Shanxi residents relishing cleanenergy improvements · 2020. 1. 16. · Catering Culture...
Transcript of Shanxi residents relishing cleanenergy improvements · 2020. 1. 16. · Catering Culture...
6 | DISCOVER SHANXI Friday, January 17, 2020 CHINA DAILY
The page is sponsored by the Shanxi provincial government.
Spectacular invention to make every voice heardBy YIN [email protected]
Ren Yamin, an entrepreneurfrom Shanxi province, is usingtechnology to make communication for the hearingimpaired easier than ever before.
Ren, who has been deaf sincebirth, has developed smart glasses which use artificial intelligence andcloud technology to translate voice into text and project it onto lenses.
The idea for the glasses firstcame to Ren while he was studyingat the University of California, LosAngeles in 2005. However, it wasnot until after his studies that hecould begin bringing his idea to life.
While working at a tech companycalled Integrine, Ren learned agreat deal about cloud computingand AI technology. Upon leavingthe company and establishing SeeingVoice, Ren launched a cloudplatform based on AI and deeplearning technologies in 2018called 40DADOW.
The first product to use 40DADOW were the smart glasses Renhad thought about at university.
Ren said the hearingaid technology based on the 40DADOWcloud platform has intellectualproperty rights, on which semanticrecognition and acoustic modelsare stored and executed, and at thesame time, automatic deep learning is applied.
“The cloud platform has goodrecognition and speech separationresults by using large models, ultrahigh speed computing and othertechnologies,” he said.
“All calculations and operationsare executed in the cloud, whichensures that the product can quickly adapt to the hearing environment and offer an optimizedsolution,” he added.
With money coming in fromangle investors, Ren said the nextstage for his company would be rawmaterial procurement and expan
sion. A classmate from the University of Science and Technology ofChina, Zhou Hui, who works as avicepresident at a Fortune 500company, has provided the parts tomake the glasses.
At a recent event held in Toronto,Canada, all 100 of Ren’s prototypeglasses sold out. “It is my ultimategoal of realizing realtime recognition of Chinese language, though itis technically difficult. What I needis not wealth, but to help Chinesewho can barely hear,” Ren said.
Ren achieved more success aftersetting up his company SeeingVoice in the Shanxi Transition andComprehensive Reform Demonstration Zone in Taiyuan, capital ofthe province. The company beganselling the smart glasses last June,and according to its developmentplan, production bases covering5.33 hectares will be put into operation by the end of 2021.
In the next five years, SeeingVoice will provide 500 jobs and isprojected to generate 20 millionyuan ($2.86 million) in tax revenueafter 2023, local media reported.
“My mission is to make the worldhave no voice that cannot beheard,” Ren said. “Next, we arelooking to make visually impairedpeople see through listening.”
Yang Yu contributed to this story.
A hearingimpaired customer (right) tries on a pair of smart glasses developed by SeeingVoice, with the aid of a company employee.PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Regional specialty noodles are a cut above the rest By SONG [email protected]
With its landscape of plateausbound by mountains, Shanxi province in North China is regardedacross the country as being associated with fields of wheat and iconicwheat products.
It is said that the people ofShanxi know as many as 100 different techniques of cooking withwheat flour, using them in themaking of many unique and special noodle dishes.
None of Shanxi’s noodle dishes ismore iconic than that of daoxiaomian, translated as knifecut noodles.
To add to the allure of the dishthe element of spectacle is key,with chefs using a special knife toquickly and elegantly slice dough— the process propelling the thickin the center and thin at the edgenoodles in the air until landingwith a splash in a pot of boilingwater.
Locals say that some of the mostskilled chefs can slice up to 200noodles a minute.
The dish, which is believed todate back to the beginning of theYuan Dynasty (12711368), is oftenserved with a rich, meatbasedsauce to the delight of dinersacross the province and beyond.
In the city of Taiyuan, capital ofShanxi province, any number offine restaurants can be found serving up delicacies from across thecountry such as from Sichuan andHunan.
But it is the local Shanxi food
that really gets most people salivating.
Local eateries such as ShanxiHuiguan, Shunliu’er and DatongKnifesliced Noodles have beenserving satisfied customers in thecity for generations.
Like daoxiaomian, chefs haveintertwined spectacle with thetechniques to make other dishes.
At restaurants operated by Taiyuan Qingxurenjia JinyunlouCatering Culture Development,customers watch in amazement astalented chefs perform a dancewhile making lamian, whichmeans pulled noodles.
The chefs swing the noodlesaround with elegance as theystretch longer and longer, thinnerand thinner before finally makingtheir way to the pot for boiling. Theroutines are always met with rapturous applause.
Qu Yong, an executive from Taiyuan Qingxurenjia JinyunlouCatering Culture Development,said Shanxi abounds in wheatcrops and other coarse cereals suchas buckwheat, maize, sorghum andmillet, and so that’s why there issuch a wealth of wheat and noodledishes.
Another specialty of Shanxi ishuamo — a method of decorating specially shaped steamed buns. So intricate are the designs that the techniques have become a folk art unique to Shanxi, particularly the province’s Wenxi county where hundreds of huamo are made during Tomb Sweeping Day in early April shaped as animals such as fish, birds, tigers and dragons.
By HU YUYAN [email protected]
An unexpected detour gave several tourists a pleasant glimpse of snowcovered Wutai Mountains in North China’s Shanxi province.
An early January snowfall inShanxi forced Li Jianing and his family from Hebei province to deviate from their planned route. But they ended up getting to see the sacred Buddhist site covered in white. It was a stunning, tranquil sight that filled them with peace and joy, Li said.
In winter, Wutai Mountains,which has been listed as a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, is more than just a sight for sore eyes. During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, starting on Jan 24 this year,the scenic area will put on BuddhistMusic performances each day at Pusading Temple and Shuxiang Temple. Monks will perform Buddhist tunes using more than 10 musical instruments including flutes and drums.
The Buddhist Music of Wutai,listed among nationallevel intangible cultural heritage, has a long history. It is passed down orally andincorporates musical pieces popular in different periods since the Tang Dynasty (618907), according to a website run by China’s intangible heritage protection center.
Wutai Mountains launched itsSpring Festival celebrations pro
gram back in 2002. It provides an escape for urbanites who want to celebrate the holiday in the traditional ways, according to the scenicarea’s website.
In recent years, hundreds ofthousands of visitors have spent their Spring Festival holiday at
Wutai Mountains annually, which local hotel owner Bian Zhiguo described as “a land enfolded in Buddha’s light”.
Located in northeastern Shanxi,Wutai Mountains is one of the major four Buddhist mountainsin China. The others are Mount Emei in Sichuan province, Mount Jiuhua in Anhui province and Mount Putuo in Zhejiang province.
The name “Wutai”, literally meaning five terraces, stems from the fact that each of the five mountains that constitute Wutai has a flat peak. The
North Terrace is the highest of the five, with an altitude of 3,061 meters.
The mountains make an idealhabitat for flora and fauna, home to661 varieties of plants and almost 350 species of animals. They include beech martens, leopards, foxes and blackbrowed reed warblers, according to the scenic area’s website.
In summer and autumn, cattleand horses can be seen grazing on the slopes and terraces. Every year, a fair is held throughout the sixth lunar month to trade cattle, horses, mules and donkeys.
Wutai is also a rich repository ofhuman legacies. For more than 1,600 years, it has been one of the most important Buddhist sites in China. The attraction receives some 3 million visits every year.
Visitors get to see more than30,000 Buddhist figures at Wutai, either carved, cast, painted or embroidered.
The East Hall of Foguang Templehouses lifesize clay Buddha sculptures. Shuxiang Temple features an overwhelming complex of 500 colorful statues protruding from the walls, silently telling Buddhist stories.
A whole ensemble of stelae, plaques, couplets and poems catalogsthe Buddhist tradition at WutaiMountains.
Among the authors, EmperorKangxi during the Qing Dynasty (16441911) wrote 20 inscriptions. His grandson, Emperor Qianlong, composed 39 poems. The imperial patronage also reflects the importance of Wutai Mountains as a cultural and religious site.
Li Yu contributed to this story.Wutai Mountains is blanketed in snow. JIAO JINQI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Shanxi residents relishing cleanenergy improvementsGreener transportation and powergeneration methods have locals living better than ever
By ZHANG [email protected]
While showing his photographyworks of local scenery, amateur photographer Zhu Mingyuan from Xiaoyi, Shanxi province relished in the atmosphere.
“Now in the city, the air is fresher,the plants greener, and local residents have a happier mood than before,” Zhu said. “The sky here used to be gloomy and gray.”
Du Zhanmei, a 66yearold villager in Qingxu county in Shanxi, said that in previous years, heavy fog and haze haunted the county in winters.
“But more recently, we havebegun to enjoy more blue skies and better weather, even in the peak of winter when coal use is at its highest,” Du said.
As an important energy andindustrial production hub in China, Shanxi has mined 19 billion metric tons of coal over the past seven decades, helping shore up the sustainable development of the Chinese economy, according to the local government.
Yet an economic structure withexcessive dependence on coal mining has handicapped Shanxi’s overall development and caused pollution.
To cope with the issue, theprovince has made strides inreforming its energy supply, consumption, technology, and cooperation and innovationmechanisms, aiming to forge anadvanced energy system.
Keeping close to Shanxi’sreform in the energy system,Zhao Yangsheng, a professor of
mining engineering at TaiyuanUniversity of Technology, is committed to researching exploitation technologies of nextgeneration energy, includingcoalbed methane and oil shale, torealize lowcarbon and cleanenergy development and use.
Zhao and his research team havedeveloped a technology for exploiting the oil shale, which he said will lead to a technological revolution in exploiting the oil shale and injectmomentum into Shanxi’s energy reform.
Achievements made in fosteringthe province’s energy reform can befound in cities and counties, as wellas in enterprises in Shanxi.
With more than 8,200 fullyelectric taxies put into service,Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, is the first city worldwide torealize the electrification of all itstaxies, according to the local government.
Qinyuan county of Changzhi cityin Shanxi has witnessed the operation of 166 wind energydriven generators, which can generate 482 million kilowatthours of electricityeach year.
Compared with thermal powergeneration in generating theequivalent electricity, the windenergydriven generators can
save 172,000 tons of coal per yearand cut 131,000 tons of dust,480,000 tons of carbon dioxide,15,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and7,100 tons of nitrogen oxide eachyear.
The wind power generationsystem in the county has generated significant economic, socialand environmental benefits, thelocal government said.
Lu’an Group, one of the leadingcoal enterprises in Shanxi, takes advantage of advanced technologies, turning pollutionintensive highsulfur coal into a “treasure”, offering a clean, efficient and lowcarbon solution of utilizing such coal in the province and the country.
Through technical processing,the coal company has established five hightech industrial chains of highsulfur coal and produced 180 models of fine chemicals.
Shanxi’s coalbed methane extraction has accounted for more than 90percent of the country’s total. The installed capacity of new energy power generation in Shanxi has exceeded 20 million kWh. The province also has the largest scale of photovoltaic power generation in China.
Xie Yan and Li Yu contributed to this story.
Cattle graze on a mountainous pasture nearby a wind farm in Qinyuan, Shanxi province. MA LIMING / FOR CHINA DAILY
Now in the city (Xiaoyi), the air is fresher, the plants greener, and local residents have a happier mood than before.”Zhu Mingyuan, a local amateur photographer who records changes in the city with his camera
World heritage mountains offeringunique sights throughout the year
661varietiesof plants foundin Wutai Mountains
A performance by a chef preparing noodles at Jinyunlou restaurant in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, impresses foreign visitors.
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