Self-made entrepreneur donates all auction funds of championship-winning motorcycle replica

Zhang Xue, a self-made Chinese entrepreneur and founder of ZXMOTO (an abbreviation of Zhang Xue Motorcycles), donated all funds of the replica of the championship-winning motorcycle at an auction held in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province on Thursday.

What was present at the auction was a replica of the championship-winning motorcycle at the Superbike World Championship (WSBK). It was the only replica in the world. A Guangzhou-based company paid 5 million yuan (about 735,000 U.S. dollars) for it.

The funds have been fully donated to the Smile Angel Foundation.

During the auction, Zhang also delivered the trophy for the fastest lap at the Portuguese round of the WSBK.

Zhang said that at the end of this season, another motorcycle will be auctioned and the proceeds will also be donated.

"At the end of this season, we will auction the real motorcycle No. 53, as well as the trophy. The proceeds will all be donated to Han Hong Love Charity Foundation,"said Zhang, referring to the foundation established by the Chinese singer and songwriter.

A documentary shows Zhnag, at 19, chasing a chance to race -- persisting even after an early failure. Zhang's legendary story continues. Behind his success lies his over two decades of unwavering love and persistence for his dream.

"As long as we work hard enough and that our efforts are ten times greater than those of our opponents, success will surely just belong to us," he said.

Self-made entrepreneur donates all auction funds of championship-winning motorcycle replica

Tokyo stocks rose Friday, with the benchmark Nikkei stock index ending at a fresh record high, buoyed by optimism over a settlement in the Middle East conflict.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1,654.93 points, or 2.68 percent, from Thursday at 63,339.07.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 38.65 points, or 1.00 percent, higher at 3,892.46.

"There was some optimistic trade around the latest U.S.-Iran talks, but this optimism seems to be based on the fact that things aren't getting drastically worse in the region rather than the situation improving significantly," Timothy Pope, a market analyst for China Global Television Network (CGTN), recapped the day's developments.

"This optimism was most strongly on display, I think, in Tokyo today, where the Nikkei rose 2.7 percent with hopes for some relief on oil prices and other currently scarce materials. It's not just oil that is not getting out of the region. As we know, it's other petrochemicals and things like helium as well. The general performance was pretty strong. Metals producers were doing fairly well in Tokyo, but in Japan as well, the market is very much focused on AI stocks. And today, the gains were strong for SoftBank -- it was up almost 12 percent after a bit of a battering earlier in the week. And that SoftBank gain contributed nearly a third to the Nikkei's overall gains on Friday," said Pope.

Tokyo stocks end higher as U.S.-Iran talks fuel cautious optimism