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First container train from China arrives in Serbia

https://www.railfreight.com/beltandroad/2019/10/25/first-container-train-from-china-arrives-in-serbia/?fbclid=IwAR260k1Uzst_lJD08CHvMulmNuY7ywvrKLCQluHk1c-DzQMJze4CFxSYoDE

The first Chinese container train departed from the city of Jinan, the province of Shangdong, on 24 September. A month later, on 24 October, it arrived at the Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) railway station in Belgrade. The train has travelled a distance of around 10,500 kilometres via Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

On the Serbian section of the route, the wagonset loaded with 28 containers was hauled by a Siemens Vectron locomotive of Serbia Cargo (Srbija Kargo), the country’s state-owned rail freight operator. The Jinan – Belgrade train delivered equipment weighing 500 tonnes, including transformers, cables, integrated automation systems for substations, remote control systems for the contact network and other solutions for the future Budapest – Belgrade high-speed line.

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China to fund and build $3.9bn railway from Nigeria’s capital to the sea

https://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/china-fund-and-build-39bn-railway-nigerias-capital/?fbclid=IwAR2O0SGjoGMWpsWpbMxsctI6vZPEZrruDAwa4X_QUhFvb_kExbShTMWzybM The government of Nigeria yesterday signed a contract with state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation Limited (CRCC) to build a major new railway linking the capital Abuja to the port city of Warri, a distance by air of approximately 440km.

The project is valued at $3.9bn, Nigerian media reported, adding that it would be a public-private partnership, with Nigeria providing an equity stake of 15%, CRCC an equity stake of 10%, and the remaining 75% borrowed from Cina’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank. 

The project includes the construction of a new port at Warri, reports said.

CRCC will operate the railway and the port to recover its investment.

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Ugayati Panshan Highway, Tashkurgan-Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China

新疆塔什库尔干塔吉克自治县吾格亚提盘山公路。2019年7月投入使用。 在中国西陲的新疆帕米尔高原，塔什库尔干塔吉克自治县县城到瓦恰乡之间有条蜿蜒的盘山公路，海拔超4200米，全长36公里，最大落差近1000米，被当地人称为“高原天路”。 New Sky road on the Pamir Plateau, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Elev.4200m, 36km long, 1000m gain. Opened in July, 2019

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Chinese to clone gene-edited monkeys

On 24 January, scientists at the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) in Shanghai reported that they had used gene-editing to disable a gene in macaque monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) that is crucial to their sleep–wake cycle. The scientists then cloned one of those monkeys to produce five primates with almost identical genes.

It is the first time that researchers have cloned a gene-edited monkey and proof of principle for the researchers’ plan to create populations of genetically identical primates that they say will revolutionize biomedical research. Some of the researchers are part of the new International Centre for Primate Brain Research, which has the goal of creating such populations and received government funding in November.

In Europe and the US, non-human-primate research increasingly faces regulatory hurdles, costs and bioethical opposition. This stands in contrast to China; the country’s 2011 five-year plan set primate disease models as a national goal. The science ministry followed up by investing 25 million yuan (US$3.9 million) into the endeavour in 2014.