaired workers. “They bring warmth, focus and passion to every customer,” Conti said. Customers also recognized this difference. His...
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When aging meets opportunity: Rethinking urban life for seniors
Shanghai, with one in three residents over 60, is turning aging into a catalyst. From dedicated stores to reimagined malls, it’s showing how designing for seniors can reshape urban life for all. “Want to try a small stair-climbing machine as soon as...
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China’s next big projects are built for megascience
Thirty meters underground on the outskirts of Shanghai, engineers are painstakingly fitting together the components of a tunnel more than 3 kilometers long into place. Inside, a superconducting accelerator will generate intense X-ray pulses that allow...
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PET FASHION IS THIS GRANDMA’S PASSION
One of the quotable quotes of Jin Pei is: ‘People already have tailors. Animals don’t.’ This 78-year-old Shanghai woman stitches haute couture for pets, with every stitch an expression of affection for her many client creatures.
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Top pianists to debut recitals in concert hall’s new season
Recitals by nine world’s top-tier pianists are the highlight of Shanghai Concert Hall’s newly announced performance season, which involves more than 200 performances and activities through December. Among the nine recitals, four are Shanghai debuts,...
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FOR FOREIGN VISITORS, IT’S BECOME PERSONAL
For foreign visitors to Shanghai today, it’s not the quantity of the trip that counts; it’s the quality and depth. For them, travel is less about what you see and more about whom you become in the process of soaking up the city’s daily life rhythms.
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Apple price increases send shockwaves across industry
Apple’s recent announcement of price hikes surprised consumers, highlighted fierce corporate competition for tight memory-chip supplies and sparked a selloff in technology shares. The consumer electronics industry is finding itself in uncharted...
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ROBOTS GET REAL AND LOYAL FOR THE LONELY
A Chinese company has unveiled the world’s first full-sized, ultra-realistic humanoid robots designed for mass production. Touted as an antidote to loneliness, the robot is aimed at single people and those aged over 60, a ‘colossal market’ in China.
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How to access pet lounge at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport
Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport has officially launched a dedicated pet lounge at the Terminal 2 Departure Hall. Covering nearly 100 square meters, this custom-built area is located near the east side of Check-in Counter E, serving as an...
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Ice cups: Frozen water yields summer consumption boon
Acup of ice used to be something Chinese consumers expected for free. This summer, many are paying for it — gladly. As temperatures begin to climb, convenience stores in major Chinese cities are expanding freezer space for one of the season’s...
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Liberté, égalité, cassoulet
There is a specific kind of confidence that French food carries into a room. Not arrogance, exactly, though it has been mistaken for that. More like the self-assurance of something that has been correct for a very long time and knows it. A properly...
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WHITE RABBIT’S MILK TEA LURES TOURISTS
China’s famed White Rabbit candy brand opens its first permanent milk tea store on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road, turning a childhood sweet into a drink that is gaining popularity with not only locals but also overseas tourists.
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CHINESE CINEMA STILL UNDECIDED ON AI USE
Though China runs the most aggressive experiments with AI video in the world, its film industry is still undecided on the tech’s use in cinema. There was a debate on the topic at the Shanghai film festival, where ‘Atlantic Rhapsody’ won the best...
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Chinese firms demonstrate tech prowess at World Cup
The ongoing FIFA World Cup 2026 has become a global testing ground for cutting-edge technologies, with Chinese tech heavyweights demonstrating their AI and hardware ability on the ultimate global platform. From AI-powered tactical analysis and...
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Navigating the translation of Chinese cultural icons
As the Duanwu (盛ⶭ Dragon Boat Festival) holiday approaches, dragon boats will once again slice across rivers from Shanghai to Boston, and from Guangzhou to Vancouver. What began as an ancient Chinese folk ritual has evolved into a global sporting...
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Unitree Robotics, Lindt, Rains and more debut flagships
“First in Shanghai” is our column documenting the rise of Shanghai’s “debut economy,” a model built on being first, fast, and everywhere at once. What started as a policy initiative has morphed into a citywide phenomenon: part economic strategy, part...
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Germany’s Yuyuan Garden anchors 40 years of Shanghai-Hamburg ties
Awhite moon gate and a zigzag stone bridge sit quietly on a street in Hamburg, offering visitors an escape to China. This is the Hamburg Yuyuan Garden, which is under the spotlight as Shanghai and Hamburg celebrate 40 years of sister-city ties this...
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AI agents aid e-commerce, but ‘1-person firm’ risks real
Oner, a manufacturer of outdoor products based in Shandong Province, boasts a 5,000square-meter facility and over two decades of traditional foreign trade experience. Although the company has a steady stream of loyal overseas clients, its core team is...
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Treasures of Jiangnan on display
An exhibition featuring more than 150 rare documents from the Yangtze River Delta region, including Princess Diana’s royal wedding silk order, is under way at the Shanghai Archives. Key items on display include historical land management records,...
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New rules tighten oversight of online prescription drug sales
Office worker Mao Xiaoting felt her chest tighten during lunch break after walking past a smoker outside her office building. She opened a medicine app, answered a few questions from a chatbot, and within minutes an asthma inhaler was on its way to her...
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Wujiaochang: university hub, commercial heart
Wujiaochang knows how to hold a crowd. It has always been known. By day, students stream out of lecture halls, office workers surface from Metro exits, and the whole mixed-up population of northeast Shanghai flows toward the roundabout like the roads...
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Beware of ‘carb face’ narrative seeking to monetize anxiety about appearance
The other day, two elderly women were having a casual talk when I heard the word “carbohydrates.” I slowed down to do a double take, because this term, usually confined to scientists, was uttered casually by a housewife who had just bought some...
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There’s life after retirement for ‘China’s strongest grandma’
In a gym packed with young lifters, 63-year-old Wang Huiping grips a barbell loaded with more than 100 kilograms and pulls it smoothly off the ground. Videos of the Shanghai retiree squatting, benchpressing and dead-lifting alongside athletes decades...
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China auto giants’ Euro push shifting industrial landscape
Europe’s biggest carmakers once made big profits selling into the Chinese market. Now, the tables have turned as foreign car sales in China decline and China’s automaking juggernaut moves into the continent. The systemic causes behind the persistent...
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PAWSOME SERVICE AT THIS KINDERGARTEN
A pet kindergarten in Baoshan District offers daily care, socialization and specialized training for dogs while their owners are at work. This business reflects a shift amid growing demand for premium pet services.
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Crackdown begins on disposal of spent electric car batteries
China is conducting a sweeping crackdown on the illegal recycling and disposal of power batteries, targeting those used in electric vehicles and mopeds. A special joint enforcement campaign undertaken by the Ministry of Industry and Information...
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Shanghai in 2 days: where to eat, stroll, sweat and splurge
Experience a fusion of futuristic skyscrapers and old-world charm with this 48-hour itinerary to Shanghai. Beyond the commonplace recommendations — like stroll along the iconic Bund at sunrise, a visit to Shanghai’s Yuyuan Garden, or a climb up the...
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Neo Young 6, K-pop debuts and the city’s mall wars
The former Pacific Department Store site in Xujiahui has been many things to many Shanghainese over the past 30 years, most of them fond. It closed in August 2023, did the full renovation thing, and reopened on April 22 as Neo Young 6, which is what...
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More Nepalis drive electric, evading global fuel shocks
As global fuel markets reel from the Middle East war, motorists in Nepal are increasingly turning to electric vehicles, with high demand putting a strain on dealerships. Electric microbus driver Purushottam Adhikari said he was now shuttling more...
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RECREATING A TRIBUTE TO AN ALTRUISTIC BRIT
Shanghai’s Holy Trinity Cathedral is unveiling the restored Lester Memorial Window, recreating a stained-glass tribute to Henry Lester (1840-1926), a British architect, merchant and philanthropist whose legacy still enriches the city a century on.
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The race is on in China to market drugs to slow myopia in children
Aprescription eye drop used to slow childhood myopia is becoming one of China’s most closely watched pediatric health-care markets, as drugmakers, eye hospitals and online health platforms move to capture demand from parents worried about their...
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Shujaat Khan brings romance of raga to Shanghai yet again
Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan comes from one of the most revered lineages in Hindustani classical music. From his great-grandfather and grandfather to his father, the legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan — widely regarded as one of the greatest sitar players of...
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Did you know you can shop duty free on Nanjing Road?
Wis a column on Shanghai’s great commercial arteries. From Nanjing Rd E.’s blend of heritage storefronts and pop-culture malls to Huaihai’s luxe lanes and Hongqiao’s international cultural diversity hubs, we explore how Shanghai’s commercial hubs drive...
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How China plays key World Cup role without taking part
Picture this scene. It’s 9am on June 17. In a Shanghai apartment, a football fan settles in front of his TV to watch Argentina’s first match in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, played against Algeria in an American stadium. His shoulders are draped in an...
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Robots leaping from marathon tracks into homes and factories
In a display of mechanical prowess that blurs the lines between scifi and reality, humanoid robots outpaced the fastest human endurance speeds at the recent Beijing Humanoid Robot Half Marathon. A bipedal humanoid robot called Lightning, developed by...
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Shanghai launches campaign to renovate old office towers
Shanghai has opened 130 commercial buildings to global investors, while launching a citywide renovation campaign to revitalize its aging office towers. To support the overhaul, the city has rolled out an upgraded digital platform. The “One-Stop...
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What to know about the latest power bank rules in China
Apower bank is one of those everyday essentials you barely think about until it gets weirdly hot in your bag, stops working mid-trip, or raises questions at airport security. Now, China has unveiled a new national safety standard for power banks, with...
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Apple to be new rival to Huawei in foldable smartphone market
For years, the foldable smartphone market has been a playground for pioneers and a graveyard for skeptics. New industry leaks suggest that Apple is finally set to kick off its first foldable model this year, with forecast sales of up to 8 million units...
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China upgrades rail pet transport service
China’s high-speed railway pet transport service has been expanded, giving pet owners more flexible and convenient travel options. Based on successful pilot service, the program has expanded significantly to serve 121 high-speed railway stations and...
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