NEWS ON 02/16

1. AIR TRAVEL RISES DURING TRAVEL RUSH PERIOD

民航局：春运旅客运输量同比增长近四成，恢复至疫情前的76%

2. CHINA’S HOME PRICES ROSE A BIT IN JAN AS THE MARKET WARMED UP

1月我国70城房价环比“止跌” 房价“回暖”动力正在增长

3. SCIENTISTS GET A LOOK INSIDE ANTARCTICA’S ’ DOOMSDAY GLACIER’

《自然》:科学家公布南极"末日冰川"新研究成果

-----------------记得点亮右下角的爱心哦-----------------

1. AIR TRAVEL RISES DURING TRAVEL RUSH PERIOD

民航局：春运旅客运输量同比增长近四成，恢复至疫情前的76%

There was a steady rebound in air travel last month as demand picked up during the Spring Festival once the country’s pandemic policies changed. Lei Shuran has the story.

新冠“乙类乙管”政策实施后，中国民航适逢春运生产旺季，市场迅速恢复，运行安全平稳，新航季在国内客运市场方面，将持续保持较快恢复态势，航班量有望恢复并超过疫情前水平。记者雷舒然带来详细报道。

Passenger flightshad resumed to 58 countries as of last week.

民航局介绍，从上周实际执行的航班情况来看，目前我国已经恢复与58个国家间的客运定期航班。

Shang Kejia,

Deputy Director General, Transport Dept., Civil Aviation Administration of China

商可佳 民航局运输司副司长

“Some 795 international flights operated by 98 domestic and international airlines departed last week, increasing 65 percent compared to days between January 2nd and 8th -- the week before changes to COVID rules. There were 226 more flights between China and Thailand, Cambodia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam last week, exceeding 70percent of the total number of additional flights..”

“日前，98家中外航空公司共执行795班航班，相较“乙类乙管”政策发布前一周，即1月2日到8日的482班航班，增长了65%。其中中国与泰国、柬埔寨、澳大利亚、马来西亚、新加坡、越南等6个亚太地区国家间的航班量共增加226班，超过增班总量的70%。”

More than 20 percent of flights between China and 27 countries including the United Arab Emirates, Italy and New Zealand have resumed. Foreign airlines are expected to gradually add more international flights to meet demand from business travelers, students studying abroad and tourists. During the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which ended yesterday, more than 55 million air passenger trips were made. Daily passenger trips averaged 1.38 million, soaring 39percent from the corresponding period in 2022 and rebounding to 76 percent of pre-pandemic levels. Some 348 million trips were made on the country’s railway network during the 40-day travel rush, a year-on-year increase of 37 percent. Nearly 68 million people traveled on trains in the Yangtze River Delta Region, which was close to the volume during the travel rush in 2019.

此外，中国与阿联酋、意大利、新西兰等27个国家间的航班恢复比例超过20%。换季后，随着国际公商务人员往来和旅游、留学等市场的逐步恢复，航空公司尤其是外航的航班运力调整也将逐步到位，国际航班量有望进一步增加。在昨天（02/15）收官的为期40天的2023年春运高峰期间，作返乡探亲、休闲旅游等出行需求旺盛。其中，民航方面，发送旅客超过5500万人次，日均客运量138万人次，同比去年春运增长39%，恢复至2019年同期的76%。在40天的春运旅行高峰期间，全国铁路网约有3.48亿人次，同比增长37%。长江三角洲地区有近6800万人乘坐火车旅行，这与2019年旅行高峰期间的数量接近。

2. CHINA’S HOME PRICES ROSE A BIT IN JAN AS THE MARKET WARMED UP

1月我国70城房价环比“止跌”房价“回暖”动力正在增长

The latest data from the National Statistics Bureau shows housing sales by floor area in China in 2022 fell 24.3 percent year-on-year. To support the falling property market, the government has launched hundreds of regional and local policies to boost the demand, with one of the latest allowing individual cities to adjust their mortgage interest rates for first-home purchases based on local trends in property prices. Ying Junyi has more.

2月16日，国家统计局发布数据称，2022年中国按建筑面积计算的住房销售额同比下降24.3%。为了支持不断下跌的房地产市场，政府推出了数百项区域和地方政策，以促进需求，其中最新的一项政策是允许个别城市根据当地房地产价格的趋势，调整首套房的抵押贷款利率。记者为您带来更多报道。

Put in place this month, the new regulation allows local governments to maintain, reduce, or remove the lower limit on first-home loan interest rates, if the sales price of newly built local commercial housing has fallen for three months in a row, while also remaining below that for the previous year. Home buyers in lower-tier cities are likely to be the first to be able to take advantage of the change.

根据本月实施的新规定，如果当地新建商品房的销售价格连续三个月下降，同时低于上一年的价格水平，则允许地方政府维持、减少或取消首套房贷款利率的下限。三、四线城市的购房者很可能是第一批受益于这一政策的消费者。

Yang Yulei,

Chief Analyst, Shanghai Lianjia Research Institute

杨雨蕾 上海链家研究院首席分析师

“The adjustment in first-home loan interest rates is to support the sluggish【迟缓的】market in tier-three and tier-four cities. And it will mainly benefit home buyers with immediate need for housing. Home-buyers intier-1 and tier-2 cities won’t gain much advantage from this at present.”

“对于首套利率的下降和调整，这一政策目前还是针对一些三四线城市。对于整体的刚需购房者会有利好作用，一二线城市的话可能暂时不会享受到这个政策的利好作用。”

Previously, the central bank set the national minimum interest rate on home loans at 20 basis points under its loan prime rates. Based on the current five-year LPR of 4.3percent, the rate floor on first-time home loans should be 4.1 percent. But under this newly announced policy, housing experts say first-home buyer rate floor will likely stay between 3.5 percent and 4.1 percent.

此前，央行将全国住房贷款的最低利率定为相应期限贷款市场报价利率（LPR）减20个基点。目前五年期以上的LPR为4.3%，调整前的首套住房贷款利率下限是4.1%。但根据这项新政策，住房专家表示，首次购房者的利率下限可能会保持在3.5%至4.1%之间。

Yan Yuejin, Research Director

E-house China RD Institute

严跃进 上海易居研究院研究总监

“In general, banks are not allowed to set their mortgage interest rate lower than the central bank’s minimum interest rate. But this new policy will cut the cost for homebuyers in tier-three and tier-four cities where many saw a slowdown in incomes in 2022. So banks there can now set their mortgage interest rate as low as 3.5percent. For home buyers in big cities, the mortgage rates there are still higher than the national minimum interest rate which leaves room for adjustment there as well. So we expect home buyers nationwide to see lower housing costs in 2023.”

“总的来说，房贷利率并不是银行能够随意调整的，一般是不能低于央行这条指导线的。但是考虑到2022年大家收入水平确实受到冲击，怎么让购房者的成本进一步下调，这是政策的出发点。所以举个例子，现在调到3.5利率也行，因为这次调整是主要针对三四线城市。对于大城市来说，很多其实房贷利率也没有下调到指导线水平，因此还是有很多的下调空间。所以我们预计2023年全国购房者买房成本都会有进一步下降的空间和可能。”

Yan notes that 38 of China’s 70 major cities surveyed by the statistics bureau now meet the conditions for a cut in first home loan rates. Though it should be kept in mind that the new rule also requires that cities should return to the national rate floor on first-home loans if their new-home prices increase for three consecutive months after the reduction goes into effect.

严跃进指出，在统计局调查的中国70个主要城市中，有38个城市现在符合降低首套住房贷款利率的条件。但应该注意的是，新规定还要求，如果城市的新房价格在下调生效后连续三个月上涨，则应恢复到全国首套房贷款的最低利率。

3. SCIENTISTS GET A LOOK INSIDE ANTARCTICA’S ’DOOMSDAY GLACIER’

《自然》：科学家公布南极“末日冰川”新研究成果

A team of American and British scientists got their first close-up look at what is eating away part of Antarctica’s Thwaites ice shelf, and it’s both good and bad news. The Thwaites ice shelf is nicknamed the "doomsday glacier" because of how much seas could rise if all its ice melts, Stephen Rancourt has the story.

一队英美科学家首次清晰地了解了位于南极洲的思韦茨冰川融化的奥秘。思韦茨冰川被称为“末日冰川”，一旦崩塌融化，可能会导致灾难性的海平面上升。记者为您带来详细报道。

Using a hot water drill, scientists bored a hole nearly 600 meters deep into the ice and, over a five-day period, sent down various instruments to take measurements from the glacier【冰川】. The instruments included a pencil-shaped robot, which allowed them access to areas previously almost impossible to survey. The scientists found even though the glacier is receding, the rate of melting beneath much of the flat part of the ice shelf was slower than expected.

为了更好地了解思韦茨冰川，预测它的融化对海平面的影响，科学家在冰川上钻出一个深度接近600米的洞穴，并将细长的铅笔形机器人送入冰川底部进行观测。研究人员测量了不同时间的海洋温度、盐度、流速和融化速率，得出的第一个结论：冰川位于水下的区域的确正在融化，但速度比他们预期得要慢。

Peter Davis, Oceanographer

British Antarctic Survey

彼得·戴维斯 英国南极考察队海洋学家

“When we went into Thwaites and observed underneath the ice shelf, we found this immensely【极其】warm water. It was about a degree and a half above freezing, and that should drive a relatively high melt rate. But what we also observed with this layer of freshwater, stops the heat from getting from the ocean into the ice.”

“当我们进入思韦茨冰川并在冰架下观察时，我们发现了非常温暖的水，温度大约比冰点高出1.5摄氏度，这应该会带来相对较高的融化速度。但我们却观察到，这层水阻止了热量从海洋进入冰层。”

The scientists also discovered an underwater glacial landscape much more complex than expected, dominated by strange staircase-like terraces【阶梯】 and crevasses【裂缝】, giant cracks going all the way through the iceshelf, leading researchers to believe melting was particularly rapid in these areas. Warm, salty water was able to funnel through and widen cracks and crevasses, contributing to instabilities in the glacier. According to the studies’ authors, melting along the sloped ice of the cracks and terraces may become the primary trigger for ice shelf collapse. Scientists say better understanding could provide more time to take action to slow the pace of sea level rise.

研究人员还发现，冰川融化本身并不能决定有多少冰从冰川上分离并进入大海。事实上，冰架与海床裂缝增大所导致的冰川破裂，才是“罪魁祸首”。温暖的咸水能够穿过并扩大裂缝和裂隙，导致了冰川的不稳定。根据这些研究的作者，沿着裂缝和台地的倾斜冰面的融化可能成为冰架崩溃的主要触发因素。科学家们说，更好的理解可以提供更多的时间来采取行动，以减缓海平面上升的速度。

#热词加油站

Sluggish / ˈslʌɡɪʃ/ 【迟缓的】

Glacier / ˈɡlæsiə(r)/ 【冰川】

Immensely / ɪˈmensli/【极其】

Terraces / ˈterəsɪz/【阶梯】

Crevasses/ krəˈvæs/【裂缝】

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02/17 TOP NEWS | 春运旅客数增加/我国1月房价“回暖”/“末日冰川”最新研究成果 06:33 Share

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02/17 TOP NEWS | 春运旅客数增加/我国1月房价“回暖”/“末日冰川”最新研究成果