Tan Yixiao

Tan Yixiao A reality check that cuts through noise and bias

02/06/2026

“I've traveled around the world, but China tops them all.”
That was the message from the Vice Mayor of Ziguinchor, Senegal, at the WTCF Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2026 and the Global Mayors Dialogue in Beijing.
His words reflected a growing connection between the people of China and Africa.
As 2026 marks the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges, such interactions continue to bring the two sides closer together. From preparations for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games to cooperation in healthcare, education, infrastructure and the digital economy, China-Senegal ties continue to deepen.
Beyond infrastructure and investment, people-to-people exchanges remain one of the strongest pillars of China-Africa relations.

01/06/2026

Aziz Lebbar, Vice Mayor of Fez, Morocco, is visiting China for the third time during the WTCF Beijing Fragrant Hills Tourism Summit 2026 and 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue · Beijing.
Excited about his return, he spoke warmly about the long-standing friendship between China and Morocco, tracing it all the way back to the 14th century.
He recalled Ibn Battuta — the world-renowned Moroccan traveler and scholar — who journeyed to China along the ancient Silk Road and documented his experiences in “The Rihla”, helping build early connections between China, the Arab world, and Africa.
Today, China’s ties with Africa continue to deepen not only through history, but also through expanding tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
Currently, a growing number of African countries, including popular destinations such as Mauritius, Seychelles, Morocco, Tunisia, Madagascar and Egypt, have granted visa-free access or visa-on-arrival facilities to Chinese citizens.

29/05/2026

The three astronauts of the Shenzhou-21 crewed mission have all exited the return capsule safely and are in excellent physical condition! After an epic seven-month space journey, China’s Shenzhou-21 crew is finally back home！
Touching down at the Dongfeng landing site in Inner Mongolia at 20:11 Beijing Time on May 29, the return capsule carried three astronauts — Zhang Lu, Wu Fei and Zhang Hongzhang — to a precise and successful landing. Having stayed in orbit for 210 days, the crew has set a new record for the longest single-mission in-orbit duration by a Chinese astronaut team.
Composed of post-70s, post-80s and post-90s astronauts, the outstanding team completed all scheduled space experiments！
Mission accomplished, heroes return. Welcome home, Shenzhou-21 crew! Proud of every shining step of Chinese aerospace!

29/05/2026

Warm moments at the police station:
Two little kids stopped by the station because no one was home to look after them. The officers welcomed them in, prepared meals, and found them a place to rest and read.
After eating, the thoughtful children insisted on helping tidy the desks and sweep the floor, telling the officers, “You fed us, so we should help too.”
In China, many children grow up hearing the same advice from their parents: if you ever need help, go find a police officer.
For these officers, looking after the kids for an afternoon seemed like the most natural thing. And for the children, helping out afterward simply felt right.

29/05/2026

Look at this elegant ballet performance!
The stunning humanoid robot, LimX Luna, was created by a tech firm based in Shenzhen — China’s Silicon Valley and global innovation hub.
This 160cm humanoid can learn dance from videos, perform splits, pirouettes, and even model-style catwalks with breathtaking grace.

I was walking through Sunwen West Road in Zhongshan City in south China's Guangdong Province, when a photo at a clothing...
27/05/2026

I was walking through Sunwen West Road in Zhongshan City in south China's Guangdong Province, when a photo at a clothing store caught my attention.
It showed the chairperson of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, Cheng Li-wun, wearing a Zhongshan suit — the iconic Chinese tunic suit named after Sun Yat-sen, or Sun Zhongshan in Mandarin, a founding figure of the KMT and a great pioneer of China's democratic revolution.
As it turned out, I had just walked into the very clothing company that had tailored the suit for Cheng’s mainland trip last month — the first time in a decade that a KMT chairperson had led a delegation to the Chinese mainland.
The shop owner told me the suit was specially made for Cheng’s visit to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing. However, it was rather cold on that day, so she did not get to wear it there.
Back in Taiwan, she wore the suit at a KMT meeting and said that it carried special significance for her.
The Zhongshan suit was named after Sun Yat-sen not merely because he frequently wore it in public, but because he personally took part in its design. Blending Western tailoring with traditional Chinese styling, the suit was deliberately crafted to be practical, simple, and modern for a brand-new historical chapter.
Sun Yat-sen frequently wore it in public, and over time, the image of him in a Zhongshan suit became one of his most recognizable personal symbols.
Sun Yat-sen was born here in 1866. At the time, the place was still a county called Xiangshan (literally means “Fragrant Mountain”). After his death in 1925, it was renamed Zhongshan in his honor, before officially becoming a city in 1983.
The street I was walking on — Sunwen West Road —also carries his name, using his original name, Sun Wen.
More than a century ago, Sun Yat-sen also proposed an ambitious blueprint for China’s modernization. He envisioned a nationwide railway network, massive highway systems, world-class ports and large-scale infrastructure projects, including what would later become the Three Gorges Dam.
At a time when China was still struggling through the turmoil of its “century of humiliation,” those visions seemed utterly unattainable.
After generations of development and effort, the modernization blueprint envisioned by Sun Yat-sen has long been realized. Many achievements have even far exceeded his original expectations.
Such tremendous changes are fully evident across Guangdong Province, home to Zhongshan.
Today, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is one of China’s most open and dynamic economic regions. The area’s economy surpassed 15 trillion yuan in 2025, with 10 industrial clusters each worth over a trillion yuan.

Shenzhen really is the city of the future!
26/05/2026

Shenzhen really is the city of the future!

24/05/2026

What is this place?

At first glance, it feels like a museum. A few steps later, robots are playing chess with kids. Around another corner, there are live performances, futuristic tech, handmade crafts and crowds flowing through giant exhibition halls.

The ongoing China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) has brought together more than 120,000 cultural products and over 6,300 exhibitors from across China and beyond.

It doesn’t feel like just another expo. It feels like seeing different sides of China all at once.

Imagine crossing icy rivers on cowhide rafts to enter one of the world’s highest regions.75 years ago, that was the real...
23/05/2026

Imagine crossing icy rivers on cowhide rafts to enter one of the world’s highest regions.
75 years ago, that was the reality in Xizang.
Saturday marks the 75th anniversary of Xizang’s peaceful liberation. Back then, much of the plateau region was isolated from the outside world. There were no highways, no railways, and many villages could only be reached by mule trails or dangerous river crossings.
Today, that same region has built nearly 125,000 km of roads and over 1,300 km of railways.
The Qinghai–Xizang Railway, which entered service in 2006, ended the region’s long history without rail transport. Since then, it has carried more than 41 million passenger trips and transported over 100 million tonnes of goods in and out of the plateau region.
The transformation has been striking.
Xizang’s GDP has grown from around 130 million yuan in 1951 to over 300 billion yuan in 2025. Annual grain output now exceeds 1 million tonnes, while tourism has become a major industry, attracting more than 70 million visitors last year.
Life expectancy in Xizang has risen from 35.5 years in the 1950s to 72.5 years today. Education has also expanded enormously, from a gross enrollment rate of less than 2 percent in old times to nearly universal compulsory education today.
Beyond the numbers, everyday life has changed dramatically: better healthcare, modern housing, internet access, easier travel, and growing opportunities in tourism, clean energy, agriculture and modern services.
For many outside China, Xizang is often imagined as a distant land of snow mountains and monasteries. But over the past 75 years, it has also become a story of transformation — from difficult mountain crossings to modern railways, and from extreme poverty to new opportunities across the plateau.

22/05/2026

I saw a glimpse of the robots at the ongoing International Cultural Industries Fair in Shenzhen — playing piano, competing at chess, dancing, boxing, playing ping-pong, and even brewing fresh coffee.
Yet these entertaining performances are only a small fraction of what they can do.
Robots are everywhere in Shenzhen — patrolling subway stations, serving popcorn in cinemas, moving materials on production lines, even folding laundry in eldercare.
A robust industry powers such widespread adoption: over 1,000 core robotics companies, a 200 billion RMB industrial chain, and nearly all components available locally — half within 10 km, 80% within 40 km. Shenzhen even hosts the world’s first robot 6S stores.
From production lines to culture fairs, robots have quietly woven into daily life — yet seeing them perform live, with creativity and charm, still amazes.

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