The Men's Individual Road Cycling Race of China’s 15th National Games opened Saturday, marking a historic milestone as the first cross-region event in the games' history that spans across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, showing strong connectivity in south China's Greater Bay Area.
The 231.8-kilometer race set off from the Zhuhai Museum, taking 103 cyclists across the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the world's longest sea-crossing bridge. They entered Hong Kong and Macao through seamless customs clearance at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour. After more than five hours on the road, all riders successfully crossed the finish line.
As riders crossed three regions on a groundbreaking route, the race became more than a competition; it stood as a powerful symbol of connection in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
"After we complete our work in Macao, we will hand it over to the Zhuhai section. Our mainland colleagues will continue to be responsible for medical and road-clearing work. This time, we can achieve seamless connectivity and no interruption in between," said Addy Chan Kuai Son, a volunteer for the 15th National Games.
"I was incredibly excited to be here today to watch the National Games road cycling race. This is a race spanning three regions for the first time in National Games history. As a dweller in the Greater Bay Area, I feel extremely proud and honored. When the athletes competed across three regions, I felt a strong sense of unity and a close bond within the Greater Bay Area," said Li Yunshan, a student of Macao University of Science and Technology.
The 15th National Games will officially open on Sunday across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, marking the first time for the three regions to co-host the country's premier multi-sport event.
The National Games, held every four years, are China's highest-level and largest national multi-sports event. The last edition in 2021 saw over 12,000 athletes compete in the northwestern province of Shaanxi.
15th National Games' cross-region cycling race adds new connectivity in Greater Bay Area
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
