People watch a movie in a Shanghai cinema on January 23, 2023. Photo: IC

The 2023 Chinese mainland box office (including pre-sales) has exceeded 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), according to box office tracking site Dengta. 

The major box-office milestone comes about two months earlier than it did in 2022.

Experts predict that the box office in 2023 will reach 54.6 billion yuan, as more movies, both domestic and international ones, are set to hit the big screen. 

Over 10 movies are set to be released during the International Workers' Day holiday in May.

The annual box office is expected to be around 85 percent of 2019's box office, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the market.

Securities Daily

A digital exhibition on the restoration of the ancient buildings at the Chengde Mountain Resort is being held at the scenic area in Chengde, North China's Hebei Province. 

Through digital means such as VR restoration, the exhibition displays the original appearance of 17 garden sites at the resort. 

Built in 1703, the Chengde Mountain Resort is the largest existing imperial palace in the country. It was listed among the first batch of national key cultural relics protection units, which have been included on the World Cultural Heritage List. 

Over 30 gardens inside the resort were left in ruins due to various historical reasons.  

Guangming Daily

New excavations at the Diaoyucheng site in Hechuan, Southwest China's Chongqing, have revealed a group of large-scale buildings from the late Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). 

A total of 33 sites such as city gates, roads and wells as well as more than 300 relics have been unearthed. 

The site is known for its decades-long resistance against overwhelming Mongol siege from 1243 to 1279, during which Song soldiers fended off Mongke Khan's massive army.

Xinhua News Agency