Podcasts about henan province

On a tour of Henan Province, Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasized mastering core technologies in manufacturing, preserving cultural heritage, and pursuing high-quality development (1:00). China and ASEAN are targeting the end of the year to sign the 3.0 version of their free trade deal (10:35). And the World Health Assembly has adopted the global pandemic agreement (24:38).

Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Henan Province to advance Chinese modernization with high-quality development and efficient governance (31:42). Chinese officials have reiterated the country's openness to foreign investment (9:49). And Russia and Ukraine have signaled readiness to negotiate for peace, after the leaders spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump (1:00).

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post detailed daily reminders to pray for China (www.PrayforChina.us). BTW, X is also the best way to get in touch with me. Either tag me with a question or comment, or follow and send a DM. Finally, PrayGiveGo.us has easy access to almost everything that I am involved in, including books, Substack, this podcast, and our dedicated pray for China website. Today we begin with some North Korea news (1:07), followed by a look at some 214 year old preaching advice from missionary William Milne (34:18). Next, we look at how to pray for China this week (39:20) and hear a number of stories, especially the one about the Chrisitan hotel near North Korea in Lucky Forest. This Week’s (North Korea) News Why China is wary of North Korea’s embrace of Russia https://www.ft.com/content/d4094f65-de08-4fcf-ab11-424ef152e89e Families of Captured North Koreans to be Executed https://www.yahoo.com/news/families-captured-north-korean-troops-090313885.html North Korea Reopens After Five Years https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-reopens-foreign-tourists-special-economic-zone-pyongyang-closed-4966381 Western Tourists Shocked by North Korea https://www.yahoo.com/news/western-tourists-given-rare-glimpse-112527445.html North Korea Tours Quickly Suspended https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2025/03/06/north-korea-foreign-tour-suspension/ South Korean Travel to China Surges https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/03/113_392898.html On This Day… 200 Year Old Preaching Advice from William Milne https://chinacall.substack.com/p/200-year-old-preaching-advice The Memoirs of William Milne (200th Anniversary Edition!) https://a.co/d/bALLtAf Pray for China (March 9-15, 2025) Systematically and Strategically Interceding for All of China https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-march-9-15-2025 Mar 9 - Pray for Jiaozuo (“Gee’ao-dzwah”) in heavily populated Henan Province, one of the few Chinese prefectures that I've never previously heard of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozuo Henan is paired up with Kentucky and West Virginia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us Here's my Henan podcast (and more): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/henan/ Mar 10 - Pray for Jianli in Hubei Province's Jingzhou Prefecture, one of China's many million+ cities almost no one has heard of: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jianli Hubei (“Who-bay”) is matched with Illinois for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Hubei (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/hubei/ Mar 11 - Pray for Zhangjiajie City in the breathtaking mountains of NW Hunan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangjiajie. Hunan literally translates to “south of the lake” and is paired with both Indiana and Ohio for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Hunan (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/hunan/ Mar 12 - Pray for Kunshan City in Suzhou Prefecture in eastern China's Jiangsu Province: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunshan. Jiangsu Province is paired with Tennessee for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jiangsu (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Jiangsu/ Mar 13 - Pray for Fengcheng (“Fungchung”) City in Yichun Prefecture in SE China’s Jiangxi Province: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengcheng,_Jiangxi Jiangxi is paired with Georgia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jiangxi (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Jiangxi/ Mar 14 - Pray for Meihekou City in Jilin Province’s Tonghua Prefecture, home of the Christian hotel I visited back in 2003: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meihekou Jilin (“Lucky Forest”) is paired with all of New England for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jilin (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/jilin/ Mar 15 - Pray for Panjin Prefecture in NE China's Liaoning Province, a place I visited one day back in 2003: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjin. Liaoning is paired for prayer with New York, PA, NJ & Delaware: https://prayforchina.us/states/new-york.html For more about Liaoning (& my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Liaoning/ If you enjoy this podcast, follow or subscribe and leave a review on whichever platform you use. And don’t forget to check out everything we are involved in at PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10, Verse 2!

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast Network! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I post detailed daily reminders to pray for China (www.PrayforChina.us). BTW, X is also the best way to get in touch with me. Either tag me with a question or comment, or follow and send a DM. Finally, PrayGiveGo.us has easy access to almost everything that I am involved in, including books, Substack, this podcast, and our dedicated pray for China website. Today we begin with some North Korea news (1:07), followed by a look at some 214 year old preaching advice from missionary William Milne (34:18). Next, we look at how to pray for China this week (39:20) and hear a number of stories, especially the one about the Chrisitan hotel near North Korea in Lucky Forest. This Week’s (North Korea) News Why China is wary of North Korea’s embrace of Russia https://www.ft.com/content/d4094f65-de08-4fcf-ab11-424ef152e89e Families of Captured North Koreans to be Executed https://www.yahoo.com/news/families-captured-north-korean-troops-090313885.html North Korea Reopens After Five Years https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-reopens-foreign-tourists-special-economic-zone-pyongyang-closed-4966381 Western Tourists Shocked by North Korea https://www.yahoo.com/news/western-tourists-given-rare-glimpse-112527445.html North Korea Tours Quickly Suspended https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2025/03/06/north-korea-foreign-tour-suspension/ South Korean Travel to China Surges https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2025/03/113_392898.html On This Day… 200 Year Old Preaching Advice from William Milne https://chinacall.substack.com/p/200-year-old-preaching-advice The Memoirs of William Milne (200th Anniversary Edition!) https://a.co/d/bALLtAf Pray for China (March 9-15, 2025) Systematically and Strategically Interceding for All of China https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-march-9-15-2025 Mar 9 - Pray for Jiaozuo (“Gee’ao-dzwah”) in heavily populated Henan Province, one of the few Chinese prefectures that I've never previously heard of. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozuo Henan is paired up with Kentucky and West Virginia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us Here's my Henan podcast (and more): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/henan/ Mar 10 - Pray for Jianli in Hubei Province's Jingzhou Prefecture, one of China's many million+ cities almost no one has heard of: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jianli Hubei (“Who-bay”) is matched with Illinois for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Hubei (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/hubei/ Mar 11 - Pray for Zhangjiajie City in the breathtaking mountains of NW Hunan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangjiajie. Hunan literally translates to “south of the lake” and is paired with both Indiana and Ohio for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Hunan (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/hunan/ Mar 12 - Pray for Kunshan City in Suzhou Prefecture in eastern China's Jiangsu Province: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunshan. Jiangsu Province is paired with Tennessee for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jiangsu (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Jiangsu/ Mar 13 - Pray for Fengcheng (“Fungchung”) City in Yichun Prefecture in SE China’s Jiangxi Province: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fengcheng,_Jiangxi Jiangxi is paired with Georgia for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jiangxi (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Jiangxi/ Mar 14 - Pray for Meihekou City in Jilin Province’s Tonghua Prefecture, home of the Christian hotel I visited back in 2003: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meihekou Jilin (“Lucky Forest”) is paired with all of New England for prayer: www.PrayforChina.us For more about Jilin (incl. my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/jilin/ Mar 15 - Pray for Panjin Prefecture in NE China's Liaoning Province, a place I visited one day back in 2003: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panjin. Liaoning is paired for prayer with New York, PA, NJ & Delaware: https://prayforchina.us/states/new-york.html For more about Liaoning (& my podcast): https://prayforchina.us/index.php/Liaoning/ If you enjoy this podcast, follow or subscribe and leave a review on whichever platform you use. And don’t forget to check out everything we are involved in at PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10, Verse 2!

Hear about travel to Central China as the Amateur Traveler talks to Larry Fan, who was born in the city of Zhengzhou and recently returned to explore his birth country. Why should you go to Central China? Larry says, ” “I think it's particularly special because it's considered the cradle of Chinese civilization. Xi'an was the first imperial capital of China. Zhengzhou also happened to be one of the first capitals of the Shang dynasty. Kaifeng and Luoyang, which are two other cities I'll talk about, had also served as capitals of China during various times. It's a very influential area for Chinese civilization and often not as much talked about versus places like Beijing, Shanghai. Etc. ” Larry recommends a 7-10 day itinerary for visiting central China, covering historical and cultural highlights in Henan Province and Xi'an. Here's the detailed breakdown of his suggested itinerary: Days 1-2: Zhengzhou (Capital of Henan Province) Day 1: Zhengzhou City Tour Henan Museum Spend 2-3 hours learning about the region's history from the Shang to Tang dynasties. Guancheng Muslim District Visit the Beidajie Mosque (North Big Mosque), a Yuan dynasty mosque with Chinese architectural influences. Try local food like Xi'an torn bread with lamb soup (羊肉泡饃). Shang Dynasty Relic Park Explore ruins of the Shang Dynasty's capital, including city walls over 3,000 years old. People's Park Relax in the park and experience local activities like dancing and exercise. Erqi Memorial Tower (Feb 7th Square) Learn about the area's historical ties to railroad workers and admire the twin tower.  Zhengdong New Area (CBD) Visit the modern Central Business District featuring the iconic Corncob Building. ... https://amateurtraveler.com/travel-to-central-china/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the Chiang-Gui War. China was reunified, but not was all well in Camelot. Chiang Kai-Shek initially popular, faced opposition from various factions, including Northern warlords and rival generals. The KMT decided to relocate the capital from Beijing to Nanking, which sparked resistance from those attached to Beijing's rich history. The KMT then struggled with demobilizing the massive National Revolutionary Army, which had over 2 million troops. Chiang Kai-Shek aimed to reduce this number significantly but faced challenges, including discontent among warlords like Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan. Tensions escalated into the Chiang-Gui War, where Chiang defeated the Guangxi Clique led by Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi. This victory, however, did not end the turmoil as Feng and Yan formed an anti-Chiang coalition with Wang Jingwei. The struggle led to a dramatic showdown, culminating in the Taiyuan Conference where Yan Xishan was promoted to commander-in-chief, setting the stage for further conflict.   #123 The Central Plains War  Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. We last left off with basically every other big dog in China getting ready to gang up on Chiang Kai-Shek. Yan Xishan was now the commander in chief of an anti-chiang coalition with his deputy commanders being Feng Yuxiang, Li Zongren and Zhang Xueliang….however Zhang Xueliang was nowhere to be found. During what has been referred to as the “telegram war” period, the Young Marshal had actually spent the entire time in Mukden frantically telegraming all the significant North Chinese warlords and generals to not join the anti-chiang movement.  To take a small sidestep. In the last episode I explained why Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi and their Guangxi clique turned against Chiang Kai-Shek, but what motivations did someone like Feng Yuxiang and his Guominjun have to do so? A severe famine hit the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, where Feng Yuxiang held power. This famine, which occurred in the 18th year of the Republic of China, is also referred to as the "Famine of the 18th Year of the Republic of China." Within Shaanxi, a year without any harvest is called a famine year, two consecutive years of poor harvest are also labeled famine years, and three consecutive years are considered a severe famine. During the 18th year of the Republic of China, the region faced an extreme famine with virtually no harvest for six consecutive seasons over three years. Some considered it a once-in-a-century event, while others claimed it was a disaster seen once in 300 years. According to modern historical records and newspaper reports, Shaanxi experienced drought in 1928, which caused poor summer wheat yields, while autumn and winter crops could not be planted due to a lack of rain. By 1929, the drought worsened. No rain fell from spring through autumn, drying up wells and rivers like the Jing, Wei, Han, and Bao. Most trees withered, and crops failed—summer harvests only amounted to 20%, and autumn yields were nonexistent. The famine was so severe that grass roots and tree bark became scarce, with the roads littered with corpses and countless people fleeing the area. According to a report by the Shaanxi Disaster Relief Committee on September 5 of that year, 91 of the province's 92 counties were affected by the drought. Except for a few counties along the Wei River that had some green crops, the rest were barren. Among the 91 counties, 24 were extremely severely affected, 27 severely affected, 15 moderately affected, and 25 slightly affected. The most severely hit areas included Chang'an, Wugong, Fengxiang, Fufeng, Qianxian, Qishan, Meixian, Xingping, Xianyang, Lintong, Weinan, Zhouzhi, and others. Out of a total population of over 9.4 million, 2.5 million people died of starvation, approximately 400,000 fled, and over 200,000 women were sold to other regions such as Henan, Shanxi, Beiping, Tianjin, and Shandong. Back in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established the KMT's new government in Nanking. By June, Chiang and Feng Yuxiang succeeded in uniting the two Kuomintang warlord factions during the Xuzhou Conference. In February 1928, Chiang and Feng solidified their alliance by becoming sworn brothers. Before the launch of the "Second Northern Expedition," Chiang Kai-shek had control over the central KMT government and occupied affluent areas like Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. Feng Yuxiang, on the other hand, controlled the impoverished and remote northwest, where transportation was difficult. He saw the Northern Expedition as an opportunity to expand his own influence, particularly eyeing Beijing and Tianjin for their wealth and strategic transportation routes. After the expedition, Chiang Kai-shek, concerned about Feng's growing power, exploited tensions between Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. He ceded control of Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin to Yan Xishan, appointing him commander of the Beijing-Tianjin garrison and allowing his 3rd Army to enter Beijing. Feng's 2nd Army, however, was restricted to Nanyuan and denied entry into the city, which greatly displeased Feng. In response, he ordered his troops to retreat to Shandong and Henan, and feigned illness in Xinxiang, Henan, refusing to travel to Beijing. In the political realm Feng Yuxiang advocated for "civilian politics" and stood against dictatorship. Within the Kuomintang, he opposed Chiang Kai-shek's views, calling for the establishment of a clean government, promoting joint industrial development, providing aid to disaster victims, and fighting corruption. He also opposed salary increases for central government officials, argued for distributing leadership roles based on the strength of different factions, and rejected Chiang Kai-shek's dominance over party matters and the Nanjing government. These positions sharply conflicted with Chiang Kai-shek's ideas. After the success of the "Northern Expedition," Chiang Kai-shek proposed a reorganization of the army. This initiative sparked intense conflict between Chiang and Feng Yuxiang. On July 6, 1928, Chiang invited Feng, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi to a symposium in Beiping. However, Feng and other faction leaders strongly opposed Chiang's plan to reduce the army, leading to an unsatisfactory end to the meeting. On August 8, 1928, Chiang presided over the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang's Second Central Committee in Nanjing, where he sought to force the various factions to comply with his military reduction plan. Supported by the Guangdong-born members of the Central Committee, the proposal was passed, and the army reduction plan became part of the Kuomintang's official resolution. Feeling threatened by this plan, Feng traveled along the Longhai Railway, inspecting the Northwest Army, and held a commemorative military parade marking the second anniversary of the Northwest Army's Wuyuan Oath-taking Ceremony. In October 1928, after the reorganization of the Nanjing National Government, Chiang appointed Feng as Vice President of the Executive Yuan and Minister of Military Affairs, asking him to report to Nanjing immediately. Feng, however, refused, citing various excuses. Under increasing public pressure, Feng and other faction leaders were eventually forced to attend the demobilization meeting in Nanjing. On December 26, 1928, Chiang chaired a preparatory meeting for the demobilization conference, using factional politics to manipulate and divide his rivals. Feng proposed a "three haves and three demobilizations" plan, which was initially opposed by Yan Xishan and Li Zongren. Secretly, Chiang won over Yan, encouraging him to submit a proposal that would counter Feng's influence. When the National Demobilization Meeting convened on January 1, 1929, most attendees supported Yan's proposal over Feng's. The "Outline of the Procedure for the Demobilization Committee of the National Army" was passed, favoring Chiang's position. Eventually, Feng, Yan, and Li shifted from opposing each other to uniting against the demobilization process. In March 1929, as we saw in last episode, the Chiang-Gui War broke out. In order to concentrate military forces and eliminate the Guangxi clique, Chiang Kai-shek sent Shao Lizi and others to Huashan to win over Feng Yuxiang. They offered Feng the chance to continue cooperating with Chiang and send troops to help Chiang defeat Guangxi in exchange for the premiership of the Executive Yuan and the territory of Hubei and Hunan provinces. Feng agreed to Chiang's request on the surface. He then frequently deployed troops on the border between Henan and Hubei, hoping to seize the opportunity to send troops to occupy Wuhan when Chiang and Guangxi were both defeated. However, Chiang soon defeated the Guangxi clique, which increased Chiang Kai-shek's resentment and made the contradiction between Chiang and Feng irreconcilable. Now that pretty much covers Feng Yuxiang's motivations, but what about Yan Xishan? In January 1930, after Yan Xishan returned to Taiyuan from Zhengzhou, central Henan began to experience increasing turmoil. On February 10, Yan sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek, urging a spirit of courtesy for the country's sake that they "share the burden" to resolve party conflicts. Chiang responded on February 12 with a telegram stating, "Revolution to save the country is an obligation, not a right. The country is in dire straits, and it is not the time for us to be arrogant." By February 21, Li Zongren, Huang Shaohong, Bai Chongxi, Zhang Fakui, and Hu Zongduo all stated supported Yan Xishan to be the commander-in-chief of the anti-chiang national army, navy, and air force. In many ways the issue was simply thrust onto him. Meanwhile Yan Xishan's army went to Peiping, current day Beijing, disarming the KMT forces there and setting up a HQ. With perhaps a stronger backing, Chiang Kai-Shek would have gone to war against the anti-chiang cabal much earlier, but was reluctant to do so now. The terrain was the difficulty, he would have to fight his way into Shandong, where the local sympathy rested on Feng Yuxiang. So for now he battled them through the use of diplomacy. Within the chaos, the CCP also managed to cut their own piece of the pie by capturing Changsha in late July. They would only hold the city for a few days however, before burning it down and fleeing. Early into the conflict Chiang Kai-Shek's attention was drawn to Manchuria. The Young Marshal had not made a move in either direction and he was sitting upon an army 200,000 plus strong. Where did his sympathies truly lie, everyone was waiting to see. Chiang Kai-Shek believed chances were slim the Young Marshal would rebel against him, he was not very much like his tiger of a father. Zhang Xueliang was a thinker, an idealistic and most importantly he had been an opium addict for a long time. Such a life conditioned the young man to be a lot more passive. Zhang Xueliang seemed to be looking to pledge himself to a real leader who could deliver salvation to China. But who was the better choice for him? Chiang Kai-Shek or Wang Jingwei? Chiang Kai-Shek did not wait for an official answer to this question he hastily announced that Zhang Xueliang was his new deputy commander in chief. Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan followed this up by offering Zhang Xueliang a place in the Peiping state council, yet Zhang Xueliang remained quiet until the middle of September. It was a real nail bitter for both sides, Zhang Xueliang had a large, decently trained and pretty well armed army, he would tip the tides for either side. The waiting game had Yan Xishan thinking strongly about pulling out of the coalition. In the meantime the war truly began to heat up in May when Chiang Kai-Shek swore a public oath to attack Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang. On May 11th, both sides began engaged another along a north and south front. The main battlefield in the north was centered around Henan with a secondary front in Shandong fought mainly along the Pinghan, Longhai and Jinpu railways. In the southern theater the fighting was fought mainly in the Yuezhou, Changsha and Xiangjiang river areas. To be more specific the anti-Chiang Kai-shek army organized a total of 8 war front areas: the Guangxi clique army was the 1st front, led by Li Zongren, going north from Hunan and heading towards Wuhan; the Northwest Army was the 2nd front, led by Feng Yuxiang, with Lu Zhonglin being responsible for the Longhai and Pinghan lines in Henan; the Shanxi Army was the 3rd front, led by Yan Xishan, with Xu Yongchang responsible for the Jinpu and Jiaoji lines and the eastern section of the Longhai line in Shandong; Shi Yousan's troops were the 4th front; the Northeast Army, which was designated by Zhang Xueliang, was the 5th front though whether he took up the post or not was yet to be seen; Liu Wenhui's troops were the 6th front; He Jian's troops were the 7th front, and Fan Zhongxiu's troops were the 8th front. The Northwest Army and the Shanxi Army, as the main forces, had been fully mobilized and marched to the Longhai, Pinghan, and Jinpu lines. Yan also appointed Shi Yousan as the chairman of Shandong Province, leading his troops to attack Shandong from Henan, and appointed Sun Dianying as the chairman of Anhui Province, attacking the Bozhou area of ​​Anhui. Altogether the Anti-Chiang forces were about 260,000 men strong The fighting kicked off in mid May. The strategy of the anti-Chiang army was for the first front army, the Guangxi army led by Li Zongren to march into Hunan and advance towards Wuhan; the second front army, the Northwestern Army of Feng Yuxiang, was responsible for the Longhai and Pinghan routes in Henan Province, and would attack Xuzhou and Wuhan respectively; the third front army, the Shanxi Army of Yan Xishan was responsible for the operations along the Jinpu and Jiaoji routes in Shandong Province. It would join Feng Yuxiang to attack Xuzhou, then advance southward along the Jinpu Line and attack Nanking; Shi Yousan was in charge of the Fourth Front Army, which would use its main forces to attack Jining and Yanzhou, and would use part of its forces to join the Third Front Army in the attack on Jinan; Zhang Xueliang's Northeast Army was designated as the Fifth Front Army, and efforts were made to jointly fight against Chiang Kai-shek, but again his status was still unknown; Liu Wenhui of Sichuan was appointed as the Sixth Front Army, and He Jian of Hunan was appointed as the Seventh Front Army. In order to encourage generals of non-directly affiliated units, Shi Yousan was appointed as the chairman of Shandong Province, Wan Xuancai as the chairman of Henan Province, and Sun Dianying as the chairman of Anhui Province. After this, Fan Zhongxiu was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Front Army. Chiang Kai-Shek deployed the NRA 2nd Corps led by Liu Zhi along the Longhai railway line; the 3rd Crops of H Chengjun was deployed on the Pinhan line; the 1st Corps of Han Fuju was deployed along the Jinpu line and Chiang Kai-Shek set up his HQ in Xuzhou to personally command forces. On May 11th, Chiang Kai-Shek issued his general attack orders, with the 2nd corps attacking Guide from Xuzhou. The two sides began clashing, with the KMT gaining the upper hand rather quickly as they held an advantage in air power. A NRA division led by Chen Jicheng occupied Mamuji due east of Guide. Then Liu Maoen defected to Chiang Kai-Shek handing his forces over at Ningling while also luring Colonel Wan Xuancai into a trap. This left Guide to be easily captured by Chiang's forces as the only other enemy division was that of Sun Dianying who withdrew to Bozhou. Although Chiang Kai-Shek had won technically the first major battle, his situation was not at all enviable.  After losing Guide, Yan Xishan urgently reinforced the Longhai Railway line area with divisions led by Yang Yaofang, Sun Laingcheng and Ji Hongchang. This saw Chiang Kai-Sheks forces suffer extremely heavy losses over the course of 10 days of fighting. Chiang Kai-Sheks forces were reeling from the fierce fighting and forced to retreat into the southwestern portion of Shandong. Along the Pinghan railway, Chiang Kai-Shek ordered He Chengjun's 3rd Corps to depart the Yancheng area and attack northwards. The 3rd Corps quickly found themselves fighting the northwest Army in the Linying and Xuchang areas. The 3rd Corps were trying to contain and isolate the northwest army who were currently receiving reinforcements along the Longhai line.  On May 25th, He Jians forces began occupying Linying and by Juny 7th Xuchang. At this time the Guangxi army invaded Hunan and by the 28th of May had taken Yongzhou, Qiyang, Hangzhou and Baoqing. On June 8th they took Changsha and Yueyang, with their vanguard entering Hubei. Feng Yuxiang took advantage of the situation to launch a full scale attack along the Pingham line. After two days of fighting, Chiang Kai-Sheks men were retreating south to Luohe. However, Feng Yuxiang made an error. His subordinates urged him to link up with the Guangxi army and attack Wuhan. Instead he ordered his forces to advance into eastern Henan where he might annihilate a large portion of Chiang Kai-Sheks army. Meanwhile Chiang Kai-Shek had suffered major defeats across the Longhai and Pingham lines and lost the key city of Changsha, his men were demoralized. By mid June Feng Yuxiang adjusted his battle plan and launched another offensive along the Longhai line as Chiang Kai-Shek came to Liuhe to supervise the battle. Chiang Kai-Shek tossed some of his elite divisions equipped with heavy artillery to attack Feng Yuxiang from Qixian to Taikang, hoping to seize Kaifeng and Chenliu. Yet he fell directly into a pocket-sized encirclement and his forces were battered. Over on the Jinpu line front, Yan Xishan had organized 6 divisions and 3 artillery regiments to perform an offensive against Jinan. They advanced south along the Jinpu line and formed two pincers against the city. Han Fuju knew he would lose considerable forces in a defense of the city and ended up simply pulling out to conserve his strength, handing Jinan over.  July brought significant change to the war. Over in Hunan, Chiang Kai-Shek organized 3 armies to counterattack Changsha; a naval fleet under Chen Skaokuan would assist them and he ordered the 8th route army under Jiang Hauangnai and Cai Tingkai to retake Hengyang. The Guangxi army could not focus on two fronts, so they abandoned Yueyang and Changsha to meet the enemy at Hengyang. The two sides fought bitterly in southern Hunan, but by July 4th the Guangxi army was forced to retreat to the province of Guangxi. Afterwards Chiang Kai-Shek's forces took Bozhou within the Longhai/Jinpu triangle area, effectively trapping forces led by Sun Dianying. On July 8th Chiang Kai-Shek diverted a bunch of divisions from the Longhai line to the Jinpu Line. By the end of the month Chiang Kai-Shek unleashed a general offensive along the Jinpu line. Feng Yuxiang retaliated by launching an offensive over the Longhai line trying to seize Xuzhou. Feng Yuxiang hoped by doing so he could unite the Jinpu and Longhai lines for a combined assault of Xuzhou. Chiang Kai-Sheks Longhai forces were quickly pushed back to an area south of Guide, but mother nature tossed a curveball. Colossal amounts of rain caused river floodings, forcing Feng Yuxiangs men to advance through mud greatly diminishing his supply lines. It was enough to give Chiang Kai-Shek time to stabilize the front as his offensive on the Jinpu line successfully recaptured Jinan by August 15th.  On August 21st Chiang Kai-Shek convened a meeting in Jinan where it was decided they would divert forces from the Jinpu line to the Longhai and Pinghan lines. They would focus the most on the Pinghan line while forces on the Longhai line would try to cut off the retreat of Feng Yuxiang's army. Chiang Kai-Shek even offered 200,00 yuan for the first unit to take Gongxian and 1 million yuan for the occupation of Luoyang and Zhengzhou. On September 6th, Chiang Kai-Shek unleashed another general offensive. Feng Yuxiang believed he had the numbers to win, so he deployed his forces pretty evenly over the Pinghan, Longhai and Zhengzhou fronts. He did urge Yan Xishan to try and help him out if his fronts could afford to spare units. Yet Yan Xishan sought to preserve his strength, and moved his Longhai forces to pull back north of the Yellow River. This action made linking up with Feng Yuxiang pretty much impossible. By the 17th Chiang Kai-Shek captured Longmen very close to Luoyang, effectively cutting off Feng Yuxiang's line of retreat heading west. Thus Feng Yuxiang had no choice but to retreat into northern Henan. Taking another sidestep, you may have noticed one of the largest players remains unmentioned, what about the Young Marshal? Back in March, Zhang Xueliang issued a telegram expressing his neutrality. This of course prompted Chiang Kai-Shek to personally call him, whence negotiations began. On June 10th, Li Shi and Zhang Xueliang discussed the conditions for him to send troops to help the NRA out. The first condition was 2 million yuan to cover the cost of deployment. On June 21st the KMT officially appointed Zhang Xueliang as deputy commander. The next day Zhang Xueliang telegramed everyone suggesting that both sides agree to a cease-fire and establish a buffer zone. In August Li Shi came to meet with Zhang Xueliang again, where the Young Marshal then demanded 5 million yuan for military use and a loan of 10 million yuan to stabilize the northeast economy. Chiang Kai-Shek agreed to the terms on the spot. Then Zhang Xueliang said if Chiang Kai-Shek could capture Jinan, he would send troops. As mentioned this occurred on August 15th. Thus Zhang Xueliang began speaking with his generals. Meanwhile on the other side, the Anti-Chiang leadership began establishing a competing government in Peiping in July whereupon they appointed many Fengtian clique members to be the heads of certain departments. Yet on September 2nd, Zhang Xueliang told Fu Zuoyi, a anti-Chiang representative that he did not support their Peiping government. Then Zhang Xueliang recalled all the Fengtian members they had appointed as officials.  Then on September 18th, Zhang Xueliang issued a telegram urging "all parties to stop fighting immediately to relieve the people's suffering and wait for Nanking to take action." At the same time, he dispatched Yu Xuzhong and Wang Shuchang with the 1st and 2nd armies of the Northeast Frontier Defense army to enter the pass. On October 9th, he officially took up office as the deputy commander for the NRA. Yan Xishan soon received word from forces in Tangshan that Zhang Xuliang was advancing, so he called for a meeting to figure out countermeasures. Zhang Xueliang then sent word to Yan Xishan that he should withdraw from occupied areas. Yan Xishan did indeed comply as Zhang Xueliang quickly occupied Ping and Tianjin without firing a shot. To maintain cordial relations with Yan Xishan, Zhang Xueliang had his army only advance into Hubei and Chahar, but left Shanxi alone. This prompted Yan Xishans forces to cross the Yellow River and retreat back into Shanxi using two routes.  Meanwhile a wave of defections to Chiang Kai-Shek began in late September, severely crippling the Pinghan line for Feng Yuxiang. Along the Longhai line, Chiang Kai-Shek's forces took Kaifeng on October 3rd and were advancing towards Zhangzhou. The KMT government then began announcing amnesty for all Generals if they would stand down. The next days many of Feng Yuxiang's subordinates called upon him to issue a ceasefire. Feng Yuxiang was basically screwed, Chiang and Zhang were surrounding him slowly as his own Generals defected or abandoned the cause. On the 5th Feng Yuxiangs deputy commander withdrew to Xinxiang, due north of the Yellow River. The next day Zhengzhou fell to the NRA 11th division of Chen Cheng. On the 5th Yan Xishan, Feng Yuxiang and Wang Jingwei jointly telegrammed Zhang Xueliang expressing their desire for a ceasefire and to open up negotiations.  By the 15th Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang stepped down together as commanders in chief. Yan Xishan handed command to Xu Yongchang and Feng Yuxiang to Lu Zhonglin. Both men then stated they would go temporarily abroad, though neither truly did. In truth Yan Xishan fled to Dalian under the protection of the Japanese and Feng Yuxiang hid in Yudaohe in Shanxi. That same day Lu Zhonglin telegramed to the Northwest army "withdraw defense immediately upon order inform all injured units to stop fighting and rest the people." On November 4th, Yan Xishan and Feng Yuxiang telegramed the dissolution of the anti-chiang movement, ending the war. The Central Plains War lasted roughly seven months, with both sides mobilizing more than 1.1 million troops, spending 500 million yuan, and suffering 300,000 casualties. At least half of them were young and middle-aged men from Hebei, Shandong, Henan and other provinces. It was the largest civil war in China after the Northern Expedition to unify China. The war spread to Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi and other provinces. Most of the national troops originally prepared to suppress the Communists were mobilized, allowing the Chinese Communist Party to breathe and develop. Warlords imposed additional donations and taxes on the common people and issued paper money indiscriminately. As usual the ones to suffer the most were of course the common people. Within the Central Plains, 27 counties including Luoyang in Henan Province were severely affected, with agricultural losses amounting to 160.2% of the annual output value; farmers in more than a dozen counties including lost an average of 0.22 heads of livestock and 0.07 carts per household. Within Henan Province, it was said “over 120,000 people died in the war, over 19,500 were injured, over 1,185,000 fled, and over 1,297,700 were forced into exile by the army, of which over 30,000 died in combat, not including soldiers. The total property losses, including the destruction and burning of houses, amounted to over 651,469,000 yuan. It is estimated that it will take 10 years to recover all the losses.” Source in Zhengzhou stated “Since the beginning of the war, planes have been arriving every day, dropping bombs. … Every time a bomb is dropped, five or six people are killed and several buildings are destroyed. This situation is not limited to Zhengzhou. It is the same everywhere in the battlefield cities, the counties and villages near the Longhai and Pinghan railways, even in broad daylight.”  Industry declined and agriculture went bankrupt. The war caused great damage to industrial and agricultural production, seriously hindering the development of the social economy. “The national finances and social economy were both exhausted.” For railway transportation alone saw  “capital losses amounted to 22,165,504 yuan; withdrawals from garrison troops amounted to 4,206,155 yuan; military transport losses amounted to 29,958,042 yuan; and operating losses amounted to 17,018,271 yuan. The total was more than 73 million yuan.Among agricultural products, tobacco leaves were harvested in the three provinces of Henan, Shandong and Anhui, and the war was at its most intense. The losses were between 20 and 30 million yuan. The losses were twice as much as the war expenses.”  Chiang Kai-Shek had won the war, utterly breaking his opponents. Feng Yuxiangs northwest disintegrated into four factions. Yan Xishans Shanxi army took heavy losses that they would not recover from. Zhang Xueliang profited the most, his northeast army gained further territory in North China. He would gradually incorporate a large part of the forces in Shanxi and Suiyuan and would emerge the second largest military faction in China. However, when Zhang Xueliang depleted the northeast of her military forces, this left the borders weak. Zhang Xueliang soon became focused on governing North China, taking his eyes off his powerbase of Manchuria, which Japanese eyes looked upon enviously.  Overall the Central plains war weakened the NRA, the KMT, depleted China of her overall strength and lessened efforts against the CCP. Within the background of the warlord-NRA conflict, the CCP would benefit greatly. The CCP had spread to 11 provinces, including Jiangxi, Hubei, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Henan, Sichuan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Their Red Army formed a total of 14 armies with a total of about 100,000 people. But with the Central Plains War ended, now Chiang Kai-Shek could redirect his efforts against the Red Menace.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Chiang Kai-Shek had certainly faced a formidable enemy in the former of his past comrades in arms, Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan, Li Zongren and many others. At the last minute the Young Marshal saved the day, allowing the Generalissimo to retain control over the new Republic, yet in the background lurked enemies everywhere still.

The US has released its latest CPI inflation number. How might the Federal Reserve react with its monetary policy? How big a concern is the US national debt level (00:40)?Foxconn is hiring more workers for the world's largest iPhone factory in Henan Province. Why is Apple coming back to China? Why is Apple planning to invest 1 billion yuan to build new business headquarters and a research and development centre in Zhengzhou (16:52)?

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/geography

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China's modern history has been marked by deep spatial inequalities between regions, between cities, and between rural and urban areas. Contemporary observers and historians alike have attributed these inequalities to distinct stages of China's political economy: the dualistic economy of semicolonialism, rural-urban divisions in the socialist period, and capital concentration in the reform era. In Pivot of China: Spatial Politics and Inequality in Modern Zhengzhou (Harvard UP, 2024), Mark Baker shows how different states across twentieth-century China shaped these inequalities in similar ways, concentrating resources in urban and core areas at the expense of rural and regional peripheries. Pivot of China examines this dynamic through the city of Zhengzhou, one of the most dramatic success stories of China's urbanization: a railroad boomtown of the early twentieth century, a key industrial center and provincial capital of Henan Province in the 1950s, and by the 2020s a “National Central City” of almost ten million people. However, due to the spatial politics of resource concentration, Zhengzhou's twentieth-century growth as a regional city did not kickstart a wider economic takeoff in its hinterland. Instead, unequal spatial politics generated layers of inequality that China is still grappling with in the twenty-first century. Huiying Chen is an Assistant Professor in History at Purdue University. She is interested in the circulation of people, goods, and ideas and how societies in history and today cope with the challenges wrought by increased travel in aspects of culture, politics, commerce, law, science, and technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last time we spoke about the Northern Warlords and their respective factions. We covered the three big names, Duan Qirui and his Anhui clique; Wu Peifu and his Zhili cliques and Zhang Zuolin and his Fengtian clique. We also went into the smaller ones like Yan Xishan's Shanxi clique, Feng Yuxiang's Guominjun clique, the Ma clique of the three Ma's, Ma Bufang, Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin known as the Xibei San Ma “thee Ma of the northwest”; the Xinjiang clique of Yang Zengxin and we barely scratched the surface of the Manchu Resotrationist clique of Zhang Xun. There was over 100 warlords, its really difficult to pick and choose who to delve into the most. However, there were two warlords who were bitter rivals, in a comedic fashion might I add. One was hailed as the good Christian warlord, the other a devilish monster. Today we are going to tell the tales of these two figures.   #95 Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Zongchang: the Angel and Devil   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Feng Yuxiang was born in Zhili province, today Hebei in 1882. His parents were poor, his father joined the Qing army to make ends meet. At the age of only 10 he joined the Huai Army alongside his father. He earned a uniform and food but no salary as his rank was “Fu Bing”, deputy soldier. By the age of 16 he proved himself capable and became a regular. Unlike his colleagues who gambled their money away, Feng saved his money and even used portions of it to help out soldiers in need, particularly Fu Bing's. Because of this he became quite popular amongst his comrades. He did not gamble nor drink alcohol. In 1902 he joined Yuan Shikai's guard units and rose through the ranks becoming a company commander. From there he was transferred to the 3rd division, a crack one of Yuan Shikai's soon to be Beiyang Army.  During the Xinhai Revolution Feng Yuxiang joined the Luanzhou uprising against the Qing, supporting the revolutionaries in the South. The uprising was suppressed by the Beiyang army and Feng was imprisoned by Yuan Shikai. Once Yuan Shikai stole the presidency of the Republic, Feng was released and he took back his military position while supporting Yuan Shikai's regime. By 1914 he became a brigade commander and helped supress uprisings in Henan and Shaanxi. It was also during this year Feng Yuxiang developed a curiosity about Christianity. He converted to Christianity, being baptiszed into the Methodist Episcopal Church. When Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor, this ushered in the Anti-Yuan resistance. Feng Yuxiang helped supress anti-yuan forces of General Cai E in Sichuan, but in the process, began secrely negotiating with Cai E. He formed an agreement to “put on a show” rather than actually fight. After Yuan Shikai's death, Feng Yuxiang was deprived command of the 16th Mixed Brigade, something he had come to see as his personal property. He managed to stay in touch with its officers who remained loyal to him personally. Now it gives away further episodes to dvevle deep into the following years, but what I will say, Feng Yuxiang played important roles in critical moments of the wars during China's warlord Era. To be blunt, Feng Yuxiang was a real game of thrones little finger kind of guy if you get the reference. He always looked where the wind was blowing and was quick to switch sides turning the sides of one clique against another. He would found the Guominjun Clique, a sort of little borther to the Kuomintang, but its powerbase was located in the north rather than the south. Feng Yuxiang's career as a warlord began right after Yuan Shikai's death, but he certainly set himself apart from other warlords. Feng Yuxiang would receive a lot of western press for his rather, very different methodology compared to the other warlords. In a lot of ways, he was similar to a public school headmaster in England. He forbade his men from smoking tobacco or opium, from drinking alcohol and he forced them all to study the bible. He forbade prostitution, gambling and selling drugs. He quickly earned the nickname “the Christian General”. He had a reputation of baptizing his troops with fire hoses, though this has been highly contested. Indeed he was a hardcore Christian and actively promoting Christianity while showing no tolerance for other religions in China. For exmaple in 1927 when entering Henan Province he launched a cmapaign to supress Buddhism by expelling over 300,000 monastic members and confisciating hundreds of Buddhist monasteries for military purposes. In 1923 a British Protestant Missionary, Marshall Broomhall said this of him “The contrast between Cromwell's Ironsides and Charles's Cavaliers is not more striking than that which exists in China to-day between the godly and well-disciplined troops of General Feng and the normal type of man who in that land goes by the name of soldier ... While it is too much to say that there are no good soldiers in China outside of General Feng's army, it is none the less true that the people generally are as fearful of the presence of troops as of brigand bands”. Feng Yuxiang required his troops to take part in sports, gymastics and hardcore marches. Any illiterates were forced to learn to read and write, many were also trained in trades so they would not simply leave the army and become bandits. Feng looked at Christianity as a means of providing morale and disciplin for his army, he often told foreign missionaries  'Remember that your chief work is not to try to convert the rank and file of my army, but to use your strength in trying to get all my officers filled with the Spirit of God, for as soon as that takes place, the lowest private in the army will feel the effects of it”. Feng Yuxiangs was closely intouch with his troops often stopping to chat with them about their living conditions. He reduced corporal punishments, encouraged singing patriotic songs. One of the oddest things that I came across when I was making my Warlord Era content on the Pacific War Channel was video's of Feng Yuxiang personally checking the fingernails of his troops. He was pretty hardcore about cleanliness, I guess “cleanliness is next to godliness”. Alright that is a lot of information about the good toe shoes Christian General Feng Yuxiang, now let me talk about Zhang Zongchang, the Dogmeat General. Zhang Zongchang was born in 1881 in Yi county, present day Laizhou in Shandong. He grew up in an impoverished village, his father was a trumpeter, a headshaver and a rampant alcoholic. His mother exorcized evil spirits. . . Yeah she was basically a witch, oh and she left Zhang and his dad chasing another man. The family moved to Manchuria when Zhang was in his teens and he immediately got involved in petty crime around Harbin. Zhang would work as a pickpocket, bouncer, prospector and bandit throughout his life. He ended up doing some work as a laborer in Siberia amongst the Russians, picking up some Russian in the process, something that would really help his career out later. He then became a Honghuzi bandit roaming the Manchurian countryside when the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 hit. During the war he served as a Imperial Russian Army auxiliary, interestingly enough his future boss who was also a Honghuzi did the same for the Japanese. After the war he went back to his Honghuzi lifestyle, becoming the leader of a local bandit gang.   During the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, Zhang was leading his Honghuzi as a sort of revolutionary desperados gang. He then went to Jiangsu and joined the Green Standard Army where he impressed his commander officer Cheng Dechuan so much so he made Zhang his successor…or Zhang threatened the guy who knows. Thus for a little while Zhang was leading a small cavalry detachment under the Division commander Leng Yuqin, battling Honghuzi groups. During the second revolution of 1913, Zhang became the divisional commander when Leng died. There was an issue with his division, the revolutionary General Feng Guozhang did not like them, probably because they were criminals, so he reduced their role in the revolution to being a symbolic unit. Zhang responded to this by murdering the revolutionary Chen Qimei in Shanghai in 1916, proving his loyalty and reliability to Feng Guozhang. Feng Guozhang later became vice president of the new Republic, appointing Zhang as the commander of his personal guard. As China's Warlord Era began in 1918, Zhang like every other big guy, looked for the best strongman to follow. In 1922 he turned his attention to a new rising star, the tiger of manchuria, Zhang Zuolin.   There is a famous story, that Zhang Zuolin was celebrating his birthday in 1922, seeing countless people showering him with gifts trying to earn his favor. Zhang Zongchang apparently sent him two empty coolie baskets and did not show up in person. Zhang Zuolin was baffled by this at first, until he realized the empty baskets implied Zhang Zongchang was a man willing to shoulder any heavy responsibilities that Zhang Zuolin would entrust to him. This apparently worked like a charm as Zhang Zongchang was rewarded a position within his army.   Zhang Zongchang's time in Siberia and work under the Russians during the Russo-Japanese war paid off as he managed to secure White Russian Mercenaries. These were refugee veterans of the Russian Civil War who had been straddling the Manchurian/Soviet borders. Zhang hired thousands of them, organizing them into units, including Cossack bodyguards. He even recruited woman on a large scale, the first Chinese general to do so. The women mostly served as nurses and one regiment was exclusively white Russian women. The white russians trained their Chinese counterparts resulting in excellent medical, a significant boost for morale and combat capability. The white russians were crucial to Zhang Zongchang's rise as they knew how to build and operate armored trains giving the warlord a huge edge.    Now just like with Feng Yuxiang, I don't wanna give away future parts of the warlord era story, just know Zhang Zongchang greatly impressed Zhang Zuolin and would be rewarded military governorship over Shandong Province. As the Military governor of Shandong, this is where you hear about him being a monster. For those who don't know, Shandong has a long spanning history of being where trouble starts in China. Zhang's mismanagement of Shandong was legendary, to call it one of Shandong's darkest times is an understatement. For example it is said one of his favorite hobbies was “to split melons”, that was bashing in the skulls of people with rifle butts. He also liked to hang people and their severed heads from telephone poles. He would reign over Shandong until 1928 and it was 3 very hard years for the people there. Basically he did what all corrupt officials had done historically in China, he fleeced the population of his province. He implemented excessive taxes and starved public institutions of funds. The provincial education system collapsed in 1927 and the provincial economy was stagnant as all hell, save for the black market. To fight the economic collapse he printed money as fast as it could be printed and became nearly valueless, reminds me a lot of my nation's leader today.   Now any criticism of Zhang Zonghcang or the Fengtian governance would lead to imprisonment and resistance led to more split melons, seeing severed heads hung everywhere. For example if a newspaper criticized his regime, Zhang literally had the editors shot. Things got so bad for the peasants of Shandong,  they formed a group called the Red Spear Militia, branding red-tasseled spears, but not too many firearms. These men and women were completely outgunned trying desperately to resist Zhang Zongchangs tyranny, and tyrannical it was.    He imposed an incredible amount of taxes on the people, taxes on rice, tobacco, firewood, dogs, rickshaws, livestock, brothels, military pensions, opium pipe lighters, honestly anything that could be taxed he taxed. He once forcefully collected donations for a shrine; that shrine was a bronze statue of himself. He extorted money from banks, misappropriated his troops wages, because he was paying them in worthless printed money and gave a monopoly to the opium dealers. In fact he was the personal benefactor for drug lords and arms dealers, the black market was his chocolate factory.   Shandong was so bad, a very young Vinegar Joseph Stilwell visited the area when he was serving as a young military attache at the US legation in Peking. He said the dead and dying littered the streets and the only thing the citizens of Shandong had to eat were crushed soya-bean cakes usually fed to pigs. There were abandoned children everywhere, carts of animals seized by warlord troops and houses literally torn down for the troops firewood. Poverty and famine was rampant.   Now the devastation of Shandong was far removed from Zhang Zongchang however as he kept his quarters in the capital of Jinan (Capital in eastern Shandong). His HQ was described to be more like a medieval court full of extravagant entertainment. He had elaborate feasts, secured French champaign, scotch and his favorite Cuban cigars. He entertained artists, writers, entertainers, arms dealers, drug kingpins, western journalists and such. He loved to play poker with other minor warlords and they were high stakes games, sometimes he would walk away losing 30-50 thousands at a sitting. The poker games were always played with silver dollars and not the useless money he printed for his troops and the citizens of Shandong.    One of his more famous recurring guests was Madame Wellington Koo, this was the wife of one of the most famous Chinese politicians of the age, Wellington Koo was the frontrunner at the Paris Peace conference for China. Now Mr. Wellington Koo's wife had this to say about Zhang “Zhang Zongchang was so delightfully outrageous that he was disarming. There were many stories about him. He was called “old eighty-sin” some said he was the height of a pile of 86 dollars, other said that figure represented the length of a certain portion of his anatomy. When I visited him my Pao Pei and Chow Chow would come with me and Zhang would roar at the servants “never mind what you give Madame Koo to eat. But be sure her dogs get the very best or you'll suffer for it”.   Now why this guy is so famous today is of course because of his nicknames and infamous lifestyle. His most famous nickname was the “Dogmeat General”, and its said to be based on his fascination with the domino game Pai Jiu. Others say his favorite brand of tonic was known as dogmeat. And of course there was the rumor he ate a meal of black chow chow dog every day, as it was popularly believed at the time that this boosted a man's vitality. But if you noticed the quote from Madame Wellington Koo, I think he may have been a dog lover. But the part about the man's vitality fits this guy to the core.    He was of course known by the populace of Shandong as “Monster”, but there was also  nicknames like “the lanky general or general with three long legs” were certainly something he publicized heavily. His nickname “old 86” referred to the length of his penis being 86 mexican silver dollars, there was also a nickname “72-cannon Zhang” referring to that length. I mean the man was 6 foot 6, people described him quote “with the physique of an elephant, the brain of a pig and the temperament of a tiger”.    Alongside his penis propaganda, he was a legendary womanizer. Take his other nickname for example “the general of three don't-knows”: he did not know how many women, how many troops, or how much money he had. I think that nickname fits him better than the nickname he gave himself “the Great General of Justice and Might”.    He had a ton of concubines. The exact number of concubines he had has variously been reported between 30-50, but historians have a hard time trying to fix the numbers as Zhang himself allegedly did not know. Allegedly his concubines were from 26 different nationalities, each with her own washbowl marked with the flag of her nation. He was also said to give his concubines numbers since he could not remember their names nor speak their various languages. Many of these women he married, he was a polygamist after all. There was known to be Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Mongolians and at least one American amongst Zhang's women.   Zhang was semi-literate, whenever people asked where he was educated he would say “the college of the green forest” a euphemism for banditry. Despite being semi-literate Zhang Zongchang is famously known for his poetry, most notably his Poem on Bastards:   You tell me to do this, He tells me to do that. You're all bastards, Go fuck your mother. Untitled They ask me how many women I have. To be honest, I don't know either. Yesterday, a boy called me dad. I don't know who his mother was.     Praying or Rain   The sky god is also named Zhang Why does he make life hard for me If it doesn't rain in three days I'll demolish your temple Then I'll have cannons bombard your mom     It should be noted a lot of the poetry attributed to Zhang Zongchang may have been fabricated by a political opponent named Han Fuju who took over Shandong Province after him.  Zhang Zongchang despite being a brutal tyrant by all means, did reward his inner circle well, he had a lot of very loyal officers around him. Zhang Zongchang traveled with a teakwood coffin planted atop a car during his campaigns. He had this done to signify his willingness to die in combat, the old “I win or come back on a shield” idea. During of his failed campaigns, Zhang Zongchang paraded himself sitting in the coffin while smoking a cuban cigar.    So as you can imagine, Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin were quite different characters to say the least. Yet both these men were born under very similar conditions. Both were born into poverty, both joined the military and were raised through the ranks with the help of patrons. Both became warlords leading cliques that allied themselves to larger cliques. Both men avoided silver bullets, the term silver bullet was used during this era to refer to being assassinated by a subordinate who was bribed by a rival warlord. To avoid such a fate, one had to make sure to conserve the loyalty of their officers, which both men did by very different means. Feng used Christianity like a glue to bind his soldiers together. He provided missionaries to encourage conversion. If christianity did not work, he employed nationalism. In the mid 1920's he became very hostile to the unequal treaties that Europe and Japan plagued China with. He began indoctrinating his men with anti-imperialistic literature and ironically began brushing shoulders with the anti-religious Soviet Union. The USSR would become his main benefactor, earning him a second nickname “the red general”. Zhang Zongzhang was much more akin to other warlords at keeping silver bullets at bay. He paid his inner circle in silver, he made sure the pockets of his best men were always full. He allowed every evil corrupt thing imaginable to occur under his subordinates hands. Zhang Zongchang was a ruthless tyrannical monster who focused on his own power above all.   Both warlords had to navigate the extremely complex alliance and rivalry system amongst the warlords. Feng Yuxiang aligned himself with the Yuan Shikai, then against Yuan Shikai, then again for Yuan Shiaki, with the Zhili clique, the Kuomintung, Communists and basically whoever looked to be winning at the time. Chiang Kai-shek said of him “the so-called Christian General was a master in the art of deception”. This was extremely true, Feng Yuxiang was a hell of a backstabber, his career actually was propelled by it. Zhang Zongchang tossed his lot in with Banditz, then Russians, then with the Fengtian Clique out of necessity, brushing shoulders with the Japanese by proxy. Zhang Zongchang really did not have any large ideology, he went with the flow as long as it benefited him. In many ways both men sort of just did what they did to empower their positions.    The people living under their rule could not have had a more different experience. Under Feng Yuxiang, Christian beliefs were enforced, a more progressive outlook was present. He did a lot to improve the living conditions of ordinary people under his control. He promoted education heavily, healthcare, infrastructure development. He was insane about discipline and thwarting corruption. He stopped gambling, smoking, drug trafficking, prostitution, he really was a man of law and order. Zhang Zongchang was the complete opposite, it was as if he was trying to outdo the devil himself. Zhang Zongchang, ruled with an iron fist, extracting resources from the population through taxation, extortion, and forced labor, while enriching himself and his inner circle. Under Zhang the common people starved, they were pillaged, raped, abused in all manners. Zhang took away funds from education, infrastructure (unless it was a statue of himself), from anything that would benefit the people. Zhang loved to smoke cigars, drank excessively, had 50 concubines, and was literally bestfriends with the black market of China.   Inevitably given their spheres of influence both warlords would run into each other in the 1920s. Feng Yuxiang's powerbase was around Shanxi and Hebei while Zhang Zongchang was firmly in Shandong. These territories border another, producing frequent clashes over strategic resources, trade routes and territorial disputes. While Feng Yuxiang betrayed many cliques, he more or less stuck to the Kuomintang. At one point Feng Yuxiang even joined the Fengtian clique to only betray them. Zhang Zongchang remained loyal to the Fengtian clique, pretty much until his death. By the way his death would be at the hands of an officer who served Feng Yuxiang, so I guess Feng won in the end haha.    Most warlords were ostentatious in their dress and lifestyle, but Feng Yuxiang was quite an exception to this. Numerous photographs show warlords sporting glittering uniforms copied from other nations. For example, Zhang Zuolin wore a large gold braid, numerous decorations, giant gleaming buckles, shoulder pads and white gloves. He had a small peaked cap suggesting he was modeling himself on a Russian Tsar. Chiang Kai-Shek favored an american style officers uniform with a high peaked cap. Many warlords liked French-styled kepis, British ww1 uniforms with sam Brown belts or helmets with enormous plumes. Pull up a picture of Zhang Zongchang and its absolutely ridiculous. He has giant shoulder pads, large medal star decorations, a giant belt, a large ribbon cross over, double golden braids, white gloves, basically he looks like hes trying to out do Zhang Zuolin. But Feng Yuxiang while a warlord wore the same plain dress as his soldiers.    If you read contemporary or older books on the warlords, you immediately notice the authors favor Feng Yuxiang and talk about him positively, while strongly villianizing Zhang Zongchang. Put simply the propaganda wars that were going on during China's Warlord Era were exactly that, Feng Yuxiang made sure he was presented as a good Christian General, while Zhang Zongchang really seemed to bask in being the bad boy or base General. Hell Zhang Zongchang publicized most of what was said about him himself! In the end they were two cogs in a very large machine and they played their parts. During for however long this warlord era lasts on the podcast, we will come to learn about as many of the warlords as I possibly can cover. They are colorful characters who had a profound effect on the formation of Nationalist China and the People's republic of China.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Thus were the tales of the good Christian General Feng Yuxiang and the basest warlord, Zhang Zongchang. We will further tell the tales of their ventures in the battles of China's Warlord Era, but in the next episode we are going to meet the Southern faction Warlords!

AP correspondent Karen Chammas reports on China Deadly School Fire.

Chinese toys are being blamed for the deaths of seven children. The U.S. consumer protection authority warned parents to immediately dispose of the play sets. Overwhelmed crematoriums and under-reporting of COVID-19—firsthand accounts from residents in China's Henan Province are calling attention to the plight the country is facing. A new law sending chills through universities in Florida, banning them from partnering with China. We take a look at the growing controversy. A U.S. senator is calling on President Joe Biden to sanction a chip designer serving the Chinese military. At the same time, China is halting all tech exports tied to rare earth. ⭕️ Watch in-depth videos based on Truth & Tradition at Epoch TV

Music has been an integral part of the world's culture since prehistorical times and discoveries of ancient musical instruments are still being made to this day. Excavations at the early Neolithic site of Jiahu in Henan Province, China, (7000 - 5700 BC), have produced what may be the earliest complete and playable multinote musical instruments. A sarcophagus representing the oldest illustration of the seven-string lyre and double flute accompanying a ritual from the Minoan Period (3000 - 1400 BC) was also discovered in Crete. Read here for: Courtesans and Music in Ancient China Hades and Persephone Apsara and Gandharva Mahabharata: The Pandava Brothers

“When Energy flows in Balance, the Path emerges. This is the Zhong Jin Dao.”--Li Shifeng Our Guest today, Shifu Li Shifeng is the Co-founder of 李世锋功夫书院 Li Shifeng KungfuAcademy, and 中劲道 Zhong Jin Dao Kungfu Training System. He was born in Henan Province, central China, and has shared 站桩 Standing Meditation, 气功 Qigong, 太极 Tai Chi, 少林 Shaolin, 八卦 掌 Bagua Zhang with Taoism Philosophy and Buddhism Philosophy with friends and students from more than 120 different countries face to face in person and online, respectively.Shifu has given training in China, Hong Kong, all around the USA, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Turkey, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Belarus, Russia, Finland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, France, Spain, Greece, Belgium, Albania, Serbia, and many more countries.The age range of people involved in Li Shifeng Kungfu Academy and Zhong Jin Dao is from 1 to 86 years old; His students have won hundreds of medals in dozens of International Wushu Kungfu Competitions in China and abroad.In addition, Li Shifeng used to teach at a unique school for mentally disabled children in Bali, Indonesia helping the children to gain stronger self-confidence, better perception, and balance through Zhong Jin Dao Kungfu Training System; he gave therapy at the Turkish Elders Care Center in Augsburg, Germany to improve the health and immunity system for the elders on wheelchair; At the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in China, he cooperated with the people with physical disability and the researchers to experience how Qigong and Tai Chi work on medication. Beyond all, he taught Wushu Kungfu to more than 700 pupils in Chenjiagou Villiage, which is the birthplace of Chen Style Tai Chi to educate them to be international Tai Chi ambassadors since even as a child. And in this podcast Shifu Li Shifeng & I talk about: Zhong – 中 – BalanceJin – 劲 – EnergyThe Universe, and of course,The Dao – 道 – Path.And many more topics that will expand your heart and mind.This is truly a one-of-a-kind episode where if you are seasoned around martial arts, energy, and Qi, (chi), you will be able to feel the transmission of Shifu beyond the words. If you want to learn more about Li FiSHeng, visit his social media:instagram.com/li_shifeng_kungfu_academy/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwfpGRusLazfdytWIQK8M_gPodcast produced by Brilliant Futures Productions.Sponsored by Delaflor Teachings Int.

Today, we'll introduce a brand new museum that was an instant hit when it opened in central China's Henan Province that boasts over 400 cultural relics and offers a glimpse into the life of one of the most complicated and dubious characters in Chinese history.

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, whose spire and roof were destroyed by an April 15, 2019, fire, is expected be rebuilt within the five-year deadline set by the French government. As confirmed by the head of the construction site, French Army General Jean-Louis Georgelin, in an interview with the Associated Press, the faithful and tourists should have access to the site again by the end of 2024. Reconstruction work only began some 24 months after the tragic incident occurred, with the first phase consisting of cleaning and securing the site, involving more than 200 different companies. Although the beloved cathedral will not be ready for the Olympic Games to be held in the French capital in July and August 2024, it should have regained its former shape by then, with the reconstruction phase of its emblematic spire to begin in April. The wood that will be used to rebuild the frame was blessed by the rector of the cathedral, Bishop Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, on December 15, 2022. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253809/reopening-of-notre-dame-cathedral-confirmed-for-late-2024 A human rights group active in China is reporting that religious believers in a populous Chinese province are now required to register on a government app in order to attend worship services. ChinaAid, a U.S.-based Christian charity, reported March 6 that the religious department of the provincial government of Henan is rolling out a system whereby all believers must make online reservations before they can attend services in churches, mosques, or Buddhist temples. The reservations are to be made through an app called “Smart Religion” developed by the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission of Henan Province. According to ChinaAid, applicants must fill in personal information, including their name, phone number, government ID number, permanent residence, occupation, and date of birth before they can make a reservation. Henan, located in the east-central part of the country, has one of the largest Christian populations in China — as much as 6% — according to a 2012 government survey. The communist government of China is officially secular. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253810/chinese-province-rolls-out-reservation-app-for-religious-believers Britain's House of Commons approved legislation Tuesday to create “buffer zones” around abortion facilities that would prohibit a wide range of behavior, including silent prayer. An amendment to exempt prayer and consensual conversation was voted down by lawmakers, who added the buffer zones to the Public Order Bill. The final vote came the day after a pro-life woman was arrested in Birmingham for the second time for praying silently in an alleged violation of a local buffer zone law. Opponents of the legislation decried the bill's passage as a strike against individual liberty in the United Kingdom. The bill would create a buffer zone of 150 meters, about 492 feet, outside abortion facilities in England and Wales. It bars intimidation, harassment, or interference toward those seeking or providing abortions. Violation would be punished with a fine, a change from a previously proposed penalty that called for a prison sentence. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253814/uk-parliament-bans-pro-life-outreach-and-prayer-near-abortion-facilities Today, the Church celebrates Saint John of God. Born in Portugal in 1495, John lived through decades of sin and suffering before a profound conversion that led him to embrace poverty, humility and charity. Saint John of God was canonized in 1690, and has become the patron of hospitals and the dying. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-john-of-god-confessor-171

Indonesian officials say Monday's earthquake in West Java has killed over 250 people (1:02). China's green finance plans are in the spotlight at the ongoing Financial Street Forum in Beijing (5:51). A fire at a factory in Henan Province has killed 38 people. Turkiye's president has hinted at a ground incursion in northern Syria (16:08).

Wang Chuqin has claimed the title in the World Table Tennis Cup Finals in Henan Province.

Kia ora,Welcome to Monday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news financial markets have decided there are no [economic] adults in the room in China's ruling group and are moving to decrease their exposure to the Middle Kingdom.First, almost 20% of the members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said they were decreasing their exposure to China. And this survey was carried out before the CCP Congress changes were known.On Friday, Hong Kong equity investors took it on the chin with an ugly -3.7% drop to cap a loss of -6.5% for the week. Shanghai was tough too, falling -2.3% on Friday and -3.9% for the week.And over the weekend reports emerged that the giant Foxconn facility that makes iPhones in Henan Province, one that employs and houses 200,000 workers, has a serious pandemic outbreak forcing a lockdown on the facility and causing great distress. Workers are escaping, some redirected into isolation facilities, but not all. Apple is likely to accelerate its decoupling.Further, some key commodity prices sank rather sharply over the weekend. That included iron ore, zinc, and steel. Copper remains in the doldrums. The immediate drivers of these retreats are the lower prospects in China.The Bank of Japan kept ultra-low interest rates and maintained its dovish guidance as recession fears dampen prospects for a solid recovery in Japan, cementing its status as an outlier among global central banks who are mostly tightening monetary policy.Meanwhile, Japan unveiled an economic package worth about US$200 bln to cushion their "high inflation" as households and some businesses struggle under the impact of a weak yen.In the US, and following the first positive estimate of US Q3 GDP growth, the follow up PCE inflation rate has been released and it is unchanged at 6.2%. The same data shows consumer spending remained 'robust', growing at a +7.2% rate and above the related inflation level. Personal incomes rose at an annual rate of +5% and higher than was expected. Perhaps more important than the monthly September numbers are that none of these metrics seems to be falling away. Wall Street liked what it saw, more or less validating Janet Yellen's recent comments.The next Fed meeting is coming up this week on Thursday, November 3 (NZT). Markets have priced in a +75 bps hike then taking its policy rate to 3.75% and expect it to rise to 5% from there through to mid-2023. After that, the October non-farm payrolls report will be released at the end of the week, and markets now expect a modest +220,000 gain in payrolls and little change in the low jobless rate. Full employment there seems unchallenged at this time.But not all Americans appreciate the current focus on tackling inflation. Pending home sales were down a massive -10% in September from August, and down more than -30% from a year ago.And another sentiment survey, this one from the University of Michigan, remains very low even if it did inch up in October and confirming the earlier 'flash' result.Perhaps online sales are peaking out; Amazon is warning that this upcoming holiday season sales may be lackluster.Across the Atlantic, EU business and consumer sentiment remains very low too - for completely understandable reasons.And markets believe the ECB is about to turn dovish to support a flagging region and downgrade the inflation fight.German inflation is getting worse however. The latest 'harmonised' reading has it at an eye-popping +11.6% pa in October, driven by energy costs up +43% and food costs up +20% in a year. But the costs of the Russian invasion seem to have made Germans more hostile to Russia. Their President, who comes from a wing of Germany's Social Democrats that long argued for closer economic ties to Moscow, said Russia's invasion had brought "a change in era".Germany is living with the stresses, and even managing to grow their economy in real terms despite the extreme pressure.The EU struck a deal on a law to effectively ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to electric vehicles and combat climate change.We are in for a heavy data week ahead. In the US we will get the Fed's interest rate decision, their non-farm payrolls report, and a raft of earnings reports. Also, investors will be closely watching central bank meetings in England, Australia, Norway and Malaysia. There will be GDP and inflation rate figures from the Euro area. Finally, China will be releasing its manufacturing and services PMI's for October.Then there are the tensions in Ukraine, the US mid-term elections, and the Brazilian election results, all of which financial markets will be watching too.The UST 10yr yield starts today unchanged at 4.01% but down -21 bps in a week. The price of gold will open today at US$1646/oz. This is up +US$4 from this time Saturday.And oil prices start today +US$1 firmer than this time Saturday at just on US$88/bbl in the US while the international Brent price is just over US$94/bbl.The IEA has released its October update pointing out that demand for fossil fuels has peaked for all for types (coal, oil, gas) and will fall rapidly from here, and the demand for renewables, especially hydrogen is taking off. To meet European demand alone, the IEA estimates the total capital investment in hydrogen is as much as US$1 tln. And that is just the start, they say.The Kiwi dollar will open today at 58.1 USc and little-changed from Saturday. Against the Australian dollar we are firm at 90.7 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged at 58.3 euro cents. That all means our TWI-5 starts today at 68.4 and also little-changed.The bitcoin price is now at US$20,625 and down a mere -0.4% from this time Saturday. But it is up +7.5% from this time last week. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been low at just on +/- 0.9%.You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

Time Time passed in the monastery, and everyday life became a sequence of habits. My master reminded me that it was my habits that would define my outward appearance, which of course would provide insight into my "true" person. Getting up, getting dressed, spirituality, washing, eating, exercising, eating, washing, spirituality, undressing, sleeping. Get up, get dressed, spirituality, washing, eating, day trip, eating, back to the monastery, undressing, sleeping, Get up, get dressed, spirituality, washing, eating, training, eating, washing, spirituality, undressing, sleeping. The habits were simple, it was a very meditative life, with no real goals, the path was the goal! Today it is completely different, too many habits spoil the character! Weeks turned into months, always on the days off we were in the provincial capital of Henan Province, Zhengzhou, which is considered by most Chinese to be the region of origin of Chinese culture and nation; Lao Tzu, for example, comes from there. There we usually ate delicious food, I was also able to get hold of European provisions (quite exhausting at that time), finally reached my parents by phone (in a time without cell phones). We got used to more ambitious destinations for our days off, no longer just the big city, but nature and temples, history and spirituality. For example, we were in Kaifeng, one of the ancient capitals in the history of China, we visited other temples, met different monks and friends. I was not aware of the time, already too long I was here, more than half a year, it was getting cold in the mountains. Without heating I had never spent a single day, what consequences of this one can not imagine, what tracks to follow, what concessions it requires, such a life, in Europe we like it just cozy warm. The sanitary conditions were thus very limited, who likes to take off all clothes in the cold. Mainly we washed at the stream, the toilets were full of tourists, dirty and without privacy, there was the nature better. I had followed a myth here to China, the details were not important, but with time I began to miss the HOUSING from the affluent society. My desires began to bother me again, the ego demanded changes in habits, variety, partying and diversion. I persuaded my master Yan Zi to rent a small hotel room in the small town of Deng Feng. Finally a shower of our own, even if there was rarely hot water, mixed in a vat with hot tea water but still feasible. Here there were also better restaurants, we had always eaten only in the temple or in the stalls around. Unfortunately, I have from this time only a few photos, too many moves, too much ballast, because the way is the goal! Were the fruits bigger at that time? - Buddha - honorary name of Siddharta Gautama - 560 to 480 before the year zero Copyright: https://shaolin-rainer.de (Please also download my app "Buddha-Blog English" from the Apple and Android stores) Please rate us on Apple, Google or Spotify podcast to help us promote the show

Did you know that the world's oldest known, securely dated coin minting site was located in Guanzhuang in Henan Province, China? Shafi and Dan discuss the history of currency from the East and the West perspective. They explore different types of currency, and the future of currency. Leave a review on itunes and follow on spotify. @cultureclashcomedypod on insta/tiktok

Four decades ago, a retired national martial arts champion debuted in a movie about how Shaolin monks saved a Tang emperor from a warlord. The movie, called Shaolin Temple, was an overnight success. This big-screen blockbuster not only propelled its leading actor Jet Li from a mere martial arts master to a full-fledged movie star, but it also made “Shaolin” a household word around the world.The Shaolin Temple is arguably the most famous Buddhist temple in China, renowned for its Kungfu warrior monks. With amazing feats of strength, flexibility, and endurance of pain, the Shaolin monks have created a worldwide reputation as the ultimate Buddhist warriors.Today, we're going to talk about how monks at the Shaolin Temple in central China's Henan Province were trained to become Kungfu masters and fought to turn the wheels of fortune for an empire.

After the Qing Dynasty established its rule over the heartland of China, the region known as Zhongyuan in the lower and middle reaches of the Yellow River centered on the region between Luoyang and Kaifeng in Henan Province, the Manchus fully controlled the country. Although setting up a unified dynasty, there were fewer people and Manchu culture was less developed than in Zhongyuan, which was perceived as the birthplace of Chinese civilization.Today we continue to discuss how Qing Dynasty emperor Qianlong holds Confucius in high esteem in order to stabilize his reign where Han nationality dwell.

Kia ora,Welcome to Tuesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news markets are struggling to make sense of a global economy buffeted by many unusual forces.First, Russia has formalised its shutdown of oil and gas supplies to Europe and that is diving a scramble to activate other sources.Then in the US, Apple and Google say that they will slow their hiring intentions, signals that are more 'news' than 'substance', but ones that are reverberating in markets. Microsoft is making job adjustments too, but plans a new hiring increase.And US home builders are glum, seeing demand leak away as house prices have to rise on rising costs, and buyers afraid of higher mortgage interest rates. This is despite new home sales running ahead of pre-pandemic levels - just not at the unusual level they enjoyed during the pandemic.Canada's June housing starts came in slightly better than expected but slightly less than for May. And they were -1.6% lower than year ago levels.In China, the city of Beijing is issuing NZ$25 bln of helicopter 'coupons' to try and lure diners back to restaurants. Beijing is just one of 20 cities attempting the restart move.These are necessary because of a sharp turn to risk-off consumer sentiment. Banks have been told to limit trading in gold as customers rush for the safe haven.And staying in China, it is easy to draw apocalyptic conclusions from the regional bank failures in Henan Province. But it turns out there are others going bad too, the most recent in Inner Mongolia. A series of failures could create a chain reaction that would be hard to stop, especially as their big banks are also highly leveraged, and their local government is heavily in debt. China has faced down these sorts of threats before, but the balances at risk are much higher now and harder to control - harder when the economy is misfiring. Respected observer/critic Minxin Pei says a debt reckoning might be imminent, one that will have global repercussions. Let's hope not.Singapore delivered better than expected export results for June with a +9.0% gain over year-ago levels.Here's something you don't see every day. A listed company posted a profit of $200 mln in 2021, and will post a profit of $3 bln in 2022, a more than 10x rise. The company is Whitehaven Coal (WHC) on the ASX. Record high prices and limited global supply for its product has seen its share price rise from US$2.12 a year ago to $5.90 today. To be fair, their share price was higher in 2011, but it seems to be countering the ESG pressures, making those who counter-invested at the start of the ESG move win outsized gains.The States want in. Queensland has already instituted a windfall profits 'royalty' on such miners. NSW is now considering the same.The UST 10yr yield starts today at 2.96% and up +3 bps from this time yesterday. The price of gold will open today at US$1711/oz which is +US$2 firmer than this time yesterday.And oil prices are up +US$3.50/bbl at just over US$98.50/bbl in the US, while the international Brent price is up even more at just over US$102.50/bbl.The Kiwi dollar will open today back down to yesterday's level at 61.6 USc after a temporary spurt higher on the CPI news. Against the Australian dollar we are down to 90.3 AUc. Against the euro we are also down at 60.7 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 starts today at just under 70.6.The bitcoin price rose from this time yesterday by +4.5% to US$22,033 and a one-month high. Volatility over the past 24 hours however has been very high at just under +/-4.8%.You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

The Bridge invites Shanghai Daily's Andy Boreham to the show. We discuss life as a journalist in China. Andy talks food, travel and Mandarin in China's metropolitan Shanghai. He's been to many places in China, including the most remote areas. He also reported in the flood in Henan Province, interviewed people in Hong Kong, and went to Xinjiang. Tune in to this episode of The Bridge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kia ora,Welcome to Tuesday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect Aotearoa/New Zealand.I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.Today we lead with news stress is driving protests in countries as diverse as the Netherlands and China.But first, there was a US Treasury 3 year bond auction earlier today delivering higher yields. It was very well supported delivering a median yield of 3.04%, up from 2.87% at the prior equivalent event a month ago.In the US we should also note that now more than 5% of new car sales are electric, which is considered a tipping point from where mass adoption of EVs will rise fast from here. (In New Zealand we are at about 3%.)More electric demand is problematic for some states there. Demand due to summer heat alone is drawing warnings in Texas that they face blackouts again this year.Wall Street is getting ready for their Q2 earnings reports and expectations are low for what is to come. Overall, earnings growth of +4.3% is anticipated for this upcoming set, the lowest gains since 2020. Big banks and other financial companies will dominate the early part of the scheduled releases later this week. PepsiCo will report tomorrow and Delta Air Lines on Thursday, NZT. They start a flood of releases.In Japan, machinery order data for May was weak, but no weaker than expected for that month. They fell -5.6% in May from April, posting their first drop in three months and nearly matching forecasts for a -5.5% contraction. But they were up +7.4% from year ago levels which was better than expected. Analysts suggested that Japanese firms could be delaying spending due to rising energy and raw material prices that have been aggravated by soaring import costs due to a weakening yen.The arguably more important Japanese machine tool order data for June came in a very strong +17% higher than a year ago, maintaining the same strong level as for May.China is successfully pumping bank debt out the door is a rather spectacular way. In June, new yuan loans increased by ¥2.81 tln (+NZ$0.7 tln), a year-on-year increase of +24% taking their total bank debt to ¥205 tln (NZ$50 tln) or 173% of annual economic activity. For perspective, the same ratio in New Zealand is 148% and for the US is just 70%.China isn't shaking its pandemic risks and new lockdowns seem inevitable, keeping supply chain troubles bubbling away.Meanwhile, China has a new and explosive bank-run risk. A large crowd of angry Chinese bank depositors faced off with police on Sunday, some roughed up as they were taken away, in a case that has drawn attention because of earlier attempts to use a COVID-19 tracking app to prevent them from mobilising. Hundreds of people held up banners and chanted slogans on the steps of the branch of China's central bank in the city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province, about 620 km southwest of Beijing. Video taken by a protester shows plainclothes security teams being pelted with water bottles and other objects as they charge the crowd. The protesters are among thousands of customers who opened accounts at six rural banks in Henan and neighbouring Anhui Province that offered higher interest rates. They later found they could not withdraw their funds after media reports that the head of the banks' parent company was on the run and wanted for financial crimes. This is the type of bank run by depositors that Beijing fears.In Holland demonstrations of a different nature where "huge protests" have swept the country triggered by the introduction of laws designed to cut nitrogen and ammonia emissions by -50% by 2030, and by -75% in protected nature reserves known as Natura 2000 areas. The latest demonstrations were sparked by a government announcement in June suggesting some farm closures were inevitable when they released a detailed map showing which areas needed reductions from -12% to -95%.And we should also note that foot & mouth cattle disease has broken out in Indonesia, and travelers from Bali especially are at risk of bringing it back. The risk is much higher for Australia of course, but it is not trivial for us either.The UST 10yr yield starts today back down at 2.99% and an -9 bps fall from yesterday.The price of gold will open today at US$1736/oz which is -US$7 lower than this time yesterday.And oil prices have moved back down -US$1 to just under US$101.50/bbl in the US, while the international Brent price is still just over US$105/bbl.The Kiwi dollar will open today down more than -½c from this time yesterday at 61.3 USc. Against the Australian dollar we are +½c firmer at 90.8 AUc. Against the euro we are unchanged at 60.8 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 starts today at just on 70.4 and a minor -20 bps lower.The bitcoin price has slipped fractionally since this time yesterday and is now at US$20,595 and down +1.4%. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at +/-2.2%You can find links to the articles mentioned today in our show notes.And get more news affecting the economy in New Zealand from interest.co.nz.Kia ora. I'm David Chaston and we'll do this again tomorrow.

Guo Yunbo, previously a Peking University-educated scientific researcher, has been devoting himself to the cultivation of a new generation of outstanding technicians at a vocational school in central China's Henan Province since 2016. As almost 12 million youngsters get ready to take Gaokao—the annual national college entrance examination this week, the educator calls upon them and their parents to rethink the purpose of education and consider vocational training as an alternative path.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) epidemic control and lockdown measures are becoming increasingly restrictive and this includes on college campuses across China. Most recently, a college in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, introduced a new policy that pays students $740 each time they report on a classmate leaving the campus without permission. Offering students […]

提示一、十个句子每个句子念两遍，念完后从头再念两遍。二、从听懂的词入手，理解句子含义。三、根据中英文意思，听不懂的多听几遍。词汇提示1.plug 插入2.pickle 泡菜3.glows 发光4.dismiss 不予考虑5.made reference 提到6.inherent 固有的原文11.You may not agree with some of their major policies and this could affect your working relationship.你也许不同意他们某些重大政策，这可能会影响你的工作关系。12.No one can deny the basic fact that it is impossible for average workers to master those high-technology skills easily.没有人能否认这一基本事实：对于一般工人来讲，轻松掌握这些技术是不可能的。13.What I have learnt is not just the Chinese language, but something about the country itself as well.我学习的不只是中国的语言，也是一些关于这个国家的东西。14.Did you know that if you plug a pickle into an electrical outlet, it glows and makes buzzing noises?你知道如果你把泡菜插入电源插座，它会发光并且发出嗡嗡的声音吗？15.Taoism was founded on the teachings of Laozi, a sage born in 604 B.C. in present-day Henan Province.道教是用老子的教导创立的，他是公元前六零四年在现代的河南省出生的圣贤。16.In my view, everyone should have intellectual hobbies as well as an interest in physical activities.对我自己来说，每个人应该有学知识的爱好，也应该对体育活动感兴趣。17.By turning the page, we can dismiss the characters in a book without fear of hurting their feelings.书页翻动之间，我们可以对书中的人物不予理会而不伤及他们的情感。18.People are not remembered by the number of times they fail but for the number of times they succeed.人们被记得不是因失败的次数，而是成功的次数。19.The source made reference to Kate and the Queen being seen chatting and smilingtogether last March.知情者提到去年三月有人看女王和凯萨琳笑着聊天的时候。20.The Chinese government released on 25th "Diaoyu Islands are China's inherent territory "White Paper.25日，中国政府发布《钓鱼岛是中国的固有领土》白皮书。

“Clarifying the Truth to People at the Farmers Market,” by a Falun Dafa practitioner in Henan Province, China. An experience sharing article from the Eighteenth China Fahui on the Minghui website.

Soils can be a vital component of a variety of industries, from farming to construction. However, because the soil is so diverse and complicated, measuring its quality can be a challenge. Whether you are an Agriculturalist with concerns over crop yield, or a Home Gardener wanting to grow food in your backyard, or even if you are just interested in what makes good soil “good” having a proper soil analysis will do the trick. ---------- Who is Bryan McLeod? Bryan McLeod was raised on a farm near Putaruru New Zealand, attending Massey University NZ in 1962 where he obtained a diploma in Agriculture, Dairy Farming Option. He went through share-milking and farm ownership in the Waikato and started consulting in 1978 and moved to Australia in 1986. Bryan established Pro Ag Consulting in 1987 which was represented in all states and territories within Australia. Bryan (ProAg Consulting) has now been consulting for 36 years, specialising in soil, plant and animal nutrition. He has studied the relationship between soil mineral balance and plant production, fruit quality and storage life, as well as likely effects on animal health and stock performance. During this time he has gained experience in most forms of agriculture, concentrating on soil nutrition, land preparation and remedial fertiliser programmes. Pro Ag Consulting now offers a complete soil and plant analysis with an independent fertility program and plans of action. Pro Ag Consulting was reporting on approximately 2000 soil samples per year and then with partners established the Australian Perry Agricultural Laboratory (APAL) in Adelaide in 2000. In 2003, Bryan, and Partners, established a soil analysis laboratory in the Henan Province in China, with which to service local farmers. The objective of this service is not only the processing of soils but also education in agriculture. This includes the teaching of farmers to understand their soils and allowing them to make more educated evaluations on fertility programmes. Bryan has been sort after as a guest speaker at agricultural seminars and as a presenter at educational workshops in many states of Australia. Bryan is presently working with dairy farmers in Japan. Bryan has now returned to New Zealand but is still continuing to consult in Australia. ---------- Website: http://bryanlmcleod.com/      Dig Deeper Club: https://soillearningcenter.com/digdeeper See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recent flooding in central China has killed over 300 people, three times the previously announced toll, authorities said Aug. 2. The Henan provincial government said 302 people died and 50 remain missing. The vast majority of the victims were in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. Record rainfall inundated the city on July 20, turning streets into rushing rivers and flooding at least part of a subway line. Video posted online showed vehicles being washed away and desperate people trapped in subway cars as the waters rose. Fourteen people died in the subway flooding. The previous death toll, announced July 30, was 99. Authorities said 189 people were killed by floods and mudslides — 54 in house collapses and 39 in underground areas such as basements and garages and including those on Zhengzhou Metro's Line 5. Wang Kai, the governor of Henan province, expressed deep condolences to the victims and sympathies to the families on behalf of the Henan Communist Party committee. (AP) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.

If Wuhan was the place in China that received most attention in 2020, Henan Province has certainly captured its share of attention this year. Henan in history is repeatedly referred to as the “zhongyuan,” or “central plain.” It is the thousands of years of its history as the “zhongyuan” that has created and shaped the land as the symbol of the most glorious – and the most painful memories of China.  So where and what is the “zhongyuan?” Geographically, “zhongyuan” in a broad sense includes today's Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces in China's northwest, central China's Henan and the east coast Shandong Province, all in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. “Zhongyuan” in a narrow sense refers to the part of Henan today that's south of the Yellow River, mainly from Luoyang to Shangqiu, about 350 kilometers west of Luoyang. Henan has four ancient capitals, including Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou and Anyang, more than any other Chinese province. Among the four, only Anyang is to the north of the Yellow River. We can see central China's Henan is the zhongyuan in both the narrow and broad sense. But it is important to note that “zhongyuan” is much more a cultural concept than a geographic location on a map. It played a central role in the history of Chinese civilization and in shaping the core of Chinese culture. 

The floods that occurred this summer in China's Henan Province, which is famed for being the country's granary, has caused great concern about whether China's food security is under threat. How concerning is it for a country of 1.4 billion people? President Xi Jinping once said that the "rice bowl of China must be firmly kept in Chinese hands," stressing the necessity of ensuring absolute security in the supply of grains. why is absolute food security so important? After all, the nation is not as fragile as it was 60 years ago. Join author and columnist Einar Tangen, and Xu Qinduo, Senior Fellow at the Beijing-based think-tank Pangoal Institution for a discussion of the issue.

By August 2, at least 302 people had died and some 50 were registered as missing due to the catastrophic floods that swept through parts of central China's Henan Province after days of torrential downpours in mid-July. By 7am on August 9, nearly 15 million people in Henan had been affected by the floods. In Europe, about 200 people died in the flood which hit Germany and Belgium also in mid-July. For thousands of years, China suffered from severe floods. Ancient Chinese people dealt with the problem in two ways. One was scientific. They built big hydraulic projects like the Dujiangyan Irrigation System in today's Sichuan Province which has been in operation for more than 2,000 years, and still works today. It made the Chengdu Plain a land of plenty. The other is superstition. They believed that animals, typically the ox, had magic powers that enabled them to contain floods. This belief, or expectation that something magic can overwhelm evil has a long history.  

Henan Province is on highest alert for strong rainstorms. Today is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. And Chinese astronauts have completed a second spacewalk.

Central China's Henan Province, which was hit hard by torrential rains in July, has issued the highest alert for rainstorms. The province has also launched an emergency response to floods.

LaSalle's August 2021 Macro Indicators The Rising Threat of Extreme Weather In recent weeks, many records have been broken. We aren't referring to the Tokyo Olympics but to record-setting heat, floods and fires in many parts of the world. Record heat in western North America, record rainfall in Germany and the Benelux countries, and near-record rainfall in Henan Province, China remind us that, as many scientists had predicted, extreme weather events are becoming more intense due to climate change. The pandemic continues to be front-of-mind around the world as COVID-19 variants remain ever-present, in most countries. Rising vaccination levels could allow a phased re-opening of economies and a palpable sense that a return to normal is imminent. At the same time, extreme weather events in recent weeks remind us that the post-COVID world will not be the same as the pre-pandemic one. This will not be the last time that our research team will be reporting on extreme weather and its impact on real estate. We believe that the events of the last two months represent the beginning of a long journey. At LaSalle, we are integrating climate risk analysis into our underwriting and portfolio reviews of managed assets. The research, risk management, and ESG teams at LaSalle have joined forces to bring the latest scientific analysis and projections for future climate change directly to our investment teams. This journey requires an understanding of which risks are covered by insurance or mitigated through physical improvements, and which cannot. This is a journey that all real estate investors must eventually take. Chris Langstaff, Senior Strategist, Canada Dan Mahoney, Senior Strategist, U.S. Jacques Gordon, Global Strategist

This week on the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief: China unveiled its self-developed maglev train capable of traveling up to 600 kilometers per hour; shares of Chinese education firms collapsed in New York after the Chinese government issued sweeping new regulations to restrict after-school tutoring services; and the State Council released supportive measures for the newly announced three-child policy.In addition, we speak with Caixin Global general news reporter Wang Xintong about the flooding last week in central China's Henan Province. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

00:00 Intro10:14 If a listing is doing well, should we create a similar variation or copy of the listing10:51 How to download a template file for a single product11:44 What words need to avoid so that listing doesn't get flagged as pesticide12:27 What's with Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price14:06 With the 2-month-old product, lost rank week after the Prime Day. PPC days for 20 days sales velocity is like old but no ranking15:50 How to launch a unique product on Amazon, any strategies18:16 Amazon automate pricing and under what situation to use it19:45 How to prepare for the holiday season as a new seller21:46 Launch a product with a low price then increase gradually, when and how much. How to price a new and unique product on Amazon23:35 Will Amazon search algorithm lower your listing rank if your conversion rate drops24:25 Any video for beginners related to shipping info. How to ship Amazon orders25:45 Opinion on Amazon Global Shipping Services. Do you use/recommend it for Ocean or Air transport26:05 Amazon has not accepted my submitted manufacturer (Chinese) invoices for lost shipments. Advice on how to do them for acceptance26:49 Replaced the pink words with competitors 20-50 ranked words, but most of them are still pink a few days later. Should change them again with other words27:41 Already selling a Vitamin (FBA) and a book (FBA). If I create a Virtual Bundle, does this new VB SKU (w/ combo image) need its own advertising, or will it show on Vitamin ads already running29:30 Ordering my 2nd product in different material and color, would you advise separate listing or it should go in the same listing even with a different material30:15 What would the cause be for being indexed for 750 sponsored keywords and only 250 organic30:50 Advantage to have a very high IPI just need to be just above 45031:29 Will Amazon receive a CLOSED shipment due to being created over 90days ago. Shipment auto-CLOSED while in transit. Max storage limit also decreased. shipment coming in is greater than the limit32:24 How does the trajectory of trendy products (fidget spinners) and recently popits go on Amazon33:19 Have to convince the team to spend $1000 for A+ content35:16 Can you share any ROI sheet36:41 Reconciled a shipment w/ Amazon, entire SPD lost. Provided all supplier invoices and Amazon is refusing to reimburse stating it's not acceptable by the Amazon policy37:45 Do you recommend dynamic pricing to increase profit39:07 Can you still use competitors brand names in your search terms field39:56 Is it common for sales to fluctuate on a day-to-day basis40:37 Opinion about Amazon Antitrust case42:22 Should advertise both exact and phrase match together to rank a keyword while launching a product42:44 About sending first product on Amazon. Already set up the listing, is there a way to preview what it looks like43:30 Do I need to do something about this warning if I sell clothing: CPSC issued a notice of violation to Amazon & requiring the company to file monthly reports on the number of hazardous products in its inventory44:05 What SEO strategies would you use for a business that is Q4/Holiday season heavy SKUs and poorly optimized listings to take advantage of the holiday season44:59 Should Listing Quality Dashboard be impeccable45:41 I missed some MF orders. Late is 15% 10days and 4.2% 30days. When does Amazon actually deactivate? Amazon target is 4%46:20 About launching a product with college student target customers. Bringing products on the first day of school to give away. How to make the most out of all these giveaways to help launch47:50 Main supplier was damaged by the recent flooding in Henan Province of ChinaSupport the show (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/myamazonguy)

Cities in Henan Province are recovering from flooding as support continues to arrive. China says the coronavirus lab leak hypothesis is against science. And the Tokyo Olympic Games open today.

Update on severe rainfall in central China's Henan Province. / How has soy sauce grown to dominate the condiment market of Chinese cooking? / What do people throw away when moving house? / How come some people are so good at figuring out directions?

A total of 12 people have been killed in the torrential rains in the downtown area of Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of central China's Henan province, the local government said.当地政府称，位于华中地区的河南省省会郑州市市区发生的暴雨中，已共有12人死亡。About 100,000 people have been relocated to safe places, it added.当地政府补充到，约10万人已被转移到安全地带。The accumulated rainfall reached 449 mm on average in Zhengzhou from 6 pm Sunday to midnight Tuesday. Both Henan provincial and Zhengzhou municipal meteorological bureaus have raised the emergency response for meteorological disasters to level I.周日下午6点到星期二午夜，郑州的累计平均降水量达到449毫米。河南省和郑州市气象局都将水旱灾害防御应急响应提升为I级。 More than 160 trains stopped services at Zhengzhoudong Railway Station, stranding a large number of passengers.郑州东站160多趟列车停运，造成大量旅客滞留。Heavy rains in Henan are expected to last until Wednesday night, according to forecasts.据预测，河南的强降水将持续到周三夜间。 "This kind of rainfall is usually seen once in 100 years. The situation is grim," a media release from Zhengzhou's flood control headquarters said.“此次郑州遭遇的是百年不遇的强降水，形势严峻。”郑州市防汛抗旱指挥部发文称。Many areas in northern parts of the country, including northern and western Henan province and northern Hebei province, are forecast to experience torrential rains from Tuesday to Wednesday, the National Meteorological Center said.国家气象中心称，华北地区多地，包括河南北部和西部以及河北北部地区，预计从周二到周三将迎来暴雨。▲ A car is inundated by rainwater in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, July 20, 2021. Photo/Xinhua

The city of Zhengzhou in Henan Province has downgraded the emergency response for flood control from Level I to Level III.

Extremely heavy rainfall hit central China's Henan Province on July 20, with precipitation in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, exceeding the highest level since records began, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management. How can we cope with extreme weather? / Coming up with high-yielding domestic soybean varieties. / Heart to Heart - please send your audio questions to ezfmroundtable@foxmail.com.

At least 33 people have been killed in the flooding in Henan Province. Eight are still missing. Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded that authorities at all levels give top priority to ensuring people's safety and property.

There have been severe floods in the central Chinese province of Henan with dramatic images of passengers in flooded subway trains; The US warns that the world can't wait for the pandemic to end before facing up to global warming; and are advances in running shoe technology giving today's sprinters an unfair advantage ?

Radisson Blu Hotel Changyuan will form part of a landmark mixed-use development in the CBD #radissonhotels #RadissonHotelGroup #RadissonBlu #hotelinChangyuan #Henan #RadissonBluChangyuan #YilongGroup #HenanXunchiRealEstate #KaterinaGiannouka #ZhangYongchao #hozpitality https://www.hozpitality.com/radisson_hotel_group/read-article/5410_radisson-blu-brings-international-hospitality-to-china-s-changyuan-henan-provinc.html

We're going to finish off this survey of Henan from Neolithic times to the 20th century. In this episode, you'll get a closer look at Zhengzhou and a few other noteworthy slivers of Henan history. We'll close off with the hard times that hit Henan in 1887, 1938, 1942, 1959, and 1975. If you never appreciated Henan's place in Chinese history I hope this three-part series was able to offer you a gateway to understanding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're going to finish off this survey of Henan from Neolithic times to the 20th century.  In this episode, you'll get a closer look at Zhengzhou and a few other noteworthy slivers of Henan history.  We'll close off with the hard times that hit Henan in 1887, 1938, 1942, 1959, and 1975. If you never appreciated Henan's place in Chinese history I hope this three-part series was able to offer you a gateway to understanding.  

The saga continues. More poking around Henan in Part 2. We'll look at the Zhou Dynasty era states that made up the province in ancient times. We'll also focus on Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang. If the multitude of Chinese names starts to overwhelm, go to the website at Teacup.Media and download a nice cheat sheet I put together especially for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The saga continues. More poking around Henan in Part 2. We'll look at the Zhou Dynasty era states that made up the province in ancient times.  We'll also focus on Luoyang, Kaifeng and Anyang.  If the multitude of Chinese names starts to overwhelm, go to the website at Teacup.Media and download a nice cheat sheet I put together especially for you.  

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday inspected the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the city of Nanyang in central China's Henan Province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday inspected the city of Nanyang, in Henan Province.

This is Part 1 of a four-part series focusing on the Chinese history that happened in one of China's oldest provinces. In Part 1 we get the lay of the land in Henan, discuss its mythical beginnings as well as the neolithic cultures of Peiligang, Yangshao, Longshan, and Erlitou. We also take the offramp to look at a couple of the more well-known Henan dishes. We'll get as far as the Xia and Shang dynasties and a little of the Western Zhou. All the Chinese terms from this episode (and there's a LOT of them this time) can be viewed in Pinyin, Chinese characters, and English at the website at: https://teacup.media/chinahistorypodcastepisodes/ep-273-henan-province-part-1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Part 1 of a four-part series focusing on the Chinese history that happened in one of China's oldest provinces. In Part 1 we get the lay of the land in Henan, discuss its mythical beginnings as well as the neolithic cultures of Peiligang, Yangshao, Longshan, and Erlitou. We also take the offramp to look at a couple of the more well-known Henan dishes. We'll get as far as the Xia and Shang dynasties and a little of the Western Zhou. All the Chinese terms from this episode (and there's a LOT of them this time) can be viewed in Pinyin, Chinese characters, and English at the website at teacup.media 

Do people travel just because they got rich enough to afford a trip? “The world is so big, and I want to look at it,” says  a middle school teacher from Central China's Henan Province, in her letter of resignation in 2015.  “A person has to be impulsive twice in their life: to fall head over heals in love and to go on a trip without any hesitation,”said another popular online post in 2016. So do we really need a good reason to travel? For ancient Chinese scholars, they did need a good reason to travel. But the most famous ventures in ancient China happened in the dreams of China's great poet and a young lady in a classic drama. 

This episode of the Sinica Podcast, recorded in June 2017, is running as a bonus this week. The arrest of Stephen Bannon yesterday on August 20, 2020, has brought renewed media attention to Guō Wénguì 郭文贵, a business associate of Bannon’s who is wanted by the Chinese government. The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that the federal authorities are examining the pair’s business dealings. Alexandra Stevenson and Mike Forsythe, journalists for the New York Times, joined Kaiser and Jeremy in 2017 to share their thoughts on Guo’s uncertain personal history and his quest to shine a light on the murky world of Chinese elite politics. The original description of the podcast, including many useful references of the people in Guo’s complicated backstory, is reproduced below:The life and times of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui 郭文贵 reads much like an epic play, so it is fitting that we have included with this podcast a dramatis personæ to explain the many characters in Guo’s story. Scroll to the bottom, below the recommendations, to follow along with them in order of appearance.New York Times journalists Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson have spent over a dozen hours with the turbulent tycoon at the New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park where he resides in exile, listening to his stories and carefully investigating his most scandalous claims. Mike has for years been a leading reporter on the intersection of money and power in elite Chinese politics, first at Bloomberg and then at the Times. Alex, as a reporter at the Financial Times and now the New York Times, has focused on covering hedge funds, emerging markets, and the world of finance.Are Guo’s myriad corruption allegations, which go as high as China’s anti-corruption chief, Wang Qishan 王岐山, credible? Is even Guo’s own life history verifiable? Who is he really, and why is he on this quest to unveil the shadowy world of Chinese elite politics? Mike and Alex don’t have all the answers, but they are two of the best people in the world to shed light on what is profound and what is puffery in Guo’s version of events.The life and times of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui 郭文贵 reads much like an epic play, so it is fitting that we have included with this podcast a dramatis personæ to explain the many characters in Guo’s story. Scroll to the bottom, below the recommendations, to follow along with them in order of appearance.New York Times journalists Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson have spent over a dozen hours with the turbulent tycoon at the New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park where he resides in exile, listening to his stories and carefully investigating his most scandalous claims. Mike has for years been a leading reporter on the intersection of money and power in elite Chinese politics, first at Bloomberg and then at the Times. Alex, as a reporter at the Financial Times and now the New York Times, has focused on covering hedge funds, emerging markets, and the world of finance.Are Guo’s myriad corruption allegations, which go as high as China’s anti-corruption chief, Wang Qishan 王岐山, credible? Is even Guo’s own life history verifiable? Who is he really, and why is he on this quest to unveil the shadowy world of Chinese elite politics? Mike and Alex don’t have all the answers, but they are two of the best people in the world to shed light on what is profound and what is puffery in Guo’s version of events.Dramatis personæ:To read more on Guo Wengui himself, see our narrative explainer and a compilation of more recent news on Guo from SupChina and beyond.In order of mention in the podcast:1. Yue Qingzhi 岳庆芝, Guo Wengui’s wife, lives in New York, according to Guo. Yet she has not been seen in public nor by Mike and Alex, even though they have spent entire days at Guo’s penthouse. 2. Wang Qishan 王岐山, the leader of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).3. Li Keqiang 李克强, the current premier of China’s State Council, formerly a Party secretary in Henan Province where Guo claims to have met him.4. Wu Yi 吴仪 served in top ministerial positions negotiating trade and managing public health in the early 21st century. Guo claims to have developed a relationship with her back in Henan.5. Wu Guanzheng 吴官正 served as secretary for CCDI from 2002 to 2007.6. Ma Jian 马建, the now-jailed close associate of Guo who served as vice minister of State Security from 2006 to 2015.7. Liu Zhihua 刘志华, the former vice mayor of Beijing who was dismissed in 2006. Liu received a suspended death sentence for taking bribes of over 6 million yuan ($885,000) in October 2008.8. He Guoqiang 贺国强, the predecessor to Wang Qishan as secretary of the CCDI. Guo alleges that his son He Jintao 贺锦涛 had a financial stake in Founder Securities at the time Guo tried to muscle his way into the company (the Times has confirmed this).9. HNA Group, formerly Hainan Airlines, a politically connected business conglomerate that burst onto the public scene in 2016, scooping up foreign companies left and right.10. Hu Shuli 胡舒立, the editor-in-chief of business news and investigative outlet Caixin (disclosure: Caixin partners with SupChina on the Business Brief podcast).11. Li You 李友, Guo’s former business partner. In 2016, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and fined 750 million yuan ($110 million) for insider trading.12. Yao Mingshan 姚明珊, the wife of Wang Qishan.13. Meng Jianzhu 孟建柱, the current secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which controls the police and security services.14. Xiao Jianhua 肖建华, another billionaire tycoon who had experience dealing at the top levels of the Chinese government. Xiao was apparently abducted by Chinese authorities in Hong Kong in late January 2017 and has not been seen in public since then.15. Zhang Yue 张越, a former provincial Party secretary in Hebei Province.16. Meng Huiqing 孟会青, a now-jailed former CCDI official.17. Fu Zhenghua 傅政华, the deputy minister of Public Security.18. Yao Qing 姚庆, grandson of revolutionary and former vice premier Yao Yilin 姚依林, and nephew-in-law of Wang Qishan.19. Guo’s two children, his son, Mileson Kwok 郭强 (Guo’s English name is Miles!), and his daughter, Guo Mei 郭美, whom Guo claims went to New York University with Ma Jian’s daughter.20. A “dissident-minder from Guobao” (Ministry of Public Security 国保 guó bǎo), identified later in the podcast as Sun Lijun 孙立军, one of two people Guo claims to have met with in Washington, D.C., in late May 2017.21. Amanda Bennett, the director of Voice of America (VOA), which aired an interview with Guo on April 19 that Guo and some VOA journalists complained was cut short.

Drug cartels in Latin America have seen their operations crippled by the new coronavirus, the CCP Virus. Reports say that their ability to produce drugs have been impacted, given that many of the synthetic drugs such as fentanyl come from China, and many of the precursor chemicals for drugs like methamphetamine also come from China. The case brings the Chinese regime’s programs for “drug warfare” into the spotlight. As warned, the “second wave” of infections may have arrived in China. The CCP has renewed lockdowns in Henan Province and Harbin Province, and there are reports of people collapsing in the streets similar to what was seen in Wuhan, which was the epicenter of the virus. And the UK has joined other nations including the United States to investigate whether the CCP Virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These stories and more in this episode of Crossroads.

Show #635   Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Friday 8th November 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.   Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.   2020 TESLA MODEL 3 SR+ IS THE MOST EFFICIENT EV EVER (BEATS IONIQ) "The 2020 Tesla Model 3 is the most efficient electric car ever, according to officially released EPA ratings. The Model 3 now beats the previous leader Hyundai IONIQ Electric (2017-2019) and its upcoming 2020 model year version, which actually has slightly higher energy consumption." says InsideEVs today: "First of all, the SR+ is rated for 250 miles (402 km) of range and efficiency of 239 Wh/mi (149 Wh/km), which includes charging losses. That's the best result ever in EPA stats (3.6% better than 2019 IONIQ and 5.5% better than 2020 IONIQ). The SR+ is also state-of-the art in the case of highway efficiency - 255 Wh/mi(158 Wh/km). The efficiency in the city is second only to the outgoing 2017-2019 Hyundai IONIQ Electric (by 1.3%)."   https://insideevs.com/news/381209/2020-tesla-model-3-sr-most-efficient/   FOR 2020, ALL TESLA MODEL 3 VERSIONS GET NEW EPA RATINGS And further to that story: "This week all Tesla Model 3 versions (those available currently and surprisingly also those not available anymore) received new 2020 EPA range/efficiency ratings. Surprisingly, the EPA website lists the 2020 Mid Range version, despite it not being available on the market. The numbers are the same as previously. Surprisingly, the EPA website also lists the 2020 Long Range (RWD) version, despite it's not being available on the market. While the efficiency is the same as previously, the range is 330 miles (531 km), 20 miles (32 km) above the 2019 rating. It proves that the rear-wheel-drive Model 3 (discontinued) was the longest-range Model 3."   AWD Long Range 322 miles / 518 km   Performance 299 miles / 481 km on 20" wheels   https://insideevs.com/news/381227/tesla-model-3-new-2020-epa-numbers/   BEST-EVER OCTOBER FOR BMW GROUP SALES "Sales of BMW Group electrified vehicles were up 8.6% to 14.182 units in October, due to availability of the new BMW 330e* and the BMW X5 xDrive45e*. The BMW i brand, with the BMW i3 and BMW i8, continued its positive sales trend over the course of the year, with an increase of +19.3% to 34,479 units." reports Automotive World: "Sales of the MINI Cooper S E Countryman ALL4* Plug-in Hybrid climbed 30.1% in the first ten months of the year to reach a total of 13,274 units. With the launch of the BMW X3 as a plug-in hybrid* and the pure electric MINI Electric*, the BMW Group will be expanding its range of electrified vehicles to 12 models by the end of this year. The BMW Group intends to have one million electrified vehicles on the roads by the end of 2021. The company expects to have delivered a total of half a million fully-electric and plug-in hybrid BMW and MINI vehicles to customers by the end of this year."   https://www.automotiveworld.com/news-releases/best-ever-october-for-bmw-group-sales/   GREEN LIGHT FOR THE "BIDIRECTIONAL CHARGING MANAGEMENT (BCM)" RESEARCH PROJECT. The newly launched Bidirectional Charging Management – BCM research project brings together companies and institutions from the automotive, energy and scientific sectors. The research project will run for three years under the aegis of the German Aerospace Centre and with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Testing of the first 50 BMW i3 cars equipped with bidirectional charging technology (i.e. that are capable of backfeeding) is expected to start under real-world everyday conditions in early 2021. This will create a platform for subsequently implementing the technology across the board and so integrate electric mobility into Germany’s power grid.   https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0302526EN/green-light-for-the-bidirectional-charging-management-bcm-research-project   FIRST 100% ELECTRIC PASSENGER BOAT FITTED WITH SECOND LIFE BATTERIES Today, Seine Alliance unveils the Black Swan, the first electric boat specifically designed for private or business cruises on the Seine to be fitted with second life batteries. The aim of Seine Alliance and its partners - Groupe Renault and Green-Vision - is to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness of a model based on the principle of the circular economy, in order to reproduce it and create synergies between the various mobility players. The Black Swan, a zero-emissions* boat with a capacity of 2 to 8 people for family excursions of around 2 hours, has been designed in this spirit. It is powered by two electric motors and needs no generator or back-up internal combustion engine. So, it won’t emit any exhaust gases and proceeds noiselessly. Lithium-ion batteries taken from Renault electric vehicles once they have reached the end of their "first car life” are being re-conditioned and re-purposed. They are then installed beneath the boat’s side bench seats in 4 battery stainless steel housings that have been specially designed to ensure safe, water-tight operating conditions. Thus, the energy and raw materials required to produce new batteries has been avoided.   https://media.group.renault.com/global/en-gb/groupe-renault/media/pressreleases/21235734/le-black-swan-premier-bateau-a-passagers-equipe-de-batteries-de-seconde-vie-et-100-electrique-a-pari   GE SIGNS 715 MEGAWATT WIND DEAL IN CHINA "This week, GE began testing its first Haliade-X 12 megawatt offshore wind turbine. It also signed a deal to supply the turbines for a 715 megawatt (MW) wind farm in China’s Henan Province." says CleanTechnica: "GE Renewable Energy and China Huaneng Group signed an agreement this week at the China International Import Expo to build a 715 MW wind farm in Puyang, Henan Province, China.  GE will provide 286 of its 2.5-132 turbines with 130-meter soft steel towers for the wind farm. These turbines were designed specifically for the unique low wind speed needs in Henan province and will be manufactured by GE in China. When completed in the middle of next year, the wind farm will supply enough electricity to power 500,000 homes."   https://cleantechnica.com/2019/11/08/ge-signs-715-megawatt-wind-deal-in-china-puts-worlds-most-powerful-wind-turbine-into-service/   QUESTION OF THE WEEK The MYEV.com Question Of The Week…   What do you prefer, the carrot or the stick? Ie incentives for EVs or penalties for polluters   I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the 254 patrons of this podcast whose generosity means I get to keep making this show, which aims to entertain and inform thousands of listeners every day about a brighter future. 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Yan Lianke is one of China's most influential living writers. His often-satirical works have earned him an international readership. He has been touted for the Nobel Prize in Literature. And yet, most of Yan's books are effectively (if not formally) banned in China. Ben brings together three previous guests (Tricia Baldwin, Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant and Daniel Woolf) to discuss the rise of China, the absurdity of modern life, and what government power will look like in the future. Their point of departure is a 2018 profile of Yan Lianke in The New Yorker magazine. Note: you don't need to read anything before listening to the conversation; the below piece is a starting point only. Read the article in The New Yorker by Jiayang Fan. Read the blog post for this episode. About Yan Lianke Yan Lianke has secured his place as contemporary China’s most essential and daring novelist, “with his superlative gifts for storytelling and penetrating eye for truth” (New York Times Book Review). His newest novel, The Day the Sun Died—winner of the Dream of the Red Chamber Award, one of the most prestigious honours for Chinese-language novels—is a haunting story of a town caught in a waking nightmare. Yan was born in an impoverished region of Song County, Henan Province in 1958. His parents, illiterate farmers who lacked the means to send him to university, encouraged him to enlist in the army, where he rose in the ranks to become a propaganda writer. Upon returning to civilian life, Yan embarked on a career as a novelist. Over the last 30 years, he has produced an extensive body of work that ranges from novels, novellas and short fiction to essays and criticism. Although he has had two of his novels banned in China and was, for a period of three years, prohibited from obtaining a passport or travelling abroad, Yan continues to speak honestly about the impact that government censorship—and self-censorship—have had on contemporary Chinese writers. His full-length novels include: The Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦, Ding Zhuang Meng), a tale of the blood trade and subsequent AIDS epidemic in a rural Henan village; The Joy of Living (Alt title: The Living, 受活, Shou Huo), a sweeping tale of the lives of disabled rural villagers from the Chinese Communist revolution through the years of reform and opening; The Sunlit Years (日光流年, Riguang Liunian); Solidity of Water (also called Hard as Water, 坚硬如水, Jianying Ru Shui) and Serve the People (为人民服务, Wei Renmin Fuwu), which was banned in China and later translated into English, French and Japanese. He has published ten collections of novellas and short stories: among them, the critically acclaimed Days, Months, Years (年月日, Nian Yue Ri), Song of Balou (耙耧天歌, Balou Tiange) and a five-volume set of his collected works. He is a member of the Chinese Writers’ Association and the recipient of numerous literary awards, including the first and second Lu Xun Literary Prizes and the Lao She Award for literary excellence, awarded in recognition of his novel The Joy of Living (受活, Shou Huo), considered by many to be his master work. Yan is also a winner of the Franz Kafka Prize.   About the Guests Tricia Baldwin Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Tricia (Episode 12 on The Role the Arts Play) Tricia Baldwin became the Director of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts (‘the Isabel’) in December 2014, and works with a tremendously talented team at the Isabel. Tricia is responsible for its programming featuring top diverse emerging and established artists, education, student and community engagement resulting in significant increase in audience participation, socially engaged art, and facilities management. She established the Isabel as an arts incubator for new works, the Ka’tarohkwi Festival of Indigenous Arts with curator Dylan Robinson, the Isabel Human Rights Arts Festival, and the Isabel Overton Bader Canadian Violin Competition. Tricia is the co-creator of Queen’s University’s new M.A. in Arts Leadership program with Queen’s Dan School of Drama and Music, and is the course developer and instructor of the program’s Contract Negotiations in the Arts graduate course. A champion of training the next generation of arts leaders, Tricia has been a mentor with the Canadian Heritage Talent to Lead Program and the Cultural Career Council of Ontario Mentor Program. Tricia recently served on the International Association of Venue Managers Association conference panel on arts management education. Prior to the Isabel, Tricia Baldwin was the Managing Director of Tafelmusik from 2000 to 2014. During this period, Tafelmusik doubled its operating revenues and increased its endowment seventeen fold. The orchestra undertook over 50 national and international tours, created 20 recordings and films that garnered significant industry awards and nominations that led to the launching of its recording label and digital concert hall, established artist training programs attracting pre-professional musicians from around the world, and undertook a successful $3M venue renovation. Tricia also headed up Tafelmusik’s expansion of venues within Toronto that contributed to the doubling of earned revenues and significant audience development. Prior to Tafelmusik, she was the Executive Director of Ballet British Columbia and General Manager of the Kingston Symphony. Tricia received her Bachelor of Music (University of Toronto) and her MBA (York University), and has continued her education with courses from Harvard Business School, University of Oxford School of Continuing Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School, and Boston University. Tricia Baldwin has been awarded the Canada Council for the Arts’ John Hobday Award in Arts Management, a scholarship to attend Harvard University’s Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management program, First Prize for Student Philosophy Essay from the University of Oxford School of Continuing Studies, and the Queen’s Human Rights Initiative Award. As a volunteer, she currently serves on the Advisory Board of the York University Schulich School of Business Arts, Media, and Entertainment Management program, the City of Kingston Arts Advisory Board and Professional Development Working Group, and St. Lawrence College Music and Digital Media Program Advisory Committee. She has been a panel advisor/juror/assessor for the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Manitoba Arts Council, City of Toronto Cultural Services, City of Barrie Department of Culture, and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Learn more about Tricia. Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Elizabeth (Episode 37 on US Politics: Women, Polarization and the Media) Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Ph.D. McGill) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, and the Director of both the Queen’s Institute of Intergovernmental Relations (IIGR) as well as the Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA). Her research focuses on Canadian and comparative politics, with particular interests in electoral politics, voting behaviour, and public opinion; news media; and the political representation of women. She is the author of Gendered News: Media Coverage and Electoral Politics in Canada (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013), which won the 2016 Pierre Savard Award from the International Council of Canadian Studies, and was one of three books shortlisted for the Canadian Political Science Association’s 2014 Donald Smiley Prize. In Gendered News, Goodyear-Grant presents compelling evidence that gender structures certain aspects of news coverage of candidates and politicians – not how much they’re covered, but certainly how they’re covered – and demonstrates that these differences can impact negatively on female candidates’ and leaders’ electoral prospects and political careers, contributing to the persistent under-representation of women at all levels of politics. Goodyear-Grant has also published work on attitudes toward democracy and political representation, attitudes toward the use of referenda, and so on, all part of a larger research agenda that concentrates on representation and political behaviour published in venues such as Political Behaviour, Politics & Gender, Electoral Studies, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, and the Canadian Journal of Political Science. In the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s, Goodyear-Grant teaches courses on campaigns and elections; women, gender, and politics; Canadian politics more generally; and empirical methods. Learn more about Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant or follow her on Twitter (@eplusgg). Daniel Woolf Listen to Ben's previous podcast conversation with Daniel (Episode 10 on History and Jazz) Daniel Robert Woolf is the 20th Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, a role he stepped into on September 1, 2009. It wasn’t his first time on the campus, of course: Principal Woolf studied at Queen’s as an undergraduate in the late 1970s, graduating with a degree in history in 1980. After earning his doctorate at Oxford University (DPhil’83), Dr. Woolf returned to Queen’s in 1984 as a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellow in history. His teaching career took him from Queen’s to Bishop’s University, before he joined the history department at Dalhousie University in 1987. Seven years later, he became a full professor, then associate dean and later, the acting dean of Graduate Studies. In 1999, Dr. Woolf moved to McMaster University, where he held the role of dean of the Faculty of Humanities. He joined the University of Alberta as dean of Arts in 2002. Dr. Woolf, who is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Historical Society, admits that learning he would become the principal of his alma mater initially inspired feelings of “shock, elation, and a little bit of fear,” and he continues to regard his role as both an honour and a challenge. A specialist in early modern British cultural history and the history of historical thought and writing, Dr. Woolf continues to teach at Queen’s on a part-time basis as a professor in the Department of History, and also pursues his own research and writing. He is the author or editor of a number of scholarly articles, monographs and books, including the five-volume Oxford History of Historical Writing (2011-2012) and a textbook on historiography entitled A Global History of History (Cambridge University Press, 2011), which has been translated into several languages. But Principal Woolf isn’t just about books (though he does have a growing collection of old and rare ones!) – he is also a fan of music (especially jazz), classic movies and is the father of three (one of whom is also a Queen’s graduate). Born in London, England, Dr. Woolf grew up in Winnipeg. A love of academia runs in his family: his mother taught English at university, his physician father was a member of a medical school faculty, and his uncle is a historian of modern Europe. Dr. Woolf, who began his second term as principal in 2014, is motivated by Queen’s students and by their dedication to making a difference in the world. While the university is a bigger place than it was when he was a student, it is also more research-intensive and has a more diverse student body. Since taking the helm, Dr. Woolf has built new connections with government, industry and institutions across Canada, led Queen’s through an extensive series of planning exercises, established the Principal’s Commission on Mental Health, and overseen the Initiative Campaign, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in Queen’s history. Principal Woolf’s term concludes on June 30, 2019.

In 2017 I spent about a month in Tibet and China. I went on the request of a very good friend who wanted me to help her in support of a Medical Mission in the Dzogchen Valley of Tibet. This was a very rare opportunity as a Buddhist to visit Tibet. Additionally, as a Dzogchen Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist, this was also a rare chance to visit the home village of my Buddhist Teacher and the Dzogchen Monastery. Most importantly, this was a beneficial occasion to be in the service of people who deeply need it. After a week of medical service and a week drive time in and out of Tibet I found myself back in the City of Chengdu, China. I spent two more days in Chengdu shopping for Buddhist supplies and visiting the Panda Bears before traveling to see a good friend of mine in the City of Yangshuo. From there I took a high-speed train to the Shaolin Temple in the Henan Province. I spent seven days at the Shaolin Temple on a Buddhist and Martial Art pilgrimage. This podcast was an interview with G. Mark Philips and Enhancing The Human Experience podcast. Mark asked me if he could interview me about my time in Tibet and China. Thanks for listening! I invite you to share this podcast, offer a comment or leave some feedback. Show Notes: G. Mark Philips and Enhancing The Human Experience Podcast. Learn more about AlejAndro as a Buddhist. Experiencing a Buddhist Medical Mission. Visiting the Shaolin Temple in China. Resources: One Path Outreach,  USA – The Medical Mission sponsored by Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation, USA. Enhancing The Human Experience – The podcast of G. Mark Phillips. Dzogchen Lineage, USA – The website of Dzogchen Shri Singha Foundation, USA. Chengdu, China – Our gateway into Tibet! The Shaolin Temple – The place where Buddhism and the Martial Arts connected. Contact. Follow. Share. instagram | facebook | twitter | pinterest How to review the podcast on iTunes If you enjoyed, benefited or were impacted by the podcast, it would be beyond cool if you’d take a minute and write a review on iTunes. To do that, click on the iTunes link or launch the iTunes podcast app on your computer or phone. Search for One Hand Speaks, select the album art for the show, select ratings and reviews and then write your review. Big thanks and appreciation. Please spread and share if you feel others will benefit and enjoy and leave a comment or offer feedback. Play your hand, AlejAndro

#BackToSchoolRx Part 4: Exploring the Culinary Arts with AJ Feeney-Ruiz   AJ Feeney-Ruiz, 37, is an entrepreneur, consultant and professor who walked away from a twenty-year career in politics and government and moved to Paris in order to pursue his lifelong passion of cooking and fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a chef.   Prior to his relocation to France, AJ took advantage of periodic sabbaticals to travel the world and visit over 90 countries. Some highlights from those adventures include bartending in South Africa, working as a dive master in the south of Thailand, and studying Shaolin Kung Fu in the mountains of the Henan Province, China.   You can check him out on Instagram at @ajfeeneyruiz or Facebook while his website is under construction.

#BackToSchoolRx Part 4: Exploring the Culinary Arts with AJ Feeney-Ruiz   AJ Feeney-Ruiz, 37, is an entrepreneur, consultant and professor who walked away from a twenty-year career in politics and government and moved to Paris in order to pursue his lifelong passion of cooking and fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a chef.   Prior to his relocation to France, AJ took advantage of periodic sabbaticals to travel the world and visit over 90 countries. Some highlights from those adventures include bartending in South Africa, working as a dive master in the south of Thailand, and studying Shaolin Kung Fu in the mountains of the Henan Province, China.   You can check him out on Instagram at @ajfeeneyruiz or Facebook while his website is under construction.   After graduating from culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu Paris (www.cordonbleu.edu), AJ staged at Verjus restaurant (www.verjusparis.com) in central Paris.   -There are functional medicine and/or nutrition master's programs in the US - Google them for more information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

你好!This week we strap in for a long ass flight to CHINA! Kate kicks us off in Henan Province with the delusional Huang Yong. Georgie then takes us to Shandong to delve into the The Church of Almighty God and the murder of Wu Shuoyan. Join us this week for home-made murder devices, assassin wannabes and cults galore!再见!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The life and times of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui 郭文贵 reads much like an epic play, so it is fitting that we have included with this podcast a dramatis personæ to explain the many characters in Guo’s story. Scroll to the bottom, below the recommendations, to follow along with them in order of appearance. New York Times journalists Mike Forsythe and Alexandra Stevenson have spent over a dozen hours with the turbulent tycoon at the New York City penthouse overlooking Central Park where he resides in exile, listening to his stories and carefully investigating his most scandalous claims. Mike has for years been a leading reporter on the intersection of money and power in elite Chinese politics, first at Bloomberg and then at the Times. Alex, as a reporter at the Financial Times and now the New York Times, has focused on covering hedge funds, emerging markets, and the world of finance. Are Guo’s myriad corruption allegations, which go as high as China’s anti-corruption chief, Wang Qishan 王岐山, credible? Is even Guo’s own life history verifiable? Who is he really, and why is he on this quest to unveil the shadowy world of Chinese elite politics? Mike and Alex don’t have all the answers, but they are two of the best people in the world to shed light on what is profound and what is puffery in Guo’s version of events. Recommendations: Jeremy: The Skeptics Society, a website that publishes articles to debunk pseudoscientific, health-related, and religious myths. Alex: Janesville: An American Story, by Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post. It tells how a town in Wisconsin had the General Motors plant leave in 2008, despite Obama’s promise that jobs would stay there. Mike: Betraying Big Brother, an upcoming book by his wife, Leta Hong Fincher, explains what happened to the Feminist Five and what their stories say about the rise of feminism and the control of women in China. Leta’s last book, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China, published in 2014, was on a similar subject. Kaiser: Beasts of No Nation, a Netflix special by Cary Fukunaga based on the book of the same title by Uzodinma Iweala. The story follows the life of a child soldier in an unnamed West African country.   Dramatis personæ: To read more on Guo Wengui himself, see our narrative explainer and a compilation of more recent news on Guo from SupChina and beyond. In order of mention in the podcast: Yue Qingzhi 岳庆芝, Guo Wengui’s wife, lives in New York, according to Guo. Yet she has not been seen in public nor by Mike and Alex, even though they have spent entire days at Guo’s penthouse.  Wang Qishan 王岐山, the leader of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). Li Keqiang 李克强, the current premier of China’s State Council, formerly a Party secretary in Henan Province where Guo claims to have met him. Wu Yi 吴仪 served in top ministerial positions negotiating trade and managing public health in the early 21st century. Guo claims to have developed a relationship with her back in Henan. Wu Guanzheng 吴官正 served as secretary for CCDI from 2002 to 2007. Ma Jian 马建, the now-jailed close associate of Guo who served as vice minister of State Security from 2006 to 2015. Liu Zhihua 刘志华, the former vice mayor of Beijing who was dismissed in 2006. Liu received a suspended death sentence for taking bribes of over 6 million yuan ($885,000) in October 2008. He Guoqiang 贺国强, the predecessor to Wang Qishan as secretary of the CCDI. Guo alleges that his son He Jintao 贺锦涛 had a financial stake in Founder Securities at the time Guo tried to muscle his way into the company (the Times has confirmed this). HNA Group, formerly Hainan Airlines, a politically connected business conglomerate that burst onto the public scene in 2016, scooping up foreign companies left and right. Hu Shuli 胡舒立, the editor-in-chief of business news and investigative outlet Caixin (disclosure: Caixin partners with SupChina on the Business Brief podcast). Li You 李友, Guo’s former business partner. In 2016, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and fined 750 million yuan ($110 million) for insider trading.   Yao Mingshan 姚明珊, the wife of Wang Qishan. Meng Jianzhu 孟建柱, the current secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, which controls the police and security services.   Xiao Jianhua 肖建华, another billionaire tycoon who had experience dealing at the top levels of the Chinese government. Xiao was apparently abducted by Chinese authorities in Hong Kong in late January 2017 and has not been seen in public since then. Zhang Yue 张越, a former provincial Party secretary in Hebei Province. Meng Huiqing 孟会青, a now-jailed former CCDI official. Fu Zhenghua 傅政华, the deputy minister of Public Security. Yao Qing 姚庆, grandson of revolutionary and former vice premier Yao Yilin 姚依林, and nephew-in-law of Wang Qishan. Guo’s two children, his son, Mileson Kwok 郭强 (Guo’s English name is Miles!), and his daughter, Guo Mei 郭美, whom Guo claims went to New York University with Ma Jian’s daughter. A “dissident-minder from Guobao” (Ministry of Public Security 国保 guó bǎo), identified later in the podcast as Sun Lijun 孙立军, one of two people Guo claims to have met with in Washington, D.C., in late May 2017. Amanda Bennett, the director of Voice of America (VOA), which aired an interview with Guo on April 19 that Guo and some VOA journalists complained was cut short.

Welcome to the fifth installment of the Caixin-Sinica Business Brief, a weekly podcast that brings you the most important business stories of the week from China's top source for business and financial news. Produced by Kaiser Kuo of our Sinica Podcast, it includes a business news roundup, conversations with Caixin reporters and editors, and a selection of complete stories from the news. This week, we look at the Belt and Road summit being held in Beijing on May 13-14, and at the new trade deal between the U.S. and China — part of the "100-day plan" proposed by Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago summit last month — that will put American beef back on the menu in China. We speak with Caixin editor Doug Young about the potential downside of Chinese largesse toward Djibouti, and talk to reporter Li Rongde 李荣德 about his piece on a hack of hospital prescription data tied to Chinese pharmaceutical companies. We also bring you four complete stories: A long-running dispute between a small grain storage company in Henan Province and a huge state-run giant, which has resulted in the tragic loss of 160,000 tons of wheat How China's mega payment platform Alipay has pushed into the U.S. market The death of Chinese diplomat Qian Qichen 钱其琛, who normalized relations with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and played an important role in the return of Hong Kong and Macao to China The massive backups plaguing Shanghai, one of the world's busiest container ports, and an exploration of the reasons why We'd love to hear your feedback on this new product. Please send any comments and suggestions to sinica@supchina.com.

2017-04-04 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.China and Madagascar has agreed to synergize development strategies under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and ten major plans for China-Africa cooperation.The pledge came out of the talks between the presidents of the two countries.Chinese president Xi Jinping said China and Madagascar enjoy great potential for mutually beneficial cooperation, welcoming Madagascar to participate in the Belt and Road construction.He said China supports Madagascar in playing its role as a bridge between the Belt and Road and the African continent.China is ready to establish a comprehensive partnership of cooperation with Madagascar, calling on the two sides to deepen cooperation in agriculture, fisheries, people-to-people exchanges, security, police affairs, justice and law-enforcement.China supports Madagascar to play a bigger role in international and regional affairs, and is willing to enhance communication and coordination with the country on climate change, the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development as well as peace and security of Africa.President Xi said China will comprehensively implement the results of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that was held in December 2015 in South Africa&`&s Johannesburg, to achieve common development with Africa.This is Special English.A County in central China&`&s Henan Province has announced its withdrawal from the country&`&s list of impoverished counties.Lankao County can be removed from the list if less than 2 percent of its population is classified as impoverished. That&`&s according to a national mechanism established in April 2016 to eliminate poverty in affected regions.In 2014, 12 percent of the population lived in poverty in the county, but the proportion has dropped to 1 percent following an assessment by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.The evaluation results were examined and approved by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. The provincial government green lit the county&`&s withdrawal recently.The top party official of the county said getting rid of poverty has been the ardent wish of Lankao residents for decades.In 2014, Chinese president Xi Jinping paid visits to the county as part of a campaign pairing top Party officials with poor areas. In the same year, the county authorities made a commitment to casting off poverty in three years and achieving moderate prosperity in seven years.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. China will not allow large-scale unemployment, given its ability and willingness to create new jobs and ensure the basic needs of those who temporarily lose their employment.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told reporters recently that this year&`&s Government Work Report sets an employment target of 11 million new jobs in urban areas, 1 million more than last year&`&s target.Li said China has created more than 52 million jobs over the past four years. He has repeatedly emphasized the significance of jobs as the key to boosting people&`&s incomes and maintaining social stability. More than 13 million new jobs were created in urban areas last year, exceeding the year&`&s target by 30 percent.China will create around 50 million new jobs by 2020. That&`&s according to a guideline plan on employment released this year by the State Council, China&`&s Cabinet. Some pressure is expected this year for job seekers, however, as a record high 8 million college students and around 5 million students at secondary occupational schools are expected to graduate this summer. In addition, thousands of workers are waiting to be transferred to other posts from factories that are scheduled to cut excess production. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. Market value of space activities is expected to increase in the coming years A senior scientist suggests that China should build a space launch center dedicated to commercial missions Hu Shengyun is a senior rocket designer at the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation&`&s Fourth Academy. He said the four major launch centers are administered by the government and are tasked with serving State programs including lunar exploration and manned spaceflight. He said these government-run launch centers are well developed, but they are too busy to handle the increasing demands from the commercial space sector, and it is not uncommon that even a government-assigned mission has to wait for arrangements at those sites. In addition, the management and operational methods of the existing centers were specifically designed for State-funded programs rather than commercial missions, so carrying out a lot of commercial launches would probably cause a lot of problems. The scientist suggests that a new launch site could be set up in places like Inner Mongolia autonomous region in north China, the southern island province of Hainan or a suitable island off the country&`&s eastern coast. He said the launch site must be far from the populous areas to ensure safety.This is Special English.A magnitude 5.1 earthquake that hit southwest China has affected the lives of 16,000 people.The tremor jolted Yangbi County in Yunnan Province. One person was injured by falling tiles, and has been treated in time.Damage was reported in eight other townships under the county. Houses collapsed, cracks appeared on walls, while schools, dams, and water facilities were also impaired. The local government said the lives of 2,000 people in 500 households were seriously affected.Economic loss of the earthquake was initially estimated at 200 million yuan, roughly 30 million U.S. dollars.The epicenter is at the depth of 12 kilometers. Four tremors measuring 3 to 5 on the Richter scale hit the same region before and after the magnitude 5.1 quake.A multi-sector rescue team, which includes firemen, armed police and disaster relief personnel are working at the quake zone. Relief goods including tents, quilts, overcoats, cartons of food and rice have arrived in the area. You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing. You can access the program by logging on to crienglish.com. You can also find us on our Apple Podcast. Now the news continues.Reducing pollution and curbing overfishing won&`&t prevent the severe bleaching that is killing coral at catastrophic rates. That&`&s according to a study of Australia&`&s Great Barrier Reef. In the end, researchers say, the only way to save the world&`&s coral from heat-induced bleaching is with a war on global warming.Scientists are quick to note that local protection of reefs can help damaged coral recover from the stress of rising ocean temperatures. But the new research shows that such efforts are ultimately futile when it comes to stopping bleaching in the first place.Terry Hughes is director of the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. Hughes said people do not have any tools to climate-proof corals, but we actually have to do something about climate change.Scientists say the problem due to coral bleaching have grown more frequent as the temperatures of the ocean rise, mainly due to increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The hot water stresses corals, forcing them to expel the colorful algae living inside them, which leaves the coral vulnerable to disease and death. Given enough time, bleached coral can recover if the water cools, but if the temperature stays too high for too long, the coral will die.This is Special English.The U.S. Navy is enlisting the help of seals, but not the kind of highly trained special operatives with whom it usually associates.Scientists think real seals, specifically their whiskers, may be the key to a new way for ships and underwater vehicles to sense their environment.When a fish swims by, a hungry seal senses the wake with its whiskers. It can tell characteristics of the fish, such as the shape and size, and track the location even in murky or dark water.Despite the adorable possibilities, scientists aren&`&t looking to outfit ships and vehicles with whiskers. They&`&re studying how the whiskers function to learn how to reverse-engineer the system. The science could be applied to the development of a sensor.Christin Murphy, a marine mammal biologist, said that if people want to design the best systems, it makes sense to take advantage of millions of years of work that nature has done for us.The research is taking place at the Newport division of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.Murphy and colleagues looked to seal whiskers because they&`&re a highly sensitive system of underwater touch that employ bumps to reduce their own self-induced vibrations. The research may help increase their sensitivity to water disturbances.You&`&re listening to Special English. I&`&m Ryan Price in Beijing.A young sea lion spotted in a Northern California farmland canal was feasting on carp as it made its way home on Wednesday, a day after rescue crews tried to get him out to be evaluated.Dr. Cara Field of the Marine Mammal Center said the 400-pound sea lion spotted Tuesday in a canal in the inland city of Vacaville started heading back toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta.Field said the sea lion was in no danger from swimming in the fresh water and could survive for years outside the ocean with a plentiful food source.Field says the sea lion chowed down before heading toward the delta and kept eating as he made his way home.Marine mammal experts had mounted a rescue effort Tuesday to get the sea lion out of the canal but it hid in a cement drainage pipe. They resumed their efforts after the sea lion emerged from the pipe on Wednesday but after seeing him swim out of the canal, officials decided to let it keep going.Field said they were prepared to rescue him but the fact was that he was swimming with such purpose and appeared comfortable in navigating his way back, and that gives confidence to the animal rescuers that the animal will be just fine.This is Special English.Hong Kong&`&s first sightseeing restaurant bus went into service, offering tourists and locals a fresh experience of sightseeing and dining.Thomas Hung, chairman of the operator Crystal Bus Holding Limited, said that for tourists, there is now no need to plan where to go or worry about where to eat, sparing time for shopping.Hung said Crystal Bus combines concepts of tourism and catering, allowing tourists to enjoy local cuisine while experiencing Hong Kong&`&s most representative attractions.The sightseeing restaurant bus is a 47-seat double-decker furnished with wonderful lighting and sound systems. It tours around the city while serving food prepared by locally famous and Michelin starred restaurants.Its service comprises day and night tours, with day tours covering over 20 attractions from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island or the New Territories.The two-and-a-half-hour day tour costs each passenger 380 Hong Kong dollars, roughly 50 U.S. dollars.Night tours are only for booking the entire bus and guests can choose the route themselves.Like regular sightseeing buses, Crystal Bus has an audio guide system, providing passengers with information about the attractions.Hung added that in addition to offering tourists a new way of experiencing Hong Kong, Crystal Bus also provides local residents with a fresh idea for a date or gathering with friends.This is the end of this edition of Special English. To freshen up your memory, I&`&m going to read one of the news items again at normal speed. Please listen carefully.（全文见周日微信。）

Online retailer Amazon China has unveiled its annual list of top romantic Chinese cities. Zhengzhou in Henan Province tops the list of 2016. First-tier city like Beijing, shanghai, Guangzhou didn't even get into the top 40 list. What makes these cities romantic? Do you agree?

Some street cleaners in Zhengzhou, central China&`&s Henan Province, have been given a special gift this winter by their company. That is—high-heel shoes for men and women! That doesn&`&t even fit your feet!

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. This is Special English. 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. This is Special English. 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. This is Special English. 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 mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. 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. This is Special English. 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. This is Special English. 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. This is Special English. （全文见周六微信。）

This is Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news. To push for the nation's economic transition and industrial upgrading, Chinese leaders have pledged greater commitment to the research and application of science and technology. In a show of unprecedented importance, both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang addressed an event combining three top-level science conferences attended by 4,000 scientists and science officials. Xi said the central government's commitment is aimed at making China a leading power in science and technology by the middle of the century, or around the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Xi stressed the role of science and technology as bedrock that "the country relies on for its power; enterprises rely on for victories; and people rely on for a better life." The president said that "Great scientific and technological capacity is a must for China to be strong and for people's lives to improve". He is calling for new ideas, designs and strategies in science and technology. Premier Li told the event that China's overall research and development input will keep rising to account for 2.5 percent of its GDP by 2020, from the current 2.1 percent. The conference is calling for more policy reforms to provide incentives for the talent needed in research and innovation. This is Special English. A UN report has lauded Beijing's efforts to battle air pollution but said it needs to do more to meet particulate matter standards. Published by the UN Environment Program, the report is entitled "A Review of Air Pollution Control in Beijing: 1998-2013". In the past 15 years, the number of registered vehicles increased by 300 percent in Beijing and energy consumption rose by 77 percent. The UN Environment Program executive director Achim Steiner remarked in the foreword to the report. He says concentrations of key pollutants decreased remarkably, and Beijing improved air quality even as it maintained fast paced growth. Steiner says Beijing's experience in controlling air pollution against a backdrop of rapid expansion is a story that should be shared with other emerging economies and burgeoning cities. An environment expert from Tsinghua University says the report recognized Beijing's continual efforts to improve air quality; and Beijing's solution was a combination of energy structure optimization, coal-fired emission control and enhanced air quality monitoring. The report also offered some suggestions, including improving city planning and optimizing the layout of city functions. You are listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Australian experts say Australia will have a very meaningful role to play in the healthcare sector in China. HSBC Australia head of commercial banking James Hogan has said there were three key markets Australian businesses were set to benefit from in China, namely food, energy and healthcare. The research at HSBC found that 70 percent of Chinese mainland citizens say that health is their number one biggest concern. Hogan said China's demand for healthcare will certainly increase rapidly over the coming year, as healthcare reform becomes a priority for the Chinese government. He said there were opportunities across the healthcare space in China awaiting Australian investment. Macquarie University health economy center director Dr. Henry Cutler believes any investment within China would have to be long term. Cutler says that obviously, developing relationships with those in China to make sure that services delivered are culturally appropriate is important. He added that dumping in a model from Australia would not work. HSBC noted the recent China-Australia Free Trade Agreement provides Australian medical services and healthcare providers with favorable access to expand into or do business with China. This is Special English. Sixty-six kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs have been added to the European Pharmacopoeia, an authoritative reference work for quality control of medication. Professor Dr. Gerhard Franz is Chairman of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Working Party of the European Pharmacopoeia. He says the event means there are clear quality standards for Chinese herbs exported to Europe, which help the drugs gain wider acceptance in foreign markets. Franz made the remarks at an international conference on the future of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The conference, entitled TCM's future, was held in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The professor said the herbs have undergone strict examination and discussion, and been approved by all 37 signatory countries. The listed Chinese herbs, including ginseng, account for almost a third of all herbs in the pharmacopoeia. The professor said their goal is to include at least 300 commonly used Chinese herbs. Exports of traditional Chinese drugs have been impeded by misuse and substitutions for similar plants, as well as contamination by heavy metals and microbial insecticides. An official from Zhejiang's health and family planning commission said that due to lack of quality standards, China's traditional medicine industry lags far behind its counterparts in Japan and South Korea in foreign markets. He added that modern technology and concepts must be applied in developing Traditional Chinese Medicine. You are listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. A farmer in central China's Henan Province is seeking 2 million yuan, roughly 300,000 U.S. dollars, in compensation after he was wrongly diagnosed with HIV and AIDS. Fifty-three-year-old Yang Shou-fa was diagnosed with HIV and AIDS during a provincial-wide check in 2004, during which more than 280,000 people were tested. It was not until 2012 that he found out that the result was false. The local disease control center still has samples from 2004, and a retest of Yang's sample came up positive, again. The center says the test equipment did not fail, so someone must have mixed up Yang's blood with an HIV patient. Yang had taken HIV medication from his diagnosis until 2012. He had to attend annual health checks, which only tested the amount of CD4+T cells in his blood. In people with HIV, this is the strongest indicator of HIV progression and the most important indicator of how the immune system is working. Yang's CD4+T cell count was higher than other AIDS patients, but concerns were never raised, as no one doubted the diagnosis. Before Yang was incorrectly diagnosed in 2004, his health had been failing. He had donated blood once and then suffered from repeated fever. When he was told he had AIDS, he was convinced. The local health department is considering compensation for him. 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 mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues. Chinese playwright, author and translator Yang Jiang has died at the age of 105. Born in Beijing, Yang studied in Soochow University and then Tsinghua University in the 1930s. She was married to Qian Zhongshu, a household name in China. Qian is best known for his sarcastic novel "Fortress Besieged" that depicted the lives of Chinese intellectuals in the 1930s. He died in 1997. After studying in Britain and France together with Qian, Yang returned and became a foreign language professor at Tsinghua University. She was a literature researcher with Peking University in the 1950s. Fluent in English, French and Spanish, her translations of such classics as Don Quixote and French picaresque novel Gil Blas remain the definitive versions for Chinese readers. Yang also penned numerous plays, novels and essays and is known for her plain but resonant style. Her most popular works include "We Three", a 2003 essay collection recalling her husband and daughter, who died of cancer. The book became an instant hit both in China and overseas. In 2001, Yang and her husband donated all their royalties to Tsinghua University and established a scholarship that has benefited more than 1,000 students. This is Special English. Researchers have confirmed that snow leopards live in areas south and north of Qinghai Lake in Northwest China's Qinghai province. The animals' presence had been rumored but was never proved, as experts have tried to understand the distribution range and habitat selection patterns of the rare big cat. The new finding was released by the Wildlife Conservation Society of China, which did not reveal specific locations, in a bid to protect the snow leopards. It referred to the two locations only as areas A and B. The Wildlife Conservation Society of China says researchers spotted snow leopards in Area A and found evidence of them, which were hours-old footprints, in Area B. Previously, there were reports from herdsmen and other witnesses, but they were unconfirmed. There were no scientific reports supporting the claims. The new findings will offer basic information for people studying snow leopards and attempting to protect them. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has placed the snow leopard on its Red List of Threatened Species as globally endangered. The Wildlife Conservation Society says that so far, China still has the largest population of the animal, known as the "ghost of the mountains". You're listening to Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. The authorities in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plan to recruit more than 11,000 teachers from around the country to ease its teacher shortage. The teachers will be recruited for primary and middle schools, high schools, kindergartens and special education schools this year. Of those, 60 percent will work in four prefectures in the southern part of Xinjiang, where a dearth of bilingual teachers poses a challenge for education. The recruits in these areas should be able to speak mandarin and a language of the local minorities. Xinjiang has hired more than 72,000 teachers in the past five years, with around 62,000 of them bilingual. This is Special English. Lhasa, the capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, has passed a law to protect its ancient villages. The law came into effect on June 1. It stipulates principles on ancient village protection and restoration, funds, responsibilities and building a long-term protection mechanism. It also demands a "supervisor mechanism" and encourages volunteer groups to help with protection efforts. Lhasa has around 1,000 villages, which feature unique landscapes and traditions. As the local economy speeds up, many ancient villages have yet to be restored, and the law was enacted to address the issue. The local government says the law will enhance protection efforts for precious cultural resources in Lhasa. This is Special English. （全文见周日微信。）

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news. China has begun a national key research and development plan to streamline numerous state-funded scientific and technological programs. The plan focuses on research in fields vital to the country's development and people's well-being. The research fields cover agriculture, energy, the environment and health, as well as strategic fields key to industrial competitiveness, innovation and national security. The plan now covers 59 specific projects. It merges several prominent state sci-tech programs focused on key fields including biotechnology, space, information and energy. Breakthroughs of the programs included supercomputer Tianhe-1, manned deep-sea research submarine Jiaolong, and super hybrid rice. The plan aims to address low efficiency resulting from redundant programs. More than 100 projects will be merged into five plans, namely, natural science, major sci-tech, key research and development plan, technical innovation and the sci-tech human resources. The national key research and development plan is the first to be started. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Chinese scientists have developed a system to measure the leak rate for a vacuum environment which will be used in the country's third step moon exploration program. The measurement system will help scientists work out a better way to preserve samples from the moon, which are stored in a vacuum capsule, increasing the accuracy of research. The third step of the lunar exploration project involves taking samples from the surface of the moon and bringing them back to earth. The samples will be packed in a vacuum environment. The accuracy of measuring the finest leak in a vacuum capsule will have direct impact on the research result of the samples. The system will ensure a similar vacuum environment as found on the moon. It will also make sure that the two kilograms of samples remain uncontaminated on their way back to earth, preventing them from being affected by any kinds of environment changes, including extremely high or low temperatures. China has a three-step moon exploration project, namely, orbiting, landing and returning from the moon. Chang'e-5 lunar probe is expected to be launched around 2017 to finish the last chapter of the project. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Chinese researchers have successfully created autistic monkeys by implanting autism-related genes into monkey embryos. The monkeys are the world's first nonhuman primates to show the effects of autism. The study will play an important role in studying the pathology of the condition and exploring effective intervention and treatment. The research has demonstrated the feasibility of studying brain disorders with genetically engineered primates. That's according to neuroscientist Muming Poo, a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States. Poo says for quite a long time, there has been little good drug innovation in autism due to the lack of suitable animal models. This work will allow researchers to conduct deeper studies into autism and the brain's working mechanism. Autism spectrum disorder is one of a range of neurodevelopment problems. People with the condition usually exhibit defects in social interaction, stereotyped repetitive behaviors, anxiety and emotional difficulties. In recent years, the incidence of autism has continued to rise globally, and there is no effective treatment. Around four in every 1,000 Chinese children between ages 6 and 12 have the condition. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Southwest China's Guizhou Province is expected to evacuate more than 9,000 people for the protection of the world's largest ever radio telescope before its completion in September. The evacuation is facilitated by a proposal delivered last year by members of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body. The proposal asks the provincial government to remove local homes less than 5 kilometers away from the Aperture Spherical Telescope, to create a sound electromagnetic wave environment. Guizhou is expected to resettle people from two counties in four settlements by the end of September. Each of the involved residents will get 12,000 yuan, roughly 1,800 U.S. dollars subsidy for the resettlement; and each ethnic minority household with housing difficulties will get 10,000 yuan subsidy. Construction of the telescope began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan. Upon completion, the telescope, which is 500 meters in diameter, will become the world's largest of its kind. It will overtake the one in Puerto Rico, which is 300 meters in diameter. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Central China's Hunan Province is offering a reward to anyone who can decode the inscription on the back of six ancient gold coins. The Cultural Relics Bureau of Jinshi City has offered 10,000 yuan, roughly 1,500 U.S. dollars, to anyone who can explain the mystery of the coins, housed in the city's museum. A small white glazed pot containing six foreign gold coins was discovered at a farm in the 1960s and was sent to the museum in the 1980s. They are classified as top-level national cultural relics. These coins were manufactured using ancient Greek coinage method at least 650 years ago. The inscription on the front, in a rare type of Arabic, is the name of a King, but the information on the back remains unexplained. Cultural relics officials have consulted Chinese and foreign experts, but to no avail. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Online retailer Amazon China has unveiled its annual list of most romantic cities, with Zhengzhou in Henan Province declared the most romantic Chinese city of 2015. Zhengzhou led the country in the proportion of books sold last year on the topics of romance, relationship and marriage. Cities of Erdos and Baotou, both in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, ranked second and third. Among the top ten, northern Chinese cities outnumbered the southern for the first time. According to Amazon, the result does not necessarily mean that people in northern China are more romantic than their southern counterparts; and the ranking reveals many factors, not just the cultural environment of a city. China's four first-tier cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, did not feature in the top 40. Amazon says it appears that residents in smaller cities are under less pressure and have more leisure time to enjoy romantic literature. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto 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 mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues. Fewer fireworks were used across China in the Lunar New Year, as it was banned in many places over air pollution concerns. Two thirds of people polled in 35 major Chinese cities last year were in favor of fireworks bans at Spring Festival. The research was done by the center for public opinion research at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Public concerns over air quality means people routinely check air quality and wear masks, and many own air purifiers at home. Data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection suggests that air quality only improved marginally last year in the area around Beijing. In Shanghai, fireworks are banned completely downtown, and firework purchases require real name registration to track violators. A total of 140 cities in China have banned fireworks, while another 540 cities have restrictions in place. Fewer fireworks have made sanitation workers' life easier. They cleaned up 80 percent less firework waste in Shanghai this year. In nearby Hangzhou, the host city of this year's G20 summit, fireworks have been banned for the whole year, and police have offered rewards for reporting any sales, storage, transportation or setting off of fireworks. But some people are concerned that the ban kills off a tradition, calling fireworks makers to develop more environmentally friendly alternatives. You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Giant panda researchers in southwest China's Sichuan Province have named a pair of panda cubs, after receiving more than 3,000 responses. The winning names are "Olympia" and "Fuwa", and were posted by the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach. Both names came out on top after five pairs of names were put up for a final vote. "Fuwa" is the name of the mascots for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. After the twins were born in June, the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center launched the project to solicit names for the cubs between July and September. More than 3,000 responses, including 900 from outside the Chinese mainland, were submitted through Sina Weibo microblog, messaging app WeChat and e-mail. The twin sisters have attracted great attention worldwide because of their famous family. Their mother "Kelin" is well known for a photo showing her watching a "panda porn" video. The photo was chosen by the United States' Time Magazine as one of the "Most Surprising Photos of 2013". The twins' grandfather "Cobi" was named by former president of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch in 1992. This is NEWS Plus Special English. China's box office totaled 3 billion yuan, roughly 460 million U.S. dollars, during the Spring Festival holiday week, the highest compared with previous holidays. The film authority says the box office from Feb. 8 to 13 increased by 67 percent over the same period of last year. Three Chinese movies contributed to almost 94 percent of the box office in this period. Among them, "Mermaid", directed by Hong Kong comedian and director Stephen Chow, led the box office by making 1.5 billion yuan. "From Vegas to Macau III", starring Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-fat and Andy Lau, scored 680 million yuan, while "The Monkey King 2" took the third place with 650 million yuan. "Kung Fu Panda 3" was also a success, profiting 812 million yuan, since its screening on Jan. 29. China's box office earnings reached 44 billion yuan last year, up almost 50 percent over that of 2014. The number of audience totaled 1.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 51 percent. China has been one of the most fast-growing film markets across the world. As more cinemas open in smaller cities and towns, going to watch movies becomes a lifestyle in those places. Experts say China may overtake the United States to be the world's largest film market in the next two to three years. This is NEWS Plus Special English. （全文见周日微信。）

Dr Micah Muscolino discusses his new book entitled "The Ecology of War in China: Henan Province, the Yellow River, and Beyond, 1938–1950." This book explores the interplay between war and environment in Henan Province, a hotly contested frontline territory that endured massive environmental destruction and human disruption during the conflict between China and Japan during World War II. In a desperate attempt to block Japan's military advance, Chinese Nationalist armies under Chiang Kai-shek broke the Yellow River's dikes in Henan in June 1938, resulting in devastating floods that persisted until after the war's end. Greater catastrophe struck Henan in 1942–3, when famine took some two million lives and displaced millions more. Focusing on these war-induced disasters and their aftermath, this book conceptualizes the ecology of war in terms of energy flows through and between militaries, societies, and environments. Ultimately, Micah Muscolino argues that efforts to procure and exploit nature's energy in various forms shaped the choices of generals, the fates of communities, and the trajectory of environmental change in North China

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Liu Yan in Beijing. Here is the news. Police in central China's Henan Province have arrested a real estate tycoon who allegedly robbed a bank 16 years ago with four other suspects. The billionaire surnamed Shi was arrested on Oct. 21 in Zhumadian City. Three others were apprehended the same day, and a fifth suspect on Oct. 24. Back on Dec. 5, 1999, Shi and the other four suspects broke into a bank branch in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. They took 2 million yuan, roughly 320,000 U.S. dollars, in cash, and seriously injured two bank workers. Shi is alleged to have masterminded the robbery. The event shocked the nation, but the five suspects have eluded the law ever since. Police say Shi, previously a construction project contractor, claimed most of the money from the robbery and used it to develop real estate in Zhumadian, earning billions in the process. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Beijing's quarantine authority is warning against the mailing of unauthorized dangerous substances through the postal or parcel delivery service after HIV-antigens were found in two regular packages. Beijing Capital International Airport says around 29,000 cases were found at the airport in the first nine months of this year, involving international parcels and luggage that contain dangerous and illegal substances. The figure represents a 2 percent increase from that of the same period last year. Among them, around 1,100 pest-infested items were found in parcels and luggage brought to Beijing. A variety of non-Chinese fauna and flora species have been detected in the parcels. The authority says these are only a fraction of the total number of illegal parcels delivered in China, because only 3 percent of regular packages are routinely checked by quarantine officers. （全文请浏览微信周日第三条。）

This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news. Chinese hospitals have reported shortages of some cheap but essential medicines, due to alleged monopolies on raw materials. According to a survey of 40 major hospitals across China, 340 of more than 500 types of essential medicines are in great shortage. With demand for cheap medicines high and production shrinking, a price surge in raw materials has made them almost inaccessible. A representative of a pharmaceutical company in the central Henan Province says the market has been manipulated by manufacturers; and the more scarce the raw material, the more likely it is to be manipulated and monopolized. Many of the scarce medicines are essential for treating common diseases. Several other medicines facing shortages are used specifically to treat children. The bidding mechanism for obtaining pharmaceutical sales licenses is another factor blamed for curbing production of affordable drugs. Under the current system, a company just needs to offer the lowest price in order to win a bid, with other factors ignored. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Beijing, home to a number of top universities, will spend 200 million yuan, roughly 32 million U.S. dollars annually to promote the study of Marxism in colleges. According to a guideline issued by the city government, Beijing will encourage reforms in Marxist research to build "socialist universities with Chinese characteristics". Marxism is a compulsory course in college and includes modern Chinese history and political structures, but is underfunded and perceived as indoctrinatory, leading to students' dissatisfaction. Schools and teachers will be encouraged to base the teaching of Marxism more on practices and real-life experience. It also promised rewards for high-performing young teachers and professors, and better funding for their projects. （全文请浏览微信周六第三条。）

介绍: 全部文稿请关注我们的公众号，周六第三条~This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.China's Internet regulator has ratcheted up its crackdown on online rumors after a massive explosion in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.The Cyberspace Administration of China accused 50 websites of creating panic by publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless rumors.Rumors circulated on the websites included the claims that the blasts killed at least 1,000 people, shopping malls in Tianjin were looted and there has been leadership change in Tianjin's local government.The administration said such rumors caused negative influences. It shut down and revoked the licenses of 18 websites, and suspended the operation of another 32.The administration said it would take a zero-tolerance attitude towards websites spreading rumors after major disasters.This is NEWS Plus Special English.Manufacturers which fail to suspend production in accordance with restrictions imposed before the Sept 3 military parade to reduce air pollution will face harsh fines.Beijing has set a series of measures to control emissions and pollutants, including factory suspensions and restrictions on vehicle use after Aug 20, in preparation for the parade marking the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II.The environmental watchdog, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, will strengthen its supervision of companies in polluting industries during the period.Companies failing to meet the pollution restrictions will be ordered to stop production immediately. Fines for offenders could reach 500,000 yuan, roughly 78,000 U.S. dollars.Similar harsh penalties were issued during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in November.The bureau also will make other monitoring efforts. Outdoor barbecues and incineration will be another priority.Should Beijing experience heavy smog during the restricted period, the bureau will conduct more frequent monitoring and supervision to ease the air pollution.The month of August has been identified as a key period for environmental supervision, especially for emissions of major air pollutants, coal-fired boilers and construction sites.This is NEWS Plus Special English.Newly published archival files in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have revealed that Japan organized multiple large-scale immigration campaigns in the region during its invasion in World War II.The Heilongjiang Provincial Archives has unveiled 96 files on the Japanese invasion of northeast China.Twenty-one were published for the first time, including immigration policies and acts, records of immigration categories, immigration plans and implementation, and land records.According to the files, Heilongjiang Province served as an important resettlement area for Japan's mass immigration plan due to its abundant resources and strategic importance.From September 1931 to January 1941, Japanese invaders set up 89 mass immigration centers in northeast China, 69 of which were in Heilongjiang Province.The archives showed that almost 130,000 Japanese people organized by official Japanese immigration agencies resettled in Heilongjiang Province during Japan's invasion. Most of them were repatriated to their homeland before September 1946.An official from the Provincial Archives says this kind of organized, planned and forced land reclamation violated and trampled on Chinese sovereignty, adding that the archives have provided hard evidence of major land grabs by the Japanese invaders in China.The Heilongjiang Provincial Archives also published many other files related to the so called "comfort women", as well as victims used for bacteriological experiments.You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.China's Education Ministry has ordered schools to improve mental health care for students, but banned compulsory testing or irresponsible labeling of students as "mentally ill".The ministry has urged primary and middle schools to establish psychological counseling rooms, provide free counseling and record information on the mental states of students.The counseling room should always be open during school hours. It must have at least one mental health professional, who will enjoy an equal status to a class teacher. The school should also set aside funds for the room's operation.The ministry document states that staff in the school should carefully use psychological scaling or other testing methods. They may not compel students to take any test, nor can they arbitrarily judge that a student has a mental illness.Student information must be kept confidential unless the student poses a danger to themselves or others.Mental health staff should handle "crisis events" and prevent the events from leading to injuries.This is NEWS Plus Special English.China has become the world's largest consumer market of robots for the second consecutive year.According to statistics released by the China Robot Industry Alliance, the number of robot sales in China increased by 55 percent last year to around 57,000, accounting for a quarter of the world's total.The data also shows that almost 17,000 robots were made in China with a total value approaching 3 billion yuan, roughly 470 million U.S. dollars, or an increase of 60 percent from 2013.Experts have predicted that the total number of robots used in China's manufacturing industry this year will keep growing rapidly.Under a national plan entitled "Made in China 2025", which was designed to make China a world manufacturing power, the robot industry has become one of the hottest.Industrial robots have been applied in car-making, the electronic and food industries, in addition to the military, aviation, and medical equipment industries.This is NEWS Plus Special English.The Chinese government is encouraging people to work 4-and-a-half days a week in a bid to bolster tourism amid the flagging economy.The State Council, China's Cabinet, has published a document entitled Several Decisions on Further Promoting Tourism-related Investment and Consumption. The document noted that in summer, if conditions permit, more flexibility should be given to employees to help them take vacations using Friday afternoons, Saturdays and Sundays.The document revealed that China will build more tourism infrastructure, including cruise ports and RV parks. Cruise ship tourism should be encouraged and 10 ports for cruise vessels will be built by 2020.The document noted that boosting investment and consumption for tourism is of great importance to improving quality of life and developing modern services.Great efforts should be made to improve tourism facilities. Private capital is encouraged to partner with government funding in building 1,000 parks for RV tourists and other independent travelers by 2020. All important tourist attractions and tourist cities should be staffed with professionals to provide tourism information by 2020.You're listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. You can access the program by logging onto 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 mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. That's mansuyingyu@cri.com.cn. Now the news continues.The average fitness level of primary and secondary school students in China has improved slightly after years of decline, but that of college students continues to worsen.According to a national report, the deterioration of elementary and high school students' physical condition has been tackled thanks to the increasing emphasis placed on physical education on campus.The first Annual Report on Development of Youth Sports showed that the students' physical examination results were improved.After analyzing results of the previous seven youth fitness surveys conducted since 1985, the report found that the cardiopulmonary function, strength and stamina of students aged between 7 and 18 had seen different degrees of improvement since 2010.Due to an overemphasis on academic excellence, many Chinese schools replaced physical education classes and extracurricular sports activities with extra tutoring or written tests, resulting in a consistent deterioration in students' health from 1985 to 2005.Despite improvements seen in the younger age groups, the physical test results for college students in key categories have continued to decline for the past 10 years.Education officials say that college students in China take part in sports much less than their peers worldwide, partially due to unhealthy lifestyles and the lack of an athletic culture in Chinese universities.This is NEWS Plus Special English.After more than 10 days in space, China's 19th Beidou navigation satellite is working autonomously and has set up a link with another satellite.The two satellites were launched on the same day by a Long March III-B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province, southwest China, on July 25.A designer of the Beidou navigation satellite system says China has successfully tested the autonomous control technology of the Beidou global navigation satellite constellation, an alternative to the United States-operated GPS, marking a solid step towards building a system with global coverage.China plans to set up a complete constellation of 35 satellites, achieving global coverage by 2020.The twin satellites surpass their predecessors in speed, accuracy and weight.The biggest difficulty is the autonomous navigation technology, which enables satellites to work independently, providing users with more accurate data.Named after the mandarin word for the plough, or the Big Dipper constellation, the project was formally launched in 1994, some 20 years after the inception of GPS.This is NEWS Plus Special English.A central Chinese city is preparing to apply for World Heritage status for its 1,500-kilometer-long canal built on steep crags by thirsty villagers half a century ago.Officials in Linzhou City of Henan Province are now preparing the documents needed for a formal application to list the Red Flag Canal, which they say has inspired generations of Chinese people with a spirit of hard work and devotion.The canal was carved out in the Taihang Mountains in the 1960s, after villagers mobilized themselves for the project to ensure the water supply to the drought-ridden city if Linzhou. No heavy machinery was used in digging the waterway, whose length exceeds the distance between London and Vienna.The canal was initially designed to be used for 20 years, but is still in service after being used for around 50.The city is working for a 70-kilometer-long section on the main stretch of the channel for inscription. The application will bring better protection to the canal and promote it worldwide.

Institute of Historical Research The Ecology of War in China: Henan Province, the Yellow River, and Beyond Dr Micah Muscolino (University of Oxford) Comparative Histories of Asia seminar series

更多内容请关注周日的微信内容：搜索英语环球 NEWSPlusIncreased security concerns among China&`&s nouveau riche have created a niche market for protection services, attracting more martial arts practitioners to become bodyguards.Standing close to the Chinese mainland&`&s richest man Jack Ma at a series of recent events was a man of average build in his 30s with brush cut hair.Li Tianjin is Ma&`&s security assistant or personal bodyguard. He stood out among the billionaire&`&s entourage with his composed presence, watching every move made by his employer, the founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.Li comes from central China's Henan Province and is a former national martial arts champion.Li&`&s appointment highlights the growing demand from China&`&s entrepreneurs and celebrities for well-trained bodyguards with kung fu backgrounds who have been educated in etiquette and also have secretarial abilities. niche market n. 缝隙市场，小众市场with kung fu backgrounds 有功夫背景 可以套用这个结构来形容有某种背景的人，只需把kung fu换成相应的单词即可。 例句： Being my wife is probably more complicated than you think. I need someone with beauty and showbiz background. Do you think you can handle that? 周董对昆凌说：做我老婆可能比你想的要复杂一些。我需要一个兼有美貌和娱乐圈背景的人。你觉得你行吗？ practitioner n. 从业者 该词可谓“百搭”，跟在什么词后面就表示从事什么行业的人，比如这里的martial arts practitioner （从事武术的人），再比如law/legal practitioner（法律从业人员，律师）、health/medical practitioner（医务从业人员，医生）等等。General practitioner 全科医师，普通医师 Acupuncture practitioner 针灸师Yoga Practitioner 瑜伽练习者 average build 中等身材，一般体型Big 胖胖的 brush cut 短平发型，俗称“寸头”或“板刷头”。另一个常见的英文说法是buzz cut。 Li Tianjin 李天金 马云贴身保镖，连续数年获得太极拳全国冠军头衔。 entourage n. 随行人员，随从Bon voyage 旅途愉快，一路顺风Chef 大厨C&`&est La vie 这就是人生appointment n. 任命etiquette n. 礼仪，规矩 类似于decorum、manner，不过只有manner是可数名词，etiquette和decorum都不能加s。secretarial abilities 文秘工作的能力

详细内容请关注周六微信，或登录以下网址：http://172.100.100.192:9008/7146/2015/01/16/2582s861936.htmThis is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing. Here is the news.China has launched the Silk Road tourism year in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to attract more visitors on the ancient Silk Road which linked China with central Asia.Every year the China National Tourism Administration sets a theme for tourism promotion. Inspired by the Silk Road, China will promote western provinces for their rich culture and tourism appeal.Officials say the Silk Road tourism year will facilitate regional cooperation, deepen mutual understanding and establish mutually beneficial ties for all related countries.Shaanxi Province is investing more in tourism and cementing its position as the starting point of the Silk Road.This is NEWS Plus Special English.Apple has opened a new store in Henan Province, the first in central China, bringing the number of Apple stores on the Chinese mainland to 13.The new store is located in downtown Zhengzhou, the provincial capital. Market observers say the opening marked an important step on the layout of Apple's retail chains in China. The city is also home to Foxconn, an Apple production facility and Apple's main supplier.The observers say Apple will take advantage of this shorter and more convenient logistic channel; and Henan Province, with a population of more than 94 million, is no doubt a tempting market.Earlier this month, a report from investment banking firm UBS showed strong demand for Apple's latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus smartphones which had helped the Chinese market outsell the United States for the first time.The demand for the IPhone has seen outsized growth in China. China constitutes as much as 35 percent of shipments in the last quarter of 2014, higher than the ratio of the U.S. market. During the same period last year, China's market share was 22 percent.Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a trip to China in October that it's just a matter of time before China "becomes Apple's biggest revenue contributor". Cook also said Apple will increase the number of Apple stores in China, from 15 to 40, in the next few years. This is NEWS Plus Special English.A high-tech show in Beijing and Shanghai will take Vincent van Gogh's work to new dimensions. This year marks the 125th anniversary of the death of the Dutch painter and art legend. A multimedia show in Beijing and Shanghai will be launched to celebrate Van Gogh's short-lived yet prolific career. The exhibition also aims to challenge the audience's preconceptions and help viewers better appreciate Van Gogh's artworks.The show "Van Gogh Alive" creates a multi-sensory experience. Within 35 minutes, it projects more than 3,000 high-resolution photos on 40 huge screens, the columns and floor of the exhibition venues. The images display Van Gogh's canvases, sketches, drafts and letters written mostly to his younger brother, Theo.The Australian exhibition-producing company Grande Exhibitions designed and premiered "Van Gogh Alive" in Singapore in 2011. Technicians dissected and magnified different parts of Van Gogh's paintings to showcase how he handled layers of colors. They also animated some details. For example, they made the crows in "Wheatfield" come alive using real crows. The landscape believed to be Van Gogh's last work. They also activated a train in one of his drafts, which runs on the 4-to-7 meter-high screens.The show will begin with displays of a series of Van Gogh's self-portraits and narration in five chapters of his whole life, both in the Netherlands and France. His signature works that appear include "Starry Night", "Sunflowers" and "Cafe Terrace at Night". Van Gogh was born in 1853 and died in 1890.You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Mark Griffiths in Beijing.A new study has found that physical activity has intrinsically rewarding effects.Researchers in Germany have studied the influence of sport on the adaptability of the brain, and published the results in the Journal of Neuroscience.Animal experiments showed that if rodents have access to a running wheel, they run voluntarily for many miles per day.The study also found that voluntary running may extend the period of youthful adaptability in the brain into adulthood.What's more, this type of youthful adaptability can be restored even in adult mice at an age in which the visual cortices plasticity usually does not exist anymore.The study reveals that a few days of voluntary training in the impeller are enough to allow changes in the brain. This shows that it is never too late to benefit from exercise.

更多内容，请关注我们今天的微信，搜索： 英语环球 NEWSPlus Increased security concerns among China's nouveau riche have created a niche market for protection services, attracting more martial arts practitioners to become bodyguards.Standing close to the Chinese mainland's richest man Jack Ma at a series of recent events was a man of average build in his 30s with brush cut hair. Li Tianjin is Ma's security assistant or personal bodyguard. He stood out among the billionaire's entourage with his composed presence, watching every move made by his employer, the founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Li comes from central China's Henan Province and is a former national martial arts champion. Li's appointment highlights the growing demand from China's entrepreneurs and celebrities for well-trained bodyguards with kung fu backgrounds who have been educated in etiquette and also have secretarial abilities.nouveau riche n. 暴发户，新一代的有钱人 该词源自法语，字面意思为new rich，一般跟在the后面，作集合名词（类似the rich, the poor等等），所以很少出现复数形式。如果要用复数形式，是nouveaux riches。例句：The nouveau riche often make a vulgar display of their wealth. （暴发户总喜欢俗不可耐地炫富。）niche market n. 缝隙市场，小众市场practitioner n. 从业者 该词可谓“百搭”，跟在什么词后面就表示从事什么行业的人，比如这里的martial arts practitioner （从事武术的人），再比如law/legal practitioner（法律从业人员，律师）、health/medical practitioner（医务从业人员，医生）等等。average build 中等身材，一般体型brush cut 短平发型，俗称“寸头”或“板刷头”。另一个常见的英文说法是buzz cut。Li Tianjin 李天金 马云贴身保镖，连续数年获得太极拳全国冠军头衔。entourage n. 随行人员，随从appointment n. 任命with kung fu backgrounds 有功夫背景 可以套用这个结构来形容有某种背景的人，只需把kung fu换成相应的单词即可。例句：This task is probably more complicated than you think. We need someone with business and showbiz backgrounds. Do you think you can handle that? （这项任务可能比你想的要复杂一些。我们需要一个同时有商务和娱乐圈背景的人。你觉得你行吗？）etiquette n. 礼仪，规矩 类似于decorum、manner，不过只有manner是可数名词，etiquette和decorum都不能加s。secretarial abilities 文秘工作的能力

完整文稿请关注周末微信或登录以下网址： http://english.cri.cn/7146/2014/08/28/2582s842178.htm This is NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Ding Lulu in Beijing. Here is the news. China's health authorities have stepped up control measures against Ebola, in wake of continuous epidemic in West Africa. The National Health and Family Planning Commission has distributed a protocol for diagnosis, treatment and fast response of Ebola cases to its provincial health departments. The document elaborates the symptoms of the disease and instructs medical workers how to put possible cases under medical observation, to handle suspected cases, to treat confirmed cases and under what circumstances to release a person under observation. The document asks local health authorities to select specialized hospitals to take in these cases and border quarantine agencies to upgrade monitoring. Ebola spreads through body fluids and has killed over 1,300 people in West African countries this year. This is NEWS Plus Special English. As the public is still debating whether film stars found to have used drugs should be given a second chance, associations of China's movie industry have voiced an outright rejection attitude. Several film associations, including China Film Distribution and Exhibition Association and China Film Directors' Guild, are drafting a proposal to call for more self-discipline among film stars and filmmakers. A film literature association says that film stars using drugs can have a very bad influence on the society, as their fans usually consider them as role models, both in acting and in morality. This is the second boycott proposal to drug using from the entertainment industry after actors Jaycee Chan and Kai Ko were detained recently after being tested positive for marijuana. Prior to this, dozens of talent agencies in Beijing signed a letter of commitment, vowing not to hire those who use drugs. Several films starring Chan and Ko may change their screening plans to avoid the fallout of the scandal. You are listening to NEWS Plus Special English. I'm Ding Lulu in Beijing. The "ice bucket challenge" has gone viral among China's celebrities from tech executives to film stars. The campaign aims to raise awareness of ALS, a neurodegenerative disease characterized by selective loss of motor neurons in the cortex, brainstem, and spinal cord. As of last week, the campaign had raised around 9 million yuan, or 1.5 million U.S. dollars, for China-Dolls Center for Rare Disorders, a non-profit organization. The campaign asks people to either drench themselves with ice water or donate to the ALS foundation, or both. It has brought unprecedented attention to the disease. However, some people argue that although the center is raising plenty of money, the donations still are not enough to make any real difference, considering the high cost and long time span of developing an effective drug. Others contend that the event is merely another opportunity for celebrities to show off. A dozen farmers in central China's Henan Province, which is suffering a severe drought, protested about the challenge, accusing the campaign of being a waste of water, but the stunt was later discovered to be promotion for a local scenic spot. This is NEWS Plus Special English. Chinese experts say the preservation status of the Great Wall is "not optimistic", highlighting irresponsible industrial development and a lack of funds. A 500-year-old section of the Wall is poorly preserved, with only less than 10 percent of it being in a relatively sound condition. The Great Wall was built continuously between the 3rd century B.C. and the 17th century A.D. as military defense. It was listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 1987. Various natural factors, including earthquakes, floods and erosion, have taken their toll on the Wall, but the main culprit is humans. The Great Wall Society says damage from human activity is growing more and more exacerbating, citing construction projects approved by local governments with no preservation concerns. Lacking preservation awareness, some local people pluck bricks and soil from the Great Wall and even grow plants on it, and such cases usually occur in remote regions and are difficult to control.