【推荐2】In the eras before air-conditioning, southern China’s skywells played a key role in keeping people’s homes cool. Could they do it again today?

Ru Ling loves spending time in skywells. To her, these courtyards of old Chinese houses are the perfect place to be on a hot and humid day. “    1    ” says Ru.

From 2014 to 2021, Ru lived in a century-old home in the village of Guanlu in eastern China’s Anhui Province. She moved there for a change of life after living and working in air-conditioned buildings for many years. Ru says that the house’s skywell helped to create this cooling effect.     2     Studies have found that the temperatures inside some of the skywells in southern China are significantly lower than the outside.

In today’s China, fewer and fewer people live in houses with skywells.     3     But a revival of interest in traditional Chinese architecture is leading some historic buildings with skywells to be restored for modern times.     4    

A skywell is a typical feature of a traditional home in southern and eastern China. Different from a northern Chinese courtyard, a skywell is smaller and less exposed to the outdoor environment.     5     It is either surrounded by rooms on four sides or three sides plus a wall. Some large houses have more than one skywell.

【推荐2】Four Ways to Improve Your Mental Health in the Coming New Year

1. Practice optimism

Now, let’s get real: Being an optimist doesn’t mean you ignore the stress of daily life. Who can do that? It simply means that when crummy (糟糕的) things happen, you don’t blame yourself unnecessarily. If you face a challenge or obstacle, you’re more likely to see it as temporary or even positive, allowing you to learn and grow. Optimists also believe they have control over their fate and can create opportunities for good things to happen.

2. Start volunteering

A prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi tell us, “It is in giving that we receive.”

Turns out he was scientifically right. Studies have shown that volunteering stimulates the reward centers of the brain. Those feel-good chemicals flood our system, producing a sort of “helper’s high.” There are physical benefits, too: volunteering minimizes stress and improves depression. It can reduce the risk for cognitive impairment. It can even help us live longer.

Even if you have little time to offer, just the act of giving has been shown to improve our health, possibly by temporarily reducing our sense of pain.

3. Be grateful

The benefits of thankfulness is backed by science: counting our blessings protects us against anxiety and depression and boosts optimism, having less problem behaviour.

One of the best ways to make thankfulness a part of your life is to keep a daily journal. Before you go to bed, jot down any positive experience you had that day, no matter how small. That sense of appreciation can broaden to others in your life and bolster optimism and better mental health.

4. Bolster your social connections

“People who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they’re physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected,” said Harvard psychiatrist Robert Waldinger in his popular TEDx talk.

The proof for this comes from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which tracked 724 Boston men for more than 75 years and then began following more than 2,000 of their offspring and wives.

【推荐3】You probably consider calorie (卡路里) burning with training. You can get great calorie burning effects with the following exercises.

Running is one of the best calorie burners out there. An average person can burn anywhere from 500 to 1,000 calories in one hour of running. Speed and pace are all factors that can affect calorie burning. But running uses every muscle group in the body, allowing you to burn more calories.

If you want intensity, HIIT is right for you. This physical exercise involves working hard in intervals, then resting. Because your heart rate will stay at a high level, you’ll burn more calories in less time. On average, a person will burn 400 to 600 calories in 30 minutes.

This childhood activity can actually do wonders for your health. Jumping rope is great for strengthening the lower and upper body while training your balance and coordination (协调能力), because your mind has to work while you jump. Jumping rope can burn 600 to 1,000 calories in an hour.

Swimming is a low-intensity form of exercise that also uses muscle groups of your body. In just 30 minutes of swimming, an average person can burn 200 to 300 calories. Swimming also helps to shape body, control blood pressure, and increase strength—all great reasons for you to jump into the water.