Nigeria Times

By Li Gang, People’s Daily

On August 23, the final of the 20th Foshan Xijia Football League drew a roaring crowd of 20,000 spectators to Yunxiu Mountain Stadium in Sanshui District, Foshan, Guangdong Province. In a thrilling match, Tanwan Youxi defeated Budweiser-Huaxing 4-2 to claim the championship trophy.

The tournament spanned 45 days and featured 104 matches, involving 1,056 players from 48 elite teams across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).

First held in 2002, the Foshan Xijia Football League has run for 24 years and grown into a signature sporting event in the region. What explains the enduring appeal of this amateur league? People’s Daily spoke with organizers, players, and fans to find out.

Foshan is a typical manufacturing city, home to 10,600 industrial enterprises above the designated size and more than 3 million industrial workers. 

The Foshan Xijia Football League originated in Xinan subdistrict, Sanshui district, as a grassroots tournament created by local factory workers and residents from neighboring communities. 

Its Chinese name, “Xijia,” is short for “Xinan Subdistrict First Division.” Coincidentally, the pronunciation is identical to the Chinese name for Spain’s top-flight football league, known internationally as La Liga. Hoping their own neighborhood tournament would become just as popular, local fans jokingly dubbed it “Xijia,” and the name stuck.

As early as the 1950s and 1960s, Xinan township, now Xinan subdistrict, was known for a familiar scene: “a farmers’ market in the morning, a football pitch in the afternoon.” Once vendors had packed up for the day, people would move a few bricks into place as goalposts, turning the market into a football field.

In 2002, the first Foshan Xijia match kicked off at Yunxiu Mountain Stadium. From a humble farmers’ market to a stadium packed with tens of thousands of spectators, the league has now reached its 20th edition.

“About 1/3 of our players work in sales or on the production lines of the two companies,” said Feng Bingjin, news officer for Budweiser-Huaxing and marketing director of Huaxing Glass. 

Budweiser APAC and Huaxing Glass have been strategic partners for 20 years. One makes beer, and the other makes bottles. This year, the two companies formed a joint football team. In its debut appearance, the team, made up largely of industrial workers, narrowly advanced from the group stage in third place and went on to reach the final. 

“During the day, the players are production-line operators and salespeople. At night, they put on their jerseys and become stars on the pitch, enjoying the games,” Feng said.

Every ordinary person’s football dream has a place to take root. That, perhaps, is the most moving aspect of Foshan Xijia.

The league has earned the nickname “GBA World Cup.” This year, for the first time, the tournament covered all 11 cities in the GBA. A total of 125 foreign players from more than 10 countries and regions, including Brazil, France and Greece, took to the pitch alongside their Chinese counterparts. People of different skin colors, accents, and professions came together through football, competing across 104 matches.

Among the 48 teams this year, six were youth teams, with the youngest player just 15 years old. Many of these young players had watched Foshan Xijia matches at the stadium with their parents when they were children. Now, they have taken up the baton from an earlier generation of grassroots players, making the journey from the stands to the pitch.

The tournament has also spurred the development of local sports facilities. By 2025, Sanshui had 159 football fields, or 1.8 fields per 10,000 people, well above the national average. The district has also become one of the winter training bases for professional football clubs from across China, attracting about 70 teams each year.

One of the biggest talking points surrounding this year’s Foshan Xijia has been the “ticket-stub economy.” A single digital ticket can unlock discounts and special offers at 1,400 businesses across the city, covering dining, accommodation, and tourist attractions. 

The tournament has drawn 2 million visits from fans and tourists and generated more than 250 million yuan ($37.25 million) in additional consumption. Spending at the Jiangbiancang night market near the stadium rose 187 percent month on month, while the occupancy rate of accommodation businesses across the district increased by 8 percentage points.

“This tournament has set the city buzzing,” said Deng Yanyan, deputy director of the Sanshui district bureau of culture, radio, television, tourism and sports. “Culture and tourism provide the platform, while the economy takes center stage, creating a close connection between the tournament and the city’s development.”

The excitement goes well beyond the pitch. Twenty-one Xijia-themed events have brought distinctive local products such as Xuwen pineapples and Gaozhou longans into the spotlight. Matches were livestreamed at more than 20 off-site viewing venues, bringing the excitement of the tournament to shopping districts and neighborhood streets.

Lu Yongxian, 50, has run a Cantonese restaurant in Sanshui for 28 years. In 2011, a group of students from a sports school could not afford to enter the tournament. Lu not only sponsored them financially but also took on the roles of coach and team manager, becoming the team’s all-around support. In 2019, the team he formed, Leminxing, finished as runner-up in its first Foshan Xijia appearance. Today, his son, Lu Yongquan, takes to the pitch wearing the Leminxing jersey. The joy and passion for football have quietly passed from father to son.

There are no strict restrictions on venues or scheduling for the games, and the spectators are simply neighbors and friends from the community. Stepping onto the pitch means following what they love. This football celebration for ordinary people is far from over.

By Fan Haotian, People’s Daily

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, located in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, is hailed as the “First Bridge over the Yangtze River.” It holds deep collective memories for generations of local residents. When night falls, the bridge glows with soft, warm-yellow lights, forming an iconic part of Wuhan’s nighttime cityscape.

Wan Quan, now 52, has been driving for over three decades. Once a taxi driver, he now works for a company that operates engineering vehicles. A frequent commuter between the two riverbanks of the Yangtze, he has witnessed the steady emergence of river-crossing bridges across Wuhan. He has also seen the subtle yet striking transformations in the lighting designs of these bridges over the years.

“In the early days, the bridge lights were quite dim, with low brightness and limited coverage. I had to be especially careful whenever driving at night,” Wan recalled. Today, LED lights make driving across the bridges safer and more comfortable, offering brighter, more even illumination while using less energy.

When the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge opened to traffic in 1957, it was lit by 512 spherical lanterns fitted with 60-watt incandescent bulbs. In the 1970s, all light sources were replaced with 80- to 125-watt high-pressure mercury lamps.

At the beginning of this century, the entire bridge was equipped with 250-watt high-pressure sodium lamps, creating the iconic orange-yellow glow that became a signature of Wuhan’s nightscape.

“Sodium‑vapour lamps appear bright, but their light is harsh and offers poor color rendering. Road surface colors and lane markings become hard to distinguish. Prolonged night driving often left drivers with sore, dry eyes,” explained Chen Junyu, director of the industry technical review section at the streetlight management and service center of Wuhan Power Supply Company.

Chen also noted that the air over the Yangtze River is highly humid. During rainy or foggy weather, light from fixtures without precision optical lenses scatters easily, creating a hazy curtain of light that can obstruct drivers’ vision and compromise road safety.

An even more pressing issue was energy consumption. High-pressure sodium lamps have relatively low energy efficiency, and at the time, smart lighting controls were not available.  Regardless of weather or traffic conditions, the lights were switched on and off at fixed times and operated at a constant brightness. 

Hundreds of lamps on the bridge consumed large amounts of electricity, while prolonged operation at high temperatures accelerated aging and increased failure rate.

In recent years, guided by China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, phasing out energy-intensive lighting equipment has become an inevitable step. The challenge for urban management is to strike a balance between preserving iconic nighttime landscapes and achieving greener, smarter, and more energy-efficient lighting.

“With continued technological advances, LED light sources have made significant improvements in key indicators of light quality, including luminous efficacy and color rendering. This has made it possible to deploy energy-efficient lighting on a much larger scale,” Chen said.

Since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), Wuhan has been comprehensively advancing its urban green lighting program, gradually replacing metal halide and sodium lamps, which have relatively low luminous efficacy and high energy consumption, with energy-efficient LEDs.

The city has also promoted the installation of individual-lamp control systems. Combined with Internet of Things communications technology, these systems allow each lamp to be dimmed independently and enable road illumination to be precisely adjusted according to different time periods and road sections, improving energy saving and extending lamp life.

In November 2025, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge began an upgrade of its lighting system. The existing 150 units of 250-watt high-pressure sodium lamps were replaced with 200-watt LED ones, supported by a smart control system that enables time-based dimming.

Before the upgrade, the bridge consumed 450 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day. After the upgrade, daily consumption fell to 144 kilowatt-hours, representing an overall energy saving of 68 percent, equivalent to an estimated annual saving of about 110,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

“The new streetlights have fully preserved the bridge’s iconic nighttime appearance while effectively addressing problems such as harsh glare,” Chen said. More importantly, the new LED fixtures combine high luminous efficacy, low energy consumption and a long service life, delivering substantially greater energy savings than traditional high-pressure sodium lamps.

After dinner, Chen visited a smart lighting management and control office at the streetlight management and services center. A large screen displayed basic data on transformers, lamp posts, lights and cable lengths across the city, as well as maps showing how streetlights are connected to different circuits.

“With this smart lighting management and control office, we can control individual lamps, adjust brightness according to different time periods, and provide lighting as needed, enabling more targeted energy saving,” said data analyst Peng Jingjing.

Peng clicked on the circuit serving the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge on the map. The screen immediately displayed the dimming strategy for 70 LED lights along that road section, along with the resulting energy savings. The lights are no longer switched on and off at fixed times; instead, their operating schedules are determined according to outdoor light levels.

So far, five river-crossing bridges in Wuhan have completed installation or upgrading of LED lighting systems along their entire length. By the end of 2027, all of them are expected to be equipped with smart lighting systems. The approach will also be rolled out across the city.

By Dai Kairan, Huang Peizhao, Ren Haoyu, People’s Daily

China and Egypt have long been close partners, bound by shared goals and mutual trust. In recent years, their high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between the two countries has produced tangible results, improving Egypt’s infrastructure, boosting local industry, and fostering talent development.

Central Business District (CBD) in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital

Standing atop the 385.8-meter Iconic Tower, the tallest building in Africa, visitors can enjoy a sweeping view. Sunlight filters through the clouds, illuminating rows of buildings rising from the desert, while the outline of a modern city has already begun to take shape.

Located about 50 kilometers east of downtown Cairo, the CBD of Egypt’s new administrative capital is being built by the Egypt branch of China State Construction Engineering Corporation. As one of the core projects of Egypt’s new administrative capital and a key project under high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Egypt, the CBD project comprises 10 office buildings, five residential buildings, four large hotels, and the Iconic Tower.

Senior architecture coordinator Nourhan Amin joined the project team in 2022. Since then, she has witnessed buildings rise from blueprints to reality, a transformation she describes as a source of “great pride.” Egypt has limited experience in constructing super-tall buildings, so Chinese engineers brought advanced techniques to the site. Through a mentorship program, Amin was paired with Jia Fengling, the project’s chief engineer.

“We aim to pass on our expertise to local staff through this program,” Jia noted. Over time, many Egyptian technicians have progressed from learning alongside their Chinese colleagues to becoming independent, capable project managers.

10th of Ramadan Railway project

At Adly Mansour Station, passengers line up in an orderly fashion to buy tickets for the 10th of Ramadan Railway, Egypt’s first electrified inter-city rail line.

“This modern light rail has brought us real convenience,” said a passenger surnamed Ismail.

Built by the consortium of China Railway Group Limited (CREC) and AVIC International Holding Corporation, the railway is Egypt’s first electrified inter-city railway and a landmark project under Belt and Road cooperation between China and Egypt. Its first two phases began operation in 2022, spanning approximately 70 kilometers with 12 stations serving more than five million residents along the route.

One passenger, Ismail lives in El Shorouk City in eastern Cairo and works downtown. He used to commute by privately operated minibuses, a trip that often took over an hour, sometimes longer in heavy traffic.

“Now it takes me about 40 minutes to get to the office by light rail,” he said. He noted the trains run smoothly, the carriages are clean and well-maintained, and the fares are reasonable.

Guo Kaixiang, general manager of the Egypt branch of AVIC International Holding Corporation, said that since the railway began operation, it has run safely for about 1,500 days and made 280,000 train trips, carrying more than 22 million passengers.

Chinese enterprises have rolled out localized talent training tailored to project construction and operational requirements. To date, they have cultivated around 100 local operational specialists for dispatching, train attendant services and station management, plus some 500 maintenance technicians covering rolling stock, signaling, power supply and communication systems. These efforts have helped Egypt build its own workforce for the operation and maintenance of electrified light rail systems.

Haier Egypt Ecological Park

At a Haier home appliance store in Madinaty, eastern Cairo, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and televisions are neatly displayed. Many of the appliances are manufactured at Haier Egypt Ecological Park in 10th of Ramadan City.

Covering 200,000 square meters, the park is Haier’s first integrated industrial park investment in the Middle East and Africa. Phase I, whichproduces air conditioners, televisions and washing machines, has an annual capacity of about one million units and officially began operations in May 2024. 

Construction of the refrigeration and freezer plant under phase II is under way and is expected to begin production in October this year. Once fully operational, the park’s annual capacity will exceed 1.5 million units.

“In just two years since Phase I began, Haier’s air conditioners have become the third-largest brand in Egypt by market share, while our washing machines and televisions rank among the top five,” said Hu Ganggang, general manager of the park. “This shows that our products have won recognition and acceptance from local consumers.”

In the first half of this year, Haier Egypt also achieved localized manufacturing of large commercial air-conditioning systems, becoming the first company in Egypt capable of doing so.

The current phased target for localization rate across the eco-park’s production lines is 60 percent, while the air-conditioning line has already reached 63 percent.

Ahmed Abdel-Rashid, head of the household air-conditioning business at the park, is particularly proud of the achievement.

“Localization means we can rely more on local suppliers, technicians and manufacturing capabilities and respond more quickly to demand in the Egyptian market,” he said.

Nasser Mandour, president of Suez Canal University in Egypt, said, “In recent years, high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between Egypt and China has continued to deepen. It not only responds to the practical needs of Egypt’s economic and social development, but also focuses on strengthening the country’s capacity for independent development, injecting new impetus into Egypt’s modernization drive.”

By Li Hongmei, Wang Hao, Chang Qin, People’s Daily

On the morning of Aug. 26, the Gyirong Port in Gyirong county, southwest China’s Xizang autonomous region, was hit by a severe landslide that occurred on the Nepalese side of the border. 

In the aftermath, Chinese authorities in meteorology, water resources, and natural resources swiftly coordinated with their Nepalese counterparts. They shared real-time monitoring data and provided meteorological and hydrological products and services to support joint disaster relief operations.

Located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Gyirong Port is characterized by high elevation, complex terrain, and highly variable weather conditions. 

“From late August to early September this year, cold air has been particularly active across the plateau, especially along the border areas. This has led to frequent precipitation and posed severe challenges to rescue efforts,” explained Ma Xuekuan, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center.

“At noon on Aug. 26, after receiving a request from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, we organized the first joint consultation that same afternoon. On the afternoon of Aug. 31, we held a second joint consultation with the Nepalese side,” said Zhang Tianhang, a senior engineer at the World Meteorological Center Beijing. The two sides had previously set up a WeChat working group to share relevant information in real time.

The emergency consultation on Aug. 26 was conducted via the MAZU (multi-hazard, alert, zero-gap, and universal) cloud-based meteorological early warning system. Experts from both sides jointly assessed weather conditions and analyzed the trajectory of subsequent precipitation.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) subsequently set up a dedicated task force to provide ongoing meteorological support for Nepal, issuing a daily English-language briefing on meteorological monitoring and forecasting information. 

For real-time monitoring, the briefings include infrared cloud imagery from China’s Fengyun meteorological satellites, as well as products showing current temperature and precipitation around the disaster-affected area at a spatial resolution of 1 kilometer. At the request of the Nepalese side, the latest briefing also included lightning monitoring products based on Fengyun satellite data.

For forecasting, the CMA mainly provides seven-day weather forecasts for areas near the disaster site, also at a one-kilometer resolution, along with areal precipitation forecasts for the next three and seven days. 

“In addition, we have continued to update extended-range forecasts covering 15 to 30 days. Overall, we have provided the Nepalese side with seamless forecasting services covering the next 30 days, offering strong support for its rescue efforts,” Zhang said.

Following the disaster, a barrier lake formed near the confluence where the Cuojian River from Nepal meets the Purepuqiang Zangbo River on Chinese territory.

China’s Ministry of Water Resources immediately dispatched an emergency hydrological monitoring team to the front line. Working alongside staff from the bureau of hydrology and water resources survey of Xizang, the team carried out hydrological monitoring, forecasting and early‑warning operations.

At present, the Ministry of Water Resources provides the Nepalese side with daily updates in five areas: the development of the barrier lake on the Purepuqiang Zangbo River; risk assessments of potential chain reactions caused by the impact craters along the Cuojian River; risk screening for glacial lakes in the Gyirong Zangbo River basin; forecasts of the development and risks of newly formed barrier lakes; and information from hydrological emergency monitoring. The information provides strong support for emergency response and rescue efforts downstream on the Nepalese side.

Across Nepal, only 17 meteorological observation stations are shared with international organizations, resulting in insufficient observation coverage.

China has built the world’s largest integrated, three-dimensional meteorological observation system incorporating space-, air- and ground-based capabilities. Its advanced observation equipment, including Fengyun meteorological satellites and weather radars, provides strong monitoring capabilities.

Following the disaster, the CMA immediately made arrangements to strengthen monitoring. On the evening of Aug. 26, it deployed small ground-based observation stations around the disaster-affected area. On Sept. 1, it deployed a mobile weather radar near the affected area.

To address gaps in Nepal’s meteorological monitoring capabilities, the CMA also accelerated development of a customized version of the MAZU platform for Nepal, completing it before the second joint consultation and continuously improving it in response to Nepalese needs. A large volume of meteorological monitoring products and observation data has since been shared with Nepal through the customized version of MAZU.

China’s MAZU AI-powered meteorological early warning solution played an important role in the response to the disaster, providing timely support for Nepal’s rescue efforts and earning a positive response from the Nepalese side. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology of Nepal sent a letter to the CMA expressing its appreciation.

Going forward, building on the sound cooperation between the two sides, China is willing to provide Nepal with meteorological equipment such as radars and ground observation stations to further strengthen the latter’s meteorological observation capabilities and work with it to develop a one-stop early warning solution.

Following the disaster, the CMA also immediately activated its international user service response mechanism for Fengyun meteorological satellites, providing the disaster-affected area in Nepal with rapid-scan Fengyun satellite products featuring a spatial resolution of 250 meters and a temporal resolution of one minute, as well as multiple high-resolution forecasting products.

The China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Natural Resources also coordinated the use of nearly 100 public-service and commercial satellites to scan the disaster-affected area and surrounding regions at high frequency. Experts rapidly assessed the location, causes and evolution, scope of impact and scale of the disaster, and promptly released relevant information to the public.

A landslide may destroy homes, but it cannot break the bonds of solidarity and mutual assistance. The sharing of monitoring information and products has provided strong support for rescue efforts by both China and Nepal, demonstrating the two countries’ determination to work together in responding to natural disasters and their shared hope of rebuilding homes.

By Luo Shanshan, People’s Daily

The International Monetary Fund recently projected that global trade growth would slow from 5 percent in 2025 to 3.5 percent in 2026, suggesting a challenging outlook for international economic and trade cooperation in the second half of the year.

In response, China is leveraging the certainty of its own development to navigate external uncertainties, reaffirming its commitment to high-level opening up. With more practical policy measures, it is promoting innovative and balanced trade growth, advancing two-way investment cooperation, and making continued contributions to global economic and trade development.

Expanding trade in services

This year, Apollo Go, an autonomous ride-hailing platform operated by Chinese tech giant Baidu, has accelerated its global expansion. Road tests have begun in the UK and Switzerland, while fully driverless commercial services have been launched in the United Arab Emirates. 

“Autonomous mobility services are a typical example of knowledge-intensive trade in services and an emerging area for China’s services to go global,” said Yang Nan, vice president of Baidu. Apollo Go has now operated in 27 cities worldwide and completed more than 22 million rides.

The global trade landscape is undergoing structural changes, with trade in services increasingly emerging as a new driver of trade growth. In response to new trends in international industrial cooperation, China is working to expand and upgrade its services sector, promote greater openness and cooperation in services, and vigorously develop trade in services.

In the first half of the year, China’s total trade in services reached nearly 3.78 trillion yuan ($561.94 billion), up 8.3 percent year on year. Service exports totaled over 1.5 trillion yuan, an impressive increase of 17.6 percent.

“Exports of services in both traditional and emerging sectors are gaining momentum,” said Li Jun, director of the International Service Trade Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce.

In traditional sectors, more convenient entry policies have driven rapid growth in inbound tourism. China’s travel service exports rose 31.1 percent year on year in the first half. In emerging sectors, exports of knowledge-intensive services, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and data processing, are also accelerating.

Promoting balanced trade growth

A notable feature of China’s trade performance in the first half of the year was that goods imports exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time in any comparable period, rising 22.1 percent and outpacing export growth by 8.7 percentage points.

The momentum has continued. In the first seven months, China’s imports grew 22 percent, eight percentage points faster than exports.

Wang Jun, deputy head of China’s General Administration of Customs, said China is steadily expanding voluntary and unilateral opening up. It has implemented zero-tariff policies for imports from 63 countries and is making good use of major international trade fairs, including the China International Import Expo (CIIE), China International Consumer Products Expo and China International Supply Chain Expo, to provide platforms for quality products from around the world to enter the Chinese market.

In the first half of the year, China’s imports from more than 150 countries and regions increased.

Recently, a shipment of grapefruit from South Africa arrived at a food processing company in Ningbo, east China’s Zhejiang province, where the fruit was processed into tea beverage ingredients, canned products and not-from-concentrate juice.

On May 1, China fully implemented zero-tariff treatment for products from 53 African countries with which it has diplomatic relations, delivering tangible benefits to businesses.

Since the beginning of the year, Chinese customs authorities have also actively expanded market access for imported agricultural and food products. Dried chili peppers and cashews from African countries with diplomatic ties with China, pecans from Uruguay, apples from Belgium, and dried longan from Cambodia have all gained access to the Chinese market.

By proactively expanding imports and promoting balanced trade development, the Ministry of Commerce has organized nearly 40 events worldwide since the beginning of the year under the “Big Market for All: Export to China” initiative, with the UK, Spain, Kazakhstan, Kenya, and Thailand serving as guest countries.

“China’s efforts to expand imports are a strategic move that follows the trend of history and is rooted in the new development philosophy. They are aimed at achieving mutually beneficial outcomes with all countries and pursuing shared progress toward a brighter future,” said Yang Tao, director general of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce.

Expanding two-way investment cooperation

Recently, an event marking the 100-day countdown to the ninth CIIE was held in Shanghai. At the event, the first group of 68 companies signed agreements to participate in the 10th CIIE, covering more than 50,000 square meters of exhibition space.

More than 30 companies have confirmed that they will participate in the expo for the 10th time. Medtronic, one of the largest medical device companies in the world, is one of them.

“From being a regular participant at the CIIE to becoming a long-term partner, Medtronic has demonstrated its firm commitment to deepening its presence in the Chinese market,” said Alex Gu, senior vice president and president of Medtronic Greater China.

The company hopes to leverage the CIIE as a platform for openness and cooperation to introduce more cutting-edge medical technologies from around the world, promote deeper integration between global innovation and local needs in China, and accelerate the global expansion of more Chinese innovations.

This year, amid a complex and volatile international environment and a slowdown in global cross-border investment, China has continued to expand two-way investment cooperation. On the one hand, it is working to attract and make better use of foreign investment; on the other, it is improving systems for managing outbound investment and strengthening comprehensive overseas services.

“Going forward, the Ministry of Commerce will continue promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, further improve the management and service system for outbound investment and cooperation, and promote international cooperation across industrial and supply chains through coordinated advances in trade and investment,” said Yan Dong, vice minister of commerce.

By Qi Yukun, Shen Tongrui, People’s Daily

At around 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 26, a severe mudslide triggered in Nepal caused major casualties and left several people missing at the Gyirong Port in Gyirong county, Xigaze, southwest China’s Xizang autonomous region.

The valley shook as rocks and debris lay scattered across the landscape. The main road leading to the worst-affected area was buried under the mudslide, while secondary hazards, including falling rocks, landslides, and the overflow of a barrier lake, continued to pose serious risks to rescue operations.

China’s national comprehensive fire and rescue force quickly mobilized to search for and rescue those who remained unaccounted for. Following every lead and searching every possible area, the rescuers left no stone unturned.

“The roads are completely cut off, leaving us without predefined search paths. We have no choice but to launch multiple search operations simultaneously,” said Wang Haitao, commander-in-chief of the on-site fire and rescue command center.

Breaking down organizational barriers among different units, the command center divided the operation into three specialized teams for land, water, and air searches. A coordinated, three-dimensional approach was adopted: teams advanced on foot across difficult terrain, boats pushed forward along waterways, and aerial equipment conducted reconnaissance and delivered supplies — all aimed at maximizing search coverage.

— On land, firefighters trek through dense forests and steep mountains.

Carrying life detectors, satellite communication equipment, and other search-and-rescue gear, rescuers made their way through mountain forests where slopes approached 60 degrees.

The ground beneath them was slippery with mud, falling rocks threatened from above, and many sections had no passable roads at all. Using both hands and feet, the rescuers clung to rock faces and shrubs as they painstakingly made their way forward. On particularly dangerous cliff sections, they had no choice but to use ropes to rappel down to reach the target areas.

“Knowing that there were still people waiting to be found, none of us stopped,” said rescuer Xu Hui.

After reaching the hardest-hit area with his teammates, Xu immediately joined a systematic, grid-by-grid search without pausing to rest.

— On water, inflatable boats navigate rushing currents.

The river was fast-flowing, with rocks scattered throughout the channel and muddy water hiding dangerous currents beneath the surface. At any moment, the boats could collide with rocks or be swept into powerful currents.

“Conditions in the water can change in an instant. We have to be bold enough to move forward, but we also have to proceed with caution. We carefully assess the risks along every section of the waterway,” said Benpa Tsering, head of the water search-and-rescue team.

Because sediment had accumulated along the riverbed, the boats could not reach every section directly. Rescuers often had to leave their boats and go ashore to conduct thorough searches along riverbanks, shoals and backwater bends.

The high altitude quickly drained the rescuers’ strength, while intermittent rainfall continued to heighten geological risks. Every step forward in the search and rescue operation required tremendous effort.

— In the air, drones conducted reconnaissance and delivered equipment.

Mountain ridges blocked the view and created numerous communication blind spots for ground teams, making aerial operations crucial to filling information gaps .

At the site, multiple drones took turns flying nonstop reconnaissance missions. Thermal imaging payloads detected faint heat signatures in buried areas, while mapping modules rapidly generated three-dimensional models of the disaster zone, providing the command center with a clear view of terrain and signs of burial that could not be seen from the ground.

“We transmit aerial images and three-dimensional models back to the command center in real time, allowing commanders to see the entire valley at a glance and avoid deploying personnel blindly,” said commander Wang Yongming.

Weather conditions can change rapidly in high-altitude valleys, and drone operators must contend with strong winds, signal attenuation and other challenges, repeatedly adjusting flight altitudes and routes.

Through a closed-loop operational process of risk assessment, task organization, on-site operations, and review and evaluation, the rescue teams have established a systematic approach to search and rescue.

“Although dangers keep emerging, as long as there is even the slightest hope, we will never stop searching,” said rescuer Zou Mingqi, his clothes and body covered in mud, his voice firm and resolute.