The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, announced on Monday that it has decided to authorize Deutsche Bank to serve as the RMB clearing bank in Frankfurt, Germany.
The decision was made in accordance with a memorandum of understanding between the PBOC and the Deutsche Bank, the central bank said.
Deutsche Bank said it will facilitate direct end-to-end processing, clearing and settlement services for cross-border renminbi transactions for European financial institutions and businesses.
The bank said the move streamlines cross-border trade and investment flows, and strengthens financial connectivity between China and Europe.
China's central bank authorizes Deutsche Bank as RMB clearing bank
A herd of eight wild Asian elephants was recently spotted taking a stroll along a lush and hilly rural road in southwest China's Yunnan Province.
Aerial footage captured the group, which included several calves closely guarded by adults, ambling along a dirt path in Jiangcheng, a Hani and Yi autonomous county near the borders of Laos and Vietnam.
The elephants were seen casually munching on roadside grass and banana leaves before moving onto a rural road where they continued their unhurried progress.
Asian elephants, an emblematic species in the rainforest, are designated as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are under first-class national protection in China. They primarily live in Yunnan's southwest border area, including Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and in the forested areas around Pu'er City and Lincang City.
The recent sighting is a testament to both the recovering elephant population in Jiangcheng and the sophisticated monitoring systems in place, according to Diao Faxing, head of the county's Asian elephant monitoring team.
"The elephants follow a routine in their activities. They come out of the forest to forage between 04:00 and 05:00 in the afternoon. Through our daily tracking and monitoring, we can accurately determine which direction they are heading. This enables us to issue early warnings in advance to notify the nearby villagers," Diao said.
The monitoring has become crucial for public safety. Whenever elephants are spotted near roadways, authorities promptly set up warning signs, disseminate real-time updates on the animals' location, and alert nearby villagers to stay clear, strictly preventing any close human-elephant encounters.
While these alerts protect lives, another challenge is protecting the livelihoods of local farmers in the event of crop damage by foraging elephants. To address this economic toll, Jiangcheng has implemented a comprehensive insurance scheme to compensate affected villagers.
In 2021, the world watched with fascination as a herd of wild Asian elephants wandered more than 1,400 kilometers across China's Yunnan Province over the course of more than four months. Their epic journey provided an unprecedented look at China's conservation strategies and shed light on how local communities are learning to coexist with these animals.
The wild Asian elephant population in China has grown from about 150 in the 1980s to nearly 400 today, according to an official report released in July.
Wild Asian elephant herd spotted on leisurely stroll in Yunnan
