Friday 25th May 2018;
• Guizhou: FAST Telescope
• Chinese Crafts Project
• Meeting with Party Secretary and Governor of Guizhou
FAST Telescope
Today, The Duke travelled to the China FAST Hotel where he was received by Professor Shushen Li, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The group then moved to the FAST Observatory where HRH was received by Professor Suijian Xue, Deputy Director General of The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). Here The Duke received a briefing on the FAST Telescope, a five hundred metre aperture spherical telescope, which is the largest of its kind in the world measuring 500m across.
After the briefing, HRH was invited to visit the Observing Control Room, and then travelled to the Telescope itself, observing it from the viewing platform, along the girder of the structure and then from underneath the Telescope. As the most sensitive single-dish radio telescope in the world, FAST discovered the first millisecond pulsar in April 2018 and looks set to provide unprecedented opportunities for China to achieve major breakthroughs at the forefront of science.
Chinese Crafts Project
The Duke then travelled to visit a Chinese Crafts Project, an initiative which HRH was introduced to by Madame Xia, one of the Founders of [email protected] China. She has been working with these talented seamstresses for many years to preserve their skills, and help them find a market for their products.
Bags for [email protected] China will come from the project.
Meeting with the Governor of Guizhou and the Party Secretary
The Duke was received by Party Secretary Sun Zhigang and Governor Shen Yiquin. They discussed today’s visits to both the FAST Telescope and the Chinese Crafts Project and more broadly how to build stronger links between the United Kingdom and Guizhou.
