For years, scenic spots and historical sites have capitalized on online trends and “check-in” culture, leading to what tourists describe as “tacky” aesthetics. After the backlash, sites are changing their tune. Read more: ow.ly/QzqU50ZoabO

Is it possible to travel across modern China without a smartphone? Yang Hao spent 134 days answering that question — awkwardly, slowly, and on purpose. Read more: ow.ly/EtfZ50ZhwwU

Erling Haaland, the Norway and Manchester City striker has become an online obsession in China, with fans creating memes and remixes exaggerating his size, expressions, and on-field feats. 🔗https://ow.ly/E3hf50Zc8Tk

Photographer Wu Fang reflects on 15 years and 20,000 photos capturing the life of a bereaved mother who gave birth to twins at 60. Learn more: ow.ly/WfKA50Z324q

Has China Fallen Out of Love With Love? Facing mounting uncertainty, many young Chinese are asking if love is too much of a risk. As uncertainty deepens, many young Chinese are coming to see love less as destiny than as a risk to manage. Read more: www.sixthtone.com/news/1018362

China’s Next Megaprojects Are Built for Big Science Data shows how China’s infrastructure drive is beginning to include new scientific instruments built to explore the frontiers of physics, astronomy, and energy. Read the full story: ow.ly/3xh550YJxA2

The geography of power consumption reveals both established patterns and emerging shifts. Major economic provinces like Guangdong in the south and Jiangsu, Shandong, and Zhejiang in the east are still the country’s biggest power consumers.

The secondary sector still dominates China’s power grid, accounting for 64% of China’s total electricity consumption in 2025.

China’s power usage now exceeds the combined consumption of the EU, Russia, India, and Japan as renewables drive a cleaner energy mix. Read more: ow.ly/iOkb50Yv9pK

Why Young Chinese Think the World Is a ‘Ragtag Troupe’ A 2025 buzzword speaks to how many in China have grown disenchanted by once highly respected companies and institutions. Read more: ow.ly/jWYy50XUBKH

Chinese cinemagoers are increasingly discerning. They prefer high-quality movies over holiday blockbusters, and pick films that appeal to their demographic. Read more: ow.ly/L9mj50XQetx

“Society is constantly changing, and so are people, but ‘change’ does not solely mean ‘progress.’” After leaving education at 16 to work in factories, Zhang Sai is turning factory life into literature and documenting the people and pressures of China’s vast factory workforce. ow.ly/UCXg50XztQQ

Marathon organizers and runners across China face abrupt cancellations and new curbs, as officials rush to rein in a sport that expanded faster than it could be managed. Read more: ow.ly/zF6V50XlsYe

In her latest book, Professor He Guimei challenges the framework of “Chineseness” at its core, highlighting a need to frame it in terms of civilization, rather than nation, and to change how we talk about tradition when constructing ideas of the present. Read more: ow.ly/BjIc50Xakor

Sponge gourd soup, a staple in Chinese home cooking, has unexpectedly gone viral online — not for its taste, but as a metaphor for the way parents often dismiss their children’s feelings, as well as gaslighting in familial relationships more generally. Read more: ow.ly/bWv650X03Ns

“The kids just grew up. Those who used to fight now have jobs, wives, kids. Those still single have mellowed out. They treat me with respect,” Xu told Sixth Tone.

In London, at the grave of Karl Marx, one Chinese visitor left a Labubu doll. The father of socialism, too, deserved a taste of modern consumerism.

At the resting place of Tang dynasty poet Li Bai, known for letting wine stir his genius into timeless verse, visitors have offered liquor from across China and abroad.

In southwestern Sichuan province, fans left high-speed train tickets at the tomb of Zhuge Liang, the famed adviser to Liu Bei, founder of the Shu-Han Dynasty, to help the statesman fulfill his long-held dream of a northern expedition against Cao’s heirs.

One of the more visible examples appeared in central Henan province. At the tomb of Cao Cao, a warlord said to suffer from migraines and a central figure in the classic Chinese novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” visitors began leaving ibuprofen.

With 16.7 million charging points, China now has the world’s largest electric vehicle charging network — about two chargers for every five EVs.

Ten workers are dead and four remain missing after a section of the Jianzha Yellow River Bridge collapsed early Friday during construction on the Sichuan–Qinghai Railway, according to Qinghai’s emergency management authorities.

resh off the global success of ‘Black Myth: Wukong,’ Chinese game studio Game Science has announced its next title: Black Myth: Zhong Kui. The studio released a cinematic teaser on Wednesday but said the project is still in early development.

China has punished 19 officials and revoked the credentials of a trainee doctor at the center of a high-profile nepotism scandal, in a case that has fueled months of public anger over nepotism and corruption in elite hospitals and medical schools. Read more: ow.ly/NIMF50WHz3e

More than 500 robots from 16 countries competed in the first World Humanoid Robot Games, with events ranging from Olympic-style sports to real-world tasks like hotel cleaning and medical sorting. Read more: ow.ly/cfVw50WHiqS

Over 7,700 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in Guangdong province since the beginning of July, exacerbated by heavy rainfall and thriving mosquito populations. Read more: ow.ly/zPNt50WAxcj

Spotted in downtown Shanghai: a humanoid robot directing traffic and guiding pedestrians across a busy crosswalk.

Six mineral processing students from Northeastern University died during a plant visit in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, after a walkway grate collapsed, plunging them into a 10-meter-deep flotation tank filled with hazardous slurry. (File photo from Weibo)

Sixth Tone is looking for a seasoned, passionate freelance editor.

Translating culturally specific Chinese terms has always been tricky. A CNN article decried the “impossible task” of translating foods like fuqi feipian, a chilled dish of beef that literally means “husband-and-wife slices.” But do these dishes need translation at all? ow.ly/IM1s50WhY0K