Coupons to boost food deliveries

BEIJING

Coupons to boost food deliveries

Beijing began offering the first batch of 3 million coupons on Saturday to boost the city's consumption of food delivery services, the municipal commerce bureau said. Jointly funded by the municipal government and two major food delivery platforms, Ele.me and Meituan, coupons worth 300 million yuan ($44.3 million) will be issued until mid-December, making delivered food cheaper. More than 70,000 restaurants have participated in the distribution of the first batch of coupons, the bureau said. People can redeem the coupons within seven days of receiving them.

Donations to China totaled 170b yuan

China received 170.1 billion yuan ($25.1 billion) of charitable donations from home and abroad last year, according to a report released by the China Charity Alliance. The report, published Saturday by the alliance at the ongoing 8th China Charity Fair in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, said 109.2 billion yuan of the donations went to the fields of education, poverty alleviation and healthcare. The report said cash donations hit a record high of 104.4 billion yuan last year, up 3.64 percent year-on-year and accounting for nearly 70 percent of the total value of donations.

Capital to restore more wetlands

Beijing will step up wetland restoration and construction efforts, with 1,600 hectares of wetlands to be recovered and 600 hectares of new wetlands to be built this year, authorities said. At present, the total area of wetlands bigger than 400 square meters in Beijing is 58,700 hectares, accounting for 3.6 percent of the city's land area, according to the municipal gardening and greening bureau. Beijing has restored and built a total of 8,921 hectares of wetlands since 2016, steadily expanding wetland areas and improving wetland landscapes, bureau worker Huang Sanxiang said.

HUBEI

Tourist train leaves Wuhan for Xiangyang

A tourist train carrying 950 passengers left Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, on Saturday morning for a two-day tour of Xiangyang, another city in the province. It was the first tourist train originating from Wuhan to be launched by China Railway's Wuhan bureau since the city was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The tourists were expected to visit Xiangyang's ancient city wall, the Xiangshui River and other historical and cultural spots during their weekend visit, the bureau said.

Xinhua