Bubble tea producer Mixue is planning to build a theme park at its headquarters in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China’s Henan province, reports the South China Morning Post.

The park will be based on its Snow King mascot, a singing snowman that has become one of Chinese retailing’s most recognisable intellectual properties (IPs), and offer multiple indoor themed experience zones combining retail, performances and interactive attractions.

The world’s largest food-service chain is looking beyond RMB two (29 US cents) ice creams and RMB four drinks to further widen and monetise its empire, amid a broader push by Chinese cities to revive local economies by harnessing culture, tourism and experiential consumption. The three sectors are increasingly being viewed as reliable ways to stabilize growth as traditional drivers such as property and fixed-asset investment lose momentum.

Airline shares plunged on Monday, with Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific down more than 5%, and Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines fell at least 4% after the US and Israel launched weekend strikes on Iran, disrupting travel and sending oil prices surging, reports Reuters.

Global air travel remained in turmoil on Monday as war in Iran forced the closure of key Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai and Doha for a third day, stranding tens of thousands of passengers worldwide and disrupting thousands of flights.

Cathay Pacific said it had cancelled all of its flights to the Middle East, which include passenger services to Dubai and Riyadh, until further notice. Data provider VariFlight said Chinese airlines had so far cancelled 26.5% of flights to and from the Middle East from March 2 to March 8.

China will order up to 120 additional aircraft from European aviation giant Airbus, reports Bloomberg, quoting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as he travelled to Beijing to deepen ties between the two countries. 

“The Chinese leadership will be ordering a larger number of additional aircraft from Airbus. The total order will include up to 120 additional aircraft,” Merz told reporters after his meeting with Xi, adding that it “demonstrates how worthwhile such trips can be”.

During the trip, Merz also travelled to Hangzhou, a global tech hub, to visit Unitree Robotics, one of China’s leading developers of humanoid robots.

Richard Liu, founder of China’s retail giant JD.com, has launched a nautical brand to build out the country’s yacht industry, reports the South China Morning Post. The brand aims to ride a wave of policy support to tap a fast-growing domestic market and make the vessels–traditionally associated with affluence and luxury–accessible to “everyday consumers”.

Liu’s brand, Sea Expandary, signed a strategic framework agreement on Tuesday with the coastal cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai in Guangdong, China’s southern powerhouse province, for a high-end yacht industrial base with planned investment of about RMB 5 billion ($723 million), according to social media posts by the city governments.

The venture would cover research and development, manufacturing, sales and after-sales services, including the base in Zhuhai and a headquarters in the provincial tech hub of Shenzhen. Liu said the venture was a personal investment, and the brand would be managed by its own CEO while he continues to focus on JD.com, the country’s largest retailer.

Travel across China rose 8.2% compared to a year earlier during the extended Lunar New Year holiday, reports Caixin. Total cross-regional trips rose to nearly 2.8 billion as the holiday period was extended from eight to nine days.

Highways remained the dominant mode of transportation, accounting for 86% of total travel. Supported by the rapid uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), expanded charging infrastructure and toll-free highway policies, daily self-driving trips averaged about 270 million, up 8.3% year on year, according to data from the Ministry of Transport. The number of new-energy vehicles on highways jumped 34% to 11.52 million per day. Service areas logged an average of more than 910,000 charging sessions daily. The car-rental market also posted strong growth, with major platforms reporting an 80% increase in orders and an average rental period of more than six days.

Public transportation also recorded solid gains. China State Railway Group said passenger trips reached a record 121 million during the holiday, up 11.5% from a year earlier. Return travel peaked on February 23, the final day of the break, when railways handled a single-day record of 18.73 million passengers. To cope with heavy demand from tourists, migrant workers and family visitors, the operator added thousands of temporary trains, including more than 1,000 overnight high-speed services on major trunk routes.