Scientific award

Explosives expert Wang Zeshan and virologist* Hou Yunde received the 2017 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award — the nation’s highest scientific award — in Beijing on Monday.

President Xi Jinping presented award certificates to them at an annual ceremony held in Beijing to honor distinguished scientists and research achievements. Wang, 82, is an academician* at the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). He is known in the academic field as the “King of Explosives” for his research into explosives that have great civilian and military applications. Hou, 88, also an academician at the CAE, is the founder of China’s modern virology study.

Bus stops collapse

A woman was killed and more than 20 were injured after several bus stop shelters collapsed under the weight of snow in eastern China’s Anhui Province on Thursday.

Several bus stop shelters on the BRT* line along Wangjiang Road in Hefei, the provincial capital, collapsed in the morning, local news portal ahwang.cn reported. A 61-year-old woman, surnamed Wang, died. She was crushed by a falling shelter at around 8:30 a.m. “She didn’t run fast enough,” her husband said, according to the report.

Jiuzhai Valley

UNESCO World Heritage Site Jiuzhai Valley will reopen gradually after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the popular tourist destination last August, according to a local official.

Liu Zuoming, Party chief of the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Aba in southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, said that the park will reopen partially and gradually. The restoration* will be completed in three years.

Automatic driving

Beijing’s first road for testing automatic driving will be designed in the city’s southeastern Yizhuang economic development area, the municipal traffic authority said.

Traffic signals, signs and road markings in the area will be transformed so autonomous* vehicles can identify them easily, according to the Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport. (SD-Agencies)