Positive economic growth: only major economy with positive performance in pandemic

Due to China’s swift recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has become the only major economy to record positive performance in 2020, with a projected 1.8- percent growth, according to a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in December. Despite a 6.8-percent year-on-year contraction in the first quarter, the Chinese economy increased by 3.2 percent in the second quarter and maintained a steady growth of 4.9 percent in the third quarter, showing a V-shaped recovery.

Using China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), scientists have discovered 201 pulsars, including faint pulsars and millisecond pulsars.

The research was led by the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The findings were published in the journal Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics on Thursday.

The northern Chinese port city of Tianjin saw its foreign trade surge 17.5 percent year on year to 184.9 billion yuan (about 28.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year, data from Tianjin Customs showed.

The city's imports rose 5.7 percent year on year to about 105 billion yuan and exports climbed to approximately 80 billion yuan, up 37.5 percent over the same period last year.

In Jingyuan county, northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, vast wastelands and dilapidated houses have been transformed into ancient-style courtyards and dwellings, which buttress not only a local B&B business, but also beautify what has become an even more aesthetically pleasing rural landscape.

Chalky walls, grey tiles and flagstone lodgings at the site are luring visitors seeking a leisurely and more poetic lifestyle.