South China's island province of Hainan has reported robust offshore duty-free sales during the just-concluded eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday season, according to the local customs bureau on Thursday.
The Haikou Customs in the provincial capital city of Haikou oversaw duty-free sales totaling 944 million yuan (about 132.5 million U.S. dollars) in approximately 122,900 transactions during the holiday running from Oct. 1 to 8, with an average per capita spending of 7,685 yuan (about 1079.4 U.S. dollars), representing a year-on-year increase of 13.6 percent, 3.2 percent, and 10 percent, respectively.
To improve the shopping experience, the Haikou International Duty-Free City has launched drone delivery services, allowing goods to be delivered from duty-free shops to the port in the minimum of one and a half minutes. Since January, the drone delivery has transported over five million duty-free items.
China released a master plan in June 2020 to build Hainan into a globally influential, high-level free trade port by the middle of the century.
Boosted by the policy, the southernmost Chinese province has become an attractive shopping destination for domestic consumers, now boasting 12 offshore duty-free stores.
Hainan reports robust duty-free sales during National Day holiday
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
