December 21 marks "Dongzhi," or the Winter Solstice, the 22nd of the 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar. A kindergarten teacher from Taizhou City, east China's Jiangsu Province, shows kids how to make dumplings. /CFP

China conducts the maiden launch of its Long March-8 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern Hainan Province, December 22. /CFP

A medical worker in a protective suit collects a swab from a student for nucleic acid testing, in Liaoning Normal University in northeast China's Dalian City, December 23. Dalian started to conduct nucleic acid tests on all its citizens on December 22, in the wake of new COVID-19 cases reported. /CFP

The reentry capsule of the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft was handed over to Shaoshan County in central China's Hunan Province, the birthplace of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, on December 25, a day ahead of the 127th anniversary of Mao's birth. /CFP

The 27th National Snow Sculpture Competition ends in Harbin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 26. /CFP

Students walk into an examination hall in Nanjing Forestry University, east China's Jiangsu Province on December 26, when national post-graduate entrance examinations kick off in China. /CFP

The last stretch of the Beijing-Xiongan intercity railway opened on December 27, marking the full-line operation of the intercity railway, a key project for the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. /Official Weibo account of Chinese Railway