标签： Asia

China’s civil aviation industry is preparing for unprecedented passenger volumes during the upcoming Spring Festival travel period, with officials projecting approximately 95 million air trips throughout the 40-day chunyun season. The travel rush, scheduled from February 2 to March 13, represents a 5.3% increase compared to previous years, averaging 2.38 million daily passenger journeys.

The Spring Festival migration, recognized as the world’s largest annual human movement, demonstrates the cultural significance of family reunions and holiday traditions in Chinese society. This year’s extended nine-day public holiday from February 15-23, with the actual festival falling on February 17, is expected to create concentrated passenger flows as students and migrant workers coordinate their travel schedules around the extended break.

Wang Weijun, Deputy Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s Transport Department, emphasized that traditional family reunion travel combined with robust tourism demand will drive unprecedented aviation activity. “The combination of traditional travel for family reunions, student travel and strong holiday tourism demand is expected to further release aviation travel potential during the Spring Festival period,” Wang stated at a Beijing news conference.

The aviation sector has coordinated approximately 780,000 scheduled flights throughout the travel period, representing a 5% year-over-year capacity increase averaging 19,400 daily flights. Peak travel is anticipated both before and after the main holiday, with post-festival return travel expected to be particularly congested. Single-day passenger volumes could reach 2.6 million during the highest demand periods.

Concurrently, the CAAC has implemented enhanced safety protocols for unmanned aircraft operations. Chen Ye, Deputy Director of the Aircraft Airworthiness Department, outlined new standards requiring real-name registration, activation procedures, and operational identification for all civil drones. These measures establish technical systems to ensure traceability and monitoring capabilities throughout drone operations, addressing public safety concerns while supporting the development of China’s low-altitude aviation sector.

China has documented its fourth successive annual population contraction in 2025, cementing a concerning demographic trajectory that poses substantial challenges to economic vitality and social welfare frameworks. Official statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveal a stark imbalance: with 7.92 million births overshadowed by 11.31 million deaths, the nation experienced a net reduction of 3.39 million people, settling the year-end population at approximately 1.405 billion.

This persistent downturn reflects deeper systemic issues, including widespread employment instability among youth and diminishing marriage rates, which collectively undermine China’s long-term growth potential. The contracting workforce signals impending strains on pension systems and escalating healthcare expenditures associated with an aging citizenry.

Critical analysis of workforce demographics shows the core working-age population (16-59 years) now constitutes 60.6% of the total populace, down from 60.9% in the previous year. This segment witnessed an annual decrease of 6.62 million individuals, highlighting tightening labor conditions despite advancements in educational attainment and productivity metrics.

NBS officials, including Wang Pingping, Director of Population and Employment Statistics, emphasize qualitative improvements within the demographic profile. With 851 million people in the 16-59 cohort and 323 million aged 60 or above, China benefits from significant human capital. Wang notes that many seniors maintain robust health and economic activity, while average educational duration reaches 11.3 years and life expectancy climbs to 79 years. The nation’s R&D personnel now exceed 10.8 million, indicating a strategic pivot from labor quantity to expertise quality.

Regional disparities further illustrate demographic fragmentation. Northeastern provinces like Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin report severe natural population declines, exacerbated by outward migration and aging residents. Conversely, southern regions and less-developed western areas, including Guangdong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, demonstrate relative resilience through higher birth rates and younger demographic structures.

Underpinning these trends are evolving social attitudes. Marriage registrations briefly rebounded by 8.5% in early 2025 following policy interventions, yet analysts consider this temporary amid enduring economic pressures. A shrinking marriage-age population—down by over 60 million in a decade—coupled with pronounced gender imbalances and financial barriers like betrothal gifts and housing costs, continue to discourage family formation. These dynamics fuel the proliferation of ‘tang ping’ (lying flat) and ‘bai lan’ (let it rot) lifestyles among disenchanted youth.

Despite these challenges, China retains formidable demographic advantages, including an urban population of 954 million (67.9% urbanization rate) and a consumer market surpassing the combined populations of developed nations. Policy measures expanding childcare support and educational access aim to mitigate demographic headwinds, though structural economic transformations appear inevitable.

In the heart of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, an educational architecture revolution is unfolding as innovative design solutions address the critical shortage of student placements in one of China’s most densely populated urban centers. The Hongling Experimental Primary School, completed in 2018 at the foot of Antuo Hill, stands as a pioneering model of high-density educational infrastructure that has captured international attention.

Architect He Jianxiang, the visionary behind this groundbreaking project, frequently returns to the school with both architectural experts and educational delegations to demonstrate how creative thinking transformed spatial limitations into educational opportunities. The school’s distinctive features include semi-underground indoor sports facilities, expansive rooftop gardens, unusually wide corridors, and sunken landscaped courtyards that collectively create an environment where children consistently choose to extend their stay beyond school hours.

This architectural achievement emerged from Shenzhen’s urgent ‘new campus action plan’ initiated in response to a severe educational infrastructure crisis. In 2017, city authorities committed to an ambitious five-year development strategy allocating 400 billion yuan ($56.3 billion) to construct 247 new educational institutions capable of accommodating 740,000 additional students. The Hongling school represents the inaugural and most influential project within this comprehensive initiative, successfully solving the complex puzzle of creating functional educational spaces within extreme urban density constraints.

The school’s open design philosophy has transformed it into a community hub that extends beyond traditional educational functions, while its innovative use of vertical and underground spaces has established new standards for urban school architecture. The project demonstrates how architectural innovation can directly address social challenges, particularly in cities experiencing rapid population growth and limited available land resources.

As China enters layue, the twelfth lunar month, the picturesque town of Tantou in Hunan province comes alive with the centuries-old tradition of creating vibrant nianhua (New Year paintings). These elaborate artworks transform ordinary doors into canvases depicting fortune gods, striped tigers, and whimsical scenes like mouse wedding processions, serving as both cultural expressions and talismans believed to ward off misfortune while inviting prosperity.

Tantou nianhua boasts a remarkable history spanning over three centuries, earning the town the prestigious title “Hometown of Modern Folk New Year Paintings.” The tradition gained national recognition when renowned writer Lu Xun nostalgically described a Tantou “mouse wedding” painting that adorned his childhood bedroom in his essay collection Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk.

The creation process represents a completely self-contained local production cycle rare in Chinese folk art. Artisans begin by crafting specialized paper from locally sourced bamboo, providing the perfect textured base for printing. The heart of the technique lies in woodblock carving using the distinctive “steep knife upright line” method, which requires exceptional precision and artistic intuition to maintain consistent angles and pressure throughout intricate designs.

National intangible cultural heritage inheritor Liu Guoli emphasizes the spiritual dimension of the craft: “Your personality and temperament shape the carving, making each block unique.” The vibrant coloration emerges through a multi-step printing process where each hue corresponds to a separate woodblock, culminating in hand-painted facial features that imbue characters with lifelike qualities.

The artworks’ striking palette features tangerine reds, brilliant yellows, rose pinks contrasted with cool cyan and deep charcoal—a dynamic interplay that gives each piece its characteristic vitality. Professor Wu Yuqing of Hunan Normal University’s Fine Arts Academy notes: “The motifs represent a practical aesthetic shaped over centuries by countless families. The more deeply art is rooted in ordinary people’s lives, the more vibrantly its brilliance unfolds.

Recent documentation in the series Ancient Crafts of Hunan employed macro lenses and slow-motion cinematography to showcase this intricate process, bringing renewed attention to Tantou’s cultural treasure that was among China’s first entries on the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2006.

China confronts an unprecedented demographic challenge as newly released data reveals its population has entered a period of historical decline, dropping by 3 million to 1.404 billion people. This development marks the lowest birth rate recorded since the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, signaling a critical juncture in the nation’s millennia-long struggle with population management.

The current situation represents a dramatic reversal from decades of restrictive population control measures. The notorious one-child policy, implemented in 1980 to curb rapid population growth, has yielded unintended consequences that continue to reverberate through Chinese society. This policy not only created a disproportionate aging population but also triggered severe social distortions including gender imbalance, the emergence of single-child ‘little emperors’ in urban households, and widespread loneliness among elderly citizens separated from their geographically dispersed children.

President Xi Jinping has revitalized ancient cultural precepts that equate population strength with national power, describing China’s people as a ‘great wall of steel.’ This philosophical shift accompanies practical policy changes including tax exemptions for condoms, daycare centers, and matchmaking services. The government’s current five-year development plan explicitly aims to cultivate positive attitudes toward marriage and childbearing while implementing financial incentives to reduce the costs associated with raising children.

The demographic transition occurs against an increasingly competitive international backdrop, with India having surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023. This development carries significant implications for China’s geopolitical standing and its aspirations to lead the Global South. As contemporary China grapples with the complex legacy of its population policies, the nation faces fundamental questions about how traditional values can coexist with modern realities in shaping its demographic future.

A series of shark encounters along Australia’s New South Wales coastline has resulted in multiple injuries and prompted extensive beach closures. The latest incident occurred Tuesday morning at Point Plomer, approximately 460 kilometers north of Sydney, where a 39-year-old surfer sustained minor injuries after a shark attacked his surfboard.

According to Matt Worrall, captain of the Kempsey-Crescent Head Surf Life Saving Club, the surfboard absorbed the majority of the impact. ‘He made his own way into shore where he was assisted by locals,’ Worrall reported to Australian Broadcasting Corp. The victim was transported to hospital by bystanders and later discharged.

This incident marks the fourth shark encounter in the region within a three-day period. The previous attacks included:

– A 12-year-old boy who suffered severe injuries after jumping from a 6-meter ledge at Shark Beach within Sydney Harbor on Sunday. Reports indicate the boy may have lost both legs in the attack, with friends credited for saving his life by dragging him to safety.
– An 11-year-old boy whose surfboard was bitten at Dee Why Beach on Monday, though he escaped unharmed.
– A surfer in his 20s who was critically injured after being bitten on the leg at North Steyne Beach Monday evening.

Authorities have responded by closing beaches indefinitely along the northern coast of New South Wales and deploying electronic drumlines off the Sydney coast to detect shark activity. Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steve Pearce warned that recent rainfall has created murky water conditions particularly conducive to bull shark activity, the species responsible for most attacks around Sydney.

‘If you’re thinking about going for a swim, just go to a local pool because at this stage, we’re advising that beaches are unsafe,’ Pearce stated. The latest attack occurred in an isolated area without protective shark netting, raising questions about the effectiveness of current safety measures.