New plaques unveiled for Gulangyu landmarks

The International Underwater Operations and Offshore Industry Expo and its affiliated forum are scheduled to open simultaneously on November 18 at the Fliport Conference Center. Domestic and international manufacturers at the three-day expo will showcase more than 1,000 pieces of advanced equipment.

The Siming City Volunteer Association and the Shapowei Workshop recently announced the establishment of the Wave-chasing Volunteers, a group that will provide weekend guide services at the Shapowei Live Exhibition Hall.

The team launched with an initial group of nine volunteers. The volunteers trained for a month at the Siming Xin Xiamen People Library on topics such as Minnan culture while working on presentation skills and techniques.

The village of Aoxi in Tongan recently hosted an opening ceremony for the filming of a web series entitled Classmate, When Will You Move from My House? Production is set to last for a month. The show is set to debut next summer.

Local representatives of the Tongan Film and Television Culture Development Center said that the district hosted more than 10 productions so far this year.

City officials recently announced a series of upgrades to the flagship station of its long-distance drivers amenities services. Located in the Longjue East Service Area on the Xiamen expressway, the station is equipped with microwave ovens, medical kits and sofas for drivers on a break. Other services include free showers and laundry facilities. The station serves about 300 truck drivers on average per month.

City officials last week announced that Haicang's new complex of roadways and interchanges in the Caijianwei Hill area will officially open next week, eight months earlier than planned. Work on the project began at the end of 2018.

Representatives described the roadway complex as Asia's largest cross-sectional underground interlinked interchange tunnel. The roadway is one of China's most complex urban underground interchange hubs. The road network includes a fully-interlinked underground interchange tunnel.

Challenges for the project included a range of underground rock formations and the close proximity of the existing Xinyang tunnel. The new tunnel complex comes within two meters of the existing tunnel complex.

The first Xiamen-originated cold-chain train of the China-Europe (Xiamen) Railway Express departed last week from the local portion of Fujian's free trade zone. The 15-day journey to Moscow routed through Inner Mongolia. Officials said that the route will help boost trade among BRICS countries and optimize Sino-Russian agricultural trade.

The cold-chain express train is the second major addition to locally-originated shipping this year, following the opening of the Taiwan-Xiamen-St. Petersburg rail-sea intermodal route in June.

The Sino-Russian route of the China-Europe (Xiamen) Railway Express has carried more than 31,000 standard containers worth nearly seven billion yuan since its inception.

Local traffic authorities announced recently a new crackdown on loud traffic noise at night. The Quiet Night Action program targets noise sources such as honking, illegally modified and retrofitted vehicles and car and motorcycle racing. Officials encouraged residents to call 110 or 12123 to report potential noise violations.

Honking in Huli and Siming has been banned on local streets since 2012. Drivers who honk in violation of local regulations face a 100-yuan fine.

A consortium of more than 30 Fujian hospitals in Fujian now allow patients to make mobile phone payments via their medical insurance QR code. Authorities described the new program as a way to boost social distancing. Participating hospitals include all provincial-level hospitals as well as the Union Hospital affiliated with Fujian Medical University.

Provincial officials added that Fujian will roll out use of the payment method to all local tertiary hospitals and some local secondary hospitals by the end of the year.