Flights, medicine and air are key topics

Plane travel set to expand

From Sunday until Oct 27, a new holiday season will see more than 89,000 flights for freight and passengers each week, operated by about 200 airline companies, said the Civil Aviation Administration.

The number of flights will be 3.2 percent higher compared to the same season last year, the administration said. Domestic airlines run 67,263 flights each week, 3.6 percent higher than the same season in 2017. In the new season, 37 airline companies will open 266 routes connecting small cities such as Zunyi in Guizhou province and Boao in Hainan province with major cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

Newly-opened routes help prioritize the flight network, while data sharing has been strengthened to improve safety for airports and airliners, it said.

Medicine program begins

A three-year pilot program was started in January using traditional Chinese and Western medicine to target major diseases, said a joint notice released by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and two other departments.

The program has 58 sub-programs to attempt to cure more than 30 serious diseases, including diabetes and liver cancer.

The notice targets clinical collaboration of Western and traditional Chinese medicines in healing serious diseases, by taking advantages offered by both.

Lhasa tops air quality list

Concentrations of PM 2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of or less than 2.5 micrometers) decreased by 8.2 percent in February, compared to the same period last year, said the Ministry of Ecological Environment.

On average, 75.9 percent of days were good in 338 cities, up by 4.8 percent, the ministry said.

In 74 key cities, Lhasa ranked first in air quality, followed by Haikou in Hainan province, Xiamen and Fuzhou in Fujian province, Lishui and Zhoushan in Zhejiang province, Shenzhen and Huizhou in Guangdong province, Zhangjiakou in Hebei province and Wenzhou in Zhejiang.

Enrollment fraud targeted

The Ministry of Education released a notice to crack down on fraud in school autonomous enrollment to enhance the environment for university recruitment and safeguard educational equality.

Universities are required to strengthen the review and assessment of students in autonomous enrollment, where school grades rather than an entrance exam count, with stringent standards maintained.

Violators face punishment and students, if found to commit fraud during application, will be disqualified from the college entrance examination for one year. If they have already entered college they will be expelled. Anyone suspected of crimes will see their case submitted to judiciary departments.