China State Construction is building schools near the equator, improving educational conditions in Gabon, a country in central and western Africa.

中建正在赤道附近修建学校，改善非洲中西部国家加蓬的教育条件。

Japanese skincare brand IPSA of the Shiseido Group cosmetics company produced a weather broadcast last year to announce qiufen — the fall equinox — when the sun is exactly above the equator.

"By the end of last year, the total length of China's railways and highways had grown by 1.1 million kilometers compared with 2012, equivalent to circumnavigating the equator about 27.5 times, according to the Ministry of Transport.

The Xiangshan center, located 30 degrees north of the equator, is suitable for launching satellites, thanks to its convenient transportation and an advantageous environment.

"Although we are a small economy, being in a strategic location in the westernmost part of South America and aligned with the Equator allows us to develop all connectivity.

The safety test mileage of Beijing's self-driving vehicles has exceeded 3 million km to date, equivalent to going about 75 times around the equator.

"For many financial institutions in China, protection of ecology and biodiversity has not yet been sufficiently mapped onto their evaluation framework," Tang said, adding that when the globally reckoned Equator Principles, a risk management framework for financial institutions in determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects, were first launched in 2003, only seven banks in China agreed to join in.

As the first bank in China that announced the adoption of the Equator Principles, a voluntary set of guidelines in the financial industry to determine, assess and manage environmental and social risks in project financing, Industrial Bank Co Ltd, abbreviated as CIB, has developed green finance into an essential feature of its business.