Haicang Shugang Passageway opens to traffic

Singapore Airlines last week debuted a new passenger flight between Xiamen and Singapore. The weekly flight operates on Thursdays. The route is serviced by an Airbus A350-900.

Representative from the Xiamen Public Transport Group announced last week that the city currently operates 70 wheelchair-accessible buses servicing 18 bus routes. The buses are deployed along routes that link major arteries with hospitals and residential communities. An additional set of wheelchair-accessible buses are slated to hit the road next year.

Industry officials announced at the annual global conference of the Airline Passenger Experience Association that XiamenAir earned its third consecutive annual Five-Star International Airline award.

It also took home the association's top prize, World Class Airline award. XiamenAir became the first Chinese airline to be certified by the world's top organizations [APEX] as one of the world's top eight airlines.

Local authorities last week announced that Xiamen plans to continue its renovation program for local trash drop-off stations. The city is currently home to more than 1,500 drop-off stations. More than 100 new stations debuted this year, including at the gate of the Qunhui primary school. The standalone structure is made of reinforced glass and other eco-friendly materials. It is equipped with a concealed pipe for deodorization, a smart high-frequency deodorizer and a concealed sewer drain. There is also an adjacent pedestal washbasin to allow users to wash their hands after dropping off trash.

Xiamen University officials recently announced the rollout of a pair of WeChat mini-apps devoted to understanding spoken Hokkien and outputting speech in both Hokkien and Mandarin. Representatives described the pair of apps as the result of years of development.

The lexicon of each Hokkien sub-dialect includes at least 100,000 words. Xu Binbin, an assistant professor of the department of Chinese Language and Literature, and her team spent a decade doing fieldwork and developing the mini-apps. The research included collecting speech samples from different regions and identifying and labeling key elements of the dialects.

Local traffic authorities announced last week that traffic in the Haicang tunnel is maintaining speeds of up to 76 kilometers per hour during the morning and evening rush hours. The traffic speed translates into a full transit of the tunnel in approximately five minutes. Officials said that the tunnel is the least congested of the routes connecting the island of Xiamen to the mainland.

Subway officials last week announced the official launch of a program to renovate the escalators at nine elevated BRT stations. The program covers the Caitang, Dongfang Villa, Hongwen, Jiageng Gymnasium, Jinshan, Municipal Administrative Service Center, Shuangshi high school, Qianpu and Xianhou stations.

Impacted escalators will be inaccessible during maintenance. Overhauling each escalator will take about 45 days. The entire project is slated for completion in January. Commuters who need assistance can ask for help from staff members at each affected station.

The Xiamen Citizens Cultural Festival kicks off on November 3, beginning a series of more than 280 free events and activities. The month-long festival includes weekly themes dedicated to items such as opera, literature and art and Minnan culture as well as music and dance. Featured events during the festival include a pair of series devoted to art, calligraphy and photography as well as cultural tourism.

More information is available via a host of WeChat accounts, including 厦门文旅, 厦门文联 and音乐厦门.

Local authorities last week released a summary of Xiamen's economy in the first three quarters of the year. The city's GDP topped 568.6 billion yuan, up 5.9 percent over the same period last year. Local consumer prices rose 1.7 percent year-on-year, a rate that was 0.3 percentage points higher than the numbers for the first half of the year.

The annual Cross-Straits Children's Fine Art Exhibition opened last week at the Xiamen Qiudi Artistic Center. The exhibition runs through Sunday. The exhibit includes more than 230 children's work from the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The artwork focuses on the hometowns of the youth contributors.