Iconic Xinjiang scenic area enters golden viewing season

The Tianshan Tianchi scenic spot in northwest China's Xinjiang has entered its prime viewing window in autumn, with golden autumn foliage forming its iconic "golden path".

A tunnel of golden poplars and birches frames the roadway in Tianchi from mid-October to early November every year, drawing streams of visitors eager to capture the magnificent sight.

The Tianchi Lake, or the Heavenly Pond Lake, boasts one of the most mesmerizing lake scenes in the country, with blue-green water glistening under the sun and fresh air flowing through the surrounding snow-capped mountains.

The Tianchi scenic area is rich in forest resources: 41.5 percent of its core zone is wooded, dominated by a montane cold-temperate conifer belt of Tianshan spruce, inter-mixed with Siberian larch and European aspen.

Visitors to Tianshan Mountain this season may also caught a sight of fall and winter transhumance peak of the local livestock.

After recent snowfall and a temperature plunge, herders in the Tianshan range are seizing clear post-storm skies to push their animals toward winter pastures.

In Barkol Kazakh Autonomous County, police vehicles escort long columns of sheep, cattle and horses across mountains and deserts to reach valley wintering grounds. Thanks to improved roads, an increasing share of herders now hire trucks to haul their livestock, cutting transit time and reducing animal fatigue and losses. The autumn–winter transhumance season across the Tianshan highlands is projected to run until early November.

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.