At the special invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping flew from Paris to Hautes-Pyrenees in southwestern France on Tuesday for a visit.
President Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron arrived in advance. Together with Prefect of Hautes-Pyrenees Department Jean Salomon and other local government representatives, the couple welcomed Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan at the airport in Tarbes for a visit to Hautes-Pyrenees, a place of special significance to President Macron for being the birthplace of his grandmother.
Macron and his wife received Xi and his wife at L'Etape du Berger that is located at Col du Tourmalet. Together, they watched a performance by local villagers of the shepherd's dance which is unique to southern France, and took a group photo with the performers.
The two presidential couples tasted local delicacies. In a relaxing and cordial atmosphere, Xi and Macron had strategic communication on a number of important issues critical to the world.
Before they parted, the local villagers started singing a shepherd's song, expressing gratitude to Xi and his wife for their visit and inviting them to come back another time.
Accompanied by Macron and his wife, Xi and Peng returned to Tarbes and attended a farewell ceremony at the airport, with the two heads of state agreeing to meet again sometime in Beijing.
Xi left France for Serbia Tuesday evening to start his state visit, at the invitation of President Aleksandar Vucic.
Xi's state visit to Serbia is the second leg of his three-nation European tour from May 5 to 10.
He will also pay a state visit to Hungary.
President Xi invited to visit Hautes-Pyrenees in southwestern France
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
