French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Chengdu after Beijing trip

China

French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Chengdu after Beijing trip

2025-12-04 22:55 Last Updated At：12-05 12:37

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.

Shenzhou-23 astronauts board spaceship ahead of launch

The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceflight mission have boarded the spacecraft for a flight to China’s Tiangong space station.

The Shenzhou-23 crewed spaceship is scheduled to blast off at 23:08 Beijing Time (15:08 GMT) from northwest China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The three Chinese astronauts, commander Zhu Yangzhu, spacecraft pilot Zhang Zhiyuan and payload specialist Lai Ka-ying, climbed aboard the spaceship with the help of technicians.

Following the launch, the astronauts will complete an in-orbit rotation with the outgoing Shenzhou-21 crew, and one of them will conduct a one-year in-orbit stay, double the usual duration of previous Shenzhou missions.

Notably, astronaut Lai Ka-ying is also the first astronaut from China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Shenzhou-23 marks the 40th flight of China's manned spaceflight program, and the seventh manned flight mission since the Tiangong space station entered its application and development phase in late 2022.