When people make travel decisions regarding destinations, recreation usually sits at the top of the most considered factors. But in recent years, with a rising awareness of health, travelers are beginning to upgrade their expectations. They want a place where they can relax and do some sports with local features, which can explain the emergence of a sports tourism market.

We have selected several places around China that have a perfect combination of recreation and health, in case that is what you have in mind for your next holiday.

Beijing Olympic Park

Located at the north end of the Beijing central axis line, Beijing Olympic Park witnessed the glory of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Apart from visiting the renowned Bird’s Nest and Water Cube, You can try some leisure and sports activities.

Wanlong Ski Resort, North China’s Hebei Province

Wanlong Ski Resort in North China’s Hebei Province is nicknamed “heaven for ski lovers”. The 2022 Winter Olympics will be held here, which will boost ski development and tourism activities in Hebei Province. If you happen to be a skiing fan, try the professional trails here!

Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, East China’s Shandong Province

The Olympic Sailing Center has become a new landmark in Qingdao, a coastal city in East China’s Shandong Province. It was a host venue of the sailing games for the 29th Olympics in 2008 and the 13th Paralymic Games. You could visit the match venue and enjoy a cruise around Qingdao.

Zhangye in Northwest China’s Gansu Province

Hot-air balloons glide across the Danxia landform during the first hot-air balloon festival in Zhangye, Northwest China’s Gansu Province,July 20,2019.The unique Danxia landform in Zhangye features multicolored ridges of weathered strata. Visitors can not only be impressed by the natural wonders here ,but also can try hot-air balloons, helicopters and powered parachutes.

I live in Minnesota, which is unfairly famous for terrible winters. Buffalo is far more wintry, whereas Seattle’s winters are more bitter. Our winters tend to be brilliantly sunny and cheerful. But, of course, it’s different for a visitor.

Lightweight thermal(保暖的) wear is good. Back in the day, we wore layers and layers of heavy woolens. A boy of 13 carrying 35 pounds of wet wool on his back does not feel very cold. Today you can buy outfits filled with goose feathers as well as thermal boots and caps to keep you warm.

When I was a youth, there was no such phrase as global warming. We never got warm, not even at night, when we slept under piles of blankets because Dad believed that if you couldn’t see your breath when you talked, then the thermostat(恒温器) was turned up too high and you were wasting fuel. So 45 degrees was room temperature, and we wore long woolens to bed.

We arose in the cold, dark dawn, and walked forth into the snowstorm to catch the school bus. We huddled(蜷缩) by the highway, praying for the bus to come, while wolves moved around eyeballing us for signs of sleepiness. When you have survived wolves, then the winters of today are a walk in the park.

Enduring winter is only a start—embracing(拥抱) winter is what you should struggle for. Winter gives a sense of purpose and saves one from a life of self-gratification, lying down and posting photos on Facebook. You have promises to keep. A sidewalk to clear. Two inches of snow over a layer of ice—you may as well set a leg trap for the elderly as leave the walk unswept.

You have children to raise. Remove their fingers from their smartphones, and lead them outdoors so they can absorb the wisdom of winter. We are animals. Life is not mainly about self-expression. It is about finding food and clothing and shelter, about sticking with the pack and not wandering off. Everyone is just as cold as you. No complaining.

Robots aid in coronavirus fight

Robots have certain advantages compared to humans: They are efficient, tireless, can be repaired when damaged and they never get sick. This last trait has made them the star during our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. While hundreds of thousands of medical workers have fallen ill dealing with this highly infectious virus and a lot more are forced to stay at home for fear of getting the disease, this isn’t a problem for robots.

This is why the COVID-19 outbreak is seen as the “tipping point” —noted The Independent science reporter Anthony Cuthbertson – for robots to start to replace humans in certain jobs.

In areas like hospitals and healthcare facilities, robots are used to perform high-risk tasks. In China, for example, a hotel in Hangzhou employed a robot named “Little Peanut”to deliver food to people under quarantine. In Spain, robots are about to be used to test people for the coronavirus. Ultraviolet-light-disinfection(紫外线消毒) robots are also being widely used to clean hospital corridors and wards(病房).

“Hospitals around the world are waking up to autonomous disinfection.” Per Juul Nielsen, CEO of Denmark’s UVD Robots, a leading company manufacturing(制造) disinfection robots, told Forbes. “We can’t build these robots fast enough.”

In non-medical companies, robots are also replacing human employees since they don’t have the problem of social distancing and will never take sick leave. Walmart and Amazon, for example, where robots are already used in sorting, packing and shipping, are planning to increase the number of robots in their facilities. Fast-food chains like McDonald’s are not only delivering food with robots in some areas, but also looking to use them as cooks and servers.

According to futurist Martin Ford, using more robots than human employees can prove to be rewarding for companies – even when the pandemic is over. “People will prefer to go to a place that has fewer workers and more machines because they feel they can lower overall risk, ” Ford told the BBC.

But this sudden surge(激增) in robot demand doesn’t mean that they triumph over humans in every aspect. According to Bill Smart, a roboticist at Oregon State University, the human contact between doctors and patients is still important. Doctors comfort the patients and guide them through hard decisions while robots are only doing routine tasks, like cleaning and giving tests, just to free up doctors and nurses.

It might be true that robots have certain advantages over humans. But they are still secondary to human interaction.

G-7 LEADERS READY TO HELP BATTLE AMAZON WILDFIRES

WITH“TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL MEANS”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced this afternoon that the G-7 leaders had reached an agreement on how to help fight the record number of forest fires currently raging in the Amazon.

“There is real convergence(趋同性) to say we all agree to help the countries harmed by these fires as quickly as possible,” the host of the G-7 summit told reporters in French from the conference venue in Biarritz. He went on, listing all of the contacts being made, “With all the countries of the Amazon… so that we can finalize very concrete technical and financial commitments.”

On Friday, Macron threatened to block an important EU trade deal with Brazil and other South American countries, claiming that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro had lied about his position on climate change.

Hours before the beginning of the annual meeting of word leaders on Friday, Macron released a video outlining his plan to mobilize all of the powers gathered in Biarritz to partner with Amazon countries “to invest first in fighting the fires and helping Brazil and the other impacted countries and then to invest in reforestation everywhere.”

Macron emphasized France’s stake in the fires, referencing French Guiana, a former prison colony and current overseas department of France located on the northeastern edge of the Amazon rainforest. Bolsonaro shot back, accusing Macron of having an “unacceptable” and “colonialist” mindset.

Over 75,000 fires have been recorded in the Amazon rainforest so far this year, more than double the 40,000 blazes recorded there in all of 2018, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. The fires can be caused by natural phenomena, like lightning strikes, but are often intentionally set by loggers and ranchers clearing land for cattle grazing of farming. Bolsonaro, a climate change skeptic, has encouraged farmers to exploit the land and weakened government agencies tasked with enforcing environmental regulations, NPR reported.

Smoke from the blazes has reached as far east as the Atlantic coast and blocked out the sun as far away as Saō Paulo, more than 2,000 miles to the south. Meanwhile NASA is tracking a carbon monoxide plume stretching across Brazil into the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.