Month: March 2021

(Xinhua)10:06, August 07, 2020

Qin Yuans fingers danced across the keys of an electric piano as six boys belted out a popular song — Im still the teenager I once was, without the slightest change in my heart…

The song has been a hit among Chinas young urbanites since last year, and the children sang whole-heartedly to their teachers accompaniment in the Wangjia village school in central Chinas Hunan Province.

The singing session is a daily routine at the school, which has only one teacher and six students — all first-graders.

The school in Hecheng District of Huaihua City was established by the government exclusively for the local school-age children who are too young to hike long distances to school. After their first year of primary education here, they will transfer to a bigger school in the township of Huangjinao.

Qin, 21, is the only teacher at the school. But teaching is not all in her life. After one days work, she would jump on an electric bicycle and rush to a plaza in the city of Huaihua 16 km away, where her home is. There, she sings with a band, a microphone in her hand and a smartphone set up in front of them for livestreaming.

Qin started working at the village school last year, after finishing five years of training in teaching methodology, multi-disciplinary knowledge like Chinese literature and language, art, math, child psychology and practically every skill to prepare her for being a versatile primary school teacher.

I love kids, and Ive always longed to be a teacher, she said. It doesnt really matter whether I have 100 students or only one.

Every morning, Qin rides from the city to her workplace to give lessons on subjects like Chinese, math, music and physical education, among others.

Besides teaching, her daily routine also includes preparing lunch for the students. The lunch is subsidized by the local government, and the kids only need to pay 200 yuan (about 29 U.S. dollars) a semester each.

From September 2019 to July this year, there were altogether six boys studying at the school. Most of them are left-behind children who are taken care of by their grandparents, while their parents work in cities for a higher income to support their families.

Seven-year-old Xiao Chen (pseudonym) is one of Qins students. He lives with his grandmother in the village, and his parents both work in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou some 1,200 km away.

To Xiao Chen, Qin is more like an elder sister or a mother than a teacher.

His grandmother once asked what he liked most about the teacher. I like the dish she stewed, braised pork with potatoes, in particular, the boy said.

As a novice at cooking, Qin finds it challenging to cook for the kids. She seeks advice from her family members, searches recipes online, and keeps practicing to polish her cooking skills.

Her efforts have paid off. I usually make braised pork with potatoes on Friday as a reward for them, if they behave well during the week. The meal has become the boys favorite. Qin said the trick always works its wonders.

The boys she teaches seldom have an opportunity to reach out to the outside world, and some of them are rather introverted and reserved.

To help the boys become more outgoing, Qin teaches them pop songs that she usually performs at the plaza. I want to open a window to the outside world for the kids, she said. I hope they can express themselves more bravely through singing.

According to Qin, the facilities of the school are good enough — an electric piano, computers and experimental apparatus in the brand-new classrooms greatly facilitated her teaching.

However, the difficulty in her work lies in figuring out how to educate the children in a way that better suits their situations.

I have been thinking how to help these kids, whose parents are not around, better study and live their lives, Qin said.

She therefore reaches out to the kids parents more often — not only reporting their learning conditions to the parents, but also encouraging the parents to care more about their children.

Seeing the students grow up and getting recognition from their parents are so rewarding for a teacher, Qin said.

In September, the six boys will go to a primary school in the township of Huangjinao to further their schooling.

Under an agreement reached between her and the local education authority, Qin will continue teaching in the village school for another four years.

I dont know if I will stay here or leave after the contract ends, Qin said. But I will continue working as a teacher for sure, as the song says — the faith in my heart will never fade away.

(Xinhua)10:10, August 07, 2020

Hong Kong announced Thursday a decision to expand its community testing scheme to more districts in a bid to screen COVID-19 patients faster, as another 95 cases were reported on Thursday, taking the total in Hong Kong to 3,849.

Starting Friday, the free testing will gradually cover as many as 86,000 residents from 46 residential buildings in four districts, which are Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong, Tuen Mun and Yau Tsim Mong, said the Home Affairs Department (HAD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government.

Given the severe epidemic, the enlarged testing scheme is aimed at identifying invisible transmission chains in communities at an early stage, an HAD spokesperson said.

Under the scheme, 14 COVID-19 patients have been found after more than 29,000 samples collected from 22 residential buildings in Tsz Wan Shan and Ngau Chi Wan were tested.

In the face of a new wave of the epidemic since early July, the HKSAR government has stepped up efforts to curb the coronavirus spread, including testing for about 500,000 people deemed of high risks, such as taxi drivers.

Hong Kongs Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported 95 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, as well as over 60 cases tested preliminarily positive.

Of all the confirmed cases, 91 were local infections, including 39 cases that the CHP was unable to trace the sources.

There have been 44 related deaths since the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong at the beginning of the year. More than 1,200 patients remained in hospital, with 39 in critical condition.

(Peoples Daily Online)10:26, August 07, 2020

Hu Xiaowu, who was once a university student volunteer serving in Chinas western region, is currently a rural teacher at a primary school in southwest Chinas Yunnan province, and wants to have a positive impact on more children in the mountains.

Hu Xiaowu teaches in classroom. (Peoples Daily/Zhang Fan)

The primary school where Hu Xiaowu works is located in Gengma Dai and Va Autonomous County, southwest Chinas Yunnan province.

As a graduate from Nanjing Xiaozhuang University in east Chinas Jiangsu province, Hu Xiaowu pointed out that the man who has had the greatest influence on her life goal is Tao Xingzhi, a modern educationist and the founder of Nanjing Xiaozhuang University.

When I was in college, it became my dream to be a rural teacher, said Hu Xiaowu, adding that she turned down an offer of a job at a township education office and wanted instead to teach in schools in poor mountainous areas.

The life of a rural teacher is so different from what I expected. I also wanted to pour out my woes to my family, but I was afraid that they would worry about me. At that time, I also wondered if I had been a little impulsive, Hu Xiaowu said, slightly embarrassed at the mention of her decision to work in the rural school.

At first, Hu Xiaowu found it difficult to adapt to the impoverished conditions at the rural school. However, with the help of local villagers, she gradually overcame the difficulties.

Thanks to Hu Xiaowu, students from the rural primary school learned about models in math class, and began to study sketches, lines, proportion, light and shade in an art class.

In early 2005, Hu Xiaowu volunteered to continue teaching at the school after her period of service expired. The reason for my application this time is that I鈥檓 more determined to become a rural teacher.

The conditions of the primary school where I am working are better. I want to go to the mountainous areas where teachers are needed more, and I want to have a positive impact on more children in the mountains, Hu Xiaowu said, outlining her future plans.

(Xinhua)10:31, August 07, 2020

A production workshop for inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in Beijing has passed biosafety inspection and is qualified for use, according to the China National Biotec Group (CNBG).

The construction of the workshop was completed in April with the support of the Beijing municipal government, the CNBG said.

State authorities organized the biosafety inspection in July and concluded that the workshop complies with national standards and could be used for large-scale production of COVID-19 vaccines, the company said.

With another workshop built in Wuhan, central Chinas Hubei Province, in July, CNBG said it will be able to produce 220 million doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines a year.

(Xinhua)10:59, August 07, 2020

Chinese health authority said Friday that it received reports of 37 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Thursday, including 27 locally transmitted.

Of the locally-transmitted cases, 26 were reported in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and one in Beijing, the National Health Commission said in its daily report.

On Thursday, 10 new imported cases were also reported. Of the cases, seven were reported in Shanghai and one each in the provinces of Liaoning, Jiangsu and Sichuan, the commission said.

Two new suspected COVID-19 cases were reported in Shanghai, and no deaths related to the disease were reported on Thursday, the commission said.

On Thursday, 31 COVID-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery, the commission said.

By the end of Thursday, a total of 2,120 imported cases had been reported on the mainland. Of them, 2,014 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 106 remained hospitalized, with one in serious condition. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported.

As of Thursday, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases on the mainland had reached 84,565, including 843 patients who were still being treated, with 36 in severe condition.

Altogether 79,088 people had been discharged after recovery, and 4,634 had died of the disease on the mainland, the commission said.

There were still three suspected COVID-19 cases on the mainland, it added.

According to the commission, 26,499 close contacts were still under medical observation after 313 were discharged on Thursday.

(Peoples Daily Online)15:11, August 05, 2020

The “homebody economy” has been spurring sales of snacks in China amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

(Photo/Pixabay)

Wang Ziwen, a big fan of snacks, spent an average of 1,000 yuan on them every month this year. “Due to the outbreak, I stayed at home to attend online classes for half a year and went out less, so I tended to buy snacks online,” said the 23-year-old student from a university in east China’s Shanghai.

“In addition to lower prices and having them delivered to my doorstep, the most important thing is that online sales channels can offer me a rich variety of products to choose from,” Wang said.

Wang is just one of the many customers who have boosted the sales of snacks due to being stuck at home. Some consumers prefer healthy snacks such as homemade biscuits with less oil and sugar, and nuts with no extra processing.

The Chinese snack industry is expected to maintain a compound growth rate of over 6 percent, with an estimated sales volume of 3 trillion yuan in 2020, which may exceed 4 trillion yuan in 2025, according to a recent industry report.

The sector registered a compound growth rate of 6.7 percent from 2013 to 2019, the report said.

Industry insiders said that the boom in snack consumption, which has become a distinctive feature of the homebody economy, was attributed to surging consumer demand underpinned by the Chinese economy.

They added that the increasing popularity of snacks, also a result of the changes in lifestyle during the epidemic period, indicate a long-term trend of upgraded consumption.

The growth in snack consumption reflects the huge domestic demand in the Chinese economy, according to Wan Zhe, a visiting research fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies under the Renmin University of China.

Consumers’ growing demand for a greater variety of quality snacks demonstrates their boosted capacity for consumption, while the upgrading of the snack sector is resulting in more quality products being available, Wan explained, adding that special snacks from all over the world are also available thanks to more sophisticated packing technology and logistics channels. All these contribute to the growing snack consumption market, Wan noted.

Looking to the future trend of the snack industry, Wan believed that the sector will enjoy broad space for development due to the impact of the epidemic, consumers’ growing demand, as well as the role of e-commerce and livestream platforms and advanced logistics in promoting sales of snacks. However, the expert emphasized that it’s more important to build snack brands amid fierce competition in the future.

(Xinhua)15:18, August 05, 2020

China has made great strides in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society, or Xiaokang, in all respects, said an official with the countrys top economic planner.

The country has laid a solid foundation for reaching such a centenary goal with mounting nationwide efforts, Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, told Xinhua in an interview.

Ning, also head of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said that Chinas economy has been greatly strengthened amid solid steps of supply-side structural reform and opening up.

In 2019, Chinas gross domestic product exceeded 99 trillion yuan, or 14.4 trillion U.S. dollars, ranking second in the world, NBS data showed.

Despite mounting complexities, China reversed an economic downturn and forged ahead with economic growth in the first half of this year, said Ning.

Chinas economy showed great resilience and potential by expanding 3.2 percent year on year in the second quarter, up 10 percentage points from the first quarter, he added.

Improved infrastructure has offered strong support for the completion of the Xiaokang goal, with advancements in the transportation and communications sectors, said Ning.

Speaking of the importance of innovation, Ning said Chinas expenditure on research and development last year more than doubled from that in 2012.

However, China must take measures to tackle certain weak links amid the final push in completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, the official said.

According to him, difficulties remain in areas such as poverty eradication and public services, while the COVID-19 epidemic brought new challenges.

Chinas sound economic fundamentals remain unchanged with the COVID-19 strains overall controllable, Ning added.