Ningbo, a port city in east China's Zhejiang Province, has held colorful cultural events for international sailors who arrive visa-free, allowing them to immerse themselves in Chinese lifestyle and cultural heritage.
China has relaxed visa-free transit to attract more overseas tourists since last year. The permitted stay for eligible foreign travelers was extended from 72 and 144 hours to 240 or 10 days in December last year. Eligible citizens from 54 countries, including Russia, Brazil, Britain, the United States, and Canada, can now enter China visa-free when transiting to a third country or region under the updated policy.
On Wednesday, four seamen were invited to experience lion dance, a Chinese traditional art form that combines martial arts and lion-costumed rhythmic dance.
Their host, Shen Haidi, is an inheritor of the "Meishan Lion Dance," one of Ningbo's municipal intangible cultural heritage. He performed and coached them to try the dance in his courtyard.
"I felt very good, because for me, it's a good pleasure to meet the new culture and [develop] a deeper understanding of Chinese culture," said Robert, a sailor.
Ningbo receives about 270,000 stopovers every year from international sailors who come on cargo ships.
Local authorities have helped facilitate travel for seamen, including streamlining entry procedures, improving transportation networks, offering more information services, and introducing financial services, so as to enable the international guests to learn more about China.
China's port city Ningbo holds cultural events for visa-free sailors
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team has started unloading supplies for scientific exploration after arriving at waters near the Zhongshan Station, a Chinese research base in Antarctica.
The ongoing seven-month scientific exploration mission is supported by Chinese icebreakers the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2, which set sail from Shanghai on Nov 1.
The two icebreakers will deliver about 2,000 tons of supplies to the Zhongshan Station for scientific exploration.
The Xuelong 2 arrived first at a designated unloading spot about 12 kilometers from the Zhongshan Station. Later, the ship's Ka-32 helicopter transported in batches more than 300 tons of polar fuel to the research base when weather conditions were favorable.
"Nearly 90 members of the expedition team carried by the two ship are already at the Zhongshan Station, preparing for receiving supplies and assignments for scientific exploration," said Wang Tao, person in charge of unloading operations at the Zhongshan Station.
Thanks to more than 30 hours of efforts by the Xuelong 2 to widen the channel and lead the way, the Xuelong, which was carrying about 1,500 tons of supplies, has also arrived at the unloading spot.
The unloading operations, involving a combination of sea-ice transport and helicopter lifts, are expected to be finished within two weeks.
And then, the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2 will proceed to China's Qingling Station and Changcheng Station in Antarctica, respectively.
The expedition team includes more than 500 members from over 80 institutions on the Chinese mainland, along with researchers from more than 10 other countries and regions, such as Thailand, Chile and Portugal, as well as China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, in support of broader international scientific collaboration.
They will conduct multi-disciplinary scientific surveys, advance several major national research projects, and test domestically developed equipment under polar conditions.
Particularly, scientific drilling experiments in lakes deep in the Antarctic inland ice sheet will be carried out for the first time.
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team unloads supplies at Zhongshan Station
