Various places across China have celebrated the Qixi Festival, also known as Chinese Valentine's Day, with various interesting activities.
The Qixi Festival, originating from a 2,000-year-old legend of two lovers, falls on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunar calendar. This year the festival falls on Aug 10.
In Zhucun Village of south China's Guangdong Province, the traditional customs of Qixi Festival have been kept relatively intact. At this time of the year, villagers often make relevant handcrafts to celebrate the day for lovers.
Art performances and parties were also held, allowing people to feel the romantic vibe of this traditional festival as well as the profoundness of the Chinese traditional culture.
Xihe County of northwest China's Gansu Province organized a series of themed events to comprehensively display the customs of Qixi Festival and the local culture.
Folk culture performances were put on stage at Yiyuan County of east China's Shandong Province to promote modern, new-style and frugal marriage culture.
On this special day, a total of 77 newly-weds tied the knot in Lushi County in central China's Henan Province via a collective wedding.
In Wucheng Town of east China's Jiangxi Province, a hundred couples got married and held a collective traditional wedding ceremony.
Chinese Valentine's Day celebrated with various activities
China's foreign investment policies are empowering biomedical enterprises to expand domestically and globally.
The China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) held a Foreign Invested Enterprises Tour of south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday, presenting business opportunities as well as the country's consistent policies for further opening up in a world wracked by economic uncertainty.
China continues to welcome foreign investment, and its biomedical sector, including pet healthcare, is set to grow and expand.
Joey Yeo is among hundreds of international business leaders on the tour. As the founder of two pet healthcare startups in Shanghai, Joey leverages China's pro-foreign direct investment (FDI) measures.
"I think the openness with the local government and the business district has been very fruitful," said Yeo, CEO of HEAL Management Group.
With streamlined approvals and regulatory guidance, Yeo's company plans to scale operations across multiple cities.
"Not just Shanghai, but we used to see other cities as well coming to us and asking us, giving us more opportunities and more understanding how we can actually set a bigger landscape," he said.
Yeo's story reflects broader trends - China's FDI policies have reduced entry barriers, while banks like Bank of East Asia (BEA) offer tailored financial solutions.
"I don't think any multinational company or foreign investors can ignore the huge market capacity, the huge potential of greater China. So we are going through the fintech transformation and by adapting AI, big data, block chains - those kind of technology, we can better help those SMEs in need," said Bi Mingqiang, CEO of BEA(China).
As China prioritizes openness, biomedical firms and financial institutions are forging a symbiotic growth model, proving resilient in a fragmented global economy.
Biomedical companies thrive under China's FDI policies
