【推荐1】Things you may not know about Grain Buds

Grain Buds(小满), the 8th solar term of a year in traditional Chinese lunar calendar, begins on May 21 this year and ends on June 4th.     1    . In China, the 24 solar terms were created to guide agricultural production. But its culture is still useful today to guide people's lives through many aspects. Let's see what we can do during the "Grain Buds" period.

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Because of increasing rainfall during the Grain Buds, rivers are full of water, which gives rise to great tasting fish and shrimps. This is a good time to enjoy them. It is also a good season to eat mulberries as they are becoming black. People in Ningxia Hui autonomous region like to eat the blended herb of the common sow thistle(苦荬菜), which tastes savory and helps people feel refreshed.

Tips on health   

High temperatures and humidity are common during the Grain Buds period. The increase in temperature over this season may also give rise to many kinds of skin diseases.     3    . Walking, jogging and practicing tai chi are popular.

Key period for flower management

This time is a good period of the quick growth of flowers.     4    , which makes caring for your garden even more important. People need to trim and fertilize the flowers as well as weed the garden. Flowers need a lot of water and extra care to stay healthy.

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People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces celebrate this season as the birthday of the silkworm deity(蚕神). Farmers also tend to the field by planting green Chinese onions in Shandong and harvesting vegetables in Zhangye, Gansu.

【推荐3】The 19th Asian Games, also known as the Hangzhou Asian Games, was scheduled to be held from September 10 to 25, 2022 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. As with any major sporting event, the Hangzhou Asian Games has its own official mascot (吉祥物). The mascot, named “Smart Triplets,” was shown on September 9, 2019.

The design of the Smart Triplets was inspired by culture, history and nature of Hangzhou. Hangzhou is known for its beautiful scenery and rich cultural history. The inspiration for the Smart Triplets came from the three UNESCO World Heritage sites in Hangzhou: West Lake, the Grand Canal, and Mount Putuo. The mascot designers also drew inspiration from the Qianjiang New City area, which is the main venue or the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The Smart Triplets are a group of three young pandas, each with its own unique personality and skillset. The first panda, called “Ping Ping”, represents the passion and energy of sports. The second panda, “Cheng Cheng”, symbolize s the intelligence and innovation of Hangzhou as a technology hub. The third panda, “Fu Fu”, represents the harmony between humans and nature, which is an important value in Hangzhou’s culture.

Each panda has its own color scheme and special outfit. Ping Ping’s outfit consists of a sleeveless shirt and shorts in yellow, the color of sports events. Cheng Cheng wears a pink outfit with a bowtie and suspenders, which are commonly seen in the tech industry. Fu Fu wears a light green outfit with a straw hat, which represents the harmony between humans and nature.

In general, the public response to the Smart Triplets has been positive. Many people appreciate the design and concept as well as their message of friendship, innovation and harmony.

【推荐2】After heating some syrup(糖浆), Wang Chunjing drew out a small part to make a ball which is empty inside, putting the edges together and pulling it into a tube (管子). She then blew air into the tube and created a lifelike rabbit in minutes. Children around her stared with mouths open as they watched the process, thinking she was more like a magician.

The 32-year-old, who has been blowing sugar figures, a traditional Chinese folk art, for more than a decade, understands the children’s reactions because she too once watched in amazement as her father did the same thing when she was a child.

Showing both interest and talent, Wang was able to make easy types when she was 6. After graduating from senior high school, she moved to Harbin with her family in search of a better life. She tried several jobs there, including as an assistant at a clothing shop and a mobile phone shop. However, she still dreamed of becoming a figurine(小雕像) maker to create magic like her father. She spent three years mastering the skills, after which she traveled to different provinces to earn a living by making sugar figures. In 2015, Wang returned to Harbin, starting sugar figurine business.

In 2019, Wang was granted the title of provincial-level inheritor(继承者) of sugar figures, but she never stops her attempt to develop this intangible cultural heritage. She always tries to make the sugar figures into different colors rather than only brown color and has tried out ideas for new shapes and figures.

Every month since 2017, Wang and a group of folk artists visit rural schools in Harbin, teaching students about traditional art forms such as sugar figurines, paper cutting and clay sculptures. “We were all very happy to discover that the students were really interested in these traditional arts,” she said. “I hope to teach more people about the art and traditional culture.”

【推荐2】Chinese scientists have discovered a new water reservoir on the moon in the form of glass beads (珠子), which could have major significance for finding out the water content of the earth’s only natural satellite and potentially extracting them to support future lunar missions.

A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience last week revealed soil samples collected by China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe contained impact glass beads that held water in the form of hydroxyl——a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom. Hydroxyl ion (离子) is one of the most common ions found in water.

These glass beads are created when meteoroids (流星体) hit the moon’s surface, throwing up hot molten droplets which then cool and turn solid. They function like a sponge, soaking up hydrogen atoms carried by the solar wind to form hydroxyl, thus playing an important role in the water cycle of the lunar surface.

While each bead only holds a tiny amount of water, these glass balls can be seen everywhere on the moon and researchers estimated lunar soils could store as much as 270 billion metric tons of water. For decades, scientists thought the moon was bone dry until discoveries in recent years revealed its soil could hold water. “The moon potentially holding 270 billion metric tons of water is quite substantial, though it pales in comparison to the amount of water in the earth’s oceans,” said Hu Sen, a researcher from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the key scientists behind the study.

These findings not only provide insight on the origins, storage, and transportation of water on celestial bodies without atmospheres, but they also may prove helpful for planning and building a sustainable human habitat on these planets, he added.

However, the specific origins of the water on the lunar surface remain a mystery. The study presented several potential sources, including solar wind implantation, the release of trapped gas when the moon was hot and volcanically active, and delivery by comets and asteroids.

【推荐1】The researchers say they have discovered two huge magma chambers (岩浆库) under Wei Mountain in Heilongjiang. If it is true, it will be a surprising discovery since the volcano last erupted over 500,000 years ago.

Zhang Haijiang and his team visited nearly 100 sites across Wei Mountain. They were looking for magma, and they found an unusual signal from 15km underground, followed by another one at 8km. Their computer modelling suggested there could be two huge magma chambers with a depth of more than 9km. According to their research, 15 percent of the upper chamber is now filled with molten (熔化的) rock. Some studies have suggested that a volcanic eruption could take place when a chamber is filled to 40 percent magma.

They suggested that the volcanic activity in northeast China is likely to be in an active stage, and the active volcanic monitoring is needed to further understand the magma system in this area.

Xu Jiandong, director of the volcanic research, said seismic (地震的) stations had been monitoring this area for many years. "If there are really huge magma chambers in the area, we should have found some related seismic activities—When the lower chamber fills the upper one, there should be some movement," he said. "But so far, after decades of monitoring on the site, we've picked up almost nothing. The whole area has been very, very quiet," he added.

So did the researchers really find huge magma chambers? While the unusual signals found by Zhang's team looked like magma chambers, they could also have been caused by other things.

But what is for sure is that the area is active. It's like porridge boiling in a pot. But since the studies in recent years have suggested a low risk of immediate eruption in the area, the government has not set up seismic stations around. And it is certain that they aren't prepared for a big eruption over there.

【推荐2】In China, 2020 was bid farewell with a series of fireworks and the scratching off of 200 million metric tons of plastic straws from the nation’s pollution stocks.

The ban comes into effect first with two items, plastic straws and single-use shopping bags, with other single-use plastics to follow. China is one of fewer than 10 nations to ban plastic straws completely.

The ban was announced in the Party's new Five-Year Plan in January 2021, and aims to reduce plastic pollution while moving to biodegradable alternatives, starting with plastic straws.

But there is something unique that makes a plastic straw ban in China have more effect than other countries, and it isn't the fact that it is the most populous nation. It’s that paper and polylactic acid compound straws will replace plastic ones in the people’s favorite drink — tapioca pearl tea, also known as milk or bubble tea.

Chinese consumers love milk tea. These treats, often taking the place of the West‘s morning coffee, are drunk through plastic straws larger and thicker than those we would recognize from a McDonald‘s as they must be able to adapt to the movement of the “bubbles” of tapioca pudding.

Milk tea chains like Nayuki in Shanghai have already been using paper straws for most of the year ahead of the first stage of the plastic ban scheduled to start in 2021. One Chinese news agency reports that while prices for biodegradable alternatives to straws and bags are more expensive, the ban has seen the market share for bio-plastics increase to an expected $7.3 billion in 2025, and a further doubling to $ 13.9 billion by 2030, suggesting the cost will rapidly decrease as more companies enter the market with new technologies.

【推荐3】A flock of lawn-mowing sheep have been sent to trim wild grass surrounding the ruins of Pompeii as part of an initiative that also includes plans to revive ancient vineyards.

The 150 sheep arrived in Pompeii yesterday and immediately got to work eating up the grass in an unexcavated section of Regio V, a vast area to the north of the archaeological park. In a nine-month experiment, the flock will also be appointed to trim other grassy areas as well as maintain ancient and new vineyards as park authorities seek to boost the production of Pompeii wine, which used to be exported across the Mediterranean.

“They entered the site with great enthusiasm and got to work straightaway,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of the Pompeii archaeological park. “Maintenance is a huge cost, so instead of paying someone to cut the grass, we have sheep eating it, fertilizing it and creating a pastoral landscape that is much more resistant to dry scazons and heavy rainfall.”

“Many people think of Pompeii as an ancient city with lots of houses, but it’s actually much more than this,” added Zuchtricgel. “There are huge areas of trees, grass, olive groves and vineyards. And if you look back at photos from 100 years ago in southern Italy, or even in the 1950s, it’s astonishing to see the walls around Pompeii, Paestum and other sites-they didn’t have these problems with growing vegetation because every square metre was productively used by these peasant communities.”

Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The city’s ruins were discovered in the 16th century, with the first excavations beginning in 1748.

In the late 1800s, the archeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli first excavated some of Pompeii’s vineyards, which had been beneath 3 metres of ash. Many-were found in the less densely populated eastern side, where people produced wine in their gardens.