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Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.
Coming up on today’s program.
· Emergency response has been upgraded after Gansu earthquake, while companies are quick to offer donation and supplies;
· World's first Zootopia land opens at Shanghai Disney Resort.
Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours
The 6.2-magnitude earthquake that jolted China's Gansu province and neighboring Qinghai province at midnight Monday has killed 131 people, with over 780 people injured, local authorities said Tuesday.
The earthquake had damaged 155,393 houses in Gansu as of 1 pm Tuesday, according to the provincial earthquake relief headquarters.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply saddened by the tragic earthquake, and the loss of life and property damage and injuries to people, his spokesman said on Tuesday.
China has upgraded the national disaster-relief emergency response to Level II for the earthquake. Over 736 rescuers from central enterprises' projects in nearby areas, as well as 2,042 firefighters, have been sent to the quake-hit region, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.
More relief supplies are also on the way. The ministry said the third batch of relief goods, including 2,000 cotton tents, 5,000 rollaway beds, 5,000 overcoats, and 10,000 quilts, have been allocated to Gansu. As of 5 pm Tuesday, a total of 133,500 relief items have been sent to Gansu and the neighboring Qinghai province to support the basic needs of those affected by the earthquake.
Traffic has been resumed on all rural highways connecting areas severely affected by the earthquake as of 7 pm Tuesday, the country's transport authorities said Tuesday.
All the expressways as well as national and provincial trunk roads in Gansu and Qinghai are operating smoothly, and relief personnel, supplies and vehicles can reach the disaster-hit areas unimpededly, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Relentless efforts have also been made to restore power supply in quake-hit areas. The damaged main power grid circuits in the earthquake-stricken area of Jishishan county have been fully restored as of 6:30 pm Tuesday, according to the State Grid Gansu Electric Power Company.
Over 30 Chinese companies are also donating large sums of money and plenty of supplies for rescue work and post-disaster reconstruction after the deadly earthquake.
The Tencent Foundation and TikTok operator ByteDance’s charitable foundation are each giving away 20 million yuan. ByteDance is also linking arms with Chinese movie star Jet Li’s One Foundation to donate 1,000 cotton quilts.
E-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding has donated over 50,000 boxes of emergency supplies and gifted 10 million yuan, while Pinduoduo has released 20 million yuan for the purchase of goods such as thermal clothing and tents and for post-disaster reconstruction in the quake epicenter of Jishishan county.
Chinese sportswear company Anta Sports is donating 40 million yuan of cold weather clothing and another sports brand Li Ning is distributing 20 million yuan of outdoor heating supplies, as temperatures remain below zero in the area.
Carmakers are also doing their bit. Chery Holdings and BYD’s philanthropic foundation have donated 12 million and 10 million yuan respectively, while GAC Group and Great Wall Motor each gifted 5 million yuan in cash.
Moving on to regional highlights
· Shanghai has launched a series of initiatives to accelerate the construction of scientific research infrastructure to build a global science and technology innovation center. Shanghai will offer subsidies of up to 300 million yuan to cover no more than 80 percent of new facilities costs for projects researching key technologies and core equipment in the photonics, life sciences, artificial intelligence, energy, and marine sectors, according to a document the Shanghai government released yesterday. A user subsidy mechanism for scientific research facilities will also be established to support