Four crewmen of a Chinese domestic cargo ship are missing after the vessel hit Jiujiang Bridge in Foshan in China's Guangdong province on 22 April.

The ship, whose name was not released, was carrying 4,900 tonnes of rolled steel along the Yangtze River from Fuzhou in Fujian province to Heshan in Guangdong province, when at 9.20 pm local time, it hit the base of one of the bridge pillars.

Built in 1988, Jiujiang Bridge forms part of the G240 National Highway connecting Foshan and Heshan.

Water started entering the cargo hold of the vessel, causing it to capsize. Seven of the 11 crew members were rescued, while the other four are missing.

After the incident, Foshan Municipal Party Committee Secretary Zheng Ke, Foshan Mayor Bai Tao, Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration Deputy Director Guo Weibin, among others, went to the scene to direct the rescue work.

At 6 am local time on 23 April, more than 300 police officers and maritime rescue personnel were deployed to search for the missing seafarers, without success. The search and rescue operations are still ongoing, and to facilitate the search, other ships are prohibited from entering the waters 3km upstream and downstream from Jiujiang Bridge.

Civil engineering experts examined the bridge and found no serious damage to its main structure but the base of the pillar, designed to withstand allisions, had scratches, and further appraisal of the bridge's structural safety was required.

In June 2007, a sand carrier hit Jiujiang Bridge, causing a 200m stretch of the bridge to collapse. Four cars on the highway, along with two construction workers, fell into the river below, killing eight persons.

China Southern Airlines said its inaugural flight from Beijing to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday was a success and marked the launch of the first direct passenger air route from mainland China to Saudi Arabia.

According to the carrier, flights on an Airbus A330-300 airliner will be operated on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The aircraft will depart from Daxing International Airport in Beijing at 15:10 local time and land at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh at 20:10 local time. The flight duration will be about 10 hours.

At the same time, the return flight will depart Riyadh at 22:10 local time and arrive in the Chinese capital at 12:00 the following day. The duration of the return flight will take about 8 hours and 50 minutes.

Zhang Dongsheng of China Southern Airlines' marketing department said that in recent years, cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative has brought practical results: China and Saudi Arabia continue to deepen economic, cultural and tourism cooperation.

He said the opening of a regular direct air route will further promote humanitarian and trade and economic exchanges between the two countries.

At the end of the first quarter of 2024, a total of 802 China-Europe freight trains passed through the border port of Eren-Hoto /Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, North China/, up 7.5 percent from the same period last year, the local commerce department said Tuesday.

Of those 802 trains, 426 departed China, up 0.5 percent year-on-year, while 376, in contrast, arrived there, up 16.8 percent year-on-year.

The Eren-Hoto border crossing is an important land port for Chinese goods exports to Mongolia, Russia and Europe. At present, 71 China-Europe international rail freight routes pass through the port, and a total of more than 15,000 rail trains of this category have already passed through the port in both directions.

An Evergreen ship has been detained in the Chinese port of Qingdao for investigation after colliding with another vessel.

According to reports, the Ever Lucid collided with an unnamed Chinese cargo ship around 1 a.m. local time on March 14th. The vessel had departed from Qingdao just before 10 p.m. local time on March 13, while the Taipei-flagged Ever Lucid was supposed to be sailing from Shanghai to the port of Ningbo.

The Ever Lucid's captain realized that the Chinese vessel's 12 crew members were in distress and turned back to help rescue them.

Local media reported that the Chinese vessel had failed to comply with collision avoidance guidelines.

Evergreen Marine said in a press statement: "As instructed by the local maritime authorities, Ever Lucid dropped anchor in Qingdao. The Chinese freighter was also safely transferred to a berth in the harbor. Both crews are currently cooperating with the maritime investigation team. Fortunately, the accident only resulted in damage to the ship's hull, with no injuries or fuel leakage reported."

Taiwan's Transportation Safety Board has said it will not launch an investigation.