French engineer builds "friendship bridge" between China, France

Yvon Velot, a French engineer and a commercial chamber representative who has lived in southwest China's Yunnan Province for 25 years, has been actively contributing to fostering exchanges and building the "bridge of friendship" between China and France, as the two nations have seen increasingly strengthened ties in recent years.

The year 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and Chinese President Xi Jinping just concluded a three-day state visit to France on Tuesday. Over the past 60 years, numerous individuals from both nations, including Velot, have significantly contributed to the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

"I came to Kunming for consultation work when several French companies came here for the expo (1999 Kunming World Horticultural Exposition). After the expo, I found Yunnan to be a great place to live. There are more flights and high-speed trains, so I chose to stay here," said Velot, representative in Kunming of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (CCI France China).

As a mechanical engineer, Velot has deep-running passion for bridge construction. He discovered a historical connection between China and France through old photographs and materials about China's Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. It is the first railway in Yunnan, on which narrow-gauge trains have been running for over a century.

As early as 1932, the Michelin train, a rubber-tired train developed in France, began operating on this Chinese railway.

Velot said that compared to trains with steel wheels, Michelin trains offered faster speeds and a more comfortable ride with their rubber tires. This technology was considered advanced in France at the time and appeared simultaneously on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway.

Besides, the Wujiazhai Railway Bridge, also known as the "Inverted-V Bridge", located in the railway section of Pingbian Miao Autonomous County of Yunnan, was built in 1907 by a French construction company.

"To me, the Wujiazhai Railway Bridge stands for the best example of the application of advanced technology on the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. The engineer who designed it used the same technique as the Garabit Viaduct (in the French city Tanus)," Velot added.

Velot said that because of the connection provided by the bridge, delegates from Tanus visited Pingbian in both 2017 and 2019, ultimately signing a sister city agreement during their visits.

"I also hope that in the future, we'll see an increasing number of French people visiting China and Chinese people traveling to France, continuing the friendship (between China and France)," said Velot.

French engineer builds "friendship bridge" between China, France

A total of 11 tech groups from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) are conducting the sampling mission in 16 provinces in the Yangtze River Basin from April to June this year to monitor the ecological environment in the longest river in China.

Researchers were collecting samples of aquatic organisms in the Poyang Lake section of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Poyang Lake is the largest lake that is connected to the Yangtze River in the middle and lower reaches.

It is an important spawning and feeding ground for fish in the Yangtze River, and also an important habitat for rare aquatic organisms such as finless porpoises. It plays an important role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem structure in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

"We need to monitor the basic water quality parameters, as well as three major categories: phytoplankton, zooplankton, and benthic organisms. We collect samples from the bottom, the middle, and the surface, in order to identify the distribution of organisms across various levels. The white organisms (in the bottle) that occasionally jump are zooplankton," said Hu Sheng, senior engineer of the Yangtze River Basin Ecological Environment Supervision and Administration Bureau.

In order to ensure the quality, the samples were screened and sealed immediately after collection, and then taken to the monitoring ship for fixation.

Nowadays it is common to see finless porpoises in the Yangtze River. According to statistics, the number of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River has reached 1,249, achieving a historic rebound.

"The finless porpoise is the flagship species in the Yangtze River and the species at the top of the food chain. When the fish population recovers and the finless porpoises have more food, its population will also increase," said Zhang Jing, senior engineer of the Yangtze River Basin Ecological Environment Supervision and Administration Bureau.

The pilot monitoring of water ecology assessment in the Yangtze River Basin began in 2022 and has been carried out for three consecutive years, and this year is the last pilot year.

"In the next step, we will conduct a comprehensive and systematic analysis and evaluation of the monitoring data to lay a good foundation for the formal water ecological assessment work in the Yangtze River Basin next year," said Xu Chong, head of the Yangtze River Basin Ecological Environment Supervision and Administration Bureau.

China conducts last pilot ecological assessment in Yangtze River