Chinese humanitarian aid to Lebanon arrives in Beirut

A shipment of Chinese emergency medical aid arrived in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Monday, as the nation grapples with casualties from ongoing cross-border conflicts with Israel.

The country is in urgent need of medical aid as the ongoing conflict has left 2,483 people killed and another 11,628 injured in Lebanon, the Lebanese health authorities said on Monday.

The 3,601 boxes contain anesthesia machines, tracheal intubation tubes, and surgical gowns. They arrived at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport after a flight of more than 11 hours.

Lebanon's health minister and China's ambassador participated in a handover ceremony of the first shipment of 58 tons of Chinese aid.

"China is delivering the medical aid to Lebanon in the hope that it will ease the pressure on the healthcare system in Lebanon and hopes that peace and security is restored and the Lebanese people can return to their homes at the soonest," said Qian Minjian, Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon.

"That is extremely important for our hospitals. As you know part of the war on Lebanon from Israel, they have targeted and put out of service more than 13 hospitals and have killed more than 150 health care workers. So, I think that this medical equipment will be very important for the other hospitals to allow hospitals to increase their beds capacity and to provide better quality of care for our patients," said Firass Abiad, Lebanese Minister of Public Health.

After clearing customs, the containers will be transported to a warehouse and then distributed.

"They come here and they are sorted. We put them into an inventory, and this inventory is directly uploaded to the prime minister's website. After that we schedule all the items coming within 48 hours, and these items are dispatched to the governors," said Jawad Sbeity, Coordinator of Lebanese Crisis Committee.

"Everything concerned to medical aid, they come to this warehouse. They are sorted by the doctors from the ministry of health, and then they are dispatched from here to the hospitals, either private sector hospitals or public sector hospitals," said Sbeity.

Officials said more aid shipments will arrive from China soon.

Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has launched intensive air attacks on Lebanon, marking a escalation with Hezbollah.

Chinese humanitarian aid to Lebanon arrives in Beirut

China's cultural and tourism market showed solid growth during the 2026 May Day holiday, with domestic trips and total spending both ahead of last year’s holiday, according to official data released on Thursday.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that 325 million domestic trips were made across the country during the 5 day holiday, representing a 3.6 percent increase from the same period last year.

Tourists spent 185.49 billion yuan (about 27.08 billion U.S. dollars), up 2.9 percent year on year, the ministry said, citing calculations from its data center.

Public cultural institutions across the country organized around 49,400 cultural events during the holiday, attracting approximately 88 million tourists, the ministry noted.

Nighttime cultural tourism in key centers remained robust, with major nighttime tourism destinations receiving more than 80.41 million visits, an increase of 6.44 percent year on year.

During the May Day holiday, around 32,000 commercial performances, excluding performances in entertainment venues, were held nationwide, generating box office revenue of 2.476 billion yuan (about 364 million U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 14.66%.

Trips by foreign nationals to and from China during the holiday rose to nearly 1.26 million, a 12.5 percent increase from a year earlier, with 436,000 travelers arriving visa-free, up 14.7 percent.

Chinese make more domestic trips, spend more money during 2026 May Day holiday