The 2025 Longines Hong Kong International Races were held Sunday at the Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong, drawing a record-breaking 13,300 visitors in a single day.
As one of most popular sports in Hong Kong, horse racing is not only a unique cultural symbol of the city, but also reflects its professionalism as a host of major international sporting events.
Against the backdrop of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government's active push to develop horse-racing tourism, this year's international horse races have attracted an unprecedented number of visitors from across the world.
Just three months into the 2025-2026 racing season, the accumulated number of visitors has already surpassed 110,000.
"I used to watch horse racing on television, but being here in person is a completely different feeling. With the Year of the Horse coming up next year, we also hope more people will fall in love with the sport," said a tourist from the Chinese mainland.
Sunday's event saw 10 races, including four Group 1 races boasting a total prize of 16.7 million U.S. dollars. Of the 45 horses taking part, 20 were previous Group 1 winners, and 19 were overseas horses.
Hong Kong int'l horse races draw record visitors to racecourse
The sales revenue of China's high-tech industries in the period from January 1 to March 25 increased by 14.6 percent year on year, the latest official data released by the State Taxation Administration showed Wednesday.
The growth in sales revenue highlighted the stronger competitiveness in the country's high-tech industries and deepened industrial upgrading driven by technological innovation.
The data also showed faster commercialization of scientific-technological research achievements. The sales revenue in the scientific-technological research and technical service sector rose 21 percent year on year during the very period, while the sales revenue of intellectual property-intensive sectors with high sci-tech content increased by 10.9 percent year on year.
"From January 1 to March 25, the sales revenue of core industries within the digital economy and the amount spent by enterprises nationwide on digital technology procurement grew by 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent year-on-year, respectively. [These figures] illustrate continued advancement of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization in China," said Huang Yun, spokesman of the State Taxation Administration, at a press conference in Beijing.
Next, Huang said, taxation authorities will further refine and implement preferential tax and fee policies designed to support sci-tech innovation. By leveraging tax-related big data and advanced information technology, Huang added, taxation authorities will keep delivering targeted policy guidance directly to enterprises to maximize policy dividends and help foster robust development of China's new quality productive forces.
China's high-tech industries record robust growth in early 2026
