Briefly

HEBEI

655 hydrogen-powered vehicles for Olympics

Zhangjiakou, a city in North China's Hebei province, will deploy 655 hydrogen-powered vehicles in its competition zone for the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, the city government said. They will be used in transportation and logistics during the Olympics. A hydrogen-powered bus can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 11.8 metric tons over 10,000 kilometers. There are 444 hydrogen fuel cell buses currently operating on nine bus routes in Zhangjiakou. They have run more than 21 million km and carried more than 62 million passengers. Zhangjiakou, the co-host city of the Olympics, has two hydrogen production plants and eight hydrogen refueling stations.

BEIJING

Interdisciplinary courses get rules

The Academic Degrees Committee of China's State Council has put new rules into effect, on a trial basis, for the setting up and management of interdisciplinary university courses and research programs. The new regulations stipulate that to institute a new interdisciplinary course, there should be an urgent yet stable need for talent with expertise in that discipline. Higher education institutions should also have a competent teaching team and a solid academic foundation to launch such programs, according to the rules.

HAINAN

Research ship returns from deep-ocean trip

China's Tansuo 1 scientific research ship returned to a port in Sanya, Hainan province, on Sunday after completing a deep-ocean expedition to the Mariana Trench. The vessel, which carries the deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe, berthed on Sunday morning, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering said. During the 53-day expedition, which started on Oct 14, the China-built submersible completed 23 dives, six of which exceeded a depth of 10,000 meters. Researchers collected several large organisms, micro-organisms, sediments and rock samples, accumulating valuable data for use in genetic research and understanding its geological structure, the institute said.

Xinhua