Chinese taekwondo athlete Luo Zongshi has established herself as a dominant force in the women's 57kg division, and with her place at the 2024 Paris Olympics already secured, the 25-year-old has set her sights squarely on winning the gold medal.
Luo's impressive resume includes titles at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, 2022 Guadalajara World Championships, and 2022 Chuncheon Asian Championships.
Two years ago, the athlete from Beihai City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region began competing in more international events to earn crucial Olympic qualification points. Her efforts paid off as she went on to claim silver at the Austrian Open and gold at the World Taekwondo Grand Prix in Rome.
Maintaining her form at prestigious Grand Prix tournaments and World Championships over the past 24 months has propelled Luo to the top of the qualification standings, giving her a commanding 200-point lead over Türkiye's Hatice Ilgun.
Luo is seen as the leader of China's new generation of taekwondo athletes, following the retirements of Wu Jingyu and Zheng Shuyin.
Luo's ambitions for the upcoming Olympics leave no room for doubt. "My goal for Paris 2024 is to top the podium. As for my expectations, I hope all of our athletes in the national team will get good results. In the Tokyo Olympic cycle, I was still learning and gaining experiences, but in this Olympic cycle, I think I'm moving toward my goal at full speed," said Luo.
The Paris Olympic Games are scheduled to take place from July 26 to August 11, with the Paralympic Games from Aug 28 to Sept 8.
Chinese taekwondo competitor gears up for Paris Olympics gold
The bustling Xiushui Business Street (Silk Street) in Beijing is experiencing a significant surge in visits paid by international tourists, thanks to the country's implementation of visa-free policy.
The business street, known for its array of shops selling a wide range of souvenirs and gifts and a vibrant shopping atmosphere, is among the top destinations for visitors from abroad.
Since earlier this year, China has implemented a visa-free policy that exempts many European ordinary passport holders from the time-consuming and costly obligation, encouraging travelers from nearly a dozen European countries to explore this Asian country. It allows ordinary passport holders of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg, to enter and stay in China visa-free for up to 15 days for business, tourism, transit, as well as visiting relatives and friends .
Against such a backdrop, the business street, with a spike in international tourist arrivals, has offered popular options with distinctive Beijing features to foreign visitors.
"From January to April this year, the combined number of overseas tourists we received was expected to increase by nearly 20 times from the previous year. We've selected a batch of souvenirs that can represent Beijing for our customers, so as to make each and every of them happy," said Dong Qing, an employee of the business street.
Ibeku hailing from Nigeria was on a business trip to Beijing. She came to the business street to tailor a suit of Nigerian traditional costume with Chinese silk.
"First of all, I love fashion. So if we have Chinese silk [and] Nigerian style [together], that's like a mix of cultures, and that's what we are all hoping to get this day," she said.
Taking into account the tight schedule of foreign customers, many merchants reduce the time it takes to craft bespoke garments from the traditional four to five days down to an impressive 18 hours.
Furthermore, they also provide global mailing services for international customers who express concern about limited luggage space or tight travel schedules.
According to data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the capital city received 469,000 inbound tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year, up by 3.1 times year on year, and the foreign exchange income of tourism is 650 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year growth of 225.8 percent.
Xiushui Business Street thrives with influx of foreign tourists under visa-free policy
