The mayor of a scenic French town with long-time friendly relations with China is looking forward to President Xi Jinping's state visit to France.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) ahead of Xi's trip, Benoit Digeon, the mayor of Montargis, expressed his hopes that increased people-to-people exchanges could enhance relations between the two countries.
At the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, Xi left Beijing for Paris on Sunday for a state visit. It coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between the two countries and is of great significance in building on the past achievements and opening up new prospects for bilateral relations.
Montargis is about 100 kilometers south of Paris and has played a part in the history of the Communist Party of China. Mayor Digeon talked about his expectations on Xi's visit and local efforts to promote bilateral relations in the interview.
"We are very happy to welcome Xi Jinping to France. It's a great moment for France and for Europe and for, I hope, worldwide peace. The other expectations we have involve an invitation we sent to the President of China via the Chinese ambassador, to come to see us in Montargis on the occasion of the inauguration of a bridge that Chinese cities have made here. Friendship between our cities, yes, between the people, yes. Because, this is for peace. We are currently accelerating exchanges between young people, young musicians and young basketball players. We have 180 young students who speak Chinese in the high school of Montargis. They are learning (Chinese). In a town of 15,000 inhabitants, that's huge. Here is the thing: through these exchanges between different members of our youth, we hope to promote the relationship a little bit," he said.
President Xi will pay state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5 to 10.
Montargis mayor expects President Xi's state visit to France
Chinese scientists have recently worked together and rebuilt the face of an ancient Chinese ethnic minority emperor via cutting-edge DNA technology.
Emperor Wu of the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), also known as Yuwen Yong, was an ambitious leader who died at 36. He belonged to the Xianbei nomadic group, which originated from the Mongolian Plateau.
The tomb of the emperor was discovered in 1993 in a village of the city of Xianyang in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. His skull and bones were discovered during an excavation held in 1994 and 1995 at the site of his tomb.
In late March this year, scientists led by the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University managed to decode key features of the emperor and speculate about his cause of death. The emperor might have died from chronic arsenic poisoning due to long-term use of a pellet, which was believed by ancient people to achieve eternal life.
"First, the skeleton can be used to determine age. Second, in terms of age and gender, some pathological research can also be done to see if he had any fractures or other (diseases)," said Zhang Jianlin, a researcher from the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.
Obtaining high-quality genomic data is crucial for restoring the face. Through DNA paleogenomics techniques and optimized DNA extraction, database building and capture methods, more history was revealed.
"First, we have done the shorter fragments enrichment method, which is a DNA extraction method. In addition, we have developed some more sensitive database building method suitable for ancient samples with short fragments. You can regard it as a method to amplify the genetic signal, the extracted DNA. The third is that we have developed a capture method that is more suitable for this kind of highly degraded ancient samples. So we have optimized and improved our approach from three aspects at the same time," said Wen Shaoqing, an associate professor of the Institute of Archaeological Science of Fudan University.
The reconstructed face showed that Yuwen Yong had black hair, yellow skin and brown eyes, while his appearance was typical for people from East or Northeast Asia.
Wen said that with the help of the DNA technology, the accuracy of facial restoration can reach 90 percent.
"As for the accuracy of (facial restoration), the current situation is that if there is a skull as a basis, its accuracy will be relatively high," said Wen.
Scientists rebuild face of ancient emperor using advanced DNA technology
