An environmental impact assessment for a new high-speed railway linking Beijing and Xiongan New Area was released on Saturday. It was the first public acknowledgment that a new line will be built.

China Railway Design Corp announced the assessment on its website and is seeking public comment.

According to the notice, the Beijing-Xiongan railway will start at Liying in Beijing’s Daxing district, pass through Langfang and terminate at Xiongan East Railway Station－a total length of 100.3 kilometers.

The new line will also pass through the capital’s new airport, which will be about 36 km from Liying and about 64 km from Xiongan New Area. The airport is expected to open in 2019.

The existence of a railway plan was reported in April by Tianjin News. According to the report, a planning map showed two railway stations in the new area－Xiongan Railway Station and Xiongan East Railway Station. The environmental assessment covers the latter.

According to an earlier report, the Tianjin-Xiongan railway route will connect the area with Tianjin’s new railway station, which is also in the planning stages.

An older rail line is already in operation. Passengers must transfer in Baoding or Tianjin to get to the Xiongan area on high-speed rail.

Since July 7, four daily high-speed railway services have been started. The journey takes one hour and 50 minutes.

The new Beijing-Xiongan line follows a different route.

Xiongan New Area is located in the center of a triangular area defined by Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province.

Located about 100 km southwest of downtown Beijing, the new area will mostly cover Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties in Hebei.

It will eventually encompass 2,000 square kilometers, with a population of up to 2.5 million people.

Under the area’s development plan, a major transportation network should be in place in Xiongan by 2020. The area will be well connected to Beijing, Tianjin and other cities in Hebei by 2022, when the Winter Olympic Games will be held.

Xiongan New Area is intended to house the bulk of Beijing’s noncapital functions, including some administrative and public institutions, company headquarters, financial institutions, higher education institutions, and science and technology units.

A total of 12 Chinese-developed underwater gliders are carrying out scientific observations in the South China Sea and sending back real-time data, according to a briefing on the research vessel “Kexue” Saturday.

It is the largest group of gliders to perform simultaneous observations in the region.

Kexue left Qingdao in east China’s Shandong Province last Monday for a maritime scientific expedition and stopped in Xiamen, southeast China to resupply Friday after completing the first part of the mission.

“The gliders have collected detailed maritime information, including temperature, salinity, turbidity, oxygen levels as well as the intensity and direction of currents,” said Yu Jiancheng, a scientist with the program.

The 12 submersible devices will collect comprehensive ocean data over the next month, said Sun Song, another scientist with the program.

Underwater gliders are a new type of underwater robot featuring less energy consumption, higher efficiency and better endurance.

During the first stage of the mission, scientists also successfully placed three submersible buoys and conducted several diving missions.

Kexue will leave Xiamen on Sunday for the mission’s second stage.

Kexue is China’s most advanced, independently-made marine science expedition vessel. It was put into operation in April 2014. The 4,711-tonne vessel is capable of conducting deep and open sea exploration and research.

Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality is extending a subway station to more than 94 meters underground, the equivalent of 31 stories down, which will make it China’s deepest station.

Hongtudi station, which opened on Line 6 years ago, was dubbed Chongqing’s deepest station at 60 meters below ground. Now, it is being extended deeper to connect with Line 10, a new metro line to be opened by the end of 2017.

Chongqing is known as a “mountain city” in China. Because of the hilly terrain and to avoid damaging air-raid shelters and pile foundation of street buildings, the station has to be built deep underground.

It currently takes commuters more than three minutes to get from the platform of Line 6 to the street by taking elevators, longer if they choose to climb the 354 steps.

The station’s 32 elevators will be increased to 91 when it becomes a transfer station.

In recent years, Chongqing is speeding up the construction of its subway system as the increasing number of vehicles on the road has caused traffic jams.

Like Chongqing, many Chinese cities are pushing forward the development of rail transit systems. Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China had 4,153 kilometers of urban rail networks in operation across 30 cities as of the end of 2016.

A total of 3,918 illegal websites were shut down by China’s Internet watchdogs from April to June, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement Saturday.

The websites included those that published content that jeopardized national security, and those that spread violence, vulgarity or ungrounded rumors, according to the statement.

Up to 316 cases related to illegal websites were handed to judicial organs in the same period, the CAC said.

More than 810,000 illicit cyber accounts were also closed in the second quarter of the year, the statement read.

Moreover, 443 websites were summoned by cyber watchdogs for law-breaking while 172 received warnings, as part of cyber law enforcement that has been highlighted over the months, according to the statement.

Sansha Yinlong Cinema opens in the city of Sansha, Hainan Province on July 22, 2017. [Photo: 163.com]

Over 200 residents and soldiers on Yongxing Island watched the Chinese movie “The Eternity of Jiao Yulu” Saturday, marking the opening of China’s southernmost cinema.

Located in Sansha municipality, China’s newest city in the South China Sea, Sansha Yinlong Cinema offers the latest blockbusters in line with the rest of the country.

“The cinema will show at least one film every day, so residents and soldiers on Yongxing Island can enjoy films simultaneously with moviegoers across the country,” said Gu Xiaojing, general manager of Hainan Media Croup.

The theater is equipped with advanced projection equipment, including the latest 4K digital projectors as well as a 3D perforated screen for viewers to indulge in the pleasure of big screen.

Chen Zijian, general manager of Hainan Film Company, which operates the cinema, said they have also purchased two mobile projection units and plan to screen films for free on more islands within the municipality to meet the demands of residents.

The opening of the cinema is part of a plan by local cultural authorities to establish community services on islands under Sansha’s jurisdiction.

In April last year, Sansha opened its first public library. It also has a stadium and has organized various cultural activities to enrich the lives of residents.

China set up Sansha municipality in 2012. The city government is located on Yongxing Island, the largest of the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea.