The Most Beautiful Track (Photo by Xu Qingqing)

Built-in sports facilities, including spacious courts, trendy skating parks and flat footpaths, have been newly built near Wentao Road along Binjiang River, to meet adults’ demands for sports and exercises. Citizens may practice Tai Chi in the park, play basketball, volleyball or tennis on the courts and cycle on the cycling paths while enjoying the beautiful river scenery and the fresh coolness of the shady paths. In addition, sand pits and sport climbing facilities have been provided at riverside parks for the entertainment of the kids. These sports facilities have created small spaces for leisure activities for people of all age brackets. Binjiang has been known as a pacesetter in the innovative development. These sports facilities have undoubtedly brought breath of life to Binjiang and enable employees to enjoy sports and fitness near their companies and homes. Appropriate blank and greening space enhance people’s sense of gains and happiness and will eventually evoke their sense of belonging.

Dong Yunrong, founder of the rock band Yaogun Nainai, was selected to be the 2022 Chinese filial piety figure during the 8th Chinese Filial Piety Cultural Festival in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province last week, according to chinanews.com.

Dong, now 78, has actively participated in public welfare undertakings and brought joy to her audience for more than a dozen years.

In 2007, Dong picked up guitar after her husband passed away, and sought others to play with her.

Two years later, a band was established by Dong and her peers under the name Quyuan Fenghe, referencing one of the 10 scenic spots of the Hangzhou West Lake where the band’s rehearsals often took place.

“Our members have always been mainly composed of the elderly, and now the average age is close to 70,” said Dong.

As the band became famous, they started to appear on TV shows and a production team suggested that the band should go for younger style music.

Dong and her peers eventually decided to try out the style of rock and roll, and changed the band name to Yaogun Nainai.

“At first I didn’t know much about rock music, but later on I gradually found the feel for it,” said Dong.

The band also had to add new instruments such as drums, electric guitar and bass to accommodate the new style.

In 2011, Dong and two other members of the band were invited to perform for a public welfare activity for the first time at a school for the blind in Hangzhou.

As soon as the students heard the music and performance on stage, they got excited and sang along.

“After that performance, I learned that I can help others just by playing guitar and singing,” said Dong, adding that she was deeply touched by the students’ love for music.

Since then, Dong and her band have participated in all sorts of public welfare activities. They took their performances to communities, welfare homes and orphanages, and have used their music to bring comfort to many.

“In the process of volunteering and performing for welfare activities, I sometimes simply forget about my age,” said Dong.

Dong does not believe the elderly to be a demographic group that can only passively wait for and receive the services of others.

Since last year, Yaogun Nainai has been cooperating with Hangzhou’s “blue vest” volunteer program aimed at helping more elderly people learn to use smart phones and identify scams.

“I think the elderly should keep up with current trends. So while we perform like this, we are also helping others who are of our age,” said Dong.

[Photo/Facebook account: Hangzhoufeel]

Hangzhou plans to add 100 parking spaces and 10,000 non-motor vehicle parking spots at the entrances of subway stations in order to improve public transportation services.

The city’s Qiantang district has completed a project in which it added 1,080 parking spaces at 10 entrances of Gongshang University Yunbin Station, Hezhuang Road Station, Middle Qingliu Road Station, Xiashajiangbin Station and South Wenhai Road Station.

Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to ehangzhou.gov.cn]

The friendly business environment in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang province is like fresh air nourishing market entities in the city, Hangzhou Daily reported.

Since the economic hub was listed by the State Council in last September as one of the first six cities in China to launch a pilot reform project to improve the business environment, it has introduced 153 reform measures, with 100 of them having been basically completed and achieving initial results by the end of June.

Issuing electronic licenses, strengthening online supervision, government services, and comprehensive law enforcement were highlights of Hangzhou’s reforms.

In terms of e-licenses, the city took the lead among domestic others in handling 251 kinds of business affairs covering 21 government departments with a single business license, helping enterprises reduce the declaration of 753 business materials and cutting administrative red tapes by 40 percent.

In the field of government services, Hangzhou has also integrated enterprises’ annual reports on market supervision, taxation, social security, and customs, enabling them to avoid repetitive declaration of 60 materials. The move has benefited over 400,000 local enterprises.

As digitalization was one of the most important moves by Hangzhou in improving its business environment, the city has put forward a large number of digital measures, such as adopting a “land code” to simplify the issuance of real estate title certificates for industrial projects, publishing 11 types of commonly-used e-licenses for transport and realizing mutual recognition across the country, and using digital management to cut export tax refund processing time to three work days.

Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to ehangzhou.gov.cn]

The marriage registration agency is the starting point for the newlyweds to start their married life. How is the service of the marriage registration agencies in our province? Recently, the Provincial Department of Civil Affairs announced the results of the evaluation on the province’s marriage registration agencies. All of the province’s 101 agencies meet the standards of 3A levels. Among them, 23 units, including the Civil Affairs Bureau of Gongshu District, Hangzhou, are 5A-level marriage registration agencies.

“Building a high-quality marriage registration agency will help to advocate new marriage customs.” According to an official of the Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, in recent years, our province has vigorously promoted the standardization of marriage registration agencies, and created a number of agencies with updated facilities, beautiful environments and more thoughtful services. For example, the Marriage Registration Office of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Gongshu District is based on the style of “canal wedding custom culture” integrated with water and bridge elements; the Marriage Registration Office of Civil Affairs Bureau of Zhenhai District, Ningbo, is located in Ningbo Botanical Garden. A “garden-style” marriage registration agency, it has 4 marriage registration rooms and an outdoor marriage registration base; The Marriage Registration Office of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Sanmen County created the “County Mayor’s Certification Day” in the province. Newlyweds can make an appointment online for the county leaders to issue certificates for them.

Marriage registration agencies in our province can also provide free online and offline marriage counseling services, marriage registration services for all residents within the province, and the “joint service for marriage and childbirth household registration”, so as to create a considerate romantic window of “happiness” for newlyweds.

On the evening of August 13, at the Parents Meeting for New Students of Hangzhou Middle School, Vigorous Asian Games Day & Advancing Zhejiang Tide specially created and performed by Student Wang Yuran for Hangzhou Asian Games was impassioned, and the lecture hall burst into thunderous applause.

Wang Yuran spent a lot of efforts to better “talk about the Asian Games”. After about two weeks of study, she was familiar with the Asian Games. During the process, she learned about the efforts made by Hangzhou in greeting and preparing for the Asian Games and felt the atmosphere of national fitness. This made her look forward to becoming a volunteer for the Asian Games next year, participating in and contributing to the Asian Games.

In order to greet the Asian Games, Hangzhou Middle School organized and attended a series of activities related to the Asian Games. The students of Hangzhou Middle School used the language to tell the Asian Games at the International Bilingual Speech, showed the Asian Games with their elegant demeanor at the Etiquette Contest for the Asian Games, ignited the Asian Games with sports in the school basketball team and other sports teams, and experienced the Asian Games in various inquiry-based learning activities for the Asian Games. The children used their youth to write the stories about themselves and the Asian Games, making the Asian Games enter the campus wonderfully.

Enthusiastic youth power and vigorous youth vitality

With the construction of Hangzhou Urban Section of Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway to be completed soon, the whole line of the expressway is expected to meet the conditions for being open to traffic by the end of September. After the opening, this line will connect Linping New City, Hangzhoudong Station Hub, Qianjiang New City, Qianjiang Century City (Asian Games Village) and Xiaoshan Airport to provide a fast road for the people in East Hangzhou to enter and leave the city.

In addition, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport Expansion Project (Phase III) will be completed and put into operation soon. Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport will be the second largest aviation hub in East China, second only to Pudong International Airport.

Hangzhouxi Station Hub is in the preparation stage at present. The station building decoration and fitment have entered the closing phase, and the construction of the main power supply project has been completed so far. Huzhou-Hangzhou Section of Hefei-Hangzhou High-speed Rail, which passes by Hangzhouxi Station, has completed the construction of the main structure of the cloud gate on the south side of the station.