XM and FZ earn Tier One population designation

Representatives of the Xiamen Seismological Bureau announced last week that Xiamen is currently home to 82 earthquake emergency shelters covering a total area of 690,000 square meters. The shelters can collectively accommodate 400,000 individuals. The city made the announcement last Thursday to coincide with the annual International Day for Disaster Reduction.

Local Customs officials recently announced the results of its annual development performance evaluation of 137 Special Customs Supervision Zones. The Xiamen Xiangyu Bonded Area captured first place nationally in the qualitative efficiency category for 2021.

The area debuted in 1992, becoming one of China's first Special Customs Supervision Zones. In the first eight months of 2022, combined imports and exports through the zone totaled 65.3 billion yuan, up 47 percent year-on-year.

In terms of overall performance, the Xiamen Xiangyu Bonded Area and the Xiamen Xiangyu Comprehensive Bonded Area ranked first and second in Fujian last year.

Xiamen Port official announced recently that container throughput topped 9.1 million yuan in the year through September, up 1.1 percent year-on-year. The port handled 6.9 million containers, up 4.5 percent year-on-year. The number of containers transported by multimodal sea-and-rail routes reached 47,600, up 76.6 percent year-on-year.

City officials recently hosted a ceremony at Xiamen University's Tan Kah Kee Square to commemorate the donation of 6,500 retired public shared bikes to local universities. Xiamen's shared bike program ceased operations on June 1.

The program's bikes will be given to local universities to be repurposed for on-campus use. Xiamen University received more than 4,500 bikes and Huaqiao University received about 1,000 bikes. Xiamen City University also received several hundred bikes.

The country's official recently identified more than 140 office areas in public institutions as key exemplars of domestic waste sorting and resource recycling. Three local entities made the list, including the city's Government Office Administration, the Xiamen Wuyuan Number Two Experimental School and Zhongshan Hospital (the Xiamen branch of Fudan University).

The national Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development recently announced that Xiamen topped all major cities for waste sorting in the second quarter of the year.  Xiamen's garbage sorting work has been ranked in the country for 18 consecutive quarters.

Academics at Xiamen University recently published online in the journal Nature-Metabolism the results of a study on the effects of Aldometanib, a potentially therapeutic medicine for individuals who suffer from metabolic disorders.

The report indicated that the drug mimics the effect of glucose starvation, reducing glucose in male mice independently of insulation and without the side effects of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). The researchers suggested that the drug could have a role in treating conditions such as chronic inflammation, diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.