Rare solar halo appears in sky in southwest China

A rare solar halo spectacle appeared over Wuxi County in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Friday morning.

The unusual phenomenon is caused by light refracting through ice crystals in thin patches of cloud.

With the sky originally clear, residents soon noticed a complete, ring-shaped halo forming around the sun, creating an effect that looked as though the sun had been adorned with a brilliant "colorful necklace."

The solar halo remained visible for nearly one hour before gradually faded, creating a dreamy and breathtaking view.

International observers lauded China's economic performance in the first quarter of 2026, highlighting its robust high-tech industries and resilient supply chain.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, getting off to a good start, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

The country's GDP reached 33.4 trillion yuan (about 4.9 trillion U.S. dollars) during this period, the NBS data showed.

In the first quarter, "the growth of production and supply accelerated, market demand continued to improve, employment was generally stable, market prices picked up moderately, and high-quality development advanced with new and positive momentum," the NBS said in a statement.

"We've seen Chinese GDP increase 5 percent for the first quarter of 2026, a bit of a rebound from the 4.5 percent recorded at the end of last year and strongly being driven by not only imports and exports, but predominantly a large focus on an increase in manufactured goods, particularly in the likes of vehicles, cars as well as other technologies," said Brad Olsen, an economist from New Zealand.

Khalid Taimur Akram, executive director of the Pakistan Research Center for a Community with Shared Future in Islamabad, said China's complete control over the supply chain makes it largely unaffected by external challenges.

"China is performing really well and the first quarter also the Chinese GDP growth is very, very gradual. And I go to a lot of places and people ask me that the complete world is in problem, but how come China is having a very steady growth? China has a complete control over the supply chain. Now all the supply chain of the things China has it," he said.