French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Chengdu after Beijing trip

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Chengdu City, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Thursday evening, marking the second stop of his three-day state visit to China.

Macron is on a state visit to China from Wednesday to Friday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As a key hub in western China, Chengdu is renowned for its rich history and culture, serving as an important international transport gateway.

The city also has a long-standing relationship with France. In 1981, Chengdu and France's Montpellier became the first pair of sister cities between the two countries.

This is Macron's fourth state visit to China and a reciprocal visit to Xi's historic state visit to France last year that marked the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.

The French president has maintained the tradition of visiting cities beyond Beijing. He traveled to Xi'an in Shaanxi Province, Shanghai, and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province during previous visits.

The U.S. dollar weakened in late trading on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, fell 0.32 percent to 99.648 at 1900 GMT.

In late New York trading, the euro was up to 1.1607 dollars from 1.1523 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound climbed to 1.3324 dollars from 1.3189 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 158.82 Japanese yen, lower than 158.95 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar decreased to 0.7931 Swiss francs from 0.8008 Swiss francs, and it was down to 1.3895 Canadian dollars from 1.3937 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar slipped to 9.3935 Swedish kronor from 9.4895 Swedish kronor.