URUMQI (Xinhua) - A weather station co-built by China and Pakistan has opened at Pakistan's Gwadar Port. "The automatic station was put into use on Wednesday, measuring real-time temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction and speed, visibility and solar radiation,” said Yang Xinlin, with the meteorologic bureau of Karamay, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Karamay and Gwadar are twinned cities. The Chinese side brought all material for its construction at a total cost of nearly 1 million yuan (150,000 US dollars), according to Yang, who gives technical support to the project. Yang said operation of the weather station would greatly help with safety at Gwadar Airport and enhance the capacity of forecasting natural disasters in the region. He said that local fisheries, shipping services and environmental protection sectors would also benefit from more accurate forecasts, The station was built, with the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, as people and businesses of both countries seek closer exchanges, and have more demands for accurate weather forecasting.