A tornado swept across northeast China's Jilin Province on Monday afternoon, causing property damage but no casualties, local authorities reported.
Video footage shot by local eyewitnesses showed the giant gray vortex churning across open fields and kicking up dense clouds of debris as it touched down around Changshan Town in Jilin's Songyuan City.
The twister, which lasted about an hour starting around 15:00, ripped the roofs off several homes and damaged power infrastructure, leaving more than 200 households without electricity.
Officials said most of the affected homes had sheet metal roofs that were particularly vulnerable to the high winds brought by the tornado.
Power crews worked through the night to restore electricity and had completed repairs by Tuesday noon, according to the local power company.
Tornado sweeps across rural north China villages, damaging homes, power lines
The tightening cultural relations between China and Jordan shows deep recognition and mutual respect to each other, former Prime Minister of Jordan Omar Razzaz said.
So far, multiple Chinese universities have established a regular cooperation mechanism with their Jordanian counterparts. Jordan now also has a complete Chinese language learning system from undergraduate to postgraduate levels.
In a recent interview with China Central Television (CCTV), Razzaz talked about the increasingly frequent cultural exchanges between the two nations.
He believes that these have demonstrated the two countries' considerable recognition as well as mutual respect.
"You have technology and cutting-edge products and innovation, etc., but you maintain your culture and history and all of this coexists. Now, part of country's respects for each other is to learn each other's languages. And I'm always amazed when I see Chinese diplomats in Jordan speaking perfect Arabic. That's a sign of respect, and vice versa. When we have universities and programs that teach Jordanian students to speak Chinese, that's also a recognition first, a form of respect to this culture," Razzaz said.
Although technology and economy play a significant role in bilateral cooperation, he said, cultural exchanges will push the partnership further and deeper which cannot live without.
"There are only two languages in the world where the letter is highly respected and revered. It is Chinese and Arabic. And that got us to work with each other on having these exchanges and building mutual understanding of something that is cultural and common. So yes, it's EVs and it's AI and robotics, but it needs to be poetry and culture and dance and calligraphy," Razzaz noted.
In-depth cultural exchanges between China, Jordan shows mutual respect: former PM
