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

Chinese officials and scientists have said that as a country with the world's largest number of scientific researchers, China is benefiting and will continue to benefit from scientific exchanges and cooperation with other G20 members, particularly in exchanges of talent and young research staff.

A senior official of the China Science and Technology Exchange Center said the G20 is the largest and most important group in technological innovation worldwide. Cooperation and innovation under the G20 framework will not only benefit the members, but also is of great importance to the sustainable development of the world.

According to the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report, which was released by the ministry last year, China's human resources in this area exceeded 71 million people as of 2013, ranking it No 1 in the world.

Meanwhile, the latest statistics from the World Bank Group and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization showed that the research and development investment of 19 G20 members, excluding the European Union, accounts for 87 percent of the world total.

The academic papers that these members publish account for 76 percent of the world total and applications for patents from these members account for 97 percent.

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Silk products are synonymous with Hangzhou, the capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou first exported silk 2,000 years ago. Today, the exquisite craftsmanship of silk continues to be the source of justifiable pride.

It should come as no surprise that guests at the B20 and G20 summits will find silk forming an integral part of their experience there.

To symbolize the city's attachment to the fine material, a gift package for the B20 Summit guests contains a pure silk scarf. More than 800 participants at the B20 Summit received such scarves.

Each of the silk scarves is printed and dyed around 20 times, and it takes six weeks for the process of platemaking, printing and dyeing to be completed.

China played a major role in developing sericulture, or silk farming, and one of its origins is located in northern Zhejiang province.

Archaeological digs there have unearthed silk thread, ribbons and silk from more than 4,000 years ago. After laboratory testing, they were confirmed to have come from domesticated silkworms.

Globally, the Japanese use the most silk products, and French brands like Hermes use silk for signature products. Italy is a well-known center for silk goods, and Brazil is a large silk manufacturer.

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

China's quantum communication satellite, which was launched in August, is in good shape; and scientific experiments can begin this month.

A chief scientist of the project said all equipment carried by the satellite and all ground equipment are working well.

Satellite-to-earth links have been established between the satellite and five ground stations across China, laying the technical foundation for distributing quantum keys.

Scientists are confident that the project will fulfill its tasks.

China successfully launched the world's first quantum satellite on Aug. 16.

The satellite will explore "hack-proof" quantum communications by transmitting "unhackable" keys from space, and provide insight into the strangest phenomenon in quantum physics, quantum entanglement.

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The voyage taken by the research ship "Tan Suo Yi Hao" to the Marianas Trench from late June until Aug 12 made a series of breakthroughs in deep-sea scientific exploration, both domestically and internationally.

According to scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the breakthroughs include a successful nitrogen cycle experiment conducted by the "on-site experiment" deep-sea elevator. The elevator is a research device that is lowered with an anchor and was developed by the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering of the academy.

A scientist in the academy who headed the expedition said it made history among similar devices internationally.

According to the scientist, the Tianya deep-sea lander, another device taken on the voyage, also made history. It collected deep-sea water samples of more than 100 liters for the first time, much more than its counterparts from other countries did.

During the voyage, China's unmanned submarine, the Haidou, dived for the first time to a depth of more than 10,000 meters, reaching 10,767 meters.

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

China will establish several national ecological experimental zones to explore reforms ranging from natural resource balance sheets to ecological performance evaluation of officials.

An official guideline has been released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, aiming at carrying out reforms on "ecological civilization system".

According to targets set in the guideline, major progress shall be achieved by 2017; and fully-fledged ecological civilization systems shall be established by 2020, with best practices replicable across the country.

Main experiments will include establishing a natural resource property right system, compiling natural resource balance sheet, optimizing land and space planning, and incorporating ecological performance into officials' evaluation.

The provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Guizhou have been selected as the first batch of experimental zones, because they have "relatively optimal ecological foundation, and relatively strong environmental and resource capacity".

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Chinese universities will have the autonomy in transferring the intellectual property from scientific research and shall keep all the earnings.

A government document released by the Ministries of education and science and technology, said no less than half of the net earnings from transfers shall be rewarded to researchers.

The circular said major contributing researchers and faculty members should take no less than 50 percent of the total rewards.

China has created a series of policies to encourage scientists to translate their research into commercial products.

The State Council in March issued a regulation that provides detailed measures for academics and inventors on how to commercially exploit their work, as the country pushes for innovation-driven development.

Authorities are also encouraging research institutions and technical personnel to transfer or licensing their achievements or to invest with them as trade-ins.

According to the policies, performance in translating scientific outcomes to products will be considered in the overall evaluation of research and higher learning institutions.

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.

Tsinghua University and Peking University have for the first time broken through the top 100 global ranking of universities.

According to the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities released recently, Tsinghua occupies the 58th spot and Peking University is at 71. A total of 41 Chinese mainland universities are among the top 500, nine more than in 2015.

Starting from 2003, Academic Ranking of World Universities has been presenting the world top 500 universities annually based on transparent methodology and third-party data. More than 1,200 universities are included every year.

Harvard University retains its crown for the 14th year, followed by Stanford, University of California Berkeley, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tokyo University in Japan is ranked 20 this year, the sole Asian university to be among top 20 in worldwide.

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Quarantine dogs were first employed in the Nanjing airport in 2002, after their implementation in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

After training for four months, quarantine dog Daxiong started work in 2009. Daxiong was good at sniffing out plant products, and its biggest discovery was 17 boxes of forbidden fruit totaling 180 kilograms.

At nine years old, Daxiong is the equivalent in dog years to a 60-year-old man, but he is nevertheless as excitable as ever when it comes to food. Daxiong is so sensitive to forbidden goods, especially meat products and fruit, that his trainer rewards his good behavior with snacks.

Quarantine dogs usually work three to four hours a day, taking a rest every half an hour. This keeps them alert and accurate.

From 2014, the department began to seek an adopter for Daxiong in preparation for his retirement. His trainer Yan Han explaines that the adopting family had to love dogs and have some experience raising them. Additionally, Yan hoped that the whole family would get on well with the dog. By this metric, a local resident surnamed Zhi became Daxiong's adopter.

To prove that Daxiong is living a happy and healthy life with his new family, Zhi provides periodic photos and videos to the dog's former handlers.

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A new technical manual in Shandong province encourages the use of humane methods to slaughter chickens. Supporters say the methods also promote better meat quality.

The manual was prepared by a research team at Qingdao Agricultural University and has been approved by the Shandong provincial government's quality watchdog. It sets standards to reduce the animals' suffering.

A professor of food science at the university says that complying with the humane slaughter manual is not only about showing human compassion for the animal but also could improve the quality of the meat.

The standards "ensure that suffering at slaughter can be avoided so the animals experience minimal negative feelings.

Shandong Province raises 20 percent of China's broiler chickens, and chicken accounts for 40 percent of the province's meat production.

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

An Australian who raised enough money to take a stray dog that followed him during an extreme marathon in China back to his home in the UK was almost heartbroken.

Gobi, who accompanied Dion Leonard during the event in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, had disappeared and for quite some time, there was no sign of her.

Leonard had raised enough to take the animal back to Edinburgh in Scotland.

He said it was such a shock and hard to believe when he was told Gobi had gone missing.

Leonard said he was very heartbroken and saddened about it. He returned to Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, to look for the small brown animal.

Forty-one-year-old Leonard said he and Gobi formed such a strong bond during the 250-km race, and it broke his heart thinking that they might not be spending more time together. These remarks came after a couple of days of searching for Gobi with volunteers.

During this time, there have been sightings of dogs that look like Gobi, but all these signs have ended in disappointment.

The dog had been due to arrive in Beijing to start a four-month process of medical checks before being flown to the UK in time for Christmas.

Gobi ran alongside Leonard in June during the Gobi March, a 7-day race across mountainous and desert terrain in Hami prefecture, when temperatures of up to 52 degrees Celsius were recorded. They even cuddled together during the night.

At one point, Leonard had to cross a river during the race. Instead of thinking about beating others, he stopped and carried Gobi across. After the race, Leonard decided to take her home to Scotland.

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