China's domestically developed aircraft engines are capturing the limelight at the ongoing 15th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, wowing visitors with their cutting-edge technologies and energy-efficient designs.
The exhibition kicked off in Zhuhai City of Guangdong Province on Tuesday, showcasing the latest in aircraft, spacecraft, and weaponry, along with impressive aerial performances.
Among the attention-grabbing exhibits, a number of innovative aircraft engines are demonstrating China's gains in this competitive and fast-evolving industry, spanning the gamut from fighter jet engines to those for civilian aircraft.
As an important aviation enterprise, Aero Engine Corporation of China, or AECC, is engaged in the development, production and maintenance of aircraft engines, gas turbines, and more. Its turbojet engines, turbofans, and turbo-shafts have been widely installed in various types of military and civilian aircraft.
The company's star product, the AEF1200, debuted at the event, catching eyes with its sheer size. It is the country's first self-developed high bypass ratio dual rotor turbofan engine, a highly efficient type of jet engine that uses two sets of rotating blades to compress air, with most of the air bypassing the engine core to create thrust more quietly and with better fuel efficiency. This design will help China's large airplanes fly farther on less fuel while keeping engine noise down.
AECC also displayed new engines designed for helicopters and drones, which are expected to be increasingly important in coming years.
"Our AES100 engine is an advanced turbo-shaft engine independently developed by AECC in response to the national call for the development of the low-altitude economy, which is energy-saving and environmentally friendly. It is equipped with a very useful health-monitoring system. So, its stability and reliability can also be assured. The AEP100 is a 900-kilowatt turboprop engine developed by us using a turboshaft engine. It can also be used in drones, business jets, and trainer aircraft," said Liu Jie, a staff member at AECC.
Since its launch, the event, also known as Airshow China, has been one of the top five airshows worldwide. This year, nearly 900 enterprises from 47 countries and regions are participating, with 149 of them global attendees.
China's high-tech, energy-efficient aircraft engines showcased at Zhuhai Airshow
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
