Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has leveraged the popularity of the region's grassroots-level Football Super League events to boost tourism, with local authorities rolling out incentives for visiting fans, including discounted or free entry to tourist sites.
The 2026 Tongxin Cup Xinjiang Football Super League kicked off on May 16 and is scheduled to last until August 9, with a total of 56 matches, attracting large numbers of football fans and tourists.
Taking advantage of the Super League's high popularity, business operators in various cities across Xinjiang have rolled out a variety of cultural and tourism discount packages favored by football fans and tourists.
In the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, football fans holding Super League tickets can enjoy a 20-percent discount on tickets to the Sayram Lake Scenic Area. They can also enjoy free access to other tourism spots including the Alashankou Border Crossing Gate and the Muttar Desert Scenic Area. Local supermarkets, specialty restaurants, and chain hotels also offer corresponding discounts.
Starting on May 30, Altay Prefecture has launched a month-long cross-industry benefit campaign, connecting various scenarios such as gas station filling, accommodation and supermarket shopping. Football fans and tourists can scan a dedicated QR code to check all the discounts available.
"After scanning the QR code, we can see the introductions of many characteristic restaurants and horse farms in Altay. I can also enjoy a wide range of discounts with my accommodation vouchers," said Dong Rujiang, a tourist from east China's Jiangsu Province.
Turpan City has leveraged its home-field advantage to stimulate consumption across the city, setting up 30 large screens in urban areas and major scenic spots as secondary football watching options for the fans. The combination of food and sports has created a brand-new nighttime tourism consumption scenario.
"While enjoying pigeon meat soup and eating pilaf, we cheered for the team. The combination of delicious food and the football game made for a particularly fulfilling night," said Dai Qian, another tourist from Jiangsu.
Xinjiang leverages grassroots football league events to boost tourism
Major breakthroughs by Chinese scientists have laid the foundation for a future where space-based solar power stations are capable of wirelessly transmitting energy to Earth and spacecraft, though significant engineering problems remain.
A research team from Xidian University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has made significant progress on the Sun Chasing project, or "Zhuri" in Chinese. The team has developed a ground-based test system for wireless power transmission that can charge multiple moving targets at the same time.
In recent tests, the system achieved a wireless power transmission efficiency of 20.8 percent from direct current to direct current over a distance of 100 meters. It delivered 1,180 watts of power. The team has also built a wireless charging system for drones. In a test, a drone flying at 30 kilometers per hour was able to receive 143 watts of stable power from 30 meters away.
A space solar power station works exactly as its name suggests: a huge array of solar panels placed in orbit. It would collect sunlight in space, where the sun always shines, and then convert that energy into microwaves or lasers to beam down to Earth or directly to satellites and spacecraft. This could address two significant issues: supplying uninterrupted power for space missions and alleviating energy shortages on the ground.
"The construction of space solar power stations could become a major undertaking in the future. One potential benefit is access to a virtually unlimited power supply. Because energy can be collected continuously in space 24 hours a day, electricity could be supplied on an uninterrupted basis," said Fan Guanheng, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"Secondly, it could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, thereby lowering carbon emissions and helping protect the environment. Thirdly, it could support the development of charging infrastructure in space and enable wireless microwave charging for spacecraft, changing the way power is supplied to space vehicles," the professor added.
In 2018, the research team launched the first phase of the Sun Chasing project to build a ground test system. By June 2022, they had completed the world's first full-link, full-system ground validation system for a space solar power station. Now, the team has moved to phase two. The goal now is to solve the challenges of generating high power in space and transmitting it efficiently over long distances.
According to Duan Baoyan, an expert at Xidian University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, recent breakthroughs include improving the efficiency of solar energy collection and conversion, increasing the precision of microwave beam control to reduce energy loss, and making the transmitting and receiving antennas smaller and lighter, which is critical for space application.
The team has also solved the problem of how to power multiple moving targets at once using a single transmitter. This means that in the future, one space power station could potentially supply electricity to several satellites or ground vehicles at the same time, Duan said.
Despite the advances in ground-based validation, a series of technical challenges must still be overcome before the technology can be deployed in space.
"The first issue that needs to be addressed is the adaptability of components to the space environment, as conditions in space are completely different from those on Earth, including radiation exposure and extreme temperatures. Another challenge involves the deployment and retraction design of transmitting and receiving antennas. We also need to develop thermal management systems to cope with extreme temperatures and temperature fluctuations in space. These are all areas where further breakthroughs are needed," said Qian Sihao, an associate professor at the School of Mechano-Electronic Engineering at Xidian University.
"We have now completed the development and validation of a ground-based test system, and our next step is to carry out in-orbit wireless microwave power transmission," Fan said.
With ground validation complete, the team now turns its attention to overcoming the harsh realities of space, aiming to demonstrate in-orbit wireless power transmission and bring the vision of orbital solar energy closer to reality.
Space-to-earth solar power moves closer to reality although hurdles remain: scientists
