1st US charter flight

The first direct charter flight from the U.S. to Beijing since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic has landed in China on Sunday, with a total of 87 passengers flying directly into Beijing from San Francisco International Airport.

The flight is also the first multi-company charter flight to fly from anywhere into the Chinese capital.

Philanthropic program

More than 2,000 students from families of Didi drivers that are sponsored and helped by the Didi Seed Program have been enrolled into university this year, according to a release by Didi Chuxing on September 10.

The seed program, initiated in 2018, has helped 30,000 families and offered scholarships to more than 100 families working for the car-hailing platform.

Meal delivery time relaxed

Two of China’s leading online food delivery service giants Meituan and Ele.me announced measures to give workers more time to deliver meals on September 9 after an investigative report went viral on popular Chinese social media platforms.

Ele.me said that the platform will introduce a new feature that allows users to choose whether they are willing to wait an extra five or 10 minutes for their orders. It also promised not to penalize delivery drivers with good credit and service history for occasional delays.

Meituan says it will optimize its system to provide delivery men with eight minutes of “flexible time.”

Death sentence

A man who stabbed dozens of people with a knife at a school in Guangxi in June was sentenced to death for intentional homicide by a Wuzhou court in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on September 8.

The attack happened on the morning of June 4, leading to a total of 41 injured teachers and students in the school.

Air quality improves

The reduction in PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in the past five to six years is among the most substantial air quality improvements ever achieved in the world, according to a report by the World Bank (WB).

The average annual concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing dropped from 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 42 micrograms per cubic meter in 2019, while the carbon emission intensity fell by 43 percent from 2010 to 2019, according to a report released at the forum.(SD-Agencies)