The Chinese national football team scored a disappointing 1-1 draw to Malaysia during a home match on Saturday, as fans continued to express their dissatisfaction at the lackluster performance well into Sunday. 

Malaysia stunned the hosts with a goal in the 11th minute, an anxious start to the first half of the match for the more than 26,000 home fans at the Phoenix Hill Sports Park Stadium in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. It was not until Lin Liangming scored an equalizer in the 36th minute that the fans were able to breathe a momentary sigh of relief. 

China, currently ranked 80th on the FIFA world rankings, made 16 shots compared with nine tries from Malaysia, who are world No.136, with the home team having ball possession for an overwhelming 67 percent of the match. 

When the stadium MC announced the draw, the fans inside the stadium angrily booed and yelled, while demanding their money back and chanting "refund!"

A video making the rounds on social media showed a fan so overcome with wrath during the game that he had to be escorted out by other fans and medical staff due after suffering from respiratory issues. 

"We didn't deserve to win tonight," China's head coach Aleksandar Jankovic told reporters after the match. "The fans supported us throughout the game, and I felt sorry that we disappointed them."

What further incensed Chinese football fans was the news that China's neighbor Japan bested former World Cup champions Germany with an impressive 4-1 victory during an away friendly match on Sunday.

"Once we were on the same level with Japan but now, I think we are like 30 years behind Japan," a fan usernamed Xinli wrote on Weibo. "Though on the under-15 level we've made some breakthroughs, the gap remains huge."

The Chinese under-15 national team defeated its Japanese counterpart in the Under-15 East Asian Championship final in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province earlier on Friday. 

In more good news for Chinese football, over the weekend the national under-23 team defeated India thanks to a 96th-minute goal from Naibijiang Mohemati, avoiding a second draw for yet another national team in one night. 

The senior national team will take on Syria on Tuesday, which Jankovic sees as an opportunity to prove the team's capabilities. 

"The good thing is that three days from now we have a game to prove ourselves. We need to correct the problems [we have] and win for our fans," he said.

Zou Jingyuan, the Tokyo Olympic champion five-time world champion, defended his titles in the men's team and men's parallel bars events at the Hangzhou Asian Games. The 25-year-old Chinese gymnastics ace talked about his physical condition and mindset, as well as his goals for next year's Olympics in Paris in an exclusive interview with the Global Times. He said he has felt less pressure for Paris after claiming the gold medals.

Zou competed in two individual events at the Asian Games, the men's parallel bars and rings, and he was also a member of the Chinese men's team. He said he was "quite satisfied" with his performance throughout the event.

"For me, the main thing is that in the team event I displayed my level of training," Zou, nicknamed "king of the parallel bars," told the Global Times.

Zou competed in the men's team competition in two individual apparatuses, the double bar and the rings. In both of the apparatuses, the Chinese team came in first place overall. Zou also praised the performance of his teammates, especially Zhang Boheng, who competed in all the events, saying he played an important and crucial role.

China narrowly defeated Japan in the men's team competition to clinch the title, just three points ahead. Zou said he was impressed by the Japanese team's performance. "The city brings us a lot of luck," he said after the match. 

Snatching gold with an incomparable lead, Zou shrugged off the overwhelming compliment, saying that his performance was not perfect. 

"I did not choose to increase the difficulty. The difficulty of this set is still a bit low compared to next year's Paris Olympics," he said. "These games are the cornerstone of the Paris Olympics."

In the other individual event he participated in, Zou only ranked sixth in the rings, seemingly affected by his injury. However, answering the Global Times, Zou dismissed the influence from injury.

"My injury is within a controllable range," he said. "In fact, it is the same for the opponents. They also face a lot of injuries and are also challenging themselves."

As the defending Olympic champion, Zou said he faces Paris with less tension and pressure than he did two years ago.

"Of course, the freshness during the competition is different," he told the Global Times. "But during training, I think there will be less pressure than before. I won't be fighting myself as much as before."

Speaking about his expectations for Paris, he said he expects to do well in Paris in what he didn't do well in Tokyo.

Immediately after the Asian Games, the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championship began in Antwerp, Belgium. Since the Chinese men's team has already qualified for Paris, the male athletes involved in the Asian Games will no longer be involved in the World Championships, as more opportunities will be offered to other teammates.

For his teammates who will soon start the World Championships, Zou said he hopes they will not have too much pressure.

"Of course I would want them to take the title, but more than that, I hope they can display themselves without pressure," he said. "In terms of results, it also depends on their opponents' performance."

As for Zou and his teammates who are participating in the Asian Games, they will get a rare vacation after that. "But it makes no difference to me whether I take a vacation or not," Zou said. "I will still train every day. As the days go by, it is closer to the Olympics."

The head coach of China's speed skating team said that she has been trying to instill a champion mentality among the young athletes, as the team held an open training session at the Capital Skating Oval in Beijing on Monday.

The team has been gearing up for the 2023-2024 ISU Speed Skating World Cup, an international tournament consisting of six events. The season begins on Friday in Obihiro, Japan and will end on February 4 in Quebec City, Canada. The skater with the most points in a given distance at the end of the series is the World Cup winner in that distance.

Chinese skaters will leave for Japan on Tuesday for the first leg of the world cup series and they are excited to make their mark in the second leg which will take place at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval, or "Ice Ribbon," from November 17-19.

Li Yan, the head coach, told the Global Times that she expects more young players will make breakthroughs in the new season.

"We've been working hard to improve the overall strength of the team in the past year. We want to develop the champion mindset within our team in practice and competition," said Li.

The team is led by Gao Tingyu, who broke the Olympic record to win the men's 500m in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. It was also China's first gold medal in men's speed skating in the Winter Olympic Games. 

In addition to the short distance, China has made up ground in the medium- and long-distance races. In the 2023-24 season, four Chinese skaters have qualified for each of the women's 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m events. In the men's 500m, 1000m and 1500m, four skaters have also secured their spots respectively. 

Meanwhile, two skaters will compete in the men's 5,000m and 10,000m, the events for which China failed to qualify in the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. 

"We have realized our primary goals of having more male skaters participating in international long-distance events and improving women's long-distance results. Our objective is to forge ahead and change the status quo and we will take it one step at a time," Li noted. "We are also enhancing the athletes' capability of competing in multiple events, which is a trend of speed skating development."

Foreign coaches Jan Bos from the Netherlands and Alexander Rumyantsev from Russia also joined the team to help the skaters.

Li Qishi, who took her first world cup victory in 2014, told the Global Times after training that the participation of more young skaters has given fresh impetus to the team. 

"I think this is good for the development of speed skating in China. With more young skaters to compete in international events, there will be opportunities to create better results," said Li, adding that she has improved her starting recently. 

Young skater Liu Bin told the Global Times that Gao has set a good example of self-discipline and he will try to find his feet in the coming event. 

The world cup in Beijing is the first major international tournament held at the "Ice Ribbon" since the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. 

As one of the legacies of Beijing 2022, the "Ice Ribbon" has opened to the public after the Games.  

"I look forward to our skaters achieving better results on the home ice and we're excited to revisit the fast and furious atmosphere created by the cutting-edge venue," Li said. 

Taking advantage of the legacy of Beijing 2022, more international winter sports events have come to China and provided young skaters with opportunities to progress. 

The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final will take place in Beijing from December 7 to 10. Currently, the Chinese figure skating team is gearing up for the fourth leg of the figure skating series, which will be held in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from November 10 to 12. 

Meanwhile, the third leg of the 2023-24 ISU Short Track Speed Skating World Cup will take place in Beijing from December 8 to 10. China's short track speed skaters wrapped up the first two legs with four golds, one silver and one bronze. 

Olympic champion Su Yiming will take part in the second leg of the 2023/2024 FIS Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard Big Air World Cup, which will be held at Shougang Big Air in Beijing from November 30 to December 2.

The 2024 Four Continents Figure Skating Championships will take place in Shanghai from January 30 to February 4, 2024.

On Friday, the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform a 50th anniversary concert with the China National Symphony Orchestra at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. They will also visit Shanghai and Suzhou.

The concert, hosted by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and organized by the China International Culture Group Corporation, will be jointly conducted by chief conductor of the China National Symphony Orchestra, Li Xincao, and assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Tristan Rais-Sherman.

There are plans to give master classes, host panel discussions, and hold a chamber music performance in Shanghai.

The orchestra is a vivid witness to the friendship between the two peoples of China and the US, and continues to carry on the legacy of people-to-people exchanges though music.
Exactly half a century after his first trip to China, 74-year-old American musician Davyd Booth still clearly remembers how he felt about the country at first glance, and is amazed at how dramatically the country has changed while the people remained hospitable and kind.

This mid-November, the Philadelphia Orchestra will travel to China for a series of activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the ensemble's historic 1973 tour of China, the first by a US orchestra.

As a member of the orchestra, violinist Davyd Booth participated in the 1973 tour, and this time he will return to China, yet again, and visit Beijing, Shanghai and Suzhou, to continue the friendship between the people of the two countries through music.

In Beijing, master pieces including L'eloingement, Divertimento and Violoncello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 are set to be performed during the concert.

"I would never forget my trip to China, which was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I returned to China 20 years later, and found it completely changed," Booth recalled his experience with the Global Times.

Like most Americans, as a child, young Booth read about China in books and saw pictures of rice paddies, boats and great architecture. However, Booth didn't have the chance to visit China until he joined the Philadelphia Orchestra when he was 23.

When the orchestra made history that year by becoming the first US orchestra to perform in China, one of its members had a last-minute change of plans. The sudden illness of the violinist gave Booth the opportunity to replace him and witness a historic moment.
Trip in 1973

For two members of the then Central Philharmonic (now China National Symphony Orchestra), 90-year-old Zhu Xinren and 88-year-old Yang Shi, training and having exchanges with US musicians was an unforgettable experience.

Ormandy and other US musicians watched a performance by their Chinese counterparts on September 15, 1973. They showed great interest in string ensemble Two Springs Reflect the Moon, which had just been adapted by Wu Zuqiang, leader of the composition group of the Central Philharmonic. The Chinese charm of the melody immediately attracted them.

"They asked to get the score sheets in the hopes of performing it in the US. It was just finished a year before by Wu and the debut had made it ­possible for it to head to the US stage," violinist Zhu recalled.

Chinese conductor Li Delun led the Chinese orchestra in a performance of one movement from Beethoven's Fifth. Then he handed his baton to Ormandy and asked him to conduct the next movement. Ormandy led the orchestra, and everyone applauded.

"Music connects the world. He also praised us young performers for our strong receptivity. This can be said to have been a worldwide cooperation," said Zhu.

For Booth, the performance in 1973 was a success built on the ­foundation of the two orchestras' previous efforts.

"Music was a powerful tool for communication and connection, not only with other musicians, but also with the audiences," Booth told the Global Times.

"It was a great achievement. Both China and the US want to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the tour, which was a historic event. Music had a profound impact on people's lives, and the orchestras' performance in 1973 was a life-changing event for many people."

This tour will be the orchestra's 13th visit to China, and Booth has been in every trip. He is looking forward to not only the musical collaboration with Chinese orchestras, but also seeing the transformation and development of China.

"I've never seen a country change so dramatically and so quickly. I remembered there was one trip where we stayed in a hotel and watched a building being constructed at an astonishing speed. It was like something out of a movie."
Mutual respect

Booth poured out his memories of his 1973 visit to China in a video conversation with the Global Times, in which he noted how amazed he was by the contrast of lifestyles in China and the US in the last century.

"At that time Beijing was a small city surrounded by fields, where farmers used wooden carts and water buffaloes. Everyone wore the same clothes, hats, and haircuts, making it hard to tell men and women apart. There were no tall buildings, few cars, and countless bicycles," recalled the musician.

He was impressed by the friendliness of the Chinese people, who were eager to interact with the US visitors.

"The orchestra was told not to talk to the Chinese people, and vice versa, but nobody followed that rule. We communicated through gestures and smiles, and felt mutual interest and respect. I was glad that I had the chance to see China in 1973, when it was still a mystery to most Americans."

Booth and the other musicians also never thought that the music played during their first Chinese trip would be heard not just by thousands of audiences in Beijing, but millions of people across the country through radio broadcasts on village loudspeakers.

Among them was a 16-year-old boy working in the rice fields in Central China's Hunan Province, Tan Dun, now known to the world for his Academy Award and Grammy Award winning music scores in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

One day in 1973, Tan heard beautiful but strange music filtering across the fields from a loudspeaker, a broadcast of the Philadelphia Orchestra playing in Beijing. The teenager paused in his work as they played Beethoven's Fifth.

"The symphony was like a silver light, emitting the sound of the future," recalled Tan, noting that it was the first time he had heard about a "symphony orchestra." Twenty years later, he received an invitation from the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Following in Tan's footsteps, a 10-year-old pianist named Lang Lang decided he would one day study in Philadelphia when he heard the orchestra perform in China in 1993 - the first time the orchestra had returned since the 1973 trip.
Lasting friendship

Founded in 1900, the Philadelphia Orchestra has long had a close ­relationship with China. Dating back to the 1940s, the orchestra performed to raise money for China's Eighth Route Army led by the Communist Party of China during World War II to fight against Japanese invaders.

"Music has the power to connect and build bridges. We are delighted to commemorate the orchestra's historic 1973 tour and our 50-year relationship with the people of China during this residency," Matías Tarnopolsky, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc, told the Global Times.

"The 1973 tour is remembered to this day by many in China as a symbol of deep musical friendship, and we hope that our ­music-making will continue to build bridges between our peoples and cultures."

"The friendship between the two countries bridges all sorts of gaps as music brings everyone together. Now we have many Chinese members in the Philadelphia Orchestra. China is really a part of us," said Booth.

"Tourism exchanges between China and Pakistan hold immense significance for strengthening the [two countries'] bilateral relationship," Pakistani Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi underscored on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the Pakistan Pavilion at the 2023 China Outbound Travel and Tourism Market (COTTM) Expo in China National Agriculture Center.

The inauguration of the pavilion was part of a series of activities aimed at celebrating 2023 as the "Year of Tourism and Exchange" between Pakistan and China.

While commending the efforts of the exhibitors and tourism companies for the promotion of Pakistan's tourism potential, the ambassador noted that Pakistan was bestowed with rich cultural heritage, diverse landscapes and unique culinary delights. He encouraged Chinese tourists, academics, and entrepreneurs to visit Pakistan.
There are different options for Chinese friends to explore Pakistan, Ambassador Hashmi told the Global Times on Wednesday.

People who are more interested in adventure tourism like mountain climbing or forest treks, for instance, will find that "Pakistan has some of the highest mountains in the world, So that's the very beautiful and very excellent regions for adventure tourism," he said.

Meanwhile, one of the many great attractions to Chinese tourists might be its civilization and heritage sites, Ambassador Hashmi added. One of the most visited sites in Pakistan, Taxila, is generally considered to be one of the most significant archaeological sites in Asia. Taxila was a university and educational center for Buddhists, and it attracted pilgrims from all across Asia.

Another attraction recommended by the ambassador to Chinese tourists was Pakistani gastronomy. "Chinese tourists would find Pakistani cuisine to be different and very diverse like in China. From the Northeast to the South, we also have places known for their spicy cuisine, a different type of spice than China, but we have less spicy food in the North. Food is a big industry in Pakistan and is something I'm sure our Chinese friends would also like," he told the Global Times.

The 2023 COTTM Expo focused on Belt and Road partner countries, saw the participation of more than 20 countries and regions such as Egypt, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, the Philippines, Poland, Tunisia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, and others at the exhibition held from Wednesday to Friday, with invitations being extended to Chinese tourists to visit these countries to appreciate and experience their nature, history, humanities, and life.

At least 12 tourism exhibitors and companies from Pakistan participated in the Expo. Ambassador Hashmi expressed hope that COTTM would serve as an excellent platform for networking between the tourism companies in China and Pakistan, which would contribute toward the further enhancing of people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

The 2023 Guilin Festival, came to an end on Sunday in Guilin, a famous tourist destination in South China's Guangxi Province. The ten-day festival had a theme of coexistence, seamlessly integrating art, theater, and the natural splendor of the region, according to a report by the Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.

The event was hosted by the Guilin Municipal People's Government and the Central Academy of Drama. A total of 140 activities and performances, featuring plays, folk music, operas, and monologues in different languages from 14 countries and regions.

While theater remains at the heart of the festival, the 2023 edition transcended traditional boundaries, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in a rich tapestry of experiences. 

From the grand processions of the Classic of Mountains and Seas to exuberant New Zealand Maori dance performances that captivated throngs of enthusiastic spectators, the festival pulsed with energy. 

Over 80 percent of this year's performances took place outdoors, harmoniously blending with Guilin's natural beauty. Unique venues like the "Mountain Theater," "Water Theater," "Cave Theater," "Grass Theater," and "Island Theater" allowed the landscape to become an integral part of the theatrical experience.

The stunning surroundings have inspired artists. The Russian cast of The Cherry Orchard remarked on the picturesque setting, while the German ensemble performing The Threepenny Opera along the Li River reveled in the unique stage, where the sky served as the backdrop, the earth as the stage, the mountains as scenery, and the water as a mirror.

This year's festival was marked by its youthful spirit. Across seven major sections - drama performances, urban arts, academic forums, children's programs, and more - the themes of "youth," "vitality," "diversity," and "innovation" resonated. 

The opening spectacle, Camel Xiangzi, directed by He Nian of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre, reimagines a classic work for modern audiences, inviting them to explore the timeless wisdom embedded in literary masterpieces.

Two productions from the "Global Chinese Youth Theatre Directors Talent Program," namely Huang Ying's new adaptation of Journey to the West (2023) and Zhao Miao's physical theater piece Fearless Mother and Her Children, garnered acclaim from international audiences and received multiple awards from the Scottish Asian Arts Foundation.

Director Wang Xiaoying aptly summarized the festival's essence, saying that the future of theater lies in young talent. Guilin Festival's focus on nurturing young theater professionals infuses it with dynamism. These emerging artists carry the cultural legacy forward, embodying the essence of Chinese artistry.

In August, the festival made history by hosting an international press conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, becoming the first Chinese arts festival to venture beyond its borders for a high-profile promotional event. 

The festival has captured the attention of over 200 domestic and international media outlets, as well as social media influencers. 

Topics related to the festival have been read about more than 900 million times on Sina Weibo, Douyin, life-style platform Xiaohongshu, and the Meitu Xiuxiu platform, the Xinhua report said.

Hao Rong, director of the Festival Organizing Committee, chairman of the Art Committee, and president of the Central Academy of Drama, said that the Guilin Festival is not only a response to the call of historical context, but also an inheritance of traditional literary and artistic spirit. It is also a reflection of the development of literature and art in the new era. 

"We hope to build the Guilin Festival into a 'Chinese-style art festival,' an international people's art festival based on diversity, mutual learning, and inclusive public benefit, based on the subjectivity of Chinese culture," he noted.

The original London West End musical The Last Five Years is being staged at the Beijing Tianqiao Art Center from Wednesday to Friday. This is the first round of performances for the show in the "performing arts capital" Beijing.

The musical is adapted from the personal experiences of composer Jason Robert Brown, who has won the "Tony Award" three times. 

After its premiere, The Last Five Years debuted off-Broadway in 2002 and in London's West End in 2006. Countless audiences have cried because of this work, and even fell in love with musicals because of it.

The show interweaves more than 10 songs to tell the story of the five years of the protagonists' love, marriage, indifference and divorce, showing their joys and sorrows.

Unlike many large-scale musicals with complex stage designs, The Last Five Years is very streamlined, consisting of only two actors and a band of five musicians.

The two actors have to perform non-stop on a rotating stage for nearly 100 minutes, not only perfectly presenting their own singing and playing, but also accompanying each other on the piano while singing and acting, which is a true test of their performance skills.

Authorities in India's southern state of Kerala have heightened surveillance measures to contain the spread of Nipah infections, officials said on Saturday.

The measures have been stepped up in Kozhikode district, where so far six cases have been identified. Of them, four are active while the remaining two died.

The state-run broadcaster All India Radio (AIR) said that so far 1,080 people have been included in the contact list of Nipah-infected patients in Kozhikode, of which 297 people are in the high-risk category.

"Those in the contact list are kept in isolation and their body fluids have been sent for testing," the broadcaster quoted officials as having said.

According to AIR, health workers covered more than 15,000 houses in Kozhikode so far, as part of their field survey.

Reports said after a resident in Cheruvannur tested positive for Nipah on Friday, local administration declared the five-kilometer area around the residence as a containment zone.
A strict perimeter control has been imposed in several localities falling under Kozhikode Municipal Corporation. The officials have put up barricades to limit access to these areas.

The district administration in Kozhikode has directed all educational institutions to hold classes online for the students till Sept. 24.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of India's top health research body - Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Rajiv Bahl, on Friday said they have reached out to Australia to procure 20 more doses of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of Nipah virus infection.

"We got some doses of monoclonal antibody from Australia in 2018. Currently, the doses are available for only 10 patients," Bahl said, adding globally monoclonal antibody has been given to 14 patients infected with Nipah virus outside India and all of them have survived.

According to Bahl, no one so far has been administered the medicine in India.

"Twenty more doses are being procured. But the medicine needs to be given during the early stage of the infection," he said. "It can only be given as compassionate use medicine."

Bahl said teams from ICMR's National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) and National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE) have been deployed on the ground and are working with authorities in Kerala to strengthen containment efforts.

He also advised that people take certain precautionary measures against Nipah, including handwashing, avoiding contact with body fluids of infected or suspected cases, avoiding areas where bats are known to roost and contact with bats and avoiding consumption of raw foods that may be contaminated by bats, such as raw date palm sap or raw fruits.

Kerala had first witnessed an outbreak of the Nipah virus in 2018 in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, claiming 17 lives.

According to WHO, Nipah virus infection is a newly emerging zoonosis that causes severe disease in both animals and humans. The natural hosts of the virus are fruit bats of the Pteropodidae Family, Pteropus genus.

Typically, the human infection presents as an encephalitic syndrome marked by fever, headache, drowsiness, disorientation, mental confusion, and coma, which can potentially lead to death.

The Chinese Embassy in Israel confirmed that a Chinese worker was injured in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Saturday, and the embassy has issued an urgent alert to Chinese citizens in Israel to pay close attention to security.

According to the embassy, the Chinese worker was injured by a stray bullet near Ashkelon in southern Israel during Saturday's Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is currently in hospital.

The embassy issued a safety alert on Saturday, saying that Israel had been hit by rocket attacks and armed assaults in multiple areas on the morning of that day, resulting in significant casualties. Hence, the embassy reminded Chinese citizens in Israel to closely monitor the local security situation and follow security measures to ensure their own safety.

The alert also stated that according to the Israeli tourism department's reminder, all types of tourism activities within Israel had been immediately suspended, and foreign tourists who were already in the country were told to stay in their hotel rooms and avoid going out.

Accordingly, the embassy emphasized that Chinese citizens must pay attention to and comply with relevant safety guidelines, especially familiarizing themselves with the locations and distribution of bomb shelters, and in the event of an air raid alarm, they should evacuate to the bomb shelters immediately.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza, with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that the country was "at war," according to media reports.

At least 40 people have been killed and over 700 injured, with the death toll expected to rise, the Times of Israel reported, while the Palestinian health officials said that 198 have died and at least 1,610 people had been injured in the strikes.

Cohen Roni, an Israeli citizen, told the Global Times on Saturday that she had never experienced such a large-scale conflict.

"I woke up in the morning to the sound of alarms and rockets. The entire country was in chaos, and my hands trembled with fear while my heart raced. Currently, citizens are all confined to their homes, not leaving under any circumstances. This is extremely dangerous, as if I were to leave my house, I could potentially be kidnapped or killed," Roni said.

Although the scale of this conflict is relatively unusual, some Chinese experts believe that fundamentally it remains a conflict between Israel and Palestine, and will not escalate into a war between Israel and the surrounding Arab countries.

This kind of conflicts have occurred in the past, mostly between Israel and Palestine's hawkish militias groups like Hamas, rather than a total war between the two countries, and normally Israel retaliated by intensifying its strikes on Hamas and the Gaza Strip to make Palestinians pay more bloodsheds, Ma Xiaolin, senior professor and dean of the Institute for Studies on the Mediterranean Rim at Zhejiang International Studies University, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Following the strikes, countries that have established diplomatic relations with the Middle East and Israel expressed varying degrees of protest and condemnation, leading to temporary appeasement, Ma added.

Currently, some major Arab or Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Oman are calling for both sides to exercise restraint, Ma said. "This indicates the delicate stance of these countries towards the Israeli-Palestinian issue, as they don't wish to be deeply involved," the expert noted.

The "Out of Africa - Celebrating the Beijing Swifts" seminar was successfully held on Monday evening in the Belgian Residence in Beijing, coinciding with the World Migratory Bird Day to promote the conservation of migratory birds such as the Beijing Swifts and their habitats. 

Ambassador of Belgium to China H.E. Bruno Angelet, deputy director-general of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau Wang Xiaoping, deputy director of the Wildlife and Wetland Protection Division Ji Jianwei, Beijing Normal University professor Zhao Xinru, professor of Ornithology at the Sun Yat-sen University, Liu Yang and Beijing-based wildlife conservationist Terry Townshend, and several ambassadors attended the event.

Ambassador Angelet, the host of the event delivered a speech. He declared a love for birds, especially the Swifts as they are intelligent, social, gentle and free, adding that he was also a birdwatcher in Belgium and after arriving in Beijing in August, he was pleasantly surprised at the great variety of birds in the city, including sparrows, which have almost disappeared in Belgium, but can be found everywhere in Beijing. 

"I was so excited to discover that European and Chinese scientists have studied specific aspects of their journey. Through this study, we have discovered that the Swifts which nest in Beijing also come every spring from Africa, mostly from Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa," he told the Global Times. 

Ambassador Angelet also expressed his hope that embassies and their Chinese counterparts will join forces to improve bilateral international scientific cooperation.

Professor Zhao and Professor Liu, two of the best-known Chinese scientists who have been studying the bird species shared the results of the citizen science surveys to count the Swifts in Beijing to help understand the bird's population trends.  

The Beijing Swift, as a migratory bird named after "Beijing," is a landmark species and one of the ecological symbols of Beijing. It spends three months a year in Beijing to breed before undertaking an incredible migration to southern Africa in mid-July for the northern hemisphere winter, professor Zhao said at the event.