XM hosts multiple October exhibitions

The city of Xiamen is hosting at least eight major exhibitions in October. The fall editions of both the Xiamen International Buddhist Items and Crafts Fair and the China Xiamen International Tea Industry Fair kicked off last Thursday at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center.

This year's Buddhist fair covered 115,000 square meters across 15 halls and 10 exhibition zones, including an outdoor area. The event attracted more than 1,400 domestic and international exhibitors from places such as India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The Tea Expo set a new record with an exhibition area of 85,000 square meters.

Other exhibitions in October include the China Mobility Show (Xiamen), the International Engineering Supply Chain Development Forum and Exhibition and the Art Amoy fair.

The China Chain Store and Franchise Association recently placed Xiamen atop its annual China Urban Convenience Store Development Index for the fifth consecutive year. The survey covered 40 cities and weighed factors such as convenience store growth rates, population coverage per store, service availability and the general business environment.

Commercial airlines operating flights from Xiamen have already notched 10,000 international flights from the city to countries associated with China's Belt and Road Initiative. Commercial airlines operate 13 direct passenger routes and three cargo routes to 10 Belt and Road countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Zhongshan Hospital Xiamen University announced last week that it now provides midday outpatient services in a range of departments: gastroenterology, dermatology, otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery, dentistry, traditional Chinese medicine and rehabilitation services. Midday hours run between noon and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays.

Regional authorities last week announced the commencement of tracklaying for the eastern Chongqing-Qianjiang section of the Chongqing-Xiamen high-speed railway line. The 269-kilometer section of track runs between urban Chongqing and Qianjiang.

Rail officials said that the Chongqing section of the railway will accelerate the formation of the main high-speed railway corridor between Chongqing and Xiamen, adding that the railway will boost economic and social development along the line.

The market supervision authority in Xiamen announced last week that it has offered assistance to over 700 local companies via more than 1,400 quality control visits over the past three years. Authorities added that the outreach program delivers tangible benefits to local firms and enhances the safety monitoring of products produced in Xiamen.

Xiamen officials recently announced the addition of four companies to the white list of the city's technological innovation fund. The new firms are: Xiamen Jinyang Precision Manufacturing, Xiamen Winlight Optical Coating Technology, Xiamen Insightica Intelligent Technology and Xiamen Runchip Integrated Circuit Technologies. The white list now includes more than 5,500 companies with an industrial project investment exceeding 60 billion yuan.

Local officials also announced Xiamen's white list for tech innovation fund projects. The list includes 17 projects such as the Fukun intelligent kitchen appliance automated production line transformation project.

Xiamen's Chinese lantern trees are now in full bloom. The trees are also known as golden rain trees for their summertime sprays of yellow flowers. They are particularly notable in local areas such as the Mountain-Sea Health Trail, the Portman Hotel Seaside Town  and other scenic spots.

Fujian's housing and urban-rural development bureau recently announced a suite of policies designed to strengthen the management of urban catering service facilities. The policies require all new facilities to include dedicated flue systems.

Likewise, the policies ban the construction, alteration or expansion of catering services that produce cooking fumes, odors or exhaust gases in residential buildings, in mixed-use buildings without dedicated flue systems and on commercial floors adjacent to residential areas within mixed-use buildings.

The Chinese Football Association announced that Xiamen's White Heron Stadium will host the World Cup qualifier between the national soccer teams of China and Japan on November 19. The Xiamen Sports Bureau's deputy director Chen Lan confirmed the plan's details with Xiamen Daily. The stadium's seating and support facilities will remain in their track and field configurations.

White Heron stadium is China's first stadium with an automated system of movable stands for the transition between track and field and soccer modes. The stadium has a seating capacity of more than 60,000 in its soccer configuration and more than 53,000 when configured for track and field.

Xiamen's industry and information technology bureau recently announced the launch of accreditation work for local manufacturing innovation centers. Eligible enterprises must file applications by October 25.

Applicants must demonstrate a range of capabilities and services to qualify as an innovation center. The criteria include an independent operating organization and an innovation mechanism that coordinates industry and university research and application. Eligible firms must also demonstrate self-sustainable development capability and the ability to provide services through technology achievement transformation, enterprise incubation, enterprise commissioned research and development, and testing.

Participating firms must have a majority of employees engaged in research and development and more than 30 percent of their budget must be for research and development. Participants must have technologies with proven prospects for industrialization.