Briefs | Alipay Macau launched with easy charge access in town

Chinese online payment application Alipay officially launched a version for Macau users yesterday. Previously, Alipay allowed Macau users to register in Alipay using their Macau phone numbers. However, these users were not able to charge their Alipay accounts. The new version of Alipay Macau allows local users to charge their Alipay through a bank account (only Tai Fung Bank is currently available) linked to the Alipay account, or in Royal Supermarket branches. Moreover, from now on, when shopping on Taobao, instead of using a credit card, Alipay Macau users can use their Alipay wallet to pay in Macau patacas without added charges. Alipay users who have been using Alipay’s mainland China version can change to Alipay Macau in their user settings.   

Middle school rings bell alarm for Mukden Incident

Some 3,600 students from Hou Kong Middle School and a primary school affiliated with Hou Kong Middle School participated in a memorial event for the Mukden Incident yesterday. The Mukden Incident was the event that marked the beginning of the Japanese invasion of China. It was an event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of Manchuria. This year, which marks the 88th anniversary of the incident, was not the first time Hou Kong Middle School organized a memorial event for the incident. Alarm bells were run during the memorial. In mainland China, on this day, the government rings alarm bells in all cities to remind the public of the incident.

28 projects awarded cultural and creative subsidies

Twenty-eight projects from the restaurant and retail industries have been awarded subsidies by the Cultural Industry Fund. The fund completed an assessment of the Community Cultural and Creative Subsidy Program for 2019, awarding a total of 8.4 million patacas to the chosen projects. The 28 projects are operated by 17 cultural and creative enterprises, ranging from the catering industry to the retail industry. The awarded retail projects involve food sales, whereas the remaining projects are related to the sale of Chinese medicine, and wood and bamboo furniture. The subsidies are specifically aimed at merging the culture and creative design into a local brand and, in turn, attracting more people to shops and improving the community’s business environment.