World Heritage sites in China

Now, China has 56 sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Let’s take a look at some of them.

Ancient City of Ping Yao

Built more than 2,700 years ago, the Ancient City of Ping Yao is the best preserved ancient Han Chinese city. It gives insight into the ancient prosperous business pioneers, who established the first banks in China during Ming and Qing dynasties (14th-20th centuries).

The city was listed as a World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO on December 3, 1997.

Classical Gardens of Suzhou

Suzhou, a city in East China’s Jiangsu province, is famous for its classical gardens. Built between the Northern Song Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty (11-19th century), the classical gardens of Suzhou feature miniature rocks, hills and elegant pavilions set amidst murmuring waters. The classical gardens of Suzhou were added onto the list on December 4, 1997.

Ancient Villages in southern Anhui—Xidi and Hongcun

Located in southern Anhui, Xidi and Hongcun belong to the category of architectural complexes, with a high historical and artistic value.

The villages represent the architectural features of the Huizhou-style residential houses in the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Xidi and Hongcun were added onto the list on November 30, 2000.

Fujian Tulou

Located in East China’s Fujian province, the 46 multi-storey earthen houses were built on a base of stone for defense purposes. The architectural arts of the Fujian Tulou can be traced back nearly 1,000 years, and their design incorporates the tradition of feng shui. Tulou was added onto the list on July 6, 2008.

For more information about the world heritage sites in China, please click the link below.

From chicken feet socks to green fish head masks, from sad frog toys to dinosaur costumes, “ugly” products have become popular among young people.

On the social media platform Douban, there is a group called Protection of Ugly Things with more than 200, 000 members. They post “ugly things” they see and buy in daily life. Many of the comments below the posts are “cute” and “the more I look at it, the more I love it”.

Some museums have also followed the trend and produced many “ugly” but impressive cultural and creative products. For example, on June 14, the Gansu Provincial Museum brought out a stuffed toy. It’s based on its famous bronze sculpture, known as Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow.

The toy recreates the details of the sculpture in a cute and cartoon style. The horse puts on a crooked smile, standing on a chubby green bird. This makes the toy “more fashionable and more fun”, so it can connect with ordinary people, the museum said.

In fact, some of the “ugly” products can also be useful. Yin Peixin, 11, from Hubei, has a cabbage dog toy. Unlike others, she doesn’t find it ugly. “It’s a creative design to mix cabbage with a dog. The toy makes me feel better when I’m upset. It also serves as a mini pillow to help me have a good sleep, ” said Yin.

According to Zhang Lei, a professor at Zhejiang University of Technology, the rise in the popularity of ugly things means that young people want to show that they’re different. Suffering from tiredness of “perfect” items, they hope to get pleasure and a new taste of life from something a little more “ugly”.

Mont Kilimaniaro is among Africa’s most breathtaking sites, but hard times have come to the plains below. Death is all around and it’s tragic to behold. The cause is a lack of rainfall in a land where on the contrary there is still plenty of water. Underground springs fed by snowmelt from the mountain, still create swamps(沼泽). The problem is that the absence of rain means grasses and other essential plants are not growing, and the animals that depend on them are dying from a lack of nutrition.

The elephant herds here are among the most successful in the continent. They’re closely monitored and conservationists have given them names. But even these great beasts are dying too, what is for the smaller ones?

A drought induced hunger. Since the start of June almost 60 elephant deaths have been recorded. More than half calves were killed by starvation due to their mothers’ failure to produce milk. Tolstoy, a male, was named after Russian. He was 5-year-old at the time of his death. And he was one of the greatest tuskers like one of the greatest alive.

Very sad story. There are some of the last relatively undisturbed elephants in Africa. While poaching(偷猎)has been destructive elsewhere，these animals have been largely spared. Right now, however, the problem they face here is a drier climate which poses the greatest threat to their survival.

There are plenty of people here who care deeply about these elephants, but the sad truth is that conservationists are powerless to stop the dying. Only fresh rainfall and new plant growth can do that. We are waiting for the rains. If the rains don’t come before the end of the year, the death rate will only increase.

We all know how it is: You finish a long day at work, head home, relax for a few moments, and then haul yourself back up to start dinner. For most of us that will up the time around 7 p. m. at the absolute earliest, but according to a new study, that is simply too late in the day if you are looking to lose weight.

This Harvard University study actually suggests a time when most of us are still at work, making it almost harder to achieve for the average British. Still, the findings of the study are interesting, as it offers some insight into how the dieting process works in relation to our metabolism(新陈代谢).

Here is everything you need to know about the new dinner time study.

The Harvard study found 5 p. m. to be the most suitable time for dinner because of the way the body’s metabolism functions for the average person. One of the main reasons is that eating dinner earlier will stop you from getting hungry throughout the day and turning to snacking. The study also found that people who ate food later in the day burned their calories more slowly as their metabolism is slower during later hours. This would mean the weight gained would take longer to shift, helping promote fat growth as a result.

As this study is new, it is once again breaking new ground in the ever-evolving ever-changing conversation surrounding food and weight.

One such person is a functional nutritionist and CEO of Flo Living Alisa Vitti, who explained that the later you eat, the harder it is for your food to digest.

“Any time between 6-8 p. m. is an ideal dinnertime, ” another person Tracy said, adding “That’s because it gives the average person enough time to digest before hitting the hay around 10 or 11p. m. ”

Naturally, it ultimately comes down to the individual depending on whether or not you are up early or riselater in the day.