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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

China is studying how to retrieve and reuse manned spacecraft in its future missions.

The chief engineer of the nation's manned space program said China's next goal is to reuse manned spacecraft to make its space exploration cost-effective.

Reusable manned spacecraft are a Holy Grail of space exploration. The United States developed partially reusable manned spacecraft capable of reaching low Earth orbit. But they were all retired in 2011 due to high costs and risks, including an accident in 2003 that killed seven astronauts.

The chief engineer did not go into any more details on the project, but stressed his team's focus on saving costs, giving an example from the Tiangong space lab series.

Chinese scientists have managed to incorporate all tasks planned for the third generation of the lab into the second generation. There has been no need to develop the third generation.

He said China's space station will be completed around 2022. It will be a green model, with highly advanced and budget-saving facilities in flight control, power supply and waste recycling.

Earlier this month, US rocket developer SpaceX achieved a world first by landing one Falcon rocket on a carrier at sea. China was paying close attention to such innovation and was testing its own reusable rockets, promising a breakthrough before the end of 2020.

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The Ministry of Education has told parents its efforts to ensure more children from poor backgrounds getting a college education will not hurt the chances of students from more affluent parts of China.

The ministry said its changes to the enrollment policies of this year's gaokao, the national higher education entrance exam, will not mean children from developed parts of China will lose out.

The event follows a heated discussion in China about the changes to the gaokao enrollment policies. A recent directive from the ministry means there will be a redistribution of cross-provincial quotas for some provinces.

According to the directive, universities in some more developed provinces with rich tertiary education resources will have to take a large number of students this year from less developed regions.

The more developed provinces include east China's Jiangsu Province and central China's Hubei Province. The two provinces will take in more students, who pass the gaokao, from areas including Tibet and Xinjiang in western China.

The quotas for larger enrollment are understood to be significantly increased from previous years, but there are no hard numbers available.

The directive created a public outcry from parents in two provinces. Some parents protested in front of local education bureaus, claiming the redistribution will mean fewer local students being enrolled to colleges and universities.

The ministry has said that the move is aimed at further boosting equal access to higher education and narrows the gap between developed regions and their poor counterparts.

The university entrance exam is seen by students and parents in China as one of the most important milestones in life.

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Chinese police have launched a mobile app to encourage witnesses to report the whereabouts of missing or trafficked children.

More than 5,000 anti-trafficking police will provide updates to the app on receiving new reports of missing children.

Users near the location where a child disappeared will receive push notifications, including photos and descriptions of the missing child. The scope of these push notifications will be expanded over time.

Information will be available to the public at the platform's official Sina Weibo account. Police will cooperate with new media outlets and mobile apps to encourage the public to help in anti-human trafficking work.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

The first Chinese-Russian university plans to enroll its first group of students this year. Located in Shenzhen in Guangdong province, the MSU-BIT University marks a milestone in educational cooperation between China and Russia.

Postgraduate students in Nano science and ecology will be enrolled in the new Shenzhen MSU-BIT University in September after it gets official approval from the Ministry of Education. The university is going to enroll undergraduates from next year.

MSU-BIT is run by Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Shenzhen government. It is the first such cooperation between Chinese and Russian universities.

The university plans to enroll a total of 5,000 students from home and overseas in the near future. Thirty to 50 percent of them are expected to come from countries along the ancient Silk Road.

Students will be equipped with multilingual capabilities, and the classes will be taught in Chinese, English and Russian.

The number of students studying in each other's countries has been growing. More than 16,000 students from Russia studied in China last year, while more than 25,000 Chinese students studied in Russia.

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China's first Confucius classroom in a prison has opened in East China's Shandong Province.

The classroom opened in Luzhong Prison in central Shandong as part of a charity program funded by the China Confucius Foundation.

The provincial prison management bureau said the prison will pilot a series of changes, including classroom and library design, as well as training prison instructors in Confucian teachings. The activities aim to improve the prison's cultural atmosphere.

The classroom will feature Chinese calligraphy, literary classics and moral education.

Named after the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius schools and classrooms are generally run as non-profit public institutions to help foreigners understand China through language and culture classes at overseas universities. The first such institute was established in 2004.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

Almost 1,200 water-saving projects have been built in Beijing, saving up to 100 million cubic meters of water every year.

Beijing's water authorities said water permeable bricks, sunken green fields and rainwater recycling facilities have been widely adopted in the city.

Beijing recycled and utilized 160 million cubic meters of rainwater last year.

Beijing has been listed as one of the pilot "sponge cities" in China. The city's urban planning authorities said more wetlands, filtration pools and permeable public spaces will be added to make the city "spongier".

Beijing once relied heavily on groundwater. Excessive exploitation has led to decline of groundwater levels and subsequent subsidence.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

A doctor from Shanghai has saved a woman who passed out on an international flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles in the United States. After receiving treatment from the doctor, the woman finally regained consciousness.

Zhao Yingchun is the chief doctor at Shanghai Songjiang District central hospital. He took the flight to attend his daughter's graduation ceremony on May 12.

During the flight, Zhao heard a public announcement seeking help for a fainted passenger. He rushed to the passenger trying to give her immediate emergency treatment.

The middle-aged woman had suddenly fainted and had been in a coma after returning to her seat from the lavatory.

The medical devices provided by crew members were only a stethoscope and a blood pressure monitor. He could not hear her blood pressure due to the noise made by the plane engine.

But Zhao still managed to treat the passenger. Fifteen minutes later, the woman mildly reacted, and after 40 minutes, was able to talk.

He stayed with her for one hour, checking her breath and her heart beat every 5 minutes, until she was completely recovered.

As the plane landed at Los Angeles airport, the crew members thanked Zhao for his timely aid and tried to give him 150 US dollars as a reward. Zhao did not take the money, saying it was what a doctor should do.

The airline staff offered him free air miles and a souvenir to show their appreciation.

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Double-amputee climber Xia Boyu is around 1,500 meters away from reaching the summit of the world's highest mountain.

Xia has reached a height of 7,280 meters on the 8,848-meter-high Mount Everest.

According to a live broadcast on news portal sina.com, by the end of the day, the 65-year-old climber was expected to have reached camp C4, where he failed in his first attempt to reach the summit 41 years ago.

Xia was born in Chongqing in southwest China. A violent storm in 1975 kept him at the camp at an altitude of 8,600 meters. He was then a new member of China's national mountaineering team.

The attempt cost him both his legs. He suffered severe frostbite on his feet, after he gave his only sleeping bag to an ailing teammate. He became disabled.

Xia says his confidence comes from years of hard physical training, which was only interrupted for a short period of time when he was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago.

Equipped with artificial limbs, Xia has climbed many mountains, with four of them being higher than 6,000 meters above sea level.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

China has launched a campaign to tackle school bullying.

The State Council, the country's Cabinet, has sent a notice to local education bureaus. The campaign aims to curb bullying in primary and middle schools, including physical and verbal. Cyberspace bullying will also be targeted.

The campaign targets all primary and middle schools across the country, including middle vocational schools.

Campus bullying is a serious issue in China. Last year, a student was stabbed to death by three of his classmates in Guangdong Province. In another incident last year, a video clip showing schoolgirls slapping and kicking another girl in Jiangxi Province went viral online. The event triggered a widespread discussion of campus bullying.

According to the notice, the inspector will be responsible for monitoring all schools in his or her school district. The inspector is required to report any bullying to the school and to the local education inspection department.

Schools are required to invite public security and justice departments to provide anti-bullying education.

The notice is urging schools to create procedures to prevent and handle campus bullying as well as to clarify responsibilities of school staff members regarding the issue.

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Aiming to improve students' overall fitness, the education authority is calling for greater emphasis on physical education in school admissions and assessment of officials.

To encourage students to exercise more, the Ministry of Education is urging high schools and colleges to give more consideration in admissions to students' PE class attendance, fitness level and on-campus athletic performance. It also asks that the work evaluation of local education and school officials be partially based on students' results.

The call is in response to a regulation issued recently by the State Council, the country's Cabinet, aimed at highlighting physical education's role in China's education system.

Under the ministry's monitoring, if students' overall fitness is found to have declined for three consecutive years, the school leaders and local officials in charge will be punished, and will not be eligible for promotion.

PE tests are currently included in China's high school entrance exams. However, students' PE performance is not part of the scoring system of the national higher learning entrance exam, or gaokao. That has led students in senior grades to focus more on academics than sports, and schools to replace PE classes with extra tutoring.

A lack of physical exercise was partially blamed for students' fitness decline in the National Fitness Survey released last year.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

The support ship of a new deep-sea submarine has been delivered to its owner, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The 94-meter-long vessel has a full-load displacement of almost 6,300 tonnes, with a range of 10,000 nautical miles. It is equipped with 10 permanent research labs and two removable labs.

The ship will serve as the support ship for a new submarine currently under development and for future expeditions of sea floor trenches.

The vessel is scheduled to sail from Guangzhou to a port in Hainan Province for off-shore tests. If all goes well, the ship will sail to the Mariana Trench for a research mission in the near future.

The new manned submarine can reach a depth of 4,500 meters under water and is likely to go through off-shore testing in the first half of next year.

China's current manned submarine, the "Jiaolong", reached a depth of 7,000 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012.

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A robot has been developed aiming to get enrolled in first-class Chinese universities next year. The robot will then try to get into prestigious and comparatively more difficult Peking University or Tsinghua in 2020, after beating 12th graders.

The robot will sit three exams, namely math, the Chinese language, and a comprehensive test of liberal arts including history and geography.

A company in Chengdu in southwest China won the bid for the artificial intelligence program on the robot's math test held by the Ministry of Science and Technology last year.

Like the other examinees, the robot will have to finish the tests in designated time. It will take its exams in a closed room without anyone else present, except for proctors and a notary.

The robot will be linked to a printer before each exam, and the electronic examination paper will be fed into the robot's program at the start of the examination. The robot will be totally disconnected from the internet and will solve the problems with its artificial intelligence program. Finally the answers will be outputted through the printer.

Experts say the robot is just one example of the boom in artificial intelligence after Google's AlphaGo beat a world-class player in the ancient board game Go in March.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

British scientists have discovered three earth-sized planets orbiting a dim and cool star 40 light years from Earth. The discovery was made by the University of Cambridge. It is believed to be the best place to start searching for extra-terrestrial life.

Didier Queloz is a professor from the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory. He says the discovery of a planetary system around such a small star opens up a brand new avenue for research.

Scientists used a telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile, to view the star. Known as TRAPPIST-1, it is in the Aquarius constellation.

The scientists found that the dim and cool star faded slightly at regular intervals, indicating that several objects were transiting, or passing between the star and the Earth. Detailed analysis showed that there were three planets of a similar size to the Earth.

TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool dwarf star, and as such is much cooler and redder than the Sun and is barely larger than Jupiter.

Such stars are very common in the Milky Way and very long-lived, but this is the first time that planets have been found around one of them.

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British researchers have developed the world's tiniest engine, just a few billionths of a meter in size. The engine uses light to power itself.

The researchers say the nanoscale engine can form the basis of future nano-machines that can navigate in water, sense the environment around them, and even enter living cells to fight disease. The researchers at the University of Cambridge published their study results in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The prototype device is made of tiny charged particles of gold, bound together with temperature-responsive polymers in the form of a gel.

When the nano-engine is heated to a certain temperature with a laser, it stores large amounts of elastic energy in a fraction of a second. As the polymer coatings expel all the water from the gel and collapse, it forces the gold nanoparticles to bind together into tight clusters.

But when the device is cooled down, the polymers take on water and expand again, and the gold nanoparticles are strongly and quickly pushed apart, like a spring.

The research suggests how to turn Van de Waals energy into elastic energy of polymers and release it very quickly. Van de Waals energy refers to the attraction between atoms and molecules.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

China's TV singing contest "Super Girls" will return to screens after a ten-year break.

The show is to be re-launched by Hunan Satellite TV, in Changsha, the capital of central China's Hunan Province. "Super Girls" is similar to "American Idol", offering ordinary people a chance at stardom.

Around 610,000 people have registered to enter the contest.

Women above the age of 18 can apply to be a contestants. They will be scored by the judging panel and public votes. Twenty finalists will be announced in June.

"Super Girls" was first produced in 2004, and at its height, 200 million people tuned in to watch the live, three-hour finale of "Super Girls 2005" show.

Now a celebrity, Li Yuchun was then a student with Sichuan Conservatory of Music. She won the contest in 2005. Li later appeared on the cover of Time Asia Magazine as one of the 25 Asian Heroes of the year. A set of stamps were issued featuring the singer.

Since the run-away success of the format, Chinese TV producers have competed to make similar shows, including the popular "Voice of China" series. However, there are concerns that the new "Super Girls" show may not be able to achieve its past glory.

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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

U.S. space agency NASA says it views China as a potential partner, not a threat, in the civilian space area.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made the remakes at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Bolden discussed his agency's role in U.S. international affairs.

Bolden said that since he only views civilian space, he sees China as a potential partner. He said China is already a partner in some areas including Earth and lunar science. The United States and China have cooperated in areas including collaborative research on geodetics and glacial characterization in the Himalaya region.

Bolden said there are potential areas of partnerships, but because of congressional restrictions right now, the two countries are limited to merely multilateral activities. He said engagement always beats isolation.

U.S. Congress passed a law in 2011 prohibiting NASA from hosting Chinese visitors at its facilities. The law also bans working with researchers affiliated to any Chinese government entity or enterprise.

In April, China said it's open to space cooperation with all nations including the United States. It said cooperation between major space players will be conducive to the development of all mankind.

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The civil aviation authority is making efforts to prevent terrorist attacks on passenger planes and airports, including for the first time requiring that all industry employees receive security clearance.

According to the draft of the revised Regulation on Safety and Security of Civil Aviation, all of the country's civil aviation personnel must undergo background security investigations.

Additionally, civil aviation and public security administrations, airports and airlines are asked to enhance their anti-terrorism intelligence capabilities.

Safety and security plans drafted by foreign airlines that operate in China also must conform with China's laws and regulations, and the plans need to be examined and approved by local civil aviation administrations.

Besides anti-terrorism measures, the draft also bans passengers from attacking or occupying check-in counters, security check lanes and boarding gates in airports. It stipulates penalties for various offenses. These parts of the plan are designed to deal with an increasing number of angry passengers who are frustrated by flight delays.

The draft is posted on the website of the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office to solicit public opinion before May 20. The current regulation was adopted 20 years ago.

Industry observers say the new requirement that all aviation industry personnel receive security clearance is an important measure.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

A government investigation team has announced that the school at the center of an alleged pollution incident had relocated to contaminated land before remedial treatment of its soil had been carried out. The school made headlines after hundreds of students reportedly fell ill at the school.

Eastern China's Changzhou Foreign Languages School found itself at the center of a media storm after reports claimed the school was built on toxic land contaminated by three chemical plants.

The investigation team said the local district government failed to finish a soil treatment project in time and the school followed its original construction schedule. Students were moved to the new school in September last year.

The city government said that all of those responsible, including people from the school and the chemical factories, will be investigated. Those found guilty will be punished. Some of them have already been detained for investigation.

Health experts from the team said 909 students were examined at hospitals. Thyroid nodules were found in 247 of them, and 35 had lymphatic anomalies. However, the investigation team said it was hard to tell whether the conditions were directly related to pollution at the school site.

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China ranked at the top in a Save the Children survey of 18 countries in reducing discrimination against and neglect of children. More than 70 percent of Chinese people said they had seen an improvement.

The survey results showed that 74 percent of Chinese people thought things were getting better. That's the highest proportion out of all the countries surveyed. Other countries in the survey included the United States, India and the United Kingdom.

The survey also found that 77 percent of those who said they were affected by discrimination during childhood in China believed the situation in the country had improved. That represented the highest level among all the countries surveyed. India was second, with 61 percent, and Nigeria third at 55 percent.

Worldwide, almost 40 percent of adults said they were discriminated against as children because of gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or because of where they lived.

The survey interviewed 18,000 adults in the participating countries. Almost half of those surveyed in Asia said they faced discrimination as children. In China, the figure was 44 percent.

The survey has been conducted for Save the Children by the international opinion research and consultancy firm GlobeScan. It was the largest survey of its kind undertaken by Save the Children, the world's leading independent organization advocating for children.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

Overseas travelers passing through Beijing Capital International Airport no longer need to worry about communication breakdowns thanks to volunteers from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Starting this month, the students, based in a call center on campus, are offering interpretation services for passengers who do not speak Chinese. The volunteer service covers seven foreign languages including French, Arabic, Japanese and Korean, from 8 am to 6 pm.

Passengers who are not at the airport can still make an inquiry about its services by calling the multilingual hotline on 96158.

Student volunteers have been working in the languages, plus English, for emergency services since 2010.

In order to qualify for volunteer work at the multilingual service center, students need to have foreign language proficiency level that is equal to or greater than a third-year bachelor's degree level.

The job can also be physically challenging when interpretations are being provided for the emergency services, as calls can come in at all times of the day, including late at night.

People made the calls to ask for medical help, inquire about delayed fights, or complain about disputes.

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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

Facing a predicted surge in pregnancies this year following the adoption of the universal second-child policy in China, major hospitals in Beijing are setting aside twice as many beds as usual for woman with high-risk pregnancies.

Health authorities in the capital say they will increase the number of obstetrics beds and available staff in public hospitals to meet the expected demand. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said the hospitals will purchase services at private hospitals if necessary.

The number of births in Beijing is expected to exceed 300,000 this year, a rise of around 20 percent from the levels of previous years.

But, a large portion of those eligible to have a second child are over 40 and likely to face increased risks during their pregnancies. The risks, including hypertension, will pose a greater challenge for hospitals.

Local health authorities have responded by stipulating that pregnant women in high-risk groups, including older women and those with health issues, must give birth at Grade-A hospitals.

At these top-end obstetrics hospitals, high-risk women will account for 80 percent of admissions, up from the previous 40 percent.

Health authorities in the capital are also required to offer enhanced monitoring to women in high-risk groups, along with advanced treatment to head off complications during pregnancy.

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There has been an "enormous rise" in the demand for self-defense products including personal safety alarms, tactical pens and key chains in China following a hotel assault in early April.

Major online shopping malls said the sale of self-defense items increased markedly over the past weeks, in particular a sharp rise in purchases from females. The move came after a video emerged on April 5 apparently showing a woman being throttled and pulled away in the hallway of a Beijing hotel. The woman was attacked by a man who was handing out cards with prostitute information and thought the woman was a competitor.

The video clip sparked widespread anger and turned women's safety and self-defense gadgets into major talking points in the country.

The most popular self-protection item sold at online shops is a portable alarm, which can let out a siren-like sound reaching 120 decibels or more when triggered.

One shop owner on Taobao.com said the sale of personal safety alarms has increased by almost 100 folds. He sold more than 20,000 alarms over the past two weeks, equaling the total sales of six months before the incident.

According to an online survey, more than 60 percent of 120 interviewees regarded self-defense gadgets as useful or better than being bare-handed when facing danger.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

China will launch its new generation heavy-lift rocket named Long March-5 into the skies later this year, and is planning even larger versions.

The rocket has a liftoff weight of 870 tonnes, with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbit, and 14 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit.

It can carry more than two-and-half times as much as current launch vehicles. The move marks China's transformation from a major space player to a major space power.

Using non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, the 60-meter-long rocket measures five meters in diameter and will be equipped with four thrusters, each measuring 3 meters in diameter like on previous Long March rockets.

The Long March-5 series will come in six slightly different models and will be the main launch vehicle for manned space programs as well as lunar and Martian exploration.

Experts say the more the rockets can lift, the farther they can venture into space.

China has plans to launch the Long March-7, a medium-sized rocket that can carry up to 14 tonnes to low Earth orbit, this year. It will transport cargo for the planned space station.

Together, Long March-5 and Long March-7 are expected to eventually replace the earlier Long March rockets to meet domestic and international launch needs.

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A 420-kilometer section of highway that passes through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will get eight recycling centers this year. The move is aimed at cutting down on rubbish and other waste that tourists leave behind on their journeys.

The service stations along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway will offer waste recycling, toilets, hot water, Wi-Fi access and power outlets. An investment of 3.6 million yuan, roughly 556,000 U.S. dollars, has been made for infrastructure construction and basic operations.

Waste along the highway has become a hidden danger for pollution of some water resources, and it damages the pasture landscape. The Sichuan Greenriver Environmental Protection Promotion Association is setting up the stations. The NGO said that in addition, animals including sheep and yaks can die if they eat abandoned plastic bags.

Starting in Xi Ning in Northwest China's Qinghai province, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway is 2,000 kilometers long and for decades has been an important transportation channel for Tibet.

A 2013 survey by Greenriver found around 160,000 pieces of trash along a section of the highway. Most of the refuse was non-biodegradable plastic packages tossed out by drivers and tourists. The stations will be built along a 420-kilometer section of the highway from the city of Ge'ermu to Mount Thanglha.

This section was chosen because the highway there cuts through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and it is where major national nature reserves are located.

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For around a decade, residents of Luohu district of Shenzhen in Guangdong province watched a ritual every evening at dusk as a fleet of taxis spiraled along a narrow mountain road and entered Dawang at the foot of Wutong Mountain.

But the past year has seen changes in the "taxi-driver village", as Dawang is known. New online cab-hailing services have been snapping up business, resulting in many taxis disappearing and being replaced by private cars whose drivers use the new platforms.

Attracted by the good money, many drivers in the village have abandoned their taxis and started working for private companies, including Didi Chuxing and Uber.

Dawang Village gained its nickname thanks to the large number of cab drivers who live there. Few of them are locals, though; and most come from Youxian, a county in the central province of Hunan.

Around 1,000 people in the village are now employed exclusively by Didi Chuxing.

Full-time drivers are only allowed to use private vehicles, so every defection means one fewer taxi on the roads.

Driving a taxi isn't profitable anymore. Taxi drivers had to find another way to survive.

In the past two years, the popularity of the new services has soared in China. Didi Chuxing operates in hundreds of cities, with daily orders reaching 10 million. The company said 1.4 billion cars were ordered via its platform nationwide last year.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Chinese researchers looking at macaques have said that they have solved the long-standing puzzle over how the human brain perceive movement in a curvilinear trajectory, including making turns while driving.

In daily life, people's complex motion trajectories typically contain two independent components which are straight-line movement and rotation.

Correspondingly, the inner ears have evolved two sets of special sensory organs: the sphere-like otoliths detect linear motion, while the semi-circular canals detect rotational movement.

Information collected by the organs is then sent to the central nervous system in the brain, where two distinct sets of neurons help people sense linear and rotational movement. But the new study identified a third set of neurons in the macaque sensory cortex that respond optimally to curve motion.

Neuroscientists at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences say it is a very interesting question as to why our brain evolved this way.

Humans do not have to have the curved motion neurons in the sensory area of the brain. Scientists suspect that the representation of curved motion in the sensory cortex helps animals rapidly detect curved movement, and saves the work load of the decision centers for other important neural computations.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

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China is open to space cooperation with all nations including the United States.

The heavyweight of China's space program, China's first astronaut Yang Liwei, made the remark recently on the occasion of the anniversary of China's first satellite launch 46 years ago.

Yang said China does not rule out cooperating with any country, including the United States.

The senior astronaut said payload has been reserved in the Chinese space station for international projects and foreign astronauts. The space station is due to enter service around 2022.

China marked its first Space Day, which was newly designated by the government to commemorate China's first satellite launch on April 24, 1970.

Upon request, China will also train astronauts for other countries, and jointly train astronauts with the European space station.

Yang said the future of space exploration lies in international cooperation, and it's true for China as well as for the United States.

Citing security reasons, the United States Congress passed a law in 2011 to prohibit NASA from hosting Chinese visitors at its facilities or working with researchers affiliated to any Chinese government entity or enterprise. The ban remains in effect.

The US-dominated International Space Station, which unsurprisingly blocks China, is scheduled to end its service in 2024. China's space station will be the only operational one in outer space, at least for a while.

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Five domestic airlines have agreed to tackle air rage by blacklisting passengers who misbehave.

The five airlines, including Air China and China Southern, are the country&`&s major carriers. They will collectively keep records of those who are not behaved.

Improper behaviors include attacking on check-in counters, forcibly occupying airplanes and fighting on board an airplane.

Passenger records will be shared throughout the country's civil aviation and tourism industries. Those who are blacklisted will face penalties including being denied special seats, ticket discounts, or even service.

However, an official from the Civil Aviation University of China said airlines do not have the right to limit passengers&`& travel rights.

The official said that although air passenger blacklists have been adopted overseas, there is no legal provision for them in China, adding that this may lead to disputes.

Others say that the provisions for the blacklist should be decided by a third party rather than just the airlines.

It is the first time that a blacklist has covered most of the domestic civil aviation industry. The five airlines and their subsidiaries handle more than 80 percent of China&`&s air traffic.

The decision comes after the China Air Transport Association adopted a new management policy to record uncivilized behavior by air passengers.

You are listening to Special English. I am Sam Duckett in Beijing.

The authorities are trying to restore public confidence in vaccines after a nationwide scandal struck fear into the hearts of parents.

China banned drug wholesalers from selling vaccines, according to a decision publicized on the nation&`&s Vaccination Day, which fell on April 25th.

The decision requires B-class, or non-compulsory, vaccines to be distributed in the same way as A-class, which are covered by the national compulsory immunization program.

It also requires disease control departments, hospitals and clinics to keep records of purchases and received inventory.

According to the decision, China will establish a system to track vaccines. Enterprises and user agencies must record circulation and use, so all vaccines can be tracked across their life cycle.

The public were shocked and appalled in March when the news that improperly stored vaccines worth millions of dollars were sold nationwide. More than 300 officials implicated in cases concerning the event will be penalized.

In the eastern city of Ningbo, the number of vaccinated children decreased by around one fourth from March 18 to 31. Local authorities are trying to quell public unease.

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Individuals and organizations that conduct medically inessential prenatal sex discernment or sex-selective abortions will be fined up to 30,000 yuan, roughly 4,600 U.S. dollars.

Under a revised regulation taking effect recently, besides a fine, the government will confiscate the income from such screenings and abortions, which are illegal in China.

Those who introduce expectant parents to take up illegal prenatal sex discernment and selective abortion will also face the same punishment.

The regulation has been jointly issued by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the China Food and Drug Administration.

The revision to the law aims to tackle China&`&s high gender imbalance, a direct result of pre-birth sex discernment and sex-selective abortions driven by cultural preference for boys.

The birth sex ratio stood at almost 114 in 2015, much higher than a normal ratio between 103 and 107, though it has decreased from 121 in 2004.

In China, legitimate reasons for a hospital conducting a sex-selective abortion include serious genetic disease or deadly threat to the mother's health.

It requires at least three senior doctors with a genetics background and clinical experience to decide whether prenatal sex discernment is necessary. If an abortion is necessary, the hospital must report the case to the local health department.

You are listening to Special English. I&`&m Sam Duckett in Beijing.

The State Council has published its major health care reform tasks for the year, with a general practitioner pilot program, and reduced reliance on drug revenue for health centers.

This year, 200 cities will trial GP practices, making the service available to 15 percent of urban citizens and 30 percent of key groups.

According to the statement from the State Council, China's Cabinet, GPs will open their practices to residents, providing them with basic, consistent medical services.

The plan is part of a tiered health system being rolled out across the country.

To improve local-level medical institutions, the government will allow physicians in public hospitals to practice or establish their own practices.

Another health reform task this year will be the establishment of a pricing mechanism for medicine to reduce the cost born by patients.

Patients will be given the choice of buying drugs from hospitals or retail pharmacies.

The public hospital reform will be further advanced, as 100 more cities will carry out pilot public hospital reform this year.

According to the pilot reform, revenues of public hospitals will not rely on drugs but medical service charges.

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Chinese scientists are working on new projects inspired by the documented case of a man who was cured of AIDS. They hope eventually find a way to ensure that humans are born with immunity to the condition.

Nine years ago, a 41-year-old man, who has since been dubbed the "Berlin patient", was close to death and in the advanced stages of both AIDS and leukemia. Doctors gave him a stem cell transplant from an HIV-resistant donor, and miraculously cured both conditions. The event made him arguably the first person ever to be cured of AIDS.

The remarkable case shed light on CCR5, a receptor in humans that helps HIV enter cells. The bone-marrow transplant had changed the Berlin patient&`&s gene to a mutation called CCR5-delta32, which blocks HIV.

With new gene technology now available, Chinese scientists have recently moved forward with attempts to modify the CCR5 gene in embryos, advancing their drive to ensure humans are born already immune to HIV.

In the latest case, researchers from the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University used a gene editing technique to attempt to replace the CCR5 gene in 26 human embryos. The researchers tried to give the embryos the HIV-resistant mutation. Four embryos were successfully edited, while the other 22 cases failed to produce the desired results.

You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Sam Duckett in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That&`&s [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Chinese science fiction writer Hao Jingfang was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for her book "Folding Beijing".

According to Tsinghua University, where she is pursuing her doctorate, the news was posted on the official website of the World Science Fiction Convention. "Folding Beijing", one of five candidates, is listed under the "Best Novelette" category.

Hao said on her Sina Weibo microblog that she is so excited to be shortlisted. The story was first published in a new electronic magazine. She didn&`&t expect to have this result.

Hao graduated from the department of physics at Tsinghua University in 2006.

The story follows the protagonist, Lao Dao, as he tries to navigate the complicated class barriers of a futuristic Beijing in order to send his daughter to school.

She said she used to live in suburban Beijing. Near her apartment building there were noisy alleys, small restaurants and an open-air market. The experience inspired her to write the story.

Hao said she regretted that the second volume of "The Three-Body Problem" by Liu Cixin, who won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, was not shortlisted.

Established in 1953, the Hugo Awards are given annually to the best works of science fiction or fantasy and are seen as the "highest honor bestowed in science fiction and fantasy writing. Fifth-three-year old Liu was the first writer in Asia to win the honor.

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A university in northwest China's Qinghai Province plans to offer international students Master&`&s degrees in traditional Tibetan medicine.

Tibetan Medical College of Qinghai University has said that it planned to recruit five foreign postgraduates this autumn. The Master&`&s program will last three years, with students taught in both English and Tibetan.

Established in 1987, the college is one of the two higher educational institutes in China which train traditional Tibetan medicine practitioners. The other is in Tibet.

The college's honorary president said the school had exchange programs with universities in the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan since 2007. So far, almost 100 overseas students have come for short-term training in Tibetan medicine.

Traditional Tibetan medicine was also listed as optional course at University of Virginia medical school last July.

The president said the core of development of Tibetan medicine lies in training. Helping it go global will be beneficial to more people.

Tibetan medicine is at least 2,300 years old. It has absorbed the influences of traditional Chinese, Indian and Arab medicines and is mainly practiced in Tibet and the Himalayan region.

Tibetan medicine uses herbs, minerals and sometimes insects and animal parts. It was put on the list of China's national intangible cultural heritage in 2006.

You're listening to Special English. I&`&m Sam Duckett in Beijing.

Disney's "The Jungle Book" continued to lead the box office in its second week after release.

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This is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.

U.S. space agency NASA says it views China as a potential partner, not a threat, in the civilian space area.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made the remakes at an event hosted by the Washington-based think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Bolden discussed his agency's role in U.S. international affairs.

Bolden said that since he only views civilian space, he sees China as a potential partner. He said China is already a partner in some areas including Earth and lunar science. The United States and China have cooperated in areas including collaborative research on geodetics and glacial characterization in the Himalaya region.

Bolden said there are potential areas of partnerships, but because of congressional restrictions right now, the two countries are limited to merely multilateral activities. He said engagement always beats isolation.

U.S. Congress passed a law in 2011 prohibiting NASA from hosting Chinese visitors at its facilities. The law also bans working with researchers affiliated to any Chinese government entity or enterprise.

In April, China said it's open to space cooperation with all nations including the United States. It said cooperation between major space players will be conducive to the development of all mankind.

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The civil aviation authority is making efforts to prevent terrorist attacks on passenger planes and airports, including for the first time requiring that all industry employees receive security clearance.

According to the draft of the revised Regulation on Safety and Security of Civil Aviation, all of the country's civil aviation personnel must undergo background security investigations.

Additionally, civil aviation and public security administrations, airports and airlines are asked to enhance their anti-terrorism intelligence capabilities.

Safety and security plans drafted by foreign airlines that operate in China also must conform with China's laws and regulations, and the plans need to be examined and approved by local civil aviation administrations.

Besides anti-terrorism measures, the draft also bans passengers from attacking or occupying check-in counters, security check lanes and boarding gates in airports. It stipulates penalties for various offenses. These parts of the plan are designed to deal with an increasing number of angry passengers who are frustrated by flight delays.

The draft is posted on the website of the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office to solicit public opinion before May 20. The current regulation was adopted 20 years ago.

Industry observers say the new requirement that all aviation industry personnel receive security clearance is an important measure.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

A government investigation team has announced that the school at the center of an alleged pollution incident had relocated to contaminated land before remedial treatment of its soil had been carried out. The school made headlines after hundreds of students reportedly fell ill at the school.

Eastern China's Changzhou Foreign Languages School found itself at the center of a media storm after reports claimed the school was built on toxic land contaminated by three chemical plants.

The investigation team said the local district government failed to finish a soil treatment project in time and the school followed its original construction schedule. Students were moved to the new school in September last year.

The city government said that all of those responsible, including people from the school and the chemical factories, will be investigated. Those found guilty will be punished. Some of them have already been detained for investigation.

Health experts from the team said 909 students were examined at hospitals. Thyroid nodules were found in 247 of them, and 35 had lymphatic anomalies. However, the investigation team said it was hard to tell whether the conditions were directly related to pollution at the school site.

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China ranked at the top in a Save the Children survey of 18 countries in reducing discrimination against and neglect of children. More than 70 percent of Chinese people said they had seen an improvement.

The survey results showed that 74 percent of Chinese people thought things were getting better. That's the highest proportion out of all the countries surveyed. Other countries in the survey included the United States, India and the United Kingdom.

The survey also found that 77 percent of those who said they were affected by discrimination during childhood in China believed the situation in the country had improved. That represented the highest level among all the countries surveyed. India was second, with 61 percent, and Nigeria third at 55 percent.

Worldwide, almost 40 percent of adults said they were discriminated against as children because of gender, ethnicity, religion, disability or because of where they lived.

The survey interviewed 18,000 adults in the participating countries. Almost half of those surveyed in Asia said they faced discrimination as children. In China, the figure was 44 percent.

The survey has been conducted for Save the Children by the international opinion research and consultancy firm GlobeScan. It was the largest survey of its kind undertaken by Save the Children, the world's leading independent organization advocating for children.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing.

Overseas travelers passing through Beijing Capital International Airport no longer need to worry about communication breakdowns thanks to volunteers from Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Starting this month, the students, based in a call center on campus, are offering interpretation services for passengers who do not speak Chinese. The volunteer service covers seven foreign languages including French, Arabic, Japanese and Korean, from 8 am to 6 pm.

Passengers who are not at the airport can still make an inquiry about its services by calling the multilingual hotline on 96158.

Student volunteers have been working in the languages, plus English, for emergency services since 2010.

In order to qualify for volunteer work at the multilingual service center, students need to have foreign language proficiency level that is equal to or greater than a third-year bachelor's degree level.

The job can also be physically challenging when interpretations are being provided for the emergency services, as calls can come in at all times of the day, including late at night.

People made the calls to ask for medical help, inquire about delayed fights, or complain about disputes.

This is Special English.

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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

Facing a predicted surge in pregnancies this year following the adoption of the universal second-child policy in China, major hospitals in Beijing are setting aside twice as many beds as usual for woman with high-risk pregnancies.

Health authorities in the capital say they will increase the number of obstetrics beds and available staff in public hospitals to meet the expected demand. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said the hospitals will purchase services at private hospitals if necessary.

The number of births in Beijing is expected to exceed 300,000 this year, a rise of around 20 percent from the levels of previous years.

But, a large portion of those eligible to have a second child are over 40 and likely to face increased risks during their pregnancies. The risks, including hypertension, will pose a greater challenge for hospitals.

Local health authorities have responded by stipulating that pregnant women in high-risk groups, including older women and those with health issues, must give birth at Grade-A hospitals.

At these top-end obstetrics hospitals, high-risk women will account for 80 percent of admissions, up from the previous 40 percent.

Health authorities in the capital are also required to offer enhanced monitoring to women in high-risk groups, along with advanced treatment to head off complications during pregnancy.

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There has been an "enormous rise" in the demand for self-defense products including personal safety alarms, tactical pens and key chains in China following a hotel assault in early April.

Major online shopping malls said the sale of self-defense items increased markedly over the past weeks, in particular a sharp rise in purchases from females. The move came after a video emerged on April 5 apparently showing a woman being throttled and pulled away in the hallway of a Beijing hotel. The woman was attacked by a man who was handing out cards with prostitute information and thought the woman was a competitor.

The video clip sparked widespread anger and turned women's safety and self-defense gadgets into major talking points in the country.

The most popular self-protection item sold at online shops is a portable alarm, which can let out a siren-like sound reaching 120 decibels or more when triggered.

One shop owner on Taobao.com said the sale of personal safety alarms has increased by almost 100 folds. He sold more than 20,000 alarms over the past two weeks, equaling the total sales of six months before the incident.

According to an online survey, more than 60 percent of 120 interviewees regarded self-defense gadgets as useful or better than being bare-handed when facing danger.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

China will launch its new generation heavy-lift rocket named Long March-5 into the skies later this year, and is planning even larger versions.

The rocket has a liftoff weight of 870 tonnes, with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes to low Earth orbit, and 14 tonnes to geostationary transfer orbit.

It can carry more than two-and-half times as much as current launch vehicles. The move marks China's transformation from a major space player to a major space power.

Using non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, the 60-meter-long rocket measures five meters in diameter and will be equipped with four thrusters, each measuring 3 meters in diameter like on previous Long March rockets.

The Long March-5 series will come in six slightly different models and will be the main launch vehicle for manned space programs as well as lunar and Martian exploration.

Experts say the more the rockets can lift, the farther they can venture into space.

China has plans to launch the Long March-7, a medium-sized rocket that can carry up to 14 tonnes to low Earth orbit, this year. It will transport cargo for the planned space station.

Together, Long March-5 and Long March-7 are expected to eventually replace the earlier Long March rockets to meet domestic and international launch needs.

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A 420-kilometer section of highway that passes through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will get eight recycling centers this year. The move is aimed at cutting down on rubbish and other waste that tourists leave behind on their journeys.

The service stations along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway will offer waste recycling, toilets, hot water, Wi-Fi access and power outlets. An investment of 3.6 million yuan, roughly 556,000 U.S. dollars, has been made for infrastructure construction and basic operations.

Waste along the highway has become a hidden danger for pollution of some water resources, and it damages the pasture landscape. The Sichuan Greenriver Environmental Protection Promotion Association is setting up the stations. The NGO said that in addition, animals including sheep and yaks can die if they eat abandoned plastic bags.

Starting in Xi Ning in Northwest China's Qinghai province, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway is 2,000 kilometers long and for decades has been an important transportation channel for Tibet.

A 2013 survey by Greenriver found around 160,000 pieces of trash along a section of the highway. Most of the refuse was non-biodegradable plastic packages tossed out by drivers and tourists. The stations will be built along a 420-kilometer section of the highway from the city of Ge'ermu to Mount Thanglha.

This section was chosen because the highway there cuts through the ecological lifeline of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and it is where major national nature reserves are located.

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For around a decade, residents of Luohu district of Shenzhen in Guangdong province watched a ritual every evening at dusk as a fleet of taxis spiraled along a narrow mountain road and entered Dawang at the foot of Wutong Mountain.

But the past year has seen changes in the "taxi-driver village", as Dawang is known. New online cab-hailing services have been snapping up business, resulting in many taxis disappearing and being replaced by private cars whose drivers use the new platforms.

Attracted by the good money, many drivers in the village have abandoned their taxis and started working for private companies, including Didi Chuxing and Uber.

Dawang Village gained its nickname thanks to the large number of cab drivers who live there. Few of them are locals, though; and most come from Youxian, a county in the central province of Hunan.

Around 1,000 people in the village are now employed exclusively by Didi Chuxing.

Full-time drivers are only allowed to use private vehicles, so every defection means one fewer taxi on the roads.

Driving a taxi isn't profitable anymore. Taxi drivers had to find another way to survive.

In the past two years, the popularity of the new services has soared in China. Didi Chuxing operates in hundreds of cities, with daily orders reaching 10 million. The company said 1.4 billion cars were ordered via its platform nationwide last year.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to newsplusradio.cn. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by e-mailing us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Now the news continues.

Chinese researchers looking at macaques have said that they have solved the long-standing puzzle over how the human brain perceive movement in a curvilinear trajectory, including making turns while driving.

In daily life, people's complex motion trajectories typically contain two independent components which are straight-line movement and rotation.

Correspondingly, the inner ears have evolved two sets of special sensory organs: the sphere-like otoliths detect linear motion, while the semi-circular canals detect rotational movement.

Information collected by the organs is then sent to the central nervous system in the brain, where two distinct sets of neurons help people sense linear and rotational movement. But the new study identified a third set of neurons in the macaque sensory cortex that respond optimally to curve motion.

Neuroscientists at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences say it is a very interesting question as to why our brain evolved this way.

Humans do not have to have the curved motion neurons in the sensory area of the brain. Scientists suspect that the representation of curved motion in the sensory cortex helps animals rapidly detect curved movement, and saves the work load of the decision centers for other important neural computations.

You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.

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This is Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news.

Chief government officials should resign if serious vaccine violations occurred in their jurisdictions. That's according to a revised regulation approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, ahead of National Children's Inoculation Day, which fell on April 25th.

The revision of the previous regulation on the management of vaccines was made after a scandal involving vaccines that had been stored improperly and sold across China. The case involved 570 million yuan, roughly 88 million U.S. dollars-worth of Category 2 vaccines, which are considered optional.

The regulation has taken effect, intensifying management rules for vaccines, including their transportation and storage, and increasing punishments for violators.

China will also raise the amount of compensation paid to those suffering abnormalities after receiving vaccination. Measures under consideration include the introduction of commercial insurance to improve fairness and efficiency in compensation.

Commercial insurance is expected to play an important role in compensating people for any health problems connected with vaccines.

In the past, responsibility for compensation belonged to vaccine producers or to the government.

Experts say vaccination can cause side effects and result in serious physical consequence in some individuals because of a person's health condition, although the chances of developing problems are extremely low.

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The sudden death of a 14-year-old boy at a factory in Foshan city in Guangdong province has triggered a citywide campaign against the exploitation of child laborers in the Pearl River Delta hub.

The campaign started on April 25th, and was launched by the Foshan bureau of human resources and social security. It aims to protect young workers in the densely populated production base in the southern province.

Labor-intensive manufacturing industries including garment, food and metal, as well as hotels and restaurants will be the major targets of the special campaign. Those who violate laws and regulations will be seriously punished.

Under the current law, it is illegal to employ someone under the age of 16.

The crackdown follows the death of 14-year-old Wang Pan on April 11. Wang suddenly died at home after working in a local lingerie factory for more than a month.

Wang lost consciousness at around 6 in the morning at the home his mother rents. He was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Wang's mother, who is surnamed Kuang, said her son may have died of overwork in the factory. The boy worked at the lingerie factory for 11 or 12 hours a day. Kuang is a migrant worker from Hunan province.

Wang's employer, Foshan Accor, has admitted employing an underage worker and reached an agreement with Kuang to pay a compensation of 150,000 yuan, roughly 23,000 U.S. dollars.

Further investigations are underway. Part of that probe will be to determine the cause of the death.

You are listening to Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing.

Some 700 teachers from China's developed regions have been dispatched to 20 schools in Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region for a three-year program to improve the quality of education in the region.

The first group of 76 teachers has arrived in Tibet, ready to take up positions in the regional capital of Lhasa, and in more remote areas including Xigaze, Nyingchi and Shannan.

The program is co-sponsored by the ministries of education, finance, human resources and social security. It aims to improve education in Tibet, which is dependent on both central and regional government funding to ensure education for farmers and herdsmen.

The teachers from 17 municipalities and provinces including Beijing will be divided into 20 groups to assist teaching in the schools.

Under the program, 400 teachers will also be selected from Tibetan kindergartens and schools every year to receive training and hands-on experiences in schools in developed regions.

The central government has carried out various programs to support Tibet's development. Under the assistance mechanism, teachers from developed areas are encouraged to take a short contract at Tibetan schools to help improve the local education.

The initiative aims to concentrate the efforts in 20 designated schools to make real changes.

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