2020 has been a year that’s given country cause to celebrate, reflect
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2020 was no ordinary year.
Over the past 12 months, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the world. China was hit by the novel coronavirus outbreak, but it was successfully brought under control after painstaking efforts by local authorities, health workers and the people, which were steered by the government.
The country also reached a major landmark this year, when the last 52 impoverished counties managed to shake off extreme poverty, a historic moment in China’s efforts to build a moderately prosperous society in an allaround way.
Mother Nature unleashed her wrath. Floods caused by heavy rain hit many areas in eastern, southern and southwestern China in June. However, coordinated disaster relief efforts helped keep the loss of lives and property at a minimum.
Marking another important success in the country’s moon exploration program, the Chang’e 5 spacecraft brought lunar samples back to Earth, only the third country to achieve the feat and the first in 44 years.
It was a year of major difficulties that tested the nation’s resolve, but also one of many glorious moments. The ebb and flow of the year was recorded by our photographers.
Since 2012, China Daily has published “annual photos of international communication” at the end of each year, chosen from tens of thousands of photos used by this media organization. By compiling this “photo essay of the year”, we hope to offer our readers a keepsake of the remarkable events of 2020.
WANG QIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Above: Zhang Yuhuan cries with his son Zhang Baogang at home in Jinxian, Jiangxi province, on Aug 4, after a retrial cleared his name and freed him. He was wrongfully convicted of killing two children and served 27 years in prison.
ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY
Left: Ninety-year-old Li Xiuqi, a veteran of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53), looks at a photo exhibition at the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution in Beijing on Oct 29. The show marked the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers Army joining the war.
ZHANG HONGFEI / FOR CHINA DAILY
Right: A police officer moves a child from a flooded area in Chaohu, Anhui province, on July 20.
CHEN XIAOGEN / FOR CHINA DAILY
People pack the Beijing Wedding Expo on Oct 7. The two-day event was the biggest fair for wedding-related products and services in the city since the outbreak of COVID-19.
ZHOU SHUNBIN / FOR CHINA DAILY
Residents in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, pose with a bus painted with patterns to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the country’s first special economic zone, on Aug 26.
PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
The Chang’e 5 robotic probe unfurls the first free-standing Chinese national flag on the moon’s surface on Dec 4.
WANG JING / CHINA DAILY
Left: Seven officers from the Pumaqangtang border police station patrol the Kampug glacier at an altitude of 5,600 meters above sea level in Lhokha, Tibet autonomous region, on Aug 19.
KE HAO / FOR CHINA DAILY
Above: Passengers of a car cheer after passing an expressway tollgate in Wuhan, Hubei province, at midnight of April 8 as the city reopened after a 76-day lockdown.
WANG JING / CHINA DAILY
Above: A medical worker looks at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan, Hubei province, on March 1.
ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY
Left: Journalists take photos of a bronze sculpture of a horse’s head looted by invading AngloFrench forces 160 years ago at Yuanmingyuan in Beijing on Dec 1.
HUA XIAOFENG / FOR CHINA DAILY
People climb to Atuleer village in Zhaojue county, Sichuan province, along a steel ladder with a handrail on May 13. All residents of the “cliff village” have been relocated to a community near the county seat.
CHEN XIAODONG / FOR CHINA DAILY
A team of the People’s Liberation Army medical workers walk out of a transport plane at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, Wuhan, Hubei province, on Feb 2.