【推荐1】The southern New Zealand town of Kaitangata appears the chief example of the countryside landscapes the island is known for; it’s lush (苍翠的), hilly, green, and peaceful. Only about 800 people live there, and it’s a mere eight minutes from the coastline.

For those who prefer the rural, slow lifestyle and community feel in their living environment, it’s basically perfect. And here’s the best part：New Zealand desperately wants you to move there. Seriously.

The small town is heavily involved in necessary industries relating to dairy (乳制品) processing and freezing works, which more than fill the area’s economic needs. In this very unique case, that presents a real problem: there are around 1,000 vacant jobs and too much affordable housing for the residents to fill.

“We have got youth unemployment down to two,” Mayor Bryan Cadogan says, “Not 2 percent — just two unemployed young people.”

So in response to this distinctive crisis, Cadogan and the town’s bank, lawyers, and community services are launching a recruitment (征募) campaign to try and attract candidates to the area with housing and land packages costing only 230,000 NZ dollars, or almost 165,000 US dollars.

According to the local residents, “Kai”, as citizens call it, is warm and mainly concerned with the community.

“This is an old­fashioned community, we don’t lock our houses, we let kids run free,” a local dairy farmer and third­generation native named Evan Dick told The Guardian.

“We have jobs, we have houses, but we don’t have people. We want to make this town vibrant again, and we are waiting with open arms.”

【推荐2】Bangkok (曼谷) developed around the Chao Phraya River. Many of the city’s hotels sit along the river. The areas of Siam and Ratchaprasong are the core of tourist Bangkok. Sukhumvit Road is home to mall after mall filled with every kind of shop.

For the best value, luxury (奢华的) hotels in the Bang Rak and Sathorn Districts are great choices since the area is more popular for office buildings than tourists. The Sathorn Vista, Bangkok is a perfect example. There are several restaurants, a full gym, a beautiful pool and outdoor areas.

Traditionally, the Khao San Road area has been the center of Bangkok budget lodging (住宿) and this is still true today. The Dang Derm Hotel on Khao San Road has clean, large rooms and a really nice rooftop pool. If you’re on a budget but want to stay riverside, try the Ibis Bangkok Riverside, whose contents are always clean and well-managed. The riverside location is close to the ferry, and its location a bit south of the main tourist area gets you very low prices.

Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is a great family hotel. The hotel, which has buildings on both sides of the Chao Phraya river, has been providing accommodation to travelers since 1876. For families there are a number of connecting room choices, and the hotel is also responsible for bringing in extra beds for children. There is a kids’ club on-site, and parents can even sign older kids up for cooking classes. Another good option for families is Ariyasomvilla. This downtown Bangkok small hotel also offers a pleasant place in the city. It is set inside a beautiful garden and is a lovely change from the disorder of the city.

【推荐1】It’s no secret that Auckland (the largest city in New Zealand) is a diverse city full of different cultures and new research has shown exactly how it and the rest of the country are changing.

More than 200 ethnic (种族的) groups are recorded as living here and Auckland is considered to have a wider variety of cultural groups than London or Sydney, with 40 percent of its population made up of different ethnicities.

The changing make­up of the country’s population is featured in the latest NZ Geographic magazine, which focuses on ethnic diversity, age, wealth and attitudes, drawn from the latest census (人口普查) figures.

Massey University humanities and social sciences research director Professor Paul Spoonley said Auckland’s multiculturalism today is way beyond what experts believed likely a few years ago.

Asian communities, in particular, in New Zealand have almost doubled since 2001, when 6. 6 percent of the Kiwi people(New Zealanders) were Asian. The proportion (比例) in Auckland was 14.6 percent. By 2006, 18.9 percent of the citizens in the city were Asian and today 23 percent identify themselves as Asian.

Nationally, the census showed 11.8 percent of the population was Asian－and that figure was increasing.

“The figures are higher than I would have thought a few years back，” Mr. Spoonley said. “And the healthcare system is attracting Asian workers.”

The article also showed that Kiwis had overall become more accepting of migrant communities and particularly of Asian peoples. That had been a hugely noticeable change, Mr. Spoonley said.

An Asian community leader Kai Luey in Auckland said there were a number of things that attracted Asians to New Zealand and particularly to Auckland. “The environment is clean, there’s fresh air and there’s safety of food...There’s a good education system here in New Zealand...”

New Zealand was also considered to be a much safer place than many other countries, such as America, Canada and Australia.

【推荐2】It is predicted that in 2023, a quarter of all new cars purchased in China will be an all-electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid. By some estimates, more than 300 Chinese companies are making E.V.s, ranging from discount off rings below $5,000 to high-end models that rival American and German automakers. There are roughly five million charging units in the country, with more coming.

While other E.V. markets are still heavily dependent on allowances and financial stimulation, China has entered a new phase: Consumers are weigh in e the features and prices of electric vehicles against gas-powered cars without much consideration of state support, it took China more than a decade of allowances, long-term investments and infrastructure (基础设施) spending to lay the foundation for its electric vehicle market to start standing on its own. Of the world ‘stop-10best-selling E.V. brands, half are Chinese. And it’s not just the car sales that are booming in China. The Chinese battery manufacturers are the biggest players in the industry.

Mr. Li, a 27-year-old employee at a construction firm who recently decided to trade in his gas-powered car for an E.V., said financial stimulation did not weigh on his decision to go electric. In Chengdu, the big city in southwestern China where Mr. Li lives and works, traditional cars are restricted from being on the road on certain days of the week to help reduce traffic jams and pollution. Electric vehicles, however, are free to come and go. For electric cars, parking is free for the first two hours at public parking lots.

【推荐3】China’s population decline may be much faster than expected, with the number of people in the country halving within the next 45 years, a new study has warned. The prediction was based on the official birth rate of 1.3 children per woman last year- well below the figure of 2 needed to keep the number stable-and forecast a much more dramatic decline than previous estimates. China’s current population is over 1.4 billion and in 2019 the United Nations estimated that China would still have around 1.3 billion people by 2065.

Another estimate published in The Lancet by researchers with the University of Washington last year suggested the Chinese population would halve by 2100. But the new research, from Professor, Jiang Quanbao and colleagues with the institute for population and development studies at Xian Jiaotong University, warned that the country’s population decline may have been severely underestimated. The UNs projection, for instance, was based on the assumption that China's fertility rate would remain at above 1.7 children per woman. China had 12 million newborns last year, 25 percent lower than the UN’s estimate.

The Chinese authorities “need to pay close attention to the potential negative inertia of population growth and make a plan in advance,” wrote Jiang in the study published in the Journal of Xian University of Finance and Economics. The new birth rate, though unexpectedly low, was based on data from the latest census, which is believed to be the most accurate yet because it was collected entirely with the aid of digital devices for the first time and cross-checked with other government data sets. Though the census findings have only partially been disclosed to the public, the limited information already shed a new light on changes and future development trends in the Chinese population, according to the researchers.

The pandemic may have had an impact on childbirth last year- but Jiang and his colleagues said the chances that the birth rate would rebound were low. They said it was more likely that the total population would soon start a rapid decline due to the drop in the number of women of child-bearing age. “If the fertility rate drops to 1, in 29 years the population in our country will fall by half,” they said. According to the new census data, children make up about 17 per cent of the population, while the proportion of over-60s rose to over 18 per cent. The researchers said it was the first time that China had more seniors than young people.