XM business district expands north of XICEC

Local officials announced recently that the business district north of the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center will expand. The upcoming A1 plot for the area is slated to include multiple financial firms, including branches for China Merchants Bank, Huaxia Bank, the People's Bank of China and the Xiamen Jinyuan Investment Group.

A significant number of local firms have regional or national headquarters in the business district. Companies with facilities in the area include the C&D Group, Homeland Interactive (Xiamen) Network Technology, Meiya Pico, Septwolves, Sanan Optoelectronics and Xiamen GoPro.

City representatives announced last week that Xiamen’s residents ranked among the highest in the country in a national ranking of physical fitness. According to the survey, about 42 percent of local residents exercise on a regular basis. Xiamen is home to more than 300 public sports events each year that collectively draw roughly one million participants.

The annual Cross-Strait (Xiamen) Cultural Industry Fair wrapped up last week at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center. Participating firms announced a total of 77 investment agreements totaling 28.1 billion yuan during the fair.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Physics and Chemistry inaugurated a new production line for buoyancy materials last week at the Xiamen Science and Technology Park (XSTP.

The buoyancy material will be used in deep-sea exploration and aerospace applications. Project officials said that the production line is set to boost the development of new materials in Xiamen.

The Xiamen Science and Technology Park currently hosts the Tan Kah Kee Innovation Lab and the Xiangan Biomedicine Laboratory, which are both deemed provincial innovative laboratories.

The park is home to more than 1,400 companies as well as 12 R&D institutes and public technological service platforms.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released data recently indicating that China's automobile exports surged to an all-time high during the first seven months of the year.

China's automobile exports through July topped 2.5 million vehicles, marking a 67.9 percent year-on-year increase. The growth motored the nation's automobile exports to an all-time high in terms of volume.

The growth rate of new energy vehicle exports surpassed that of traditional fuel vehicles. Exports of new energy vehicles through July surpassed a growth rate of 150 percent.

The production and sales volume of new energy vehicles in China also continued to surge. Production experienced significant growth in July, up year-on-year by more than 30 percent to 805,000 units. Sales also jumped by more than 31 percent to 780,000 units.

New energy vehicles captured 32.7 percent of the overall market for new vehicles sold in China. Overall production of new energy vehicles reached 4.59 million units, up by 40 percent for the period year-on-year.

Representatives of the Xiamen Pilot Free Trade Zone announced last week that the FTZ successfully introduced six new commercial leasing  aircraft. Additionally,  Xiamen Pilot Free Trade Zone exported two used commercially-leased aircraft.

The Xiamen Free Trade Zone Administration Committee recently announced plans to accomplish the import delivery and export disposal of up to 10 leased aircraft during the second half of 2023.

Total leasing trade volume in the Xiamen Pilot Free Trade Zone surpassed three billion yuan in the first half of the year, accounting for roughly 30 percent of the national leasing trade volume. The totals resulted in a combined fixed asset investment of approximately two billion yuan, with the aviation leasing sector claiming the largest share.

The women's volleyball team from the Xiangan Number One high school competed recently in a national volleyball tournament in Tianjin. The team ended the tournament in eighth place, the highest-ever rank for a Xiamen-based high school volleyball team.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced last week the third set of countries to which Chinese citizens can travel in group tour packages. The new countries include destinations sch as Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States. The most recent announcement covered more than 70 additional countries.

Railway officials last week announced the winning bids for the construction of the Jiangxi section of the upcoming Changsha-Ganzhou high-speed railway. The new line will halve travel time between Changsha and Ganzhou to less than two hours. The two-hour savings will reduce travel time to approximately five hours between Changsha and Xiamen.

The city of Xiamen announced recently that its free toilet paper program now covers a total of 538 municipal bathroom facilities across the city. Previously, tissue was stored onsite and available upon request.

City officials earlier this summer officially debuted a new outdoor smart fitness center in Huli's Zhongyang Meidi pocket park.  Use of the center is free of charge. The center has logged 15,000 visits since May. The park features more than ten sets of intelligent fitness equipment catering to users of all ages.