Shenzhen sees 20-pct jump in border crossing trips

The border-crossing passenger flows in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, peaked from Monday to Friday noon, according to Shenzhen Border Inspection Station.

There were over 610,000 inbound and outbound entries during the period, a 20 percent jump month on month. The border inspection officials attributed the significant increase to the 137th edition of the Canton Fair, which opened Tuesday in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, and the recent public holiday in Hong Kong. Hongkong contributed over 65 percent to the growth number.

At West Kowloon Port, an international railway passenger port located in Hong Kong with two separate port outlets administered by Hong Kong and the mainland, respectively, the tourist flow into the mainland has remained high since the port opened on Friday.

By 13:00 of the day, the inspection station at the port reported having inspected over 60,000 outbound and inbound trips.

Tourists from Hong Kong said the station offers convenient means of transport, and they were also enthusiastic about their trips to the mainland.

"There are direct trains from the West Kowloon Station to Quanzhou, which save us from transferring between trains," said a Hong Kong traveler surnamed Lo.

"It's very convenient to reach the station by bus. I joked with my children that traveling to Shenzhen is more convenient than to Hong Kong's Causeway Bay. The mainland has various foods, and we can also enjoy the beautiful scenery there," another Hong Kong traveler named Leung said.

To better serve the growing number of tourists, the West Kowloon railway station currently operates a maximum of 108 pairs of cross-border trains daily, and passengers can reach 93 mainland stations directly from the transport hub.

"To ensure efficient and smooth customs clearance for tourists, the Shenzhen West Kowloon Border Inspection Station had sufficient police officers on duty, opened enough inspection channels, and improved the efficiency of passenger flow management to ensure smooth and orderly customs clearance at the port," said Wu Yanwen, deputy captain on duty at the inspection station.

Shenzhen sees 20-pct jump in border crossing trips

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027