2025 Qinghai cycling race concludes amid breathtaking scenery

The 2025 Tour of Magnificent Qinghai, renowned for its extreme high-altitude routes and stunning plateau scenery, concluded in Haiyan County of northwest China's Qinghai Province on Sunday.

The race opened on July 6 in the ancient plateau city of Xining, capital of Qinghai Province.

From the canola flower fields of Menyuan to the snow-capped mountains and grasslands of Qilian, from the intangible cultural heritage of the Tu ethnic group in Huzhu to the magnificent scenes of nomadic horse teams cheering on the riders, the event paints a vibrant new picture of the plateau where ecology and culture are intertwined.

Formerly known as the Tour of Qinghai Lake, the event was rebranded in 2025 as the Tour of Magnificent Qinghai.

First held in 2002, the high-altitude race is recognized as one of Asia's premiere road cycling events, known for its punishing terrain and average elevation of 3,000 meters.

The 2025 edition featured eight stages totaling 1,400 kilometers and involved a maximum altitude of 3,869m. It brought together 154 professional riders from 11 countries and regions.

Over 24 years of development, the event has steadily advanced from a 2.5-category race to one of Asia's top road cycling events, and now ranks as a UCI (International Cycling Union) ProSeries race.

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.