Xiamen Senior Citizens University opens new campus

Local Customs officials announced recently that the total trade volume since 2013 between Xiamen and countries associated with the Belt and Road Initiative hit three trillion yuan by the end of August. The numbers include 1.5 trillion yuan for exported goods and 1.4 trillion yuan for imported commodities.

The city's Development and Reform Commission recently released a new set of feasibility reports and budget estimates for a local road projects outside the island of Xiamen. The plans call for a new Haicang coastal road that will be called Haicang Aoguan Avenue. Other approved projects include the Comprehensive Service and Culture Center in Tongan's Meilin subdistrict, a section of National Highway 324 between Guanlu and Xiaoyingling, an extension of Gangbei road within the Haicang Port Zone, the third phase of Municipal Road in the Tongan Xiangping affordable housing metro community, the Butang Middle Road support project in the Tongan area of the Tongxian High-tech Park and new roadways in the western portion of the Haicang Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone.

The Xiamen Public Transport Group recently debuted 43 customized shuttle buses to support students in the local school system. Xiamen currently features a total of 192 customized shuttle buses serving area students. City officials said that the customized shuttle bus system reduces local commutes for students by providing direct transportation between personal residences and school facilities.

The Cross-Strait Book Fair opens this week at the Xiamen International Convention and Exhibition Center. The three-day fair includes ancillary venues at the Xiamen Foreign Book City, the Xiamen Xinhua Bookstore. Organizers described the fair as a platform for cross-Strait publishing, cultural exchanges, book trading and copyright trading.

The annual Xiamen Mid-Autumn Mooncake Festival  launched last week alongside Xiamen Daily's awards campaign for local subscribers. The main square of Lucky Home World and the outdoor square of the third phase of the SM Mall hosted activities over the past week. The monthlong festival will include events throughout the city of Xiamen.

China's service trade maintained rapid growth momentum, according to a new report in the China Economic Times. In the first half of this year, China's total import and export of services reached 3.14 trillion yuan ($430 billion), up 8.5 percent year-on-year. This growth rate is faster than the growth of trade in goods and outpaced the growth of trade in services among the world's major economies.

The growth is also closely related to the liberalization of border control measures in China's travel field. These measures include expanding group tour destinations, increasing air routes and flights and driving cross-border tourism, study abroad and cross-border business activities.

Xiamen Free Trade Zone representatives at this year's CIFIT signed agreements for 32 projects with a total investment topping six billion yuan. The Xiamen delegation concluded deals for 13 major projects, with a combined investment of 32.3 billion yuan.

New projects include the Xiamen Fisker Automotive Supply Chain Project, a collaborative investment between the Xiamen Free Trade Zone and the district of Huli. The agreement calls for an automotive parts supply chain headquarters, sales headquarters and factory production line in Xiamen. The project is one of the most significant foreign investment introduction projects for the city this year. Since its establishment, the Xiamen Free Trade Zone has attracted nearly 2,000 new foreign-funded enterprises with contracted foreign investment nearing 100 billion yuan.

Local officials announced recently that the program to renovate Wuyuanwan wetland park is now in its completion stage. The project included roughly fifty timber piles for the area's elevated walkways, 40 cubic meters of soil, dozens of newly-planted dozens aquatic plants and the replanting of 763 plants.

Covering 99 acres, the Wuyuanwan wetland park is the largest wetland ecological garden in Xiamen. Officials have dubbed it the city's Civic Green Lungs.

The local Food Safety Association recently published the criteria of its Lupin food grading system for pears offered for sale in Xiamen. The criteria include limits on pollution and pesticide residue.

Pears that pass the QC tests receive a Lupin stamp. Program representatives said that the stamp will indicate to consumers that the pears are of higher quality and safer.

The local  Food Safety Office and the Food Safety Association continues to expand its food certification program.