HUBEI

Free-entry policy draws over 3 million to Hubei

Over 3 million people visited Hubei province about a week after it waived entry fees at tourist sites for Chinese visitors, according to local authorities. As of Sunday, scenic spots in Hubei received a total of 3.26 million visitors, with a significant rise in group and cross-provincial tours, after the free-ticket policy was put in place on Aug 8 as a token of gratitude for nationwide assistance during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the province's culture and tourism department. Over the past weekend alone, the number of tourists reached more than 1 million, with Wuhan, the provincial capital, being the top destination.

BEIJING

Anti-poverty product sales exceed 100b yuan

Sales of products from China's poverty-stricken areas have topped 102 billion yuan ($14.8 billion) this year amid the country's consumption-powered poverty reduction efforts, official data showed. The amount was generated by over 76,000 products from the country's 22 central and western provinces, according to the latest data from the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. Nine provincial-level regions in East China purchased products worth 26.4 billion yuan from impoverished areas, the office said.

GUIZHOU

More than 80 ancient reef organisms found

Chinese and British paleontologists have recently found a number of ancient marine organisms in a patch reef in Guizhou province. The Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said fossils of 83 species of reef organisms, dating back 385 million years, were identified in the patch reef in Jiwozhai, Dushan county.

XINJIANG

Diversion helps restore ecology in deserts

The Tarim River, China's longest inland river, in the southern part of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, has been diverted to flow across the world's largest desert poplar forest as part of an ecological restoration campaign. The sluices along the Tarim River are being opened gradually during the high-water season to channel water across about 1 million hectares of desert poplar forest in the river's basin. This is the fifth year for the project designed to nurture the drought-resistant plant that serves as a major greening force in south Xinjiang's deserts.

Xinhua