French and Chinese entrepreneurs who attended the closing ceremony of the sixth meeting of the China-France Business Council in Paris on Monday said they were inspired by the speech delivered by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Addressing the ceremony, Xi said that China will open its market wider to create more opportunities for companies of France, other parts of Europe and beyond.
"We have listened to the speeches of the president. I think I was inspired by the energies, the willingness to move together toward the common goal of partnership, exchanges and development of our relations," said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, chairman and CEO of Alstom, a world-leading company in the transportation sector.
"I'm sure that the cooperation between Europe and China is something very important and together, we have to build a stronger cooperation," said Marc-Antoine Jamet, general secretary of luxury goods giant LVMH Group.
"It is (the Chinese market), obviously, it's the second one in the world for the event industry. So, they have still, and with a lot of investments which have been made in new venues, very important venues, and with the development of the domestic market and the technologies in various, industrial, practical, the potential for our business," said Philippe Pasquet, CEO of the exhibitions division at GL Events, a provider of integrated solutions and services for events.
"I think he was very positive. He's a very impressive character together, but I think these messages came across very clearly that he wants France and China to cooperate in the future. So, very pleased with that," said Thierry Gee, president of LPG, a producer of gas station equipment.
"I was really inspired and pleased with the speech. We have a lot of colorful culture and we carried out inheritance and exchanges of culture. As a cultural company, we are looking forward to cooperation between China and France, and we hope to take this opportunity to open up new cooperation," said Wang Ning, chairman and CEO of Beijing Pop Mart Cultural Creative company, a toy producer.
Entrepreneurs inspired by Xi's speech at high-level business meeting
The endangered Tibetan antelopes have started their annual mass migration after the first batch of 47 female Tibetan antelopes passed through the Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve in northwest China's Qinghai Province on May 7.
To protect the rare species that are under top-class state protection, the management team of Hoh Xil in the province's Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture has set up the Wudaoliang protection station along the migration route. As of noon on Sunday, over 700 Tibetan antelopes had been spotted passing through the station.
The Tibetan antelope, known as the "fairies of the plateau", undertakes a migration from May to July each year. Female antelopes from the Sanjiangyuan region of Qinghai, parts of Qiangtang Terrane in Tibet, and the Arjin Mountains in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, would travel to the Zhuonai Lake in Hoh Xil to give birth before returning to their original habitats with their newborns.
"For Tibetan antelopes, we divide them into six species groups according to their geographical distribution. For example, Qinghai and Xinjiang have one group each. For Xizang (Tibet), there are three species groups in the east, central and west of the Qiangtang Terrane. And there is also one group in southern Qiangtang Terrane, which don't migrate," said Lian Xinming, researcher at the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
With an average altitude of over 4,600 meters, the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve is known as a "no-life zone" due to its thin air and low oxygen levels.
However, it is an important habitat for Tibetan antelopes, which can reach top speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour while running. Lian explained the reasons behind the antelopes' remarkable speed.
"I think one of the reasons why they run so fast is that they've got underfur. The warmth of its underfur is one of the characteristics of its ability to adapt to alpine cold and high altitudes. The diameter of its fur can be as thin as about one-seventh of our human hair on the temples. Secondly, its has been found in physiology that the hemoglobin of Tibetan antelope has a blood oxygen capacity that is more than 30 percent higher than that of other plain animals, which proves that the same number of red blood cells has stronger ability to carry oxygen. That should enable the Tibetan antelope to reach 70 or 80 kilometers per hour in a short time," Lian said.
After years of conservation efforts, the Tibetan antelope population in the Hoh Xil region has increased from less than 20,000 in the late 1980s to currently over 70,000.
Tibetan antelopes on migration journey to Hoh Xil Nature Reserve
