Nearly 1,000 visitors enjoy a long banquet along a street in the ancient Huangling village in Wuyuan, East China’s Jiangxi Province, Aug. 4, 2018. The connected tables stretched for hundreds of meters, and local dishes were served up for tourists. (Photo: China News Service/Fang Huabinb)
Zhou Xiaotong cleans a frame from one of his beehives. (Photo/Xinhua)
Hundreds of beehives line a road beside a lavender field in the Ili River valley in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It's harvest season for lavender, and the valley is filled with the sweet smell of success.
It's still dark at 8 am and the bees, which use the sun to navigate, have not yet begun their daily toil. But Zhou Xiaotong and his wife, Zhou Heying, have been working for three hours, and they won't go home until their bees return to their hives at 11 pm.
Lavender has been grown in the valley since the 1960s. Today, 90 percent of China's lavender fields are in Ili. Only Provence in France and Japan's Furano have more lavender fields.
The purple flower blooms from May to July. At the height of the flowering season, Zhou's bees can produce 5 metric tons of lavender honey that he can sell for 300 yuan ($45) a kilogram, three times the price of ordinary honey.
Beekeeper Zhou Xiaotong prepares to harvest honey at a lavender field in the Ili River valley in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. (Photo/Xinhua)
Li Meixuan, a special police officer with the Changchun Railway Public Security Bureau, takes part in shooting training in Changchun City, Jilin Province. The 33-year-old puts high expectations on herself in training. Her team is predominantly responsible for emergency responses to terror attacks. She said she chooses to be a policewoman because of the influence of her father, also a police officer. (Photo: China News Service/Zhang Yao)
Li Meixuan, a special police officer with the Changchun Railway Public Security Bureau, gives instructions on shooting in Changchun City, Jilin Province.
A set of quadruplets became the center of attention this summer in Jinan city, Shandong province, as they are always spotted in matching clothes. [Photo/IC]
When the quadruplets were born in 2010, their mother surnamed Jiao quit her job to take care of them. "I was exhausted when they were babies. But now when I am not feeling well, they help me with household chores," Jiao said. At present, Jiao operates a child-care business called "little dining tables" (xiaofanzhuo) - after-school care centers providing meals and place to primary-school student whose parents cannot take them home after their classes.
Children celebrate "Start of Autumn", 13th of the 24 annul solar terms, by eating watermelon at a community in Hefei City, Anhui Province on Aug. 6, 2018. (Photo: China News Service/Han Suyuan)
Children celebrate "Start of Autumn", 13th of the 24 annul solar terms, by drawing watermelon at a community in Hefei City, Anhui Province on Aug. 6, 2018.
Rescuers help drivers escape from a truck trapped by mountain torrents in Fudian Town, Yanshi City, Central China’s Henan Province, Aug. 5, 2018. Fifteen drivers were saved after a flash flood caused by a two-hour rainstorm trapped 50 trucks. (Photo/VCG)
Young performers prepare for the summer concert in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 1, 2018. The 34th Harbin Summer Music Concert kicked off here on Aug. 6. (Xinhua/Cao Jiyang)
Couriers wear cooling jackets that enables cool internal temperatures at 27 C for the wearer. [Photo by Niu Jing/for China Daily]
Shi Jiaxiang,manager of a courier station in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, bought eight cooling jackets online for his couriers who have to work even on the hottest days of a year, when temperatures can reach 42 C in the daytime.
Through new technologies, the jackets enable cool internal temperatures at 27 C for the wearer, giving couriers a break from the hot summer air.
The Fuxing train starts running along the Beijing-Tianjin intercity high-speed railway at 350 kilometers per hour, up from 300 km/h, on Aug. 8, 2018. The Beijing-Tianjin intercity high-speed railway, one of China's calling cards, opened in August 2008. In 10 years, it has carried 250 million passengers. (Photo/VCG)
Attendants celebrate the start of Fuxing train running along the Beijing-Tianjin intercity high-speed railway at 350 kilometers per hour, up from 300 km/h, on Aug. 8, 2018.
Children practice ballet to prepare for the summer concert in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 1, 2018. The 34th Harbin Summer Music Concert kicked off here on Aug. 6. (Xinhua/Cao Jiyang)
Young cello player Wang Zimeng prepares for the summer concert and competition in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, July 1, 2018. The 34th Harbin Summer Music Concert kicked off here on Aug. 6. (Xinhua/Cao Jiyang)
China Post issued a set of special stamps featuring the traditional Chinese solar terms on Aug. 7, which marks the Start of Autumn. The stamp set consists of six stamps that represent six different solar terms in the autumn: Start of Autumn, End of Heat, White Dew, Autumn Equinox, Cold Dew and Frost's Descent. The price for a whole set is 7.2 yuan (around $1.1) and each stamp has a nominal value of 1.2 yuan. The issued stamps portray people and autumn scenes in detail, and highlight the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in life and labor during the harvest season. [Photo/VCG]
Children visit a modern agricultural garden in Hengshui City, north China's Hebei Province, Aug. 8, 2018. Children learn agricultural knowledge here during their summer vacation. (Xinhua/Zhu Xudong)
Photos taken on Aug. 8, 2018 shows the Beijing International Comics & Animation Festival (BICAF) in Beijing. Yoko Takahashi, a Japanese singer from Tokyo, sang three songs at the opening ceremony of the BICAF, one of the largest annual exhibitions in China in the sector. (Photo: China News Service/Piao Lina)
