Dalian to Incheon ferry service resumes after COVID interruption

Passenger and cargo ferry services between Dalian in China's northeastern Liaoning Province and Incheon in South Korea resumed on Friday after they were suspended in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Liaoning Port Group.

The first ferry to sail the route since the suspension was a Flying Dragon "ro-ro", or roll-on, roll-off ship, which left Incheon on Friday afternoon carrying 300 passengers, arriving in Dalian early Saturday morning.

Operated by the ROK's Dain Ferry Co., Ltd., the Flying Dragon can carry 510 passengers and 145 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cargo containers. The crossing takes approximately 16 hours, and three round trips are scheduled per week.

After the resumption of the ferry service, the ship is expected to sail 300 times and carry more than 100,000 passengers each year.

Since it began operations in 1995, the ship has transported more than 1.75 million passengers and 430,000 TEUs of containers, becoming a key personnel and cargo transport channel between China and the ROK.

Dalian to Incheon ferry service resumes after COVID interruption

The Shenzhou-18 astronaut crew have been carying out a series of tasks and  scientific experiments aboard China's Tiangong Space Station, according to a video released by the China Manned Space Agency on Saturday.

The crew installed adapter cables of a combustion solenoid valve, an observation device for the study on fluid mixing in a microgravity environment, and a unit for nucleic acid experiments.

The video also showed the astronauts transferring and unpackaging supplies, doing physical exercises and receiving cognitive ability tests.

The three Chinese astronauts Ye Guangfu, Li Cong and Li Guangsu were sent to the orbiting Tiangong space station for a six-month mission on April 25. 

During their stay in space, the Shenzhou-18 astronauts will carry out more than 90 experiments, two to three extravehicular activities (EVAs), and implement six cargo outbound deliveries via the station's cargo airlock module. 

The trio will witness the arrival of the Tianzhou-8 cargo craft and later welcome the Shenzhou-19 crewed spaceship to the space station.

Shenzhou-18 crew conduct scientific experiments in space