Foreign news

Xi Jinping checks people’s livelihood in Guiyang ahead of the Chinese New Year

Published

4 years ago

February 4, 2021

Xiaonian Festival is often regarded as the last special day before the Chinese New Year. Falling on the 23rd or 24th day of the last month of the traditional Chinese lunar calendar, it usually marks the countdown to the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.

This year, Xiaonian falls on Thursday. To ensure a stable and abundant market supply for the Chinese New Year, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a supermarket and a local community in Guiyang City, southwest China’s Guizhou Province, to inspect their preparations ahead of the holiday.

Chinese people like buying necessities in bulk as the New Year approaches. The coming of Xiaonian rings the bell of a final push to the Chinese New Year, thus, a smooth and orderly operation of market supply is particularly important.

A visit to ordinary people

In the Heli fresh food supermarket, Xi checked the supply of food and other daily necessities. He also learned the price level there to make sure all the goods are affordable for ordinary people.
He then visited Jinyuan Community in Guanshanhu District to check the operation of community services and their influence on residents’ daily lives.

After seeing residents creating paper-cuts for the festival, Xi joined them and extended his warm wishes by writing a traditional Spring Festival couplet.

Both paper-cutting and writing couplets are Chinese New Year customs. Paper-cutting works are used to express well wishes, and are often applied to windows as decorations. Spring Festival couplets are often written with Chinese calligraphy. Pasting on both sides of a door, it is believed that the sincere wishes and New Year greetings written on the couplets will bring good luck to the whole family.

It marked the second day of Xi’s visit to Guizhou Province. on the previous day he visited people from the Miao ethnic group in Qianxi County.

A nine-year tradition

The pre-Spring Festival visit is not a surprise. For nine consecutive years, Xi has made it a tradition to visit ordinary people, especially the disadvantaged groups, ahead of the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar.

In 2020, Xi visited Simola Wa Village in southwest China’s Yunnan Province and joined a family of the Wa ethnic group in making rice cakes and beat a wooden drum three times as a local ritual to bless the coming year.

In 2019, Xi made an appearance in the hutong neighborhoods of central Beijing and dropped in on an express delivery station where he praised the hard work of deliverymen, saying they were “busy as bees” to bring convenience to people’s lives.

Xi may visit a different place every year, but wherever he goes, his care for the livelihood of ordinary people never changes.

(Cover: Chinese President Xi Jinping visits a supermarket in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, February 4, 2021. /Xinhua)

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Foreign news

NTAC Hails Tinubu; Volunteers Ready to Positively Impact Nigerians

Published

4 days ago

June 4, 2025

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

The Nigerian Technical Aid Corps (NTAC) has commended President Bola Tinubu for funding the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) Scheme.

The Director General (DG) of NTAC , Dr Yusuf Yakub, made the commendation during a ceremony to receive five returning TAC volunteers from Zanzibar, Tanzania on Tuesday in Abuja.
The returning volunteers also expressed readiness to impact knowledge gained from participating in the programme on Nigerians.

TAC is a mechanism for Nigeria’s foreign aid and technical assistance to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries through the use of Nigeria’s abundant trained manpower.

Yakub lauded Tinubu’s visionary leadership and steadfast support for the TAC Scheme.

Welcoming the volunteers who had discharged themselves as worthy ambassadors in Zanzibar, the D-G thanked them for their patriotism, dedication to service and for making Nigeria proud on the international arena.

The NTAC boss highlighted the importance of knowledge-sharing, while announcing that certificates of completion will be presented to the volunteers in line with the noble objectives of the service.

He also emphasised the volunteers’ crucial role in passing on the skills and experiences gained in Zanzibar.

He expressed optimism that their efforts would positively impact the lives of Nigerians across the country and shape the expectations and service-delivery of future prospective volunteers.

Earlier speaking, Amb. Zakari Usman, the Director of Programmes for NTAC, expressed gratitude to the D-G for his unwavering support and provision for the volunteers throughout their service period.
He said that the volunteers had so delivered on the mandate of the agency that citizens of Zanzibar did not want them to leave their country.
Popoola Adegoke, the Team Lead and a Mathematics Instructor for the batch of returning volunteers, was full of gratitude to the Federal Government for providing them the opportunity to participate in the scheme.

Adegoke said that Nigeria, was well blessed and had the abundance of both human and natural resources to contribute meaningfully to the development of many countries of the world.

He said that the need to continue the TAC Scheme was not negotiable, owing to its high impact and results.

Mohammed Salisu, a Physicist, said that the experience had broadened his horizon as his orientation during the last 24 months in Zanzibar, especially on the cultural exchange.

He lauded the government for the scheme, saying that Nigeria is seen and perceived to be higher in all ranking, especially in the standard of living and educational system.

He also appealed to the government to sustain the scheme to close the gaps both the educational and professional systems in the African, Caribbean and the Pacific Countries.
NAN

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