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This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
China&`&s second lunar probe, Chang&`&e-2, has been a huge success and is now the smallest man-made asteroid in the solar system.
According to a leading scientist of China&`&s lunar exploration project, the lunar probe, launched in 2010, has fulfilled its mission and made worthwhile achievements.
The scientist said the lunar probe has completed and published a full seven-meter-resolution map of the Moon&`&s surface for the first time.
It used X-ray observation data to fully map the Moon&`&s surface and calculate aluminum distribution on the Moon.
Currently, the Chang&`&e-2 is the smallest man-made asteroid in the solar system. It has completed over 200 million kilometers flight and will continue to fly, returning somewhere closer to the earth around 2029.
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Children from across the world have extended birthday wishes to taikonaut Jing Haipeng, who is currently orbiting the earth in space lab Tiangong-2.
"Happy birthday Uncle Jing, &`&Tashi delek&`&," said a Tibetan primary school girl using the Tibetan greeting for good luck and best wishes. She also said that it was her dream to become an astronaut.
Jing, commander of the Shenzhou-11 mission, turned 50 on Monday.
Xinhua News Agency has collected more than 10,000 birthday wishes for Jing from children all around the world. The messages, pictures and videos were sent from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as from other countries including the United States and Sweden. Xinhua has sent some of the messages, pictures and videos to Jing.
A pupil in Beijing said he felt lucky to be so close to an astronaut, and he was more than willing to send his birthday wishes to Uncle Jing.
A student from a special education school in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province sent her birthday message by sign language. Two days ago, she asked the astronauts in space whether they had seen aliens.
Jing&`&s teammate in the mission, Chen Dong, replied that he hadn&`&t seen any aliens yet, but he did harbor a hope that he would see aliens and many other peculiar things.
The two will continue to live in space for 30 days before returning to Earth.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
The Ministry of Education plans to sign more agreements on the mutual recognition of academic degrees with other countries.
The ministry said that by 2020, such mutual recognition agreements will hopefully cover most countries of the world, particularly developed countries.
An international education conference was held in Beijing recently. The annual event aims to promote study in a foreign country, and this year, it&`&s Ireland in particular.
The authority said such mutual recognition agreements represented other countries&`& recognition of the quality of China&`&s higher education.
Since 1988, China has inked such deals with 46 countries.
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Chinese students studying abroad have become younger in age.
According to a report released in a national education portal site, graduate students plunged to 40 percent of total Chinese students studying in the United States last year, compared with 80 percent 10 years ago.
The report in Education Online said that meanwhile, the number of Chinese high school students studying in the United States maintained double-digit growth, accounting for 52 percent of Chinese students in the United States.
The report said the number of Chinese students for overseas study has increased steadily. Last year, 520,000 students studied overseas, and the number is expected to keep growing this year.
The United States is the main destination for Chinese students studying abroad, hitting 320,000 so far this year.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
North China&`&s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has launched a program to attract medical graduates to work in rural areas to tackle an acute shortage of health care workers.
The region is home to many people of Mongolian ethnicity as well as people from other ethnic minority groups who make their living through grazing and animal husbandry.
Rural medical services are insufficient, although a program in effect since 2013 has provided an on-the-job training for 12,000 medical workers.
A notice issued by the regional health department showed that only 9 percent of 20,000 health workers in service in rural areas are licensed medical practitioners.
Under the newly implemented policies, vocational-school medical students willing to work in rural areas after graduation will receive tuition waivers for all three years of their schooling and be provided with subsidies for school accommodation.
The regional government hopes the program will help channel 10,000 assistant medical practitioners into village clinics over the next five years.
China is in desperate need of village doctors. But rural doctors are increasingly reluctant to stay at their job due to barriers including low pay, a lack of prestige and little room for advancement.
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China will offer more policy support to boost education services for its senior citizens.
A newly released State Council plan said China should establish a comprehensive elderly education system by 2020, with diversified teaching approaches and content.
Communities, nursing houses and other elderly care facilities are encouraged to offer a range of courses, and the government will provide full support, including financial subsidies and IT services.
According to the plan&`&s target, more than 20 percent of the total elderly population will be able to regularly participate in various educational activities by 2020.
As of the end of last year, people over 65 years old accounted for more than 10 percent of China&`&s total population. By 2020, the number of senior citizens will have reached 240 million, or 17 percent of the total population.
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.
Beijing is planning to list ice and snow sports as a compulsory course for primary and middle school students.
Municipal authorities made the announcement at the International Winter Sports Exposition held in Beijing.
The authority is hoping that the students can do at least one type of winter sport in the future.
Beijing will push the development of youth ice-snow sports, making sure young students have at least one hour to practice the sports every week.
The city is also looking to put ski resorts in the suburbs and ice rinks in six downtown districts.
Until 2022, 16 new standard indoor and 50 outdoor rinks will be built, and commercial rinks are not included in this figure.
Beijing has vigorously been pushing winter sports into school curriculums since this year. For example, rinks and ski simulators are used in several schools, and professional athletes are invited to teach children to skate.
The government will also fund the sports to lower costs for registration and competitions, as ice and snow sports such as hockey are often unaffordable for families with average income.
Beijing, accompanied by Zhangjiakou in Hebei Province, will be the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics, which will be China&`&s first winter Olympics.
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An orange fish swims along an underwater pipeline, searching for leaks. After finding the holes, it alerts workers on shore with a loud noise.
That isn&`&t a trailer for the latest Disney cartoon, but a real-life demonstration at the 2016 World Robot Conference in Beijing.
The mechanic is called SmartTuna. It is a robot developed to help fix leaking underwater pipelines.
Sometimes it&`&s dangerous for humans to go down into the water, so people developed this robot. The demonstrators said the robot is precise, small and smart.
More than 2,000 competitors from a dozen countries were in Beijing to show off and share ideas during the five-day conference.
With an aging workforce and rising labor costs, China is determined to drive robot development. The output value of China&`&s homegrown robots last year stood at 1.6 billion yuan, roughly 240 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 55 percent.
At the conference, Vice Premier Liu Yandong urged enhanced research and development of the industry. She said related policies should be improved, human resources should be developed and global communication should be enhanced.
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.
The Tiangong II space laboratory has released its companion satellite, Banxing-2.
The satellite weighs 47 kilograms and roughly the size of a desktop printer. The microsatellite has a series of visible light cameras, including a 25 megapixel camera and wide-angle imagers. Its mission is to take photographs of Tiangong II and the Shenzhou XI spacecraft, which docked with the lab a few days ago.
The satellite has been nicknamed by China Central Television as a "Selfie Stick". It also has an infrared camera that is temperature-sensitive.
A chief engineer of the satellite program said the companion satellite is like a private nurse for Tiangong II and Shenzhou XI. It monitors their conditions all the time, which is helpful in detecting any failures.
With three solar panels, the satellite can also generate enough power to adjust its orbit to shoot pictures of the lab and the spacecraft.
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China is well prepared to launch the Chang&`&e-5 lunar probe next year to collect and bring back moon rock samples for scientific research.
A chief scientist of China&`&s lunar exploration project said the launch of Chang&`&e-5 represents the third stage of China&`&s lunar exploration endeavor.
The first stage of lunar expedition was achieved by sending Chang&`&e-1, a circumlunar satellite, in 2007. For the second stage, China landed its lunar probe Chang&`&e-3 on the surface of the moon in 2013.
The scientist said the launch of Chang&`&e-5 will improve China&`&s space science technology. By analyzing the component of the samples to be collected by Chang&`&e-5, scientists will deepen their study into the formation and evolution of the moon.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Chinese civil affairs authorities have pledged to provide seniors with better nursing services by mobilizing idle social resources.
An official statement was issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and 10 other ministries. It asked authorities to transform abandoned factories, hospitals and other state-owned enterprises into nursing institutions for the elderly.
The move aims to provide more nursing facilities and ensure that seniors are able to access nursing services as close to their homes as possible.
The statement also called for enhanced reform to further streamline administrative approval and delegate more power to lower level governments. Applications to run such institutions should be approved in a timely manner.
China&`&s population is aging. Last year, 220 million of the country&`&s 1.3 billion citizens were aged 60 or older. The number is expected to grow at an alarming rate over the next few decades.
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More than 500,000 people have registered to take China&`&s national civil-service examinations, only six days since registration began. As of October 20, the registration system had already verified 520,000 candidates to participate in the exam. The figure marks an increase of 87,000 over last year.
The average number of applicants per position was almost 20 to 1.
The position with the largest number of applicants is an opening under the China Democratic League Central Committee. A total of 2,000 applicants are competing over this one vacancy. Another 10,000 people are vying for places in the country&`&s 13 provincial tax administration bureaus.
In contrast, 900 positions have not seen even a single applicant. The majority of these positions are arduous, base level jobs stationed in relatively remote rural areas. For example, a railway public security bureau in Hohhot in Inner Mongolia is looking to hire six people, but no one has yet registered for the positions.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, one of China&`&s most famous places of interest, has been closed for repairs that will last for 27 months.
The double-decked bridge was opened in 1968 in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. It received leaders from more than 100 countries and regions, and more than 600 foreign delegations from 1970 to 1993.
It was China&`&s first home-produced and built road and rail truss bridge, and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest bridge with the dual functions of highway and railway. In 2014, it was listed as one of the Immovable Cultural Relics under State protection designated by the State Council, China&`&s Cabinet.
The bridge carried around 100,000 vehicles every day, which greatly surpasses its designed capacity. The lane boards of the bridge have cracked in many places, and mortar bedding cushions have fallen apart. Metal fatigue is appearing on the steel.
Since 2002, the bridge has been repaired a dozen times. It is the first time that the bridge has been completely closed for repairs because the related safety issues pose a risk to the railway on the lower deck and the vehicles on the upper deck.
Relic protection experts have been invited to design a specialized plan to protect the bridge.
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Police in Shanghai have arrested 19 people suspected of repackaging more than 200 tons of expired New Zealand-made Fonterra milk powder to sell on the market.
Food safety and police authorities announced that the suspects were operating under a Shanghai-registered trading firm. The suspects repackaged 270 tons of expired milk powder into smaller portions and sold them online or through retailers in several provinces for enticing lower prices.
Police were alerted in March after they discovered the repackaged products in a raid on a retailer&`&s warehouse. In subsequent raids, police confiscated 110 tons of the expired milk powder from the company&`&s warehouse. The remaining 170 tons had been sold to retailers.
Authorities say they were pursuing the dairy products in question and had ordered the closure of the retailers&`& online shops.
So far, there are no reports of any health issues in people who have used the expired milk powder.
Initial investigations show the group&`&s motive was to salvage losses from the unsold imported goods that went beyond their expiry date.
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Bird protection volunteers and local authorities in the northern city of Tianjin have cleared more than 10,000 meters of illegal mist nets and rescued more than 3,000 birds. The rescue efforts were carried out in the city&`&s east coast area during the national holiday week in October.
Migratory birds make a stopover in Tianjin in the autumn when they fly back to their winter habitats in the south. Illegal netting has become a serious problem by poachers who catch the birds to sell in the animal market.
A volunteer said they patrolled the coast and destroyed the nets. He said they conducted the search every year and this year&`&s was the most he had ever found.
The nets are concealed in reed beds in the wetlands. Different kinds of birds, including some endangered species, were trapped, and many had been found dead in the nets.
During the holiday week, 50 volunteers and staff members from Tianjin&`&s Binhai New Area patrolled the coast. A man has been arrested on suspicion of putting up a net to catch the birds.
Almost all of the nets along Tianjin&`&s coast have now been cleared.
Police also found a den selling birds in the border area of Tianjin and Hebei Province and seized 36,000 live birds. The birds have all been freed.
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.
A Chinese delegation has wrapped up its trip to Britain where they visited universities and a media house to boost exchanges in Tibetan culture.
The delegation visited universities including Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster. Delegation members talked with researchers and students in the universities on issues including Tibet&`&s opening up and religious freedom.
The delegation also visited the headquarters of the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The head of the delegation said he hopes to present the real Tibet to the Western world and clearing up misunderstandings through the visit.
Dibyesh Anand, head of a department at the University of Westminster, said the visit of the delegation provides a different perspectives for his students to observe Tibet.
He said Tibet has made huge achievements in its economic development over the past decades but also has challenges in governance.
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Italian relic experts will help their Chinese counterparts preserve fine wall paintings discovered at ancient tombs dated back more than 1,000 years in northwest China.
According to an agreement signed recently, the Sino-Italian cooperation will last for three years and involves training, joint research, relic repair and protection.
The document was signed between Rome&`&s High Institute for Conservation and Restoration and the Shaanxi History Museum in Xi&`&an in Shaanxi Province.
Xi&`&an was the imperial seat of a dozen ancient Chinese dynasties and is home to some of the country&`&s richest cultural relics. The focus of the latest cooperation is tomb wall paintings of the Tang Dynasty, prime age in Chinese civilization with flourishing art cultures.
Shaanxi History Museum houses 640 wall paintings of Tang tombs. Among them, 100 are considered top quality, offering historians good materials to study the Tang Dynasty arts, culture, religion, and social life.
The museum hopes the Sino-Italian cooperation will provide vital experience for Chinese researchers to protect ancient wall paintings in general.
China started to preserve the wall paintings as early as 1952, but some of the art pieces were difficult to retrieve due to the backward technology then.
As the technology advanced in subsequent decades, the conservation efforts have made huge progress. But some tough issues remained, including the dismemberment and discoloration of certain objects.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Mark Griffiths in Beijing.
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This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
China&`&s manned spacecraft Shenzhou XI will stay in space for 33 days, the longest since the country first sent a man into space in 2003. The mission presents more challenges in protecting astronauts&`& physical and mental health.
A zero-gravity environment will affect the astronauts&`& cardiovascular systems, and lead to muscle atrophy, weakened immunity and faster bone loss. These make the spacemen more vulnerable to disease.
To fight the negative impacts, spacemen will use treadmill and chest-expander to practice in the space lab, and wear penguin suits, which produce more tension with its elastic materials, to prevent muscles weakening.
Also, to relieve the stress of being astronauts, psychologists, families and colleagues on the ground will communicate with them through video, audio or e-mail.
Before the mission, the astronauts carried out 33 days of closed training. Except for weightless conditions, every process in the training lab was modeled on that in the space lab.
The eight training subjects were physical fitness, mental fitness, space environment adaption, weightless protection, rescue and survival skill, rendezvous and docking, medical first-aid, and in-orbit experiment.
Multiple experiments will be carried out when the astronauts enter the Tiangong II space lab. They will also carry out space material experiments, space plant cultivation and in-orbit maintenance of the spacecraft.
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The Chinese government has prioritized education in its efforts to eradicate poverty in the past 4 years.
According to a white paper unveiled recently, to ensure poor people&`&s access to education, the government has taken measures to promote balanced compulsory education and bridge the education gap between urban and rural areas.
The document was released by the State Council, China&`&s Cabinet. It said that in the period between 2012 and 2015, the central government injected 83 billion yuan, roughly 12 billion U.S. dollars, in renovating schools for compulsory education. It also earmarked 14 billion yuan to build dormitory buildings for some 300,000 teachers in remote rural areas.
In less-developed central and western parts of the country, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens rose from 21 million in 2011 to 28 million last year, up 30 percent.
China offered cost-of-living subsidies for rural teachers in poverty-stricken areas, benefiting over one million teachers.
The average annual growth rate of rural students from poor areas enrolled in key universities was kept above 10 percent.
The white paper added that the country also reinforced poverty relief efforts through developing industries with local features, improving medical security and supporting employment.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
A potentially cancer-causing chemical known as NDMA has been found in the drinking water of 44 Chinese cities. Samples from the eastern and southern parts of the country have been found to have relatively high concentrations.
Measured in nano-grams per liter, NDMA is a byproduct of the disinfection process used for chlorinating drinking water. It is considered an "emerging contaminant", together with other related chemicals known as nitrosamines.
Samples were taken from more than 100 sites in 23 provinces. The average NDMA concentrations for finished water and tap water are almost four times the figures in the United States.
The two figures in the Yangtze River Delta areas are high, posing a digestive cancer risk for residents there.
Lead researcher Chen Chao, an associate professor at Tsinghua University said the NDMA concentration in drinking water is a pressing issue that demands more research and systematic modifications.
According to the World Health Organization, NDMA and other nitrosamines cause cancer in laboratory animals. Currently, the substance is not regulated as a drinking water quality standard in China. No maximum level has been set.
Chen said it may be included soon as a standard for water safety.
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Checkpoints at airports and train stations in Sichuan Province have given up radiation screening after a safety outcry.
The Shuangliu International Airport in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, has stopped using X-rays in public security checks.
The airport made the change in response to a statement issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the province, urging it to stop using X-ray machines for security screening.
The statement was issued by the ministry after many passengers complained that X-rays posed a health threat.
At train stations and airport checkpoints in Chengdu, passengers were required to stand in front of a machine for around 10 seconds. All passengers, including pregnant women, were subjected to the procedure without being informed about what the facility was or what it was doing.
The maker of the equipment claimed the machine used "weak photon emissions", but medical doctors said it was X-rays and using X-ray for the checks is harmful to human health and is banned in other countries.
The United States adopted X-rays for public security checks to discover weapons after the Sept 11 terrorist attack. But because of the public opposition and the development of more sophisticated technology, the equipment was banned.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
The total number of organ transplant surgeries performed in China is expected to reach 15,000 this year. The figure will be a record high and an increase of almost 50 percent over last year.
Senior officials and experts said that after the abolishment of procuring organs for transplant from executed prisoners since the beginning of last year, the number of organs donated after death has increased rapidly.
Last year, around 10,000 organ transplant surgeries were performed nationwide. Chinese officials and experts made the remarks at the International Organ Donation Conference in Beijing.
The surgery totals include transplants using organs from living donors.
The number of people who donated organs after death in China this year reached almost 3,000 by the end of September, which is an increase of 50 percent compared with the same period last year.
This could make China the second in the world, behind the United States, in the number of organ donors by the end of the year.
The total number of donated organs harvested after death last year in China exceeded 7,700, more than the total numbers for 2013 and 2014 combined.
The officials said China stopped using organs from executed prisoners on Jan 1 last year, when voluntary donations became the only legal source for transplants.
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Meteorological disasters have been blamed for the destruction of at least 50 billion kilograms of grain in China annually.
Climate change is having an increasing impact on food and agriculture, with each rising degree of Celsius causing 10 percent of grain loss. That&`&s according to figures released at a promotion activity in Nanjing for the 36th World Food Day.
China is one of the countries most affected by meteorological disasters, with droughts causing around 60 percent of all the losses in the country.
Officials from the China Meteorological Administration said immediate measures need to be taken to address the issue. It urged the country to play down the effect of meteorological disasters in grain production, processing and consumption.
China managed to diminish grain losses with a variety of measures in the past, including building new granaries and repairing old ones, as well as upgrading transportation equipment.
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.
An aging World War II-era C-47 aircraft has landed at Kunming in Yunnan province, after a commemorative "Hump flight", widely known as the most dangerous air route in China during World War II.
The plane is heading for Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. There it will be donated by the Flying Tigers Historical Organization to the Flying Tigers Heritage Park in Guilin for permanent display.
The "Hump" was one of the most important air ways connecting China with allied forces in South Asia. During the war, around 850,000 metric tons of supplies reached China from India via that route. And around 1,500 U.S. planes crashed along the way, falling victim to the formidable mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and their fickle, often nasty, weather conditions. The pilots said the huge ridges looked like humps, thus the nickname.
The American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers, took on the dangerous mission, and American C-47 aircrafts delivered the first, small load of supplies in July 1942.
The plane currently has five crew members, including two from the United States and three from Australia. Their average age is above 70 years old.
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A new archaeological find announced recently in Mexico attests to China&`&s age-old vocation as an exporting powerhouse.
Mexican archaeologists have uncovered thousands of fragments of a 400-year-old shipment of Chinese "export-quality porcelain" that was long buried in the Pacific Coast port of Acapulco.
The shipment of rice bowls, cups, plates and platters dates from the reign of the Ming Dynasty&`&s 13th emperor Wan Li who died in 1620. The goods are believed to have arrived in Acapulco aboard the China Galleon, which sailed regularly between Asia and the New World.
The findings include five types of export-quality porcelain which were made in China and exported around the world.
The white-and-blue porcelain was painted with images of birds, beetles, swans, and other depictions of nature. These porcelain goods were mainly made in Jingdezhen which is known as China&`&s "Porcelain Capital".
The discovery coincides with an exhibition at Mexico City&`&s Franz Mayer Museum which highlights China&`&s artistic influence on the New World through trade.
While Mexico and China are separated by a great distance, trade ties have linked the two regions for centuries.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
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This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
Space scientists are developing technologies that will allow astronauts to use their thoughts to control equipment in spacecraft.
According to the China Manned Space Agency, the brain-to-computer test system will translate astronauts&`& brain impulses into words to communicate with ground control, and operate instruments in spacecraft.
The goal is to improve the efficiency of astronauts&`& interaction and coordination with machines.
The system will be tested by astronauts during a real spaceflight, making it the first such experiment in the world. The process uses astronauts&`& thoughts and does not require manual movements.
Mind-control technologies were first developed in the biomedicine field to help people with physical disabilities. They are now utilized in the aviation and space industries.
Aviation and space engineers around the world are exploring the technologies because they can enable pilots and astronauts to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. Mind-control systems can also be useful in unmanned aircraft operations as well as long-distance military missions.
Researchers in the United States and Europe have been researching and testing mind-controlled flight for the past several years.
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China&`&s first National GeneBank has been put into use. The gene bank is expected to offer strong support to the development of the genetics industry.
Located in Shenzhen in Guangdong province, the billion-dollar bank is now home to more than 10 million bio-samples with a data storage capacity of 20 petabytes. One petabyte can store around 400 billion pages of word documents.
The bank is the world&`&s fourth national-level gene bank, with the other three being in the United States, Europe and Japan.
The data in the bank will be open to the society.
China&`&s genetic sequencing market has become the largest in the world, with an annual growth rate of more than 20 percent.
To further support the development of the industry, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the establishment of the bank in 2011.
The bank links all elements of gene-related fields, from resources and scientific research to applications in different industries, including precision medicine and agriculture.
The National GeneBank has signed cooperation agreements with international and local partners who will provide data storage service for it.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
The Yangtze Sturgeon, an endangered species, can now be aided to breed, 16 years after it was believed to have lost the ability.
The Yangtze Sturgeon, also known as the Dabry&`&s Sturgeon, is a top class protected species in China. It was believed to have lost its ability to breed due to water pollution and overfishing.
In the experiment, four female and six male sturgeons were put into an environment simulating a natural river for two weeks. One of the females laid 32,000 eggs and at least one male was involved in the fertilization. A total of 22 baby sturgeons were bred.
An expert said although the sturgeons were artificially bred, no stimulants were used in the experiment.
Hailing the breakthrough, the expert said the experiment showed that by adjusting the environment, the secretion system of the species can be stimulated to make reproduction possible.
He said the achievement is significant for the increase of the sturgeon population as well as the maintenance of natural resources and the environment.
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China will soon finish construction of basic infrastructure for the new international airport in Beijing, which is expected to serve 45 million passengers annually starting in 2019.
The project authority said the terminal structure will be completed before the end of January next year and the building&`&s facade will be ready before the end of next year. Around 60 percent of the terminal&`&s concrete work has been finished.
The airport is planned for completion in May 2019 and will start trial operations late that year. The whole project costs almost 80 billion yuan, roughly 13 billion U.S. dollars.
The facility is designed to handle around 45 million passengers each year during the first five years of operation. After 2025, it is expected to be able to handle 72 million passengers and 620,000 flights annually. The government plans to expand its passenger capacity to more than 100 million per year in the future.
Airport construction began in December 2014 but the facility has not been given an official name. It is 46 kilometers south of Beijing&`&s center.
A rapid transit rail line will be built linking northern Beijing to the new airport in the south, passing through downtown Beijing.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
The rise in number of children participating in study tours overseas is leading to conflicts between parents and organizers.
Parents are being urged to ensure that they sign contracts and take time to study all the relevant information before allowing their children to take study tours overseas.
The warnings came after a number of schools and education institutions were sued by parents dissatisfied with the services provided, the subjects taught and the food and accommodations on offer.
China&`&s economic development has resulted in rising living standards and incomes, leading a growing number of Chinese people wanting to head overseas to study.
Last year, more than 500,000 Chinese citizens studied at undergraduate level overseas, compared with 300,000 in 2011. Meanwhile, a wide range of programs, including summer camps and non-degree study trips, are becoming increasingly popular.
A family from Beijing recently sued a private middle school after their 13-year-old son returned early from a 10-month study tour to the United States.
However, the dispute wasn&`&t resolved as easily as the family had hoped. They didn&`&t sign a formal contract with the school and had no evidence to prove the organizers didn&`&t deliver what they had promised.
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.
Many tag the young generation born in the 1990s as rebellious, and in some cases even selfish, yet a recent report revealed that when they become mothers, they tend to sacrifice more for their children, including their careers.
More than 70 percent of the young mothers chose to put their jobs aside to take care of their children, and they want to do it alone, without their parents&`& help.
By contrast, mothers born in the previous decade lean more towards the workplace. Almost half of those mothers born in the 1980s maintain a full-time job, and many have got a helping hand from their own parents.
That was the result of the 2016 National Parents-Children Relationship Report, jointly conducted by government departments and companies including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and JD.com, a major e-commerce company.
Since April, the researchers contacted 7,500 families in different parts of China whose children are below 12 years of age.
They also found that children whose mothers have full-time jobs are more easily to get along with their families and friends, though the exact reason was unclear.
A lead researcher said the report has to some extent filled in a blank for academics that focus on young parents who have two children or plan to have a second child.
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The World Obesity Federation has predicted that Chinese youth will top the world in obesity by 2025. A report from the federation shows how the obesity rate in China has been growing.
The paper says that if the trend continues, obese children and teenagers aged between 5 and 18 in the Chinese mainland will reach 48 million by 2025, a number that surpasses the population of Spain. In India, obese youth will reach 17 million, and the United States will have almost 17 million.
The report says that inactivity and the consumption of junk food and soda drink contributes to the growing number of obese youth in the world.
Alongside the rising obesity rate among Chinese youth, millions of them are estimated to suffer from conditions including fatty liver, diabetes, and hypertension.
The State Council, China&`&s Cabinet, released guidelines in 2011 responding to the increase of obese children in China. It aimed to prevent more children from becoming obese.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
The excavation of the Marquis of Haihun tomb in Jiangxi Province has yielded thousands of valuable historical relics.
The tomb is the best-preserved cemetery from the Western Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago, with the most integrated structure and a distinct layout.
After five years of excavation, more than 10,000 precious relics have been unearthed, including bronze, gold, silver and jade wares, bamboo slips and inscribed wooden tablets.
Archaeologists and cultural relic conservation experts are cleaning the sludge that has covered the items for over 2,000 years to obtain more historical information. They are also restoring the broken ceramics and bronzes to showcase to the public.
The tomb belongs to Liu He, who was dethroned after 27 days in power because of his debauchery and licentious lifestyle. It was the shortest reign among Western Han monarchs. He was given the title of marquis, a title that remained with his family for three generations.
The main coffin in the tomb complex has been cleaned, and Liu&`&s remains can vaguely be seen in the inner coffin. The remains are on a gilded glass mat, with 100 pieces of gold discs under the glass mat.
So far, 480 gold artifacts have been unearthed from the tomb, the largest in China&`&s archaeological history.
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This is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.
Fishery experts are conducting a field investigation to assess damage to the ecosystem of the Yangtze River, after hybrid foreign sturgeons were washed away from a breeding facility in heavy floods.
Scientists worry that the almost 10,000 tons of hybrid foreign sturgeons may now interbreed with the endangered purebred wild Chinese sturgeons in the river. The Chinese sturgeon population has declined to a dangerously low level, with only 100 thought to remain in the Yangtze, China&`&s longest river.
Investigators from the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences said purebred Chinese sturgeons face a heightened threat of extinction as a result of interbreeding with the foreign and hybrid species over the coming months.
Purebred Chinese sturgeons can be dated back 140 million years ago. But they are now on the razor&`&s edge of survival. The population of adult sturgeons was estimated at around 100 at the end of last year, compared with 10,000 in the 1970s.
After a reservoir opened to release floodwater on July 19, more than 9,800 tons of foreign and hybrid sturgeons in Hubei Province were killed or escaped to the waters where wild Chinese sturgeons live.
Floodwaters washed away the net-pen facilities used to raise the non-native species, causing huge economic losses.
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A pilot program will be set up to promote reform of China&`&s high school entrance exam.
A guideline issued by the Ministry of Education said high schools should recruit students based on both their exam scores and a comprehensive assessment of their qualities. The pilot program will first be implemented in 2017 and then be expanded across China in 2020.
For years, China&`&s education system has been criticized for its exam-driven curriculum, which focuses on memorizing textbooks and getting good test scores.
The ministry said high school enrollment will not only depend on exam scores, but also students&`& morality, mental and physical health, artistic abilities and social skills.
The exam will focus more on students&`& analytical and problem-solving skills, to promote innovative spirits.
It will also encourage students to participate more in sports, as PE scores will be considered in enrollment.
An official from the Shandong Provincial Education Department said the reform will provide diverse roads and fairer opportunities for students to succeed.
You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.
A nonprofit educational project has been launched in China aiming at creating a more comprehensive and beneficial study environment for children with disabilities. The program, called Inclusive Education, was launched by the international organization Save the Children and the United Nations. It will be carried out in the next two years.
A representative of Save the Children in China said that since many disabled children go to special schools, they do not get the needed opportunities to mix with the mainstream society. The Inclusive Education project believes in the philosophy of integrated education, as well as the right of disabled children to study in ordinary school with abled children.
An official from the Chinese Society of Education said China has a large number of school-aged disabled children who are not getting the quality of compulsory education they need.
Save the Children has launched a public campaign which calls for concerted efforts to help the children with disabilities, instead of neglecting or discriminating against them.
"Let&`&s go to school together" is the slogan of the Inclusive Education project. The organization believes it also represents the need of many children with disabilities to make friends with abled children, learn useful knowledge and lead a hopeful life.
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This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.

Renowned Chinese developer of hybrid rice, Yuan Longping, has expressed his confidence that a hybrid rice yield target projected for 2018 will be met this year.

Yuan said several demonstration plots had showed potential to produce 16 tonnes of rice per hectare.

Yuan made the remarks at a symposium marking the 20th anniversary of China's hybrid rice development.

Known as China's "father of hybrid rice", Yuan started theoretical research 50 years ago and kept setting new records in the average yields of hybrid rice plots.

China's Ministry of Agriculture officially launched its hybrid rice breeding program in 1996. Four years later, the first-phase target of 10 tonnes per hectare was achieved by Yuan's research team. The fourth-phase target of 15 tonnes per ha was hit in 2014.

Currently, farmland under hybrid rice in China has risen to 13 million hectares while that overseas totals more than 5 million hectares.

Around 65 percent of the Chinese population depends on rice as a staple food.

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Tiangong-2, China's first space lab in a real sense, was successfully launched into space on Sept 15. A brain-computer interaction test system installed in the lab will conduct a series of experiments in space.

The research team of the system said brain-computer interaction will eventually be the highest form of human-machine communication. China will conduct the first ever space brain-machine interaction experiments, ahead even of developed countries.

The brain-computer interaction test system in Tiangong-2 boasts 64 national patents. The research team has long been devoted to the research of brain-computer interactions. It previously developed two idiodynamic artificial neuron robotic systems that can help with the rehabilitation of stroke patients.

The brain-computer interaction technology will also help Tiangong-2 astronauts to more easily accomplish their assigned tasks.

For example, brain-computer interaction can transfer the astronauts' thoughts into operations, while at the same time monitoring their neurological function.

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

China will challenge the UK's position as second in the world for international study by 2020. That's according to the latest report led by Student.com, the accommodation provider for international students.

The report said a record breaking 397,000 international students went to China in 2015 and China has been the third most popular destination for overseas students ahead of Canada, Germany and France.

The report added that although there has been a slowdown in numbers since 2014, the number of foreign students in China has been growing on average 10 percent year-on-year since 2006.

The report forecasts that at current growth rates, China will overtake the UK to be the second most popular destination for international students, following the United States which is at number one.

The Independent newspaper from the UK also quoted experts confirming that the number of international students studying in China has risen so rapidly; and China will overtake the UK as the second most popular academic destination in the world.

The newspaper noted that the trend is thought to be partly due to a drive by the Chinese government, as well as increasingly higher education standards and scholarship programs for degree-seeking students.

Professor David Goodman leads the China Studies program at the University of Liverpool. He said international students benefit from the exposure to China and its culture, not least because of its growing economy and jobs market.

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As the country passed the revised edition of China's Wild Animal Protection Law which bans random releasing of captive animals into the wild, a similar incident has drawn people's attention lately causing controversy.

The Beijing News reports that a Tibetan woman in southwest China's Sichuan Province released 6,000 goats onto a prairie after she saved them from slaughter houses. It cost her 5 million yuan, roughly 760,000 U.S. dollars, of donated money.

The incident immediately drew great attention after it was exposed on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

There have been a number of reports recently in China in which captive animals were released randomly into the wild by animal activists or by those following a Buddhist ritual known as "fangsheng" or "releasing life". The religious ritual demonstrates spiritual compassion and piety by releasing captive animals back into nature.

However, experts say an ecosystem has a very delicate balance which could be jeopardized easily by changing the number of certain species or introducing a new species to the area.

China's revised Wild Animal Protection Law is to take effect starting from the year 2017, with added special items to regulate the release of captive animals into the wild.

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After enjoying the fresh service of a new bike-lending initiative Mobike, many users have begun to complain about its flaws.

A Beijing-based newspaper, the Beijing Daily, reports that the major problem is that Mobike's distinctive orange-rimmed bicycles are too heavy and can be challenging for female users. Others include inaccurate GPS positioning, long unlocking time, and unadjustable bike seats.

Mobike started in Shanghai in April and expanded to Beijing on Sept. 1st. To take a ride, a user scans the QR code on the bike, unlocks the smart lock and starts a timer.

The standard cost is one yuan, roughly 10 U.S. cents, per 30 minutes, along with a 300 yuan security deposit. Users can pay with popular mobile payment methods including Alipay and WeChat.

To encourage proper use and parking, Mobike includes a credit system that will increase the fee to 100 yuan per 30 minutes for users with low scores.

Mobike uses a station-free concept for easier use, in comparison with Beijing's public bike rental service, which has a more complicated registration process and requires bikes to be returned to stations.

Experts say Mobike is a good supplement to the public bike rental service.

Mobike now has only 3,000 bikes in the city, but the company said it is increasing the number by hundreds every day. It has more than 10,000 bikes in Shanghai, allowing most riders to find a bike anywhere within a radius of 300 meters.

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.

Beijing consumers forked out billions during the Moon Festival holiday, which ran from September 15 to 17.

Retail sales of 60 major commercial companies in the foodstuffs, dining and tourism sectors exceeded 2 billion yuan, roughly 300 million U.S. dollars. The figure represents an increase of more than 6 percent year on year.

According to the Beijing municipal commission of commerce, mooncakes, the seasonal delicacy for the festival, were in less lavish packaging and came in more creative flavors this year.

Daoxiangcun, a Beijing bakery chain, sold more than 27 million mooncakes by Saturday, the last day of the holiday. The company said mooncakes that are made from 3D printing machines sell particularly well.

Popular restaurants in Beijing were heavily booked during the three-day holiday. The turnover of several catering enterprises posted 10 percent growth from last year.

The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. The festival has been celebrated for more than 3,000 years to mark the autumn harvest. It is also an occasion for family gatherings, featuring lanterns, solving riddles and eating mooncakes.

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More than 70 percent of Chinese people believe children and adolescents should have annual physical checkups at professional hospitals, rather than at school health centers. That's according to a Chinese Medical Doctor Association survey.

The survey also shows that almost 70 percent of people believe the checkups organized for students should include psychological consultation.

The survey was based on feedback from 42,000 people in different professions from across China, including white collar workers, medical professionals, government employees, students and migrant rural laborers.

Almost 32,000 of those surveyed said children and adolescents should have checkups at professional hospitals, compared to more than 8,000 saying they should have checkups at school. The rest said they didn't care.

According to health and education regulations, students in China must have physical checkups before they are admitted to a school at a higher level; and all students should have a regular checkup every year when at school. Schools should organize students to have checkups.

A doctor at Beijing Children's Hospital said that in recent years, the number of children suffering diseases including hypertension and obesity increased, and in many cases they were diagnosed at professional hospitals rather than at school health centers.

Experts say the regulations were made decades ago and should be updated to suit the new situation.

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

A high-speed railway linking Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province with Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu Province has opened.

The 360-km line connects high-speed railways in the west with two major north-south lines, helping cut travel times between the west and the east.

The travel time between Xi'an and Shanghai has been cut to six hours from almost 11 hours.

The line has nine stations, and trains run at a speed of up to 300 km per hour in the initial period.

Construction of the line started in 2012, and test operations started in April this year.

With the operation of the new line, China's high-speed railway network has exceeded 20,000 km in total length, the world's longest.

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Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province, is witnessing a boom in interest after the Group of 20 Summit ended on Sept 5 as visitors throng to popular spots.

The park where the G20 evening gala was held has become one of the most popular attractions in the city.

A musical show by a team led by film director Zhang Yimou is staged with the majestic West Lake as its background. It's based on Zhang's "Impression of the West Lake", an astonishing performance that takes place right on the surface of the water, combining music, dance, and light effects all against a natural backdrop.

After the G20 ended, the park was packed with locals and tourists who were eager to see the conference location and the show in person.

Liu Ying is a tourist from Guizhou Province. She said she has seen the videos of the show many times; but only when she came to feel the vibe in real time was she truly impressed.

Many new souvenir sets has become available on the market after the evening gala, echoing its theme of a memorable Hangzhou. The package includes a silk clutch of a size which can hold an iPad, a fan and a fan case, as well as silk handkerchiefs.

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