A new high-speed rail line that connects Jilin province to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is set to open this Tuesday.

The project is part of the broader efforts to revitalize the economy of the rust belt region.

It is also the first trans-regional high-speed railway for Inner Mongolia.

The more than 400-kilometer railway runs from Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, to the city of Ulanhot, which is located next to Inner Mongolia’s border with Jilin.

Baicheng, a city on the Jilin side of the border, will serve as the largest stop along the route.

Renovation of the original railway through the area began in late 2014 in order to accommodate high-speed trains.

Cao Like, a railway official with the Jilin Provincial authority, says the renewal project is a big step forward in both speed and capacity.

“The new railway has a 60-million-ton load capacity for cargo, whereas the old railway could only accomodate 10 million tons. Cities along the route are now closer to each other. For example, from Changchun to Baicheng now only takes 2 hours and 40 minutes. Before today, it would have taken more than 4 hours.”

Xia Fan with the China Railway Corporation was the head of the team that renovated the railway.

He says they’ve made changes which should allow for even faster trains on the line in the future.

“We conducted an electrification-based renovation to the railway, as well as an upgrade to its communication systems. Speed of trains now will be limited to 160-kilometers per hour. But we’ve made the electrification of the line at a very high standard. So in the future, it will be feasible to raise the maximum speed to 200 kilometers per hour.”

The railway is bringing high-speed train services to the western part of Jilin for the first time.

Songyuan, a small city along the route, is home to Chagan Lake.

Residents near the lake are renowned for their thousand-year-old tradition of fishing during the winter.

Yan Liang, a local villager, has decided to expand his fish restaurant after hearing news about the new railway.

“We’re going to have a growing number of tourists coming. My previous restaurant was just a small courtyard. It can’t meet the demands of my customers, many of whom now need a place to stay overnight. So I decided to rent a big house for my business earlier this year.”

The renovated railway connects to the current high-speed line running from Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang, and Dalian, which is located at the bottom of the Liaodong Peninsula in Liaoning.

China’s northeast, a combination of the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, is more than twice the size of Japan.

Authorities are planning to establish a high-speed railway network in the northeast by 2025 which will cut travel times throughout most cities in the region to no more than 2-hours.

Interconnection is viewed as a critical step in pulling the so-called ‘rust belt’ out of its current economic woes.

The three northeastern provinces have undergone the worst economic slowdown across the nation over the last few years, dragged by industrial overcapacity and inefficient state-owned businesses in the region.

Both the central and local authorities have been implementing plans to revitalize the local infrastructure, as well as tap the region’s natural beauty and ruggedness as a draw for tourists.

The Central Military Commission (CMC) on Monday told the armed forces to study the speeches made by President Xi Jinping around the Army Day and strengthen their sense of loyalty and responsibility, according to an official circular.

Study of Xi’s speeches is of great significance to inspire the military to unite more closely around the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, according to the circular issued by the general office of the CMC.

The speeches were delivered by Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the CMC, at a military parade and a rally marking the 90th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army.

Xi lauded the contributions made by the PLA in its 90 years’ history to the country and the people, calling for better combativeness of the army in his speech at the Zhurihe military parade on July 30.

In his speech at the rally on Aug. 1, Xi reaffirmed the importance of military reform and the CPC’s absolute leadership over the army. China must step up transforming its armed forces into a world-class military that is ready to fight and win wars as the country will never compromise on its sovereignty, he said.

The study is important for the CPC to achieve its goal of building a strong army in current circumstances and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, according to the circular.

The CMC circular called on the armed forces to improve combat-oriented training and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

China will never allow any people, organization or political party to split any part of Chinese territory from the country at any time, in any form, the circular said.

The circular also ordered the military to act in accordance with the instructions of Xi and the CMC, bear in mind its duties, and boost national defense and military modernization.

International experts have refuted a claim the Falun Gong cult has long made that China harvests organs from its practitioners, saying that the accusation is made for political reasons.

“The Falun Gong fabricated the stories purely for political objectives,” said Campbell Fraser, an expert on human organ trade from Griffith University, Australia. “It really makes people angry. Organ transplant is for giving life, and it is a beautiful thing, not for political objectives,” Fraser said on Saturday at the China Organ Donation and Transplantation Conference in Kunming, Yunnan province

Health officials and experts from China and abroad attended the meeting.

“They have actually falsified data, I have no doubt about that at all,” Fraser said. “I haven’t found any evidence whatsoever that there has ever been a Falun Gong practitioner who had been executed and had organs removed.”

“We cannot let cults stand in our way. Intimidation and harassment can never win,” he said.

Fraser said he has met Falun Gong practitioners in places such as Australia, Taipei and New York, and when he would try to talk to a practitioner, the Epoch Times, the cult’s newspaper, always would insist that one of its people must be present.

The newspaper’s representatives gave practitioners a printed letter to read out saying things like they had been detained and tested for forced organ donation in China, he said, and they didn’t even understand what they were reading.

The cult is using these people for anti-China political objectives. Falun Gong practitioners don’t understand about organ harvesting, and they are being told what to say by a group of primarily US-based political activists who try to destabilize the Chinese government, Fraser said.

China banned the Falun Gong as a cult in 1999, accusing it of disguising itself as a religious group to brainwash practitioners, taking money from them, and even encouraging them to engage in self-immolation.

Philip O’Connell, former president of The Transplantation Society, said the Falun Gong accusations are groundless and many organ donation and transplant experts do not believe such accusations.

Last year, 4,080 people in China donated organs after death, and 13,000 transplant surgeries were performed in China, in both cases the second highest number in the world, Guo Yanhong, of the National Health and Family Planning Commission’ Bureau of Medical Administration, said at the conference.

Marti Manyalich president of the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement, predicted that by 2020, China will be the top country in the world in the number of donors and that it will be self-sufficient in organ transplants by 2030.

A new kind of nano material developed by domestic researchers is expected to become the next-generation aviation material and boost the development of the country’s homegrown large passenger aircraft.

The nano ceramic aluminum alloy was developed by the research team from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Light in weight, such new material has the characteristics of high rigidity, high strength, fatigue resistance, low expansion and high temperature resistance.

Instead of the traditional physical method of mixing the ceramic and aluminum alloy, researchers put the nano ceramic particles into aluminum alloy through an innovative chemical process. During the process, the size, shape, and distribution of the particles were controlled.

This helped improve the rigidity and strength of the new material. At the same time, the processing and manufacturing performance of aluminum alloy remains, said Professor Wang Haowei, who led the project.

“The nano ceramic aluminum alloy material helps break the bottleneck of large-scale application in engineering,” Wang said.

The university’s scientists started the basic research in the field in the early 1990s, Wang said, and they have made a lot of experiments in developing the new material over the years.

“Compared with titanium alloy and high-temperature alloy, the performance of aluminum alloy with 3D printing technology is much lower. The 3D printing components made of nano ceramic aluminum alloy can achieve the performance of forgings,” Wang said.

So far, the new material has already been used in the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space labs, quantum satellites and meteorological satellites. It also has been used in key components of automotive internal-combustion engines, which not only reduces weight efficiency, but also saves energy, reduces emissions and improves safety.

Wang said researchers are stepping up their cooperation with Commercial Aircraft Corp of China to promote the use of such new materials in large aircraft.

“The advances in aviation development are closely connected to the progress of materials, and we are closely watching the development and performance of the new material,” said Wu Guanghui, vice-president of COMAC, the general designer of C919, the first homegrown large passenger aircraft

Wu said the nano ceramic aluminum alloy material is still being tested, and is expected to be used in the C919 aircraft, replacing some of current components, which were imported.

A new material innovation center was established at the university last week, which aims to further boost the industrialization of the nano ceramic aluminum alloy material. Based on Wang’s research team, the center was jointly established by the Huaibei government of Anhui province, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai JuneYao Group and Anhui Xiangbang Composite Material Co.

In 2013, the Huaibei government established a midterm test and manufacturing base with an annual production capacity of more than 1,000 metric tons, and it also founded the Anhui Xiangbang Composite Material Co. The production of such material aims to meet large-scale applications in aerospace, aviation and auto industries.

What would people do if they see a box full of coins unattended? Recently, a kind of self-service coin box was put into use in multiple cities throughout China to find out.

The boxes are placed near the bus stops and metro stations, with a sign besides the box usually reading “If you need money right now, please pick up a maximum of five yuan (about 1 US dollar). If you have some spare money, please donate and help others.”

As it turned out later in the footages recorded on hidden cameras, the vast majority of citizens have followed the rules.

In Hefei, the capital and largest city of eastern China’s Anhui Province, no one took away more than 5 yuan. While in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, there was even an extra amount of 20 yuan at the end of the day.

“My colleagues often forget to bring enough coins to take the bus, so we decided to put aside some coins in the office for the group. That’s how it’s started and I wanted to try it out at the nearby metro stations and bus stops,” Cao Yi, the initiator of the events, told Yangcheng Evening News.

Cao’s idea was supported by his company called YDNewmedia, a Shenzhen-based new media company, which then organized a series of events in over 20 cities.

“During the 5 hours while we were there shooting, we have not encountered a single case of people taking money more than allowed,” said Cao, who was almost sure he would lose all 500 yuan in the box.