BEIJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY

A 106-km high-speed railway, linking the cities of Mengzi and Mile in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, entered operation on Friday.

With a designed speed of 250 km per hour, the new railway has slashed the travel time between Mengzi and Kunming, the provincial capital, to 69 minutes.

It is an important part of the railway network between China’s southwestern region and ASEAN countries, which will play a positive role in speeding up the urbanization process of rural ethnic areas along the railway.

BUDDHA STATUES UNEARTHED

More than 680 fragments of Buddha statues and pagoda sculptures have been unearthed in the ruins of an ancient market in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

The statues were discovered in a pit in the ruins of East Market, a major commercial center during the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The Buddha statues were made of clay, ceramic and stone, and most of them had been damaged, said Han Jianhua from the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, adding that they were packaged and moved elsewhere for better protection and further research.

POWER CONSUMPTION

China’s electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, maintained stable growth in the first 11 months of 2022, official data showed.

Power use increased 3.5 percent year on year to nearly 7.86 trillion kilowatt-hours in this period, according to the National Energy Administration.

Power consumption in the primary industry grew 9.7 percent year on year in the first 11 months.