Special train services including flower-viewing tours and "express for the silver-haired" are helping many sightseers in China enjoy the five-day May Day holiday which started on Thursday.
Rail authorities in central China's Hubei Province have arranged special flower-viewing tours to take tourists to Macheng City, where the azalea flowers are in full bloom.
"The Macheng North Railway Station and the Macheng Bureau of Culture and Tourism made a transport plan for the flower-admiring tours. The tourists can directly take a bus to the scenic area after arriving at the railway station," said Geng Qiang, an official of Macheng North Railway Station.
Urumqi, capital city of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has organized "express for the silver-haired" services, which took groups of elderly tourists to multiple tourist attractions in the region, including Kuqa, Kashgar and Altay.
Medical workers, medicines, wheelchairs and other facilities were prepared onboard the trains to ensure safe journeys for the elderly people.
The three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, as well as northwest China's Gansu Province have also arranged special flower-admiring train tours.
Special train services help sightseers enjoy May Day holiday
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that the situation in Iran is "under total control" following violence linked to protests that spiked over the weekend.
Addressing foreign diplomats in Tehran, the foreign minister noted that armed terrorist groups had infiltrated the protests, attempting to divert them from their legitimate course. He claimed that evidence has been gathered showing Iranian security forces being shot at, with the aim of causing further casualties. He accused the United States and Israel of exploiting the unrest to interfere in Iran's internal affairs.
Araghchi further stated that the government is closely monitoring developments on the streets, emphasizing that "the situation has come under control." He also affirmed that internet services, curtailed during the unrest, would be restored after coordination with security agencies.
The government has engaged in dialogue with merchants and protest representatives and initiated reforms to address grievances related to price hikes and currency depreciation. Iran has taken a series of actions and measures to respond to the demands of peaceful demonstrators, the foreign minister said.
Earlier on Sunday, Araghchi said that clear evidence links recent riots and vandalism of public facilities in Iran to the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. This came after former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo mentioned Mossad agents operating on Iran's streets in a social media post. The Iranian foreign minister asserted that police are being attacked by "terrorists" acting under the direction of Israeli operatives, whom Pompeo publicly acknowledged.
The protests initially erupted over a sharp depreciation of the rial and sweeping subsidy reforms. Iranian authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign-linked agents and U.S. sanctions.
Iranian foreign minister says situation "fully under control," accuses Israeli intelligence of stoking unrest
