With the worldwide spread of the global Coronavirus (COVID-19), the shipping industry has played an essential and irreplaceable role in combating the effects of the pandemic, promoting a trade-led economic recovery and maintaining the stability of industrial supply chains. The North Bund Forum advocated jointly promoting the continuous innovation and wide application of green low-carbon technologies and effectively implementing the reduction strategies of global greenhouse gas emission, thereby contributing to the creation of a safe, smooth and green global supply chain. With the epidemic under control worldwide, the international shipping industry has also ushered in a new development cycle and growth opportunities, which brings new strategic opportunities for the development of Shanghai International Shipping Center. Shanghai will accelerate the building of the world’s first-class shipping center characterized as convenient and efficient, fully functional, open and integrated, green and intelligent. The forum is intended as a platform for exchanging ideas on major issues in global shipping, for incubating governance rules and norms of the international shipping industry, for releasing the latest policies and regulations in China and the world, and for showcasing the Shanghai International Shipping Center.

The COVID-19 pandemic once brought the global cruise industry to a standstill. This has led to the realization that the development of viable disease risk management policies and measures will guarantee the sustainability of cruise tourism. The purpose of this study is to identify and develop a framework for risk management of cruise ship disease based on the research literature of cruise diseases in the Web of Science from 1996 to 2019. The study analyzed the characteristics of the literature researchers, the relationships between their research institutions organizations, the main cruise ship disease cases and measures. Based on the discussion of COVID-19 on cruise ships，risk management factors of cruise ship diseases were proposed，which include the port country's epidemic prevention capacity, the mode of disease transmission, the relevant regulations on international public health disposal, the design and construction of cruise ships, the medical and health conditions on cruise ships, and the characteristics of cruise tourism activities. A timeline and system framework for cruise ship disease risk management is proposed. A special "maritime mobile community prevention and control system" should be established, and a cooperation mechanism consisting of the government, non-governmental organizations, trade groups and industry experts should be established. The port should be capable of border isolation, detection and establishment of temporary shelter hospitals. At the same time, big data technologies such as disease tracking, investigation and health data are also important components of the risk management system.

The rapid development of the Chinese cruise market has brought with it an urgent increase in demand for Chinese cruise seafarers. This brings great opportunities and challenges to the Chinese seafarer labour market. This research aims to contribute to this relatively understudied area by calculating the demand for Chinese cruise seafarer, and understanding the Chinese seafarers' labour market from the aspects of training, recruitment and their work experience on ships. In order to achieve this objective, a demand model is constructed through the idea of market-driven, in-depth interviews using a detailed questionnaire. The study estimates that the total demand for Chinese cruise seafarers in 2020 will be 29,200 and 100,000 in 2030. This reveals a predicted gap between demand and supply of 19,200 in 2020. The current source of seafarers is mainly from domestic shipping companies, hotels and related institutions. Their entry age is relatively young, current job profiles are mostly those in the capacity of assistants and the average wage is $1217. Thus, there is a lot of room for improvement with their increasing experience. The study has found that most seafarers on board are satisfied with the work on cruise ships and are more concerned about their career development rather than salary. English communication skills and practical skills are two important aspects of crew training. China's cruise ship labour market thus represents both, a high aggregate demand as well as the lack of high-end experienced talent. Labour market policies and systems in China remain to be improved.

The rapid development of its cruise market has made China the shining star all over the world. The average annual growth rate of over 30 % in the Chinese market is achieved by the charter-based sales system. However, in recent years, there has been a repeated occurrence of market crises, which gives rise to low-price competition. The charter sales model has thus been cast into serious doubt. In this study, through the combined methods of literature review and interviews, we carried out an in-depth investigation with a view to revealing the formation mechanism and the characteristics of the sales model, as well as its impact on the market. The study found that the supply-demand imbalance, policy constraints, the lack of related regulatory systems, the imperfect sales system, the sensitive market and weak risk tolerance together with other factors all combined to lead to the frequent occurrence of the market crises. With respect to the cruise sales in China, the research puts forward the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions from the perspectives of cruise companies, travel agencies, administrators and policy-makers.

The rapid development of China's economy and urbanization has given rise to noticeable environmental problems, among which the change of air quality has received extensive attention. The panel data of PM 2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less) in 343 prefecture-level cities in China from 1998 to 2016 were statistically analyzed to reveal the characteristics of the temporal evolution and spatial variation of China's air quality in the past two decades. The results show that: 1) the overall deterioration trend of air quality is obvious throughout the country. The variation trend of PM 2.5 was divided into three phases: rapid-growth phase (1998-2007), lag phase (2006-2011) and mildly-incremental phase (2012-2016), with their average growth rates of 7.19%, −3.59% and 0.52%, respectively. 2) The spatial difference of PM 2.5 values in China increased significantly with time. Since 2003, the high-value area in the east has expanded rapidly, and polarization became much more pronounced. The change rate of PM 2.5 is high in the east and west and low in the middle. The change rates of most areas in the west exceed more than 80%, and in the east lie somewhere between 40% and 60%. In the midlands, the change rate is not large and some regions even show a negative growth. 3) The change rate of PM 2.5 is also high in areas with higher values. However, in regions where the change rate of PM 2.5 is high, the value of PM 2.5 is not always high. The high change rate is mainly attributable to the low base value of PM 2.5 and the cities concerned belong to sensitive areas. 4) According to the PM 2.5 warning index, the number of strong, medium, weak and non-warning areas in China is 45, 85, 159 and 54, respectively.