Chinese Team Inspired at Lego Competition

At the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival in Houston last week, a team from China’s Renmin University Affiliated Primary School won the Global Core Values Award at the FLL Explore.

“My team and I worked together to solve problems, share ideas and have fun.” one team member said. FLL has played an important role in advancing STEM education in China and developing students’ innovation（创新）.

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Growing up in a remote town in Gansu province, 12-year-old schoolgirl Liao Wenting was surprised to find that the high-tech products that she had seen in sci-fi films could be within arms’ reach.

Her school has recently built a high-tech-empowered classroom. In the classroom, students are encouraged to explore their creativity and turn their ideas into reality. The classroom features multimedia teaching systems, virtual reality headsets, 3D printing equipment and other high-tech gadgets（小装置）.

Robot Competition Aims to Interest Youth

A youth robot competition, held by the China Soong Ching Ling Science and Culture Center, kicked off on Tuesday in Beijing. The competition aims to spark young people’s interest in science and technology as well as develop their imagination and creativity.

An An, the world’s oldest captive (被圈养的) male panda, died on July 21 at age 35. The panda’s life was ended by an animal doctor due to his poor health condition, Hong Kong’s Ocean Park said online. “He was clever and lovely and we would miss him,” the park’s chairman Paulo Pong said.

An An was gifted to the park in 1999 by the Chinese central government, along with Jia Jia, a female panda that died in 2016 at age 38. The pair were seen by millions of tourists and schoolchildren over the years, many of whom posted their memories of An An online in photos and videos after its death.

On average(平均来看), a panda in the wild can live for 14-20 years, but they can live far longer with humans’ care, according to World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF). Pong said that An An lived longer than most wild pandas, which shows that the park has done a good job taking care of the pandas. The park still houses two other pandas—female Ying Ying and male Le Le—which were gifted by the Chinese government in 2007.

China has spent half a century trying to increase the population of this rare (珍稀的) animal. It has built many protected areas to save them from disappearing. It’s well known   that pandas are hard to raise, but after years of decline (下降), their numbers in the wild have increased in recent years. In 2017 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) removed the animal from the list of endangered animals after their population grew nearly 17% in the past 10 years. The Chinese government also did so last year after the wild panda population increased to 1,800.

In China, pandas are considered an umbrella species, which means experts believe methods to protect them will help protect other species, as well as the larger ecosystem (生态系统).

A 27-year-old woman named Tian Oian met an old man selling wild kiwifruit (猕猴桃) at a morning market in Xi’an, capital of Shanxi Province. The short conversation between the two strangers ended up with a heartwarming story that has gone viral on Chinese social networks.

“He was very friendly, so I talked to him and learned that he picked wild kiwifruit in the mountains. Everything he was selling had grown in the wild,” Tian said. “I mentioned that my hometown was also in the countryside and that my grandparents used to collect wild jujubes(枣子) for me when I was little. I told him that I missed the jujubes’ flavor.” Then the old man told her that there were still a few wild jujubes in the mountains, and that he would find some for her.

Tian didn’t really take his words to heart as she didn’t even know the man’s name, ________. When she saw the old man two days later, she was in surprise. “He was waiting for me!” He quickly stuffed a big bag of wild jujubes into my hands as well as a bag of wild honeysuckle flowers (a traditional Chinese medicinal herb), telling me to stay healthy,” the young woman said. “No money,” the old man said. “I promised I’d find you some. They are for you. I can’t take your money and I won’t give them to you if you pay me.” Tian recorded the conversation on her cellphone and later uploaded it online attracting more than 600,000 views within a few hours.

The old man’s kindness won online applause. Netizens were moved by his kind act and praised him for keeping his promise.

The man in question, Huang Yangsheng, comes from Zhaijia Village in Lantian. He traveled about 15 km and found some wild jujube trees in the mountain the next day. He spent an hour picking the fruit and went to the market to give them to Tian. “He wins respect as he lives up to his promise.” “His actions warm the world and fill it with love. Some netizens wrote.” “Keeping one’s word is a traditional virtue in China. I was touched by the story between the two strangers.” One netizen named Haoaixin wrote. Many netizens wished Huang a long and healthy life because of his honesty and warmth.