Avenues bring coolness to pedestrians in scorching summer. In Hangzhou, urban avenues refer to the urban public roads lined with at least one row of shady trees on each side in downtown area. The avenues are mainly used for transportation with supporting landscaping, recreation and ecological functions. Hangzhou has planted 20,810 roadside trees (it plans to plant 30,000 roadside trees in 2022), and will have around 500 avenues, with a total length of 1,900 km, by 2035.

Hangzhou started construction of avenues in the period of the Republic of China, which was basically in synchronization with the construction of urban roads. At that time, people mainly travelled by bicycle or on foot and the trees provided shades for citizens in hot summer. Now, these trees, together with many buildings of the times, have become a part of the nostalgic memory of the city.

According to “Framework Agreement for Cooperative Promotion of Second Channel of Nanjing-Hangzhou Railway” proposed at the High-level Forum on Integrated Development of Yangtze River Delta held on August 17, the second high-speed rail between Hangzhou and Nanjing will be built soon.

Having an estimated investment of 25.9 billion yuan, the high-speed rail will start from Hangzhouxi Railway Station and link Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui with designed speed of 350 km per hour. The completion of the high-speed rail is of great significance to accelerate the construction of “Yangtze River Delta on Rail”, build the high-quality rapid rail transport network in the Yangtze River Delta and promote the strategy for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.

“Exciting Hangzhou” National Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship 2022 was held in Zhejiang Huanglong Sports Centre Gymnasium on August 23. With coherent and graceful movements, the beautiful young girls presented a visual feast to the spectators.

Spectators were amazed at the 100 lights moving up and down in rhythm and the promotional videos of rhythmic gymnastics displayed on the funnel-shaped screens during the warm-up session prior to the start of the competition. The screen showed the dynamic effect of the figures when each team entered the venue, which was unprecedented in national gymnastics competitions.

“Huanglong Sports Centre Gymnasium is classy with enough space for the athletes to fully exert themselves”, said Cai Tongtong, the coach of Zhejiang Team and the silver medalist of the rhythmic gymnastics team all-around event in Beijing Olympics Games. Zhejiang team ranked the first on the first day of the competition and will go all out to contend for the champion.

More than 1,200 spectators cheered for the competitors on the site. Some parents took their children to the Asian Games Venue to enrich their experience and inspire their interest for the sports so as to get them involved in the national fitness.

Huanglong Sports Centre will stage five events of Hangzhou Asian Games, namely football, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline gymnastics and water polo, as well as the track and field events of Hangzhou Asian Para Games. This year, it will also stage the National Gymnastics Championships (September 4-10) and National Trampoline Gymnastics Competition (September 18-19). Many famous athletes and Olympic medalists will show up at the events.

The inter-city services have been upgraded again in the Yangtze River Delta area. Recently, the reporter learned from the Provincial Big Data Administration that since the launch of the “One-stop Online Service” in the Yangtze River Delta in May 2019, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui have launched 138 cross-provincial services. A total of over 5.438 million items have been handled online, and 567 offline windows have covered 41 cities (prefecture-level cities), serving more than 190,000 times.

With the progress of the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, more and more matters concerning people’s livelihood and enterprises have been handled across provinces. In Beilun Jiufeng Mountain Tourist Area in Ningbo, it took Mr. Qi from Shanghai only two minutes to book the tickets online. Then he took out his social security card and swiped it on the gate sensor at the entrance of the scenic spot. The gate opened with a beep. Mr. Qi told the reporter that he also used the electronic social security card to borrow a book from Ningbo library. With a social security card in hand, you can enjoy the same city treatment in Ningbo, which is really convenient.

Today, a large number of government services can be handled across provinces. The region has achieved two-way online handling for the transfer of medical insurance in 27 cities. A total of 10,832 cases have been handled. The average handling time is 4.9 working days, and the shortest time for a single case is only 3 minutes. In 11,900 bank service outlets and nearly 22,900 self-service terminals in the region, residents can handle 463 government service matters across provinces. Since August this year, nucleic acid test results made in Zhejiang can be viewed simultaneously in Shanghai. Residents do not need to go back to the police stations in the place of household registration to obtain a “Certificate of No (Illegal) Criminal Record” and “Certificate of Household Registration”. Currently, more than 600,000 people have enjoyed this service.

Children aged 6-35 months who only had access to trivalent split influenza vaccine in previous years now have a new choice as the first tetravalent influenza vaccine is launched on the market this year. The later provides more extensive protection than the former as it prevents against an additional influenza virus subtype (Type B). The inoculation of the tetravalent influenza vaccine for children first started at Hangzhou Zhaohui Sub-district at 8:00 am on August 22.

Please note that adults only have to be shot one dose while children have to be shot two doses of the tetravalent influenza vaccine, with a spacing of one month between the two shots or a spacing of 14 days from other vaccinations required. Citizens may make appointment for the vaccination via “Zhejiang Government Affairs” App right now. The supply of the vaccines is ample at present.

As the period from October to March of the next year is high flu season, citizens are advised to complete the vaccination before the end of October.

With Sandun Interchange and the first section of No. 235 National Highway officially opening to traffic, as well as the completion of the northwest section of the ring road encircling Hangzhouxi Station, a complete inbound and outbound system that is convenient for travelling on foot and directly connects driving lanes with fast lanes has been developed to realize the integration of the city and the station and the systematic connection of the cities.

Two-way driving lanes are provided to ensure vehicles coming from east or west to withdraw by turnround lanes. Vehicles from Lin’an and Fuyang may access to the station by way of Yunxi Elevated Road. Liuxiang Fast Road is connected with Wenyi Fast Road (W) to realize long-distance transport.

The parking lot is within the station building, while the bus terminal is less than 300 m from the station to greatly shorten passengers’ travel distance. The taxi lanes are completely separated from the bus lanes, and the alternate parking of taxis diagonally in the form of “fish scale” is adopted to reduce the queuing cost for taxis to the maximum extent.

In addition, passengers may also reach the station by Metro Line 3 and airport express, and transfer at the brighter central part of the station. This indicates the ingenious design concept of “the architecture space leading the passengers”.

Besides the core concept of “entering the station at the center”, there are also some branch lanes provided for passengers on foot. Passengers may take elevators from the metro floor, or travel across 6m inter-layer and 31m corridor from the waiting floor. There are reserved passages leading to the south and north complexes, where photographic exhibitions will be held and museums will be established so that the station will also function as a tourist destination.

The main bridge and the ramp A of No. 320 National Highway Bridge across the newly excavated channel of Hangzhou Section of the Third-tier Channel Improvement Project for Zhejiang Section of Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal (“Second Channel of the Grand Canal” for short) have recently completed traffic dispersion improvement and have been officially open to traffic, as has been expected by the people of Linping and Haining.

Upon completion, the bridge can effectively relieve the traffic pressure of Hangzhou and Haining, and meet the traffic demands of surrounding cities. In addition, the bridge has left spacious channels to ensure navigation of thousand-tonnage ships through the second channel of the Grand Canal in the future.

Unlike most caregivers who work at hospitals or nursing homes, Yu Liya does her job in a refurbished RV equipped with a bathtub.

“I am a mobile bathing assistant,” the 40-year-old said. “We drive around and give baths to seniors who are incapacitated by age or illness.”

Teaming up with another professional bather and an experienced driver, Yu is more like a coordinator. After getting orders from clients, she takes note of their requests, adjusts the temperature, gives health assessments before the bath and even comforts those who are not used to being bathed by strangers.

“One bath usually takes 90 minutes,” Yu said. “We can serve four to six clients a day.”

Started in November 2020, the service is available in several residential communities in the Gongshu district of Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. More than 800 seniors have received the service, said project leader Li Ting. The service is provided by JiuJiu Zhu Lao, a local tech company dedicated to smart care for seniors.

A demanding job

Given the complex conditions and diverse needs of incapacitated seniors, providing bathing services is about far more than just cleaning bodies. For Yu, even though she is experienced in elder care, giving baths to seniors is still challenging.

“Bathing is a very private thing,” she said. “You need a good attitude and some strategies to help the elderly accept your service.”

One of the most difficult clients Yu has served is a paralyzed man. Because he couldn’t lift his feet to enter the RV, the bath was provided in his own house. “A bath in my own house costs 299 yuan!” she recalled him yelling repeatedly while glaring at the bathers.

Yu and her colleagues tried to soothe him. They called four assistants to lift him gently from his bed with a towel, laid him in an inflatable tub, helped him take off his clothes one piece at a time, covered his private parts as he requested and scooped warm water to rinse his body.

After replacing the bathwater four times, the job was done. Yu noticed tears in the old man’s eyes. “I understood why he was bad-tempered,” she said. “It’s his illness that made him moody, not us.”

Yu always tries to build good relationships with her clients. Many see her as a daughter. They remind Yu of her father’s situation. He has been bedridden since a car accident. “For me, the interaction with them is more precious than money,” Yu said.

Assisted bathing services for elders can also be found in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing.

A waitress serves dishes during the 12th China Food Festival (Hangzhou) on Aug 17. [Photo/Hangzhou Daily]

The 12th China Food Festival (Hangzhou), which was organized by the governments of Hangzhou and Changshan county in Quzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province, took place on Aug 17.

Hangzhou was assigned as the partner of Changshan county as part of Zhejiang’s “mountain and sea” cooperation program, which aims to support the development of the province’s mountainous and seaside areas.

Hangzhou currently has more than 300 restaurants that were set up by people from Changshan, and more than 10,000 Changshan people are working in the city’s catering industry.

The food festival aims to showcase local specialties and delicacies from Hangzhou and Changshan as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the cooperation program.

A participant views oil-tea products showcased at the 12th China Food Festival (Hangzhou) on Aug 17. [Photo/Hangzhou Daily]

Changshan has long been known as the “birthplace of oil-tea in China”. The county has been planting oil-tea trees for about 2,000 years and it currently has 18,667 hectares of oil-tea plantations. In 2021, the county generated 7,500 tons of oil-tea seeds that were worth 1 billion yuan ($146.2 million) in revenue.