A spectacular lightshow designed by the China Media Group (CMG) lit up Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, on Thursday evening to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Displayed all the way up the stunning facade of the 828-meter-high tower, the show featured images of famous landmarks across China, including the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, and scenes of the country's prosperous cityscapes.
The dazzling display on the iconic building captivated many tourists, who said it has now made them want to visit China for themselves.
"We saw the highlights of China, including the Great Wall and the (Oriental Pearl) Tower in Shanghai. And it's a good advertisement for your country and we look forward to visiting there one day," George, an Australian tourist, told a CMG reporter.
"We have a lot of Chinese people in Australia and they all tell us how beautiful China is. So we are really looking forward to going one day to see it," said Maria, another Australian visitor, as she also extended her best wishes to the Chinese people for the country's National Day.
A group of overseas Chinese in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also turned out to see lightshow. They collectively expressed their hope for the health and happiness of all back in the motherland who are celebrating China's week-long National Day holiday, also known as the 'Golden Week', which runs from Oct 1 to 7.
CMG light show illuminates world's tallest building for China's National Day
China's 16th Arctic Ocean expedition achieved the country's first video call spanning the North and South Poles on September 25, coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, using a domestically developed satellite system with a delay of no more than one second.
The expedition deployed four vessels -- Xuelong, Xuelong 2, Jidi, and Tansuo 3 -- to study extreme environmental changes in the Arctic amid accelerating global warming. On September 29, China's research icebreakers Xuelong and Xuelong 2 returned to Shanghai after completing their missions, while Jidi and Tansuo 3 continue their expedition tasks and are expected to return in mid-October following a three-month journey.
The expedition team held a satellite video conversation with China's Antarctic Qinling Station, extending festive greetings to their polar scientific research counterparts and testing a large-scale constellation designed to provide global broadband internet and support integrated space-Earth 6G networks.
"This is the first time that China has used a domestically developed communications satellite system to make a video call across the largest latitude span," said Liu Feng, a senior engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service.
The around-13,000-satellite GW constellation, led by China Satellite Network Group (SatNet), is China's first mega low Earth orbit satellite internet project. During the polar test, the maximum uplink and downlink speed reached around 30 megabits per second, equivalent to taking about 10 minutes to download a 1GB file. The equipment can also be used for emergency rescue and maritime communications.
"During the test period, it also supported real-time communications among Xuelong, Jidi, Tansuo 3, the National Marine Data and Information Service and the Polar Research Center. After Jidi and Tansuo 3 entered ice zone operation areas, their communication could not be guaranteed. So file transfers and navigation logs had to be transmitted through the SatNet equipment," said Zhang Bin, an engineer at the National Marine Data and Information Service. The successful test of the domestically produced satellite communication equipment marks China's independent control over polar region communications. The equipment ensures that data remains within the country, effectively safeguarding data security.
China holds first video call between North, South Poles via homegrown satellite system
