Imperial Bricks

Imperial (皇家的) bricks were made completely for imperial buildings, especially palaces, in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Mainly made in Suzhou, the bricks were transported through the Grand Canal to Beijing. They have a fine quality, and are strong and hard. They have a pure blue-green coulor like a mirror and produce a metal sound when knocked. Given their high cost, they are properly called the golden bricks . The craft (工艺品) has been on the national-level intangible cultural heritage list since 2006.

Peking Duck

Peking duck has been a famous dish from Beijing since the imperial times, characterized by its delicious skin and meat. The cooked duck is cut into pieces and eaten with green onion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce, often with pancake rolled around fillings. It was selected as a national-level intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

Shadow Play

Shadow play (皮影) is an ancient form of storytelling that uses flat cut-out figures or shadow play between a source of light and a screen. Various sight effects can be achieved by moving both the dolls and the light source. It is popular in many places along the Grand Canal, including Hebei and Zhejiang. In 2011, Chinese shadow play was listed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Kunqu Opera

Kunqu opera, one of the oldest existing forms of Chinese opera, came from Kunshan of what is now Suzhou city in Jiangsu province. Using emotional lines from poetry classics and through sweet and beautiful singing, it made progress in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and naturally reached other parts of the country via the Grand Canal.

The two men's yellow running vests (运动背心) were the same in every way except one. "GUIDE" was written on one of them. On the other was a different word "BLIND", which belonged to Tony Duenas, a 53-year-old man who was left blind because of a sudden accident in 2009.

Then came the day that changed Duenas' life forever. It was November 2014, and Duenas was walking to a bus stop when a jogger on the street suddenly stopped him and asked a simple question.

"Can you run?"

The man's name was Ray Alcanter, a longtime marathon runner who had guided a visually impaired (有视觉障碍的) old woman before she retired from this activity.

Before then, distance running hadn't crossed Duenas' mind. But Alcanter explained to Duenas how the process worked. The two would run side by side, each holding the end of a foot-long rope. Alcanter would act as Duenas' eyes,   warning him of danger and keeping him on course. But Duenas would be running for himself with less help and more freedom.

"It's all about trust," Alcanter said.

Duenas was still unsure but interested enough to give Alcanter his phone number. Two weeks later, Alcanter and Duenas planned their first run around a park. As they started the four-mile route, light rain began to fall. A cool, gentle wind brushed Duenas' face. He could feel the earth flying by beneath his feet with his eyes filled with tears.

What the guides, including Alcanter, did was more than helping Duenas train. They became his close friends who treated him as more than someone simply with a disability. They pushed him to shorten his marathon time and sent him gifts once he began to swim.

"Having guides is the ticket to our freedom," Duenas said. "To be able to do marathons, half-marathons, everything. They're gold."

ChatGPT, a new chatbot model developed by US-based AI research laboratory OpenAI, has quickly become a hit globally due to its advanced conversational capabilities,

It can write emails, computer codes, even academic papers and poems, and has passed a number of tests within seconds. Academicians worldwide are discussing whether AI should be used in education. Some universities have banned it. The New York City’s Department of Education, for example, banned the chatbot from its public school devices and networks, with some people warning that it could encourage more students to cheat, especially in exams.

Many more welcome this app, claiming that, like most technological advances and groundbreaking innovations in history, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for the development of higher education.

Embracing AI as early as possible is advisable. Higher education institutions should make preparations for including AI in their syllabus (教学大纲). They can start by offering related courses, because by understanding how it works, they can make better use of it. Besides, students with good knowledge of AI are more competitive when it comes to getting a good job, as an increasing number of jobs are being done by computer programmes-some in cooperation with humans, AI-powered education technologies can be adopted to make the learning experience more suitable for each student based on his or her strengths and weaknesses. As for professors, AI can free them from doing some dull tasks so they can concentrate on teaching and interacting with students.

Since we cannot avoid ChatGPT and other AI-powered applications from entering the field of higher education, we should make collective efforts to ensure they have a positive impact on society and the future of education Despite AI helping make learning much more interesting and enjoyable, humans need to work very hard to win the race with technology.