The 70-ft long vessel housed more than 100 artifacts, according to the paper published by Chinese Cultural Relics.

According to the archaeologists, the ship dated back to the Yuan dynasty (circa 1271-1368). It housed a shrine, a captain’s cabin, crew quarters, cargo compartments and a control room that also held a kitchen. In the shrine, they found incense burner and stone-carved figurines of “arhats.” Buddhist culture regard these as enlightened individuals. They also found several motifs including a colorful jar depicting a dragon and a phoenix.

The ship also held “artifacts of porcelain, pottery, lacquer-ware, jade, stone, iron, bronze and gold,” wrote the scientists in the paper.

In the kitchen, they found an iron stove, an iron pot, an iron ladle and a wooden cutting board.

But how was this 700-year old time capsule of ancient Chinese culture preserved?

The team wrote in the paper, “During a relatively short period of time after the accident, the silt beneath the shipwreck was washed away by the current, [and] the shipwreck continued to sink to 1 m to 2 m [3.3 feet to 6.6 feet] below the original riverbed, then stabilized at its current location. Silt and mud were then deposited over it, and the shipwreck was completely buried.”

And what of the ship’s inhabitants? The archaeologists said they found no human remains inside the cabin.

Mobile phone footage of the incident has been viewed on Chinese social media more than 330 million times and millions are vowing to avenge the passenger. According to U.S. media reports, the 69-year-old man is Dr. David Dao who was on his way to treat patients in Louisville, Kentucky. Many outraged Chinese citizens are calling racial discrimination and demanding the U.S. government deliver an apology.

Others are vowing to destroy the airline’s reputation and damage its revenue.

One user on the popular Chinese social media site Weibo said, “If you beat your customers, we will thrash your reputation and your market share around the world, until we hear a sincere apology from your bleeding mouth.”

The hashtag #UnitedForcesPassengerOffPlane remains one of the site’s hottest topics. More than 38,000 Internet users have signed a #ChineseLivesMatters petition demanding that the US government investigate the incident.

But why exactly was the man dragged off the plane? According to media reports, he was one of four people removed from the flight at random or as volunteers to accommodate four airline employees who needed transportation.

But some passengers report that Dao suspected he was racially targeted. “He [Dao] said, more or less: ‘I’m being selected because I’m Chinese’,” bystander Tyler Bridges told The Washington Post. Still, others reported he was Vietnamese.

Media attempts to reach Dao and airline officials have been unsuccessful.

United Airlines chief executive Oscar Munoz said on Twitter that the incident was “upsetting”.

According to some reports, one of the aviation security guards involved has been placed on administrative leave failing to follow protocol.

Cassie Childers says that a year ago, she got a call from English soccer player Gordon Jago, who invited the girls for an all-expense paid trip to the Dallas Cup, an international tournament of boys’ soccer teams.

She wrote: “Ten days in Dallas, treated like the queens that they are, crowned with the opportunity to lead the opening day parade into the Cotton Bowl stadium under the Tibetan flag, and the honor being the first sports team of any sex to represent Tibet on US soil.

“Every detail was hammered out over two trips I took to Dallas. The team would be training with a university women’s team, doing home stays with players from a local club, attending an NBA game, visiting the Aquarium and Six Flags, and seeing a world they had only heard about in movies. It was all confirmed.”

Childers said embassy officials said they had “no good reason” to be there after forking out $5,000 in application-related fees. Now, she’s started a fundraiser page to acquire the funds. Childers then wrote, If a revolutionary women’s soccer team, the first of their kind for Tibetans, can’t get a tourist visa to attend a very prestigious soccer tournament as VIP, legit guests, then WHO, may I ask, DOES DESERVE A VISA?

U.S. nor India’s diplomatic officials have made no comment on the matter.

The Trump administration’s streak of outlandish maneuvers continued on Tuesday when the administration published a proposal in the Federal Register that would have Chinese citizens who hold long-term US business and tourism visas be asked to disclose their social media handles before entering the United States.

The targeted group would be asked to answer this question online as part of the Electronic Visa Update System, of which all Chinese holders of 10-year visas to the US are a part of. The information disclosed could then be used by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to “evaluate” an individual via his or her social media accounts before allowing entrance into the country.

Jennifer Evanitsky, a spokeswoman for the CBP gave Politico an adamant assurance that “The collection of social media identifiers will not be used to prevent travel based on an applicant’s race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation.”

“The social media provider will not be asked to violate any privacy settings or policies,” she said.

A 60-day open-comment period will occur on the Federal Register following the proposal in which the government is encouraging people to voice their honest opinions and concerns. Also meaning that our country’s new Trump-nation bigots will have a platform on which to post their hateful, nonsensical, ignorant, and racist remarks.

The CBP also added in a separate, written notice regarding the proposal, that revealing one’s social media information would be optional. Furthermore, refusing to give up that personal information would not negatively affect that person’s chances at getting into the US.

With this addition to the online registry being optional for the applicant, many are incredulous as to the actual usefulness of the sanction. Hiding information from the CBP would be as simple as omitting it from the form, deleting parts of profiles, changing privacy settings, or simply making an “oops, I forgot to include that one” moment.  

However, others view this move not as innocuous, but rather as another way for Trump to incite hate in America.

“The Chinese community in the US appears certain to make a few ‘suggestions,’ as the proposal has left many spooked that the only thing it will do is contribute to a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment around the country,” online news source Shanghaiist wrote in an article Monday.

One advocacy group has already spoken out against the proposal. The Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (AAAJ-LA) told The Huffington Post earlier this week, “As a civil rights organization, we fear that proposals such as the proposed social media check will be largely ineffective as a national security screen and will serve primarily to allow the discriminatory targeting of Chinese immigrants and visitors at border checkpoints.”

The administration’s proposal is just Trump’s latest way to allow his followers to disseminate hate and racist ideology, and it is deeply concerning.

He decided to examine the filters of smog masks worn outside Beijing, home to 1/6 of all the country’s smog mask consumers. He put those filters underneath an electron microscope to magnify them 2,000 times. What he found seems like something from a sci-fi movie, but it’s all too real for the residents of Beijing.

“That was only after 10 days, just imagine what it would look like after 10,000!” wrote one worried Weibo user.

PM2.5 particles of smog seem cozy enough in someone’s lungs to stick around.

The move is part of a wider project that China initiated in 2013 to boost infrastructure, trade and investments throughout Europe. China is already connected via rail to various euro trade hubs including Hamburg and Madrid. The Chinese government has dubbed these new links the New Silk Road.

The freight train, which travels at a cheaper rate than air freight and faster on tracks than by sea, will pass through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium and France before arriving in London. There, it will be directly connected to the High Speed 1 rail line to the European mainland.

However, a single train cannot travel the entire route due to the different railway gauges involved. The containers will need to be reloaded at various points.

President Tsai is an anomaly for mainland China; while her predecessor was pointedly China-friendly, President Tsai leans toward an independent, democratic Taiwan – and this does not sit well for Beijing.

Last month, as Tsai’s inauguration approached, China placed immense pressure on her and her party to acknowledge the “One-China” policy. In the three weeks since, Tsai has not done so – nor intends to – a fact that continues to infuriate the mainland.

Tsai’s actions – or, rather lack of action – is sure to provoke a contentious response, right? Under President Xi Jinping’s China? Of course.

According to the United Evening News, as a way to display its deep discontent (and resentment) with Taiwan’s new leadership, China came up with this retort: slash the number of tourists it sends across the strait in half – by the end of the year.

China had already begun this sly maneuver back in March of this year. On March 20, it is said that China reduced the number of Taiwan-bound tourists by one-third, down 50,000 from its previous quota of 150,000.

It is estimated, however, that as a result of this new plan, the total figure will surge down to under two million this year. Sources inside the tourism industry say the “sanctions will escalate as the year progresses”, according to the Shanghaiist. The insiders say that China will allow only 75,000 to visit from next month, and then further scale that number down to a mere 37,500 from October.

The mainland is also said to have been drastically cutting the number of students it sends to Taiwanese universities.

“If the reports are accurate, the curbs on cross-strait tourism represent the first signs of Beijing’s willingness to apply economic pressure to discourage the new leadership from making any moves towards independence,” the Shanghaiist reports.

Tourism is vital to the subtropical island’s economy. In 2015, a record 4.1 tourists visited the country, contributing an estimated NT$230 billion – that is equivalent to $7.1 billion in U.S. dollars!

Chopping the amount of Chinese tourists allowed to make the short trek across the strait is a strategy that China knows will be extremely detrimental to the Taiwanese economy. But even more so, China’s plan is sending a message – a threat, really – directed at President Tsai and her progressive, pro-democratic ideology and hopes for an independent Taiwan.

In fact, this is not even the first time Beijing has “sent a message” since Tsai Ing-wen took office. In addition to the abundantly obvious pressure it put on her in the weeks leading up to her inauguration, just two weeks ago China threatened to suspend communications with the new president unless she were to retract, in a sense, her inauguration speech, dismantling it and reassembling it to officially include her acknowledgement of the “1992 Consensus”. President Tsai did not cede to China’s demands.

China, in rebuttal, acted like a nasty, immature child, choosing slander as its petty tactic. State-run news agency Xinhua News published an editorial which claimed that Tsai Ing-wen was extremist and prone to erratic behavior because she was a single woman without “the emotional burden of love.” The piece was later removed.

Thus far, President Tsai has not given in to any of China’s ludicrous demands, but the harsh cut in tourism from the mainland is worrisome.

Harbin, in Heilongjiang’s capital, is the home of China’s International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.

Here, visitors and competitors are greeted to life-seize ice sculptures of international landmarks. The Athens Acropolis, the Forbidden City? They’re all here.

You can even take a ride down an ice slide representing the Songhua River.

The scenery gets even more magical when the sun goes down. That’s when beams of crimson, sapphire, lime green and more shine through translucent ice sculptures illuminating the park.

“It’s quite surreal, due to both the scale and all the lighting—like being in a fantasy movie,” says Christian Stanley of the China Travel Company, in an interview with National Geographic. “You  feel very small and can’t help wondering how they manage to build all of this so quickly. It’s also hard to believe that within a matter of weeks it is all gone—melted away.”

The adventure continues at The Siberian Tiger Park a few miles northwest of Harbin.

This 355-acre reserve is home to Siberian Tigers, black pumas, leopards and lynx.

Visitors board buses surrounded by barbed-wire mesh to get close to these great creatures..

The institute expects Chinese airlines to see 758 million new passengers in the next two decades bringing their total numbers up to 1.196 billion by 2034. The U.S. is expected to decline to the No. 2 spot with 523 million more people bringing the U.S. cap to about 1.150 billion.

The IATA also expects India to top the U.K. for the No. 3 spot by 2026.

In terms of air-travel market growth by percentage, seven out of the top 10 are expected to be African nations. These are Rwanda, Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic.

The institute also claims that if Cuba and Iran open up to air travel demand, they could see boosts in their share of the air-travel market as well. The IATA predicts Cuba could take on 5 to 13 million additional passengers while the Islamic Republic could see 12 to 44 million more passengers by 2034.

Still, the report doesn’t spell good news across the board. Overall, the IATA has determined that 400 million fewer passengers would take to the skies in 2034 than it had predicted last year.

“There is much work to be done to prepare for the 7 billion passengers expected to take the skies in 2034,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “Economic and political events over the last year have impacted some of the fundamentals for growth. As a result, we expect some 400 million fewer people to be traveling in 2034 than we did at this time last year.”

“Air transport is a critical part of the global economy. And policy-makers should take note of its sensitivity,” Tyler added. “The economic impact of 400 million fewer travelers is significant. Each is a lost opportunity to explore, create social and cultural value, and generate economic and employment opportunities.”

According to the institute, the aviation industry employs 58 million people and contributes $2.4 trillion to the global economy. The industry is expected to grow to 105 million employees and $6 trillion in GDP by 2034.

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As the Chinese economy continues to grow, many experts consider Fixed Asset Investment to be a leading driver. Rail FAI, in particular, is projected to bring big profits for China’s railroad infrastructure and equipment makers.

2016 will kick off China’s 13^th Five Year Plan, which emphasizes urban rail transit and public-private partnerships.

Urban rail transit is expected to reach average annual investment of 701 billion RMB from 2016 through 2020, according to UBS’ 2016 China Rail Outlook report.

UBS believes the total length of China’s railroads could total 73,000 miles by the end of this year alone. Of this, the group speculates passenger-dedicated, high-speed rail lines would pass 12,427 miles.

Since the 10^th FYP, FAI surpassed the government’s estimates causing the USB to surmise Beijing will shoot for higher projections this time around.

Rail investment could also benefit from lines extending outside China’s borders under President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road.” This would facilitate trade and movement across South East Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

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