The century-old Nanmen Market in Taipei of China's Taiwan has been a hive of activity during the Dragon Boat Festival, which fell on Friday this year.
The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, is known for its dragon boat races, seasonal dumplings called zongzi, and sachets of mugwort and calamus gifted for health and protection.
Local residents were seen lining up to buy different flavors of zongzi at stalls in the market.
"It's raining heavily, but I still come to buy zongzi. I'll buy zongzi from northern parts of Taiwan and some with salted egg yolks," said one Taipei resident.
"I mainly bought Huzhou-style zongzi, about a dozen or so. I also bought some respectively from southern and northern Taiwan, and will share them with my relatives and friends," said another resident.
Distinguished by its elongated, pillow-like shape and fillings such as pork or red bean, Huzhou-style zongzi comes from Huzhou City in Zhejiang Province.
"In making Huzhou-style zongzi, the first key point is that the meat is pre-marinated. The second is that the glutinous rice is seasoned with soy sauce and fully flavored before wrapping. The most critical part lies in the seasoning technique. My mother did the seasoning before, and now my wife is doing it," said a zongzi store owner at the market.
He said the shop is constantly developing new flavors to attract more customers.
"In Taiwan, many people like cured meat from Hunan Province and sausages from Guangdong Province. That's why my shop has added a type of zongzi which is made with Guangdong sausage and Hunan cured meat," said the owner.
Children also received sachets filled with mugwort or other herbs, a traditional gift for good health and well-being.
Century-old market in Taipei abuzz with activity for Duanwu Festival
Multinational companies are deepening their footprint in China's high-tech industries, expanding research and production to seize opportunities from the country's ongoing industrial upgrade.
According to the latest Multinational Corporations in China report, Research and Development spending in the country accounted for 14.3 percent of global totals in 2025, while 14,000 new foreign-funded firms were established in scientific research and technology services, up 27.2 percent year on year.
At the 7th Qingdao Multinationals Summit, executives talked about how strong demand in sectors such as EVs, semiconductors, and batteries is prompting companies to expand capacity and embed innovation centers across China.
"Now we are opening our 4th product line, our 4th operating plant at the end of this year. So our investment will be around 25 million U.S. dollars. We will double the capacity in every product line that we make and we continue to advance and invest in new technologies, cutting-edge technologies and R and D equipment to advance our products for the Chinese market," said Charles Compson, chief commercial officer of Almatis.
Heraeus Group executives say China’s rapid development in emerging sectors have made the country a key base for innovation, with nearly all of the company’s divisions now operating research centers there.
"China is developing so fast and it is also leading in many aspects, be it robotics, be it electric vehicles, be it also some aspects of semiconductors that we really want to innovate in China. So virtually all of our units, divisions have an innovation center in China," said Klemens Brunner, managing director for Semiconductor, Electronics, and Industrials at Heraeus Group.
Gregor Idekeit, vice president and CFO for China at Claas, highlighted China’s push to modernize agriculture through electrification and smarter machinery.
"It's a big push for modernization of agriculture as we adopt more and more electric components in our machinery and more intelligent machinery. We will continue here to develop and bring products to the Chinese market here on the high end," he said.
In the first four months of this year, more than 3,000 foreign‑funded companies expanded investment in China. The country is also opening high‑tech and modern service sectors, creating new opportunities in areas such as culture, tourism, and digital industries.
"As China continues to expand its high-level opening up to the world, exciting opportunities are emerging across culture, tourism, creative industries and digital technologies. A greater openness will strengthen our cultural experiences and allow us to create a greater level of Chinese story that goes out to the world," said Richard Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Weta Workshop.
"Every time I come to China, I get quite energized and excited about the speed of change. So we're going to continue, of course, building and growing hopefully here," said Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk's president and CEO.
The three-day Qingdao Multinationals Summit, which drew 357 multinational companies from 44 countries and regions, concluded Wednesday in east China's Shandong Province.
Multinationals deepen investment in China's high-tech industries
