With the 2026 FIFA World Cup in full swing, cinemas across China are drawing fans with live games on the big screen.
A screening at a cinema in Beijing filled nearly 400 seats. Fans watched intently as the game got underway, with cheers erupting as goals were scored.
In Chengdu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, the World Cup screening came with local flavor. Fans pounded drums, sang together and cheered as a Sichuan opera face-changing performer put on a show in front of the screen.
Other cities have used the event to drive consumption. Cinemas in Fuzhou City, east China's Fujian Province, have been offering World Cup viewing packages and specialty drinks, with tourism and consumer subsidies sweetening the deal.
Football fans in Lhasa City, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, can also enjoy the World Cup matches on the big screen at their doorstep. Despite perceptions of the region as remote and underdeveloped, standard cinema equipment and a steady broadcast signal brought the games to life for viewers.
"It's my first time watching a World Cup game in a cinema, and it's absolutely stunning," said a football fan in Lhasa.
As of now, the China Film Group and Huaxia Film have organized over 28,000 World Cup screenings across 255 cities in 31 provincial-level regions nationwide.
World Cup screenings draw crowds to cinemas across China
With the Pinglu Canal in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region officially open to shipping, Yangpu Port in south China's Hainan Province will fully leverage the policy and geographical advantages of the Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP) to accelerate its development into an international shipping hub, further connecting the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor with global markets.
The canal stretches along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a strategic trade route connecting China's inland regions with ASEAN and other global markets. It is the first river-to-sea canal project planned and coordinated at the national level since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Located in the northwest of the island province, Yangpu Port is the deep-water port closest to the main international shipping routes in the Beibu Gulf, and is also one of the maritime outlets of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor.
The opening of the Pinglu Canal to navigation has opened up a new sea-river intermodal transport corridor for goods entering and leaving the southwestern region, and has also brought new opportunities to some enterprises.
At a petrochemical enterprise in Danzhou City, robotic arms are bagging and packaging chemical products on a conveyor belt, and these goods will be shipped to southwest China's Guizhou Province and other places.
Most of this enterprise's customers in the Chinese mainland are concentrated in the southwestern Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou. At present, the enterprise is adjusting its future shipping plans in response to the logistics changes brought by the opening of the Pinglu Canal to navigation.
"We plan to shift about 70 percent of our goods to this new sea-river intermodal transport corridor, and overall logistics costs are expected to drop by 30 to 40 percent. Next year we also plan to build another plant in Hainan, which will allow us to take advantage of the free trade port's policies, import raw materials from places like Indonesia, and after processing, sell the products to the southwestern region or re-export them. This is expected to add about 200,000 tons of production capacity," said Wei Jianqiang, head of Hainan Oxiranchem Co., Ltd.
Behind the enterprises' expansion of production and the busier flow of goods, there is also the upgraded service support made possible by the opening of the Pinglu Canal to navigation. In this regard, the relevant authorities have also made full preparations.
"After the Pinglu Canal opens to navigation, we will strengthen safeguard measures in areas such as facilitating the entry and exit of container ships on fixed routes, credit-based regulation, and cross-regional coordination," said Jiang Yufeng, head of the Xiaochantan Maritime Patrol and Law Enforcement Brigade, Yangpu Maritime Safety Administration.
Pinglu Canal underscores growing role of Yangpu Port as int'l shipping hub
