Hangzhou Qiantang Greater Bay Area Wetland Park was open to the public on September 27. It is located at the tideland of Qiantang River, covering a planned area of about 44 square kilometers. The wetland ratio is up to 99.56 percent.

The wetland park has abundant bird resources, including more than 140 rare bird species. Over 20 species are the national key protected wild animals. It was reputed as “Zhejiang Bird Watching Resort” this year.

The Global Mayors Dialogue kicked off in Hangzhou on September 25, with mayors or city representatives from 16 countries, including China, participating in.

Mayors or city representatives are planting a tree.

On September 27, Chinese and foreign representatives jointly planted trees symbolizing friendship, and visited Liangzhu Museum and Alibaba Group.

Mayors or city representatives are visiting the Liangzhu Museum.

The mayor of Kota Kinabalu of Malaysia reckoned that sister cities need to work together to tackle challenges.

"I find new opportunities for digital cooperation," the deputy mayor of Samarkand of Uzbekistan said when visiting Alibaba.

Hangzhou's urban status has experienced remarkable growth. Designated as one of the first batch of famous historical and cultural cities in 1982, it was upgraded to a sub-provincial city in 1994, became a megacity for the first time in 2015, and joined the ranks of China's ten supercities in 2023.

Significant improvements have been made in transportation infrastructure, with 12 operational metro lines, bus lines increasing from 8 in 1949 to 1,371 in 2023, and expressways covering all districts and counties (cities). Hangzhou International Airport ranks tenth nationwide in passenger throughput.

Environmentally, Hangzhou excels as the first national ecological garden city among sub-provincial cities, with an urban air quality excellence rate of 84.4% and a 100% compliance rate for surface water quality for three consecutive years.

The first African Digital Trade Day opened at the third Global Digital Trade Expo at Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center on September 26.

The event sets up two exhibitions, such as Smart Africa and African E-commerce, with "China-Africa Digital Intelligence" Industry Matchmaking Conference + China's Brands Expand to Africa Conference, as well as two activities, including Offline Investigation of 1,000 African Merchants and Youths, and Online Promotion of African Goods, which aims to promote the common development between China and Africa by depending on the power of digital trade.

Signing of cooperative projects with Africa

The special service action for cooperation with Africa is started, serving about 100 digital trade enterprises.

Global Digital Trade Development Report 2024 was released on September 26 at the third Global Digital Trade Expo. The total volume of global digital trade in 2023 was 7.13 trillion US dollars, with the average annual growth rate of 8.8 percent. China ranks among the top in global digital trade, and China takes the first place in the trade volume of digital orders.

Artificial intelligence is merging into international trade to contribute incremental value to cross-border digital service trade.

The report also selects seven innovation practice cases in global digital trade, helping to build the more open, inclusive, cooperative and sustainable digital trade environment.

Every evening, the G8388 high-speed train pulls into Shanghai Hongqiao Station, its terminal stop — 15 kilometers from its starting point of Shanghai Railway Station — after a loop spanning over 1,200 kilometers.

This loop line, an 8-hour and 9-minute journey, crisscrosses the densely populated and economically vital Yangtze River Delta region. Major hubs, red-hot traffic arteries and dense passenger links are featured along this new high-speed rail loop.

Since its launch on June 15, the G8388 loop has witnessed soaring demand, with about 349,000 riders as of Sept 9 and an average occupancy rate of 90 percent. Even after the summer travel period, the train remains almost fully booked, with another peak expected during the upcoming National Day holiday at the beginning of October.

More than just a transportation line, the G8388 journey immerses travelers in the rich tourism resources of the region. It connects the major cities of Shanghai, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, Hefei in Anhui province, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, as well as more remote towns to urban centers, and it better connects the region's numerous tourist attractions.

Along the way, the rail route provides access to rich historical sites, scenic mountains and waters, and ancient cultures including classical gardens, the "homeland of honey peaches" of Yangshan, Huangshan Mountain, Qiandao Lake, West Lake and Shanghai's only preserved fishing village — destinations celebrated across China and internationally.

The G8388 high-speed loop line, an 8-hour journey, covers the much populated and economically vital Yangtze River Delta region. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

As China's inbound tourism market continues to recover, international flights are increasing and the government implemented the 144-hour visa-free transit policy, the new loop line has seen many foreign passengers. Additionally, rail authorities have released supportive measures to facilitate smooth traveling.

Shanghai Railway has added bilingual volunteers and information at ticket windows and entrances, with a dedicated window for passport verification. Mobile payment via WeChat and Alipay has also been enabled at windows and station shops, allowing international visitors to easily make purchases using foreign bank cards. Official statistics show that Shanghai Railway has provided ticket and passport verification services to nearly 10,000 railway passengers since the beginning of 2024.

Embark on the G8388 to experience the various attractions of the Yangtze River Delta region, where natural and human landscapes are connected by this convenient transportation loop.

The loop train G8388:

Route length: 1,288 kilometers

Duration time: 8 hours and 9 minutes

Stations: 21 along the loop

Departure and arrival: The train departs from Shanghai Railway Station at 10:27 am and arrives at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station at 6:36 pm.

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Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, is developing a new type of power system by incorporating such clean energy resources as hydropower, wind, solar and storage, so as to raise its proportion of clean energy.

Recently, the city facilitated the Shuangxikou Reservoir — the first medium-sized reservoir with a gravity-arch dam in Zhejiang — to begin to store water and the associated hydropower station begins operations. The city's power supplier, State Grid Hangzhou Power Supply Co, has acknowledged the hydropower facility management.

In its transition to green electricity, Hangzhou is shifting its focus from coal-fired power dominance to wind, solar and hydropower, said Fu Yunxiao from the local State Grid unit.

"Shuangxikou Hydropower Station consists of two 2-megawatt generating units, and its annual power generation is expected to exceed 10 million kilowatt-hours," said Meng Tianqi, who is in charge of Shuangxikou Reservoir, operated by Shandong Water Conservancy Group Co Ltd.

This equates to reducing the burning of 3,000 metric tons of standard coal and cutting carbon emissions by 7,850 tons, which is equivalent to planting 400,000 trees, Meng said.

The hydropower station, located upstream along the Changxi waterway — a major river resource in Lin'an district — shoulders such functions as flood control, water supply, power generation and water quality improvement.

In fact, downstream of Shuangxikou, there are five medium-sized and small hydropower stations, which originally depended on water current conditions for power generation — generating electricity when water flow was good and failing to do so during dry periods.

The operation of Shuangxikou station is akin to adding a large faucet at the source, allowing for the coordinated operation of upstream and downstream stations with a single release of water, thus maximizing the utilization of water resources, Meng said.

Fu noted that to fully explore the potential of small hydropower and photovoltaic resources, State Grid Hangzhou has developed a digital and visual wide-area smart control platform for source network load storage, enabling coordinated power generation of hydropower stations along the same riverway.

With a history of over 5,000 years and now acting as a semi-provincial level city, Hangzhou administers 10 districts, one county-level city and two counties, including Lin'an.

"Simply put, this digital supply assurance platform can send dispatch instructions to multiple hydropower stations in just one minute, increasing power generation by about 13 percent," said Jia Lei, a staffer at State Grid Lin'an District Electric Power Co.

"With this visual energy supply scheduling management model, we can manage over 70 hydropower stations in Lin'an in a tiered and orderly manner, maximizing water resource utilization efficiency," Jia said.

Currently, transmission lines of green electricity weave through the mountains and plains of Hangzhou, bringing renewable energy from rugged terrain to the homes of its 12.5 million residents, he said.

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) was hosted at Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center on September 25. 

Zhejiang Pavilion is located in the comprehensive pavilion, with the theme of "Digital Zhejiang", featuring three sectors, including discussing cooperation, promoting development, and sharing achievements.

Zhejiang Pavilion displays 67 contents. Ten projects make their debut. Eleven enterprises are on the shortlist of the Digital Trade Pioneer Award (DT Award). On the first day of GDTE, Zhejiang Pavilion attracted the warm attention of domestic and foreign guests.

The Global Mayors Dialogue and the ninth Hangzhou International Sister Cities Conference kicked off in Hangzhou on September 25.

The mayors or representatives of six cities from China, Greece, South Africa, Italy, Malaysia and Tajikistan, have a dialogue on urban governance and sustainable development. Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Hangzhou attended the event.

Yao said, "Hangzhou is a livable city suitable for business and tourism. It is a paradise for entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams, and a charming city with rich natural landscapes, historical sites, and cultural attractions." He shared Hangzhou’s expertise in digital & intelligent innovation and urban governance, ecological civilization and urban sustainable development, cultural inheritance and humanistic exchange, etc.

On the site, Hangzhou City signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with Dytiki Ellada (Greece), and the letter of intent on friendly exchange with Isfahan (Iran).

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) was staged at Hangzhou Grand Convention and Exhibition Center on September 25, attracting numerous tourists.

Digital trade elements can be seen everywhere inside and outside the venue.

The venue is crowded with visitors at pavilions.

A large number of foreign merchants visit the venue.

New aircraft attract many tourists.

Robots that can write with a brush make a debut on the site.

Abundant marking activities launched at pavilions attract a great number of participants.

Domestic and foreign merchants seek cooperation at GDTE.

Mainstream media at home and abroad flock to the event for news.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Gongshu District Returned Overseas Chinese Federation of Hangzhou, Western Returned Scholars Association and Townsmen Association organized Hangzhou’s overseas returnees to sing My Motherland and Me in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean, to express their love and blessings for the motherland.

This photo taken on Sept. 25, 2024 shows the launching ceremony of the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

HANGZHOU, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- The third Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou on Wednesday, showcasing the latest technological innovations and business development of the digital economy sector.

Themed "Digital Trade, Global Access," this year's edition has attracted more than 1,500 enterprises from home and

abroad, among which over 300 are international companies.

Over 30,000 purchasers have signed up for the event, with more than 6,000 of them from foreign countries and regions.

This photo taken on Sept. 25, 2024 shows the China Pavilion at the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People visit the Silk Road E-commerce Zone during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A visitor learns about a driverless aircraft at the Smart Mobility Zone during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

The exhibition area of humanoid robots is pictured at the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A foreign merchant consults about a small intelligent translation device at the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Visitors try the games at the booth of "Black Myth: Wukong" during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People use VR devices to enjoy virtual concerts during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

A visitor poses for photos at the booth of "Black Myth: Wukong" during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Staff members promote products via livestreaming at the Silk Road E-commerce Zone during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

Sales staff promote African products via livestreaming during the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People visit the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, Sept. 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Yu)

This photo taken on Sept. 25, 2024 shows the main entrance to the third Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

HANGZHOU, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- The third Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, on Wednesday, showcasing the latest technological innovations and business development of the digital economy sector.

Themed "Digital Trade, Global Access," this year's edition has attracted more than 1,500 enterprises from home and abroad, among which over 300 are international companies. Over 30,000 purchasers have signed up for the event, with more than 6,000 of them from foreign countries and regions.

A total of 446 new products and technologies are scheduled to be showcased at the five-day expo. Notably, this year's expo has set up special exhibition areas for robots equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) innovations and the smart traffic solutions of the low-altitude economy.

The size of China's low-altitude economy is estimated to have exceeded 500 billion yuan (about 70.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, with its scale expected to rise to 2 trillion yuan by 2030, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Co-hosted by the Zhejiang provincial government and China's Ministry of Commerce, the event is currently China's only digital trade themed expo at the national level. China's digital industry has seen robust growth in recent years, reporting a total revenue of 32.5 trillion yuan in 2023. 

An ostrich-shaped robot on display at the third Global Digital Trade Expo, which opened in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday. DONG XUMING/FOR CHINA DAILY

Greater efforts are needed to strengthen international cooperation in digital trade and to collectively formulate international rules related to such business activity, a sector which has injected new impetus into world economic growth, officials and experts said.

China is willing to work with other nations to support the deeper application of cutting-edge technologies, promote the balanced development of digital trade in all fields, and help small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide achieve sustainable development through digital and intelligent transformation, said Zheng Jianbang, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

Zheng made the remarks at the launch ceremony of the third Global Digital Trade Expo, which opened in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday.

He said China has attached great importance to the development of digital trade, which is regarded as one of the three pillars supporting the development of a strong trading nation, alongside trade in goods and services.

Zheng stressed the need to deepen dialogue and cooperation with other countries in the aspect of governance and to actively take part in the formulation of multilateral, bilateral and regional rules concerning digital trade, so as to create an open, fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for the development of global digital trade.

Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said his ministry will strengthen the construction of digital trade mechanisms, promote high-standard opening-up, and work with all parties to build digital trade into a new engine for common development, ultimately injecting new momentum into global economic growth.

Wang said more than 400 new products and technologies are being showcased during the expo, while a future-oriented industry exhibition area has been set up for the first time, demonstrating cutting-edge technologies in fields such as artificial intelligence.

Featuring Kazakhstan and Thailand as guests of honor, the expo, with the theme of "Digital Trade, Global Access", has attracted more than 1,500 companies from 32 countries and regions, with more than 30,000 professional buyers having registered for the event, including over 6,000 overseas buyers.

Digital trade in China has made remarkable progress in recent years. Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that China's import and export of digitally-delivered service trade rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to 1.42 trillion yuan ($202.2 billion) in the first six months of 2024, a record-high.

Moreover, the country's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.22 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 10.5 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

Yi Lianhong, Party secretary of Zhejiang province, said the province will accelerate the building of industrial chains of digital trade, vigorously develop new business models such as digital product trade and digital service trade, ease market access in the digital domain, and bolster safe cross-border data flows.

Zhaslan Madiyev, minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry of Kazakhstan, said the expo provides an unique opportunity to showcase innovative technologies, products and ecosystems in global digital trade, while offering an open forum for exploring new markets and fostering opportunities for economic and trade collaboration.

Kazakhstan has established strong cooperation relations with major Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba and JD, further strengthening its role in the global digital trade arena, while Chinese delivery company YTO Express is partnering with Kazakhstan to build the largest e-commerce logistics center in Central Asia, he noted.

He added that his country looks forward to further deepening its collaboration with China in areas such as logistics, digital trade and the creation of new technological hubs.

A glimpse of the third Global Digital Trade Expo, which kicks off in Hangzhou, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province, on September 25, 2024. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) kicked off on Wednesday in Hangzhou, capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province, the nation's innovation and trade hub, showcasing China's significant new opportunities and latest solutions in the digital economy.

Global digital trade is thriving, becoming an important trend in international trade development and new growth point for the world economy. Meanwhile, China has become one of the most dynamic regions for digital trade, Chinese and foreign officials and business representatives said at the expo.

This event, themed "Digital Trade and Global Access," serves as an important platform for exchanging ideas and sharing the benefits of China's digital development, industry insiders said.

This year's edition has attracted more than 1,500 enterprises from home and abroad, among which over 300 are international companies. A total of 446 new products and technologies will be featured at the five-day expo, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Over 30,000 purchasers have signed up for the event, with more than 6,000 of them based in foreign countries and regions, Xinhua reported.

Co-hosted by the Zhejiang provincial government and China's Ministry of Commerce, the event is currently China's only digital trade-themed expo at the national level.

This year, special exhibition areas have been dedicated to robots featuring artificial intelligence innovations and smart traffic solutions. Chinese companies have been the highlight in the expo, thanks to their advanced solutions in digitalization.

"At this expo, we are primarily showcasing gene sequencing solutions developed by our company," Charles Lu, director of public affairs at BGI Group, told the Global Times at the event. "They can be provided to our partners in various countries for scientific research, offering them Chinese technologies," Lu noted.

Beyond scientific research, BGI Group has observed a growing trend in the use of these technologies in agriculture. BGI's services cover more than 100 countries and regions, and there has been a steady growth in overseas demand.

"By participating in this expo, we hope to promote these advanced technologies to even more countries worldwide," Lu said.

China's digital industry has seen a robust growth in recent years, notching total revenue of 32.5 trillion yuan ($4.62 trillion) in 2023. Against this backdrop of vast opportunities in digital trade, foreign businesses are also eager to capitalize on the potential of China's digital market.

Speaking with the Global Times at the event, Cheng Fang, head of the regional sales division at Japanese technology firm Yokogawa China Co, said that the world is currently undergoing a wave of digitalization, and China is actively leading the way in this field. 

"We are focused on integrating our business with China's digital transformation, and this event represents a great opportunity for us," Cheng said.

Yokogawa China Co has a wide range of business sectors, including energy materials, life sciences, and pharmaceuticals. In recent years, the company's branch in China has consistently ranked as one of the top units in the global group, Cheng said, indicating the importance of the Chinese market to the Japanese company.

Cheng noted that their overall global strategy is increasingly oriented toward the Chinese market, and they will continue to invest and expand their presence in China.

"Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China has attracted significant investment, positioning itself as the world's manufacturing hub. Now, with its consumer market size nearing that of the US, China presents enormous investment opportunities for both itself and the global market," said Wu Yabin, head of Investment and Technology Promotion Office Beijing of United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Wu made these remarks during a roundtable dialogue on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Digital Transformation held in conjunction with the GDTE, highlighting the vast opportunities presented by the digitalization trend in China.

A glimpse of the third Global Digital Trade Expo, which kicks off in Hangzhou, the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province, on September 25, 2024. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

Editor's Note:

October 1, 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Over the past 75 years, under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China, the country has made remarkable progress in social and economic development. From a once backward agrarian society, China has transformed itself into the world's second-largest economy, increasingly interconnected with the global economy and offering significant opportunities to the rest of the world. To illustrate this, the Global Times is publishing this series of articles, with the second installment focusing on China's continuous opening-up.

It's 9 pm on Beijing's Chang'an Avenue.

Thirty-year-old Ma Yuqiang, an experienced cyclist from Beijing, waits patiently at a busy intersection, eager for the green light to continue his ride.

Interestingly, the same bicycle congestion has caught Ma's parents before, in the 1980s. 

Yet, it is the younger Ma's bike that reflects a sea change in Chinese people's consumption pattern. His bike costs 100,000 yuan ($14,202), while his father's was less than 200 yuan.

In documentaries documenting China in the 1980s, scenes of bicycle flows carrying plainly dressed Chinese along Chang'an Avenue are iconic. For people back then, bicycles were their means of transportation and even the most valuable "asset" in their homes. China is known as the "bicycle kingdom" in the world.

"In the 1970s, my father's Phoenix brand 28-inch bicycle was the pride of our family. Bikes were the vehicle of transportation for most people back then, and in the 1980s, the streets and alleys of Beijing were full of cyclists and a sea of bicycles is parked in front of Tian'anmen Square," Ma recalled.

Decades have passed, and although China remains the world's foremost bicycle kingdom, both the cyclists and the bicycles they ride have undergone tremendous changes, reflecting an evolving picture of Chinese people's consumption pattern.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China 75 years ago, with the deepening of market-oriented reforms, China's commercial circulation and consumption have achieved historic leaps, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a post on its website on September 11.

The scale of retail sales has steadily expanded, the consumption structure has been continuously optimized and upgraded, the supply market has gradually improved, and the quality and efficiency of the circulation system have continued to improve, noted the NBS.

From function to fun

After turn of the century, as Chinese consumers pursue efficiency and productivity and China's cities grew larger, millions of Chinese switched from bicycles to cars. This shift, alongside the growth of China's automotive industry, spurred a surge in car ownership, making China the world's largest automotive market. According to NBS data, China's car ownership reached 49.7 units per 100 households by the end of 2023, 2.9 times that of 2013.

The shift from bicycles to cars was just the tip of the iceberg in changing Chinese consumption patterns. The other big-ticket items of the average Chinese household also experienced a giant leap to greater quantity and quality with Chinese people's growing income, benefiting domestic and foreign companies in the process.

Measured by the average number of color TV sets, refrigerators, and washing machines owned by every 100 urban Chinese households, the numbers are only 0.6, 0.2 and 6.3 in 1981. By the end of 2023, the set of numbers has been vastly boosted to 107.8, 103.4, and 98.2.

Also, the incomes of Chinese residents have grown dramatically over the past 75 years, rising from 49.7 yuan (about $7 dollars) in 1949 to 39,218 yuan in 2023, an increase of 75.8 times, data from the NBS showed.

As the nation's economic strengths grew along with the reform and opening-up, the consumption pattern of Chinese consumers have shifted from merely meeting material needs to focusing on quality and service-oriented consumption, and has transformed from physical consumption that meets the needs of everyday life to service consumption that embodies the needs of a better life, analysts said.

Driven by the continuous increase in income levels and changes in consumption concepts, the trend of consumption upgrading is becoming increasingly pronounced, driven by growing incomes and evolving consumer preferences.

As the country moved from the era of scarcity to the era of abundance, the story of the bicycle continues.

"Entering the 21st century, mountain biking became a fad, and young people have become obsessed with outdoor cycling. Bicycles have gradually transitioned from being mere transportation tools to becoming symbols of entertainment and lifestyle," Ma, who spent 170,000 yuan on his two bikes, said. "This reflects not only increased disposable income but also a shift in spending toward health, entertainment, and cultural enrichment."

Diversified consumption

Analysts noted that as China became the world's largest manufacturing nation, with its large industrial capacity continues to supply the market with loads of commodities in ever increasing quantity, those supplies are more consumer-oriented and catering to the specific needs of the average Chinese consumer.

By 2023, the number of items of consumer goods registered by the State Administration of Market Regulation has approached 200 million.

The transformation of the China market from oblivion to the world's second-largest consumer market is an epoch-making event in the history of global economic development, Bian Yongzu, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Modernization of Management magazine, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"China's vast and rapidly expanding consumer market, strong purchasing power of Chinese consumers, and their wide array of demands provide huge room for foreign companies to generate revenues and experiment innovations," Bian said.

For example, the renewed popularity of cycling reflects a growing focus on low-carbon travel, sharing economy, individuality, and an active lifestyle. These new trends have generated great market opportunities for domestic and foreign brands.

As the nation continues to implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand, introduce policies to boost consumption, enhance the alignment of supply and demand, continuously improve the adaptability of supply and demand, and cultivate new business formats and new models, analysts said that consumption will continue to be the "main engine" in driving China's economic growth and benefiting the world.

The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is the world's largest intergovernmental body dedicated to studying the Earth. Between September 23 and 27, GEO and China Science and Technology Center are jointly holding the 2024 GEO Symposium and Open Data & Open Knowledge Workshop (ODOK) in Hangzhou, east China. The opening ceremony was held at the Hangzhou International Innovation Institute of Beihang University on September 23. Under the theme 'From Vision to Action', the event focuses on translating the GEO Post-2025 Strategy into a detailed implementation plan, and aims to advance collaborations on pressing common issues related to Earth observation data, knowledge and infrastructure. More than 400 representatives from China, the United States, the European Commission, South Africa, and other countries and international organizations have gathered together, covering topics such as ecosystems, climate change and urbanization. This is the first GEO international conference held in China in 14 years after the 2010 GEO Ministerial Summit. 

2024 Hangzhou International Talent Exchange and Project Cooperation Conference will kick off at Hangzhou International Expo Center on September 28, to attract international talents and promote the development of service industry.

The conference is jointly organized by multiple departments, and has been successfully launched for 15 times, regarded as the typical event for Hangzhou to attract high-level talents.

Its highlights involve talent symposiums and innovation & entrepreneurship competitions, as well as a series of cultural activities co-organized with “Hangzhou Talent Day”.

Hangzhou Citizen Card has recently offered prepaid consumption service. Citizens can swipe the physical card or scan the QR code via mobile phone to enjoy consumption discounts and make immediate payment.

Citizen card consumption places include more than 360 commercial complexes, hospitals and pharmacies for municipal medical insurance settlement, public transport, scenic areas, and parking spaces, as well as over 200 daily consumption enterprises.

The third Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) kicked off in Hangzhou on September 25, featuring one comprehensive pavilion and eight specialized pavilions.

At GDTE, multiple industry reports including Global Digital Trade Development Report will be released, and major projects like China-Kazakhstan Agreement on Building Smart Ports will be signed, to advance the interconnectivity in international trade. In addition, the event also focuses on trade transaction and investment negotiation to inject new impetus into global digital trade development.

As the permanent host city, Hangzhou speeds up to lead global digital trade by depending on advantages, such as release of digital trade legislation, and measures to advance digital economy.