Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI. Coming up on today’s program China's tourism roars back during New Year's Day holiday, topping pre-pandemic levels; China's first home-made cruise ship sets sail on maiden voyage. Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours  China's tourism industry roared back to life during the just-concluded New Year's Day holiday, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in both visitor numbers and revenue. Domestic destinations welcomed a staggering 135 million visitors over the three-day break, a staggering 155.3-percent surge compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Monday. This figure even marks a 9.4 percent increase compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel.  The holiday proved equally lucrative, with tourism-related revenue soaring over 200 percent year-on-year to over 79.7 billion yuan. Notably, this figure also stands 5.6 percent higher than that recorded in 2019. During this year's New Year holiday, border control agencies nationwide inspected inbound and outbound travelers about 5.18 million times, a 4.7-fold increase compared to the New Year holiday in 2023. This is roughly in line with the figure seeing during the holiday in 2019, the administration said on Tuesday. Travel numbers and tourism revenue were both up in multiple Chinese cities and provinces during the three-day break. Shanghai received over 7.18 million tourists during the holidays, up 16.3 percent year-on-year. And, a total of 170 scenic spots in Beijing greeted over 4.83 million of tourists, up 80.5 percent year-on-year. Data from the tourism authority of Guangdong Province showed that the province received 14.48 million tourists during the holidays, surging 78.1 percent year-on-year. Tourism revenue hit 8.9 billion yuan, nearly doubling last year's figure, and was up 12.1 percent if compared to 2019. Southwest China's Sichuan Province welcomed 9.15 million of tourists during the holidays, up 80.7 percent year-on-year, with ticket sales for scenic spots hitting 83.15 million yuan, up 89.6 percent year-on-year, according to the Sichuan tourism authority. Thailand and China will permanently waive visa requirements for each other’s citizens from March, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday.   Around 214,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia entered China in December 2023, an increase of 28.5 percent compared with November, after a visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from these countries took effect on Dec 1, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). Of these inbound trips, 118,000 were made by ordinary passport holders without a visa. China on Monday formally started its fifth national economic census. Some 2.1 million enumerators will go into businesses and communities to collect and register economic data in 1.16 million census areas over the next nearly four months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). China's national economic census takes place every five years. China's manufacturing activity fell for the third month in a row in December, mainly affected by the off-season of some basic raw material industries. China’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 49 in December, official data showed on Sunday. The figure was 49.4 in November. Non-manufacturing PMI stood at 50.4 in December, up 0.2 percentage points from November, indicating accelerated expansion. Moving on to regional highlights The land port of Erenhot, the largest on the China-Mongolia border, registered record-high import and export freight volume last year, according to the local commerce bureau. As of Friday, the freight volume passing through the port in north China's Inner Mongolia was over 19 million tons in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 34.1 percent. Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi reported record container throughput in 2023. The port handled o