The Sky Railway

Sitting back in my seat, I can’t quite believe that I’m about to travel along the railway that many foreign experts claimed was “impossible”. The train has been racing along steadily since it left Xining. All this time, the song “Sky Railway” has been playing inside my head. The words “railways like massive dragons are winding among the mountains” seem particularly vivid as I travel across the “roof of the world”．

I was one of the people who came from all parts of China to work on this railway. Taking years to complete, the Qinghai­Tibet Railway is a record of all of our efforts to overcome the most difficult engineering challenges. How to protect the delicate ecosystem was among the top concerns.

The first landmark to catch my eye is the splendid Qingshuihe Bridge, the world’s longest bridge built over permafrost. Look! A group of Tibetan antelopes is moving under the bridge, with some stopping to eat grass at their leisure. Thirty­three passages have been built under the railway to allow the animals to move safely and freely in their natural habitat. Wild animals such as these Tibetan antelopes have now been using these passages for years. They seem totally unaware that we are speeding past at over 100 kilometres an hour.

To prevent damage to wetlands and grasslands,675 bridges with a total length of about 160 kilometres were built between Golmud and Lhasa. We even moved 140,000 square metres of wetland to a new area in order to protect its distinct ecosystem.

The journey has been flying by, and before I know it, we have reached Tanggula Station. Located at over 5,000 metres above sea level, this is the highest railway station in the world. In locations such as this, the thin air, changeable weathe and high levels of UV radiation presented perhaps the greatest challenge for railway workers. To make sure we stayed healthy, several oxygen­making stations were constructed. We were also able to enjoy regular breaks in lower areas.

As we pass Cuona Lake, I feel a sense of pride and achievement. Using thousands and thousands of sandbags, we built a twenty­kilometre wall along the lake to protect it from construction waste. Cuona Lake is so close to the railway that I want to reach out and touch its pale blue mirror­like surface. Water birds playing in the lake, and cattle and sheep wandering the grasslands bring the scenery to life.

The Qinghai­Tibet Plateau has been attracting people’s admiration for centuries. Now, thanks to our efforts, passengers from all over the country have been enjoying these magical landscapes. I am proud that we built our “impossible” railway, and did so with the care that the environment deserves. It truly is an extraordinary “Sky Railway”.

3 . About thirty years ago, Switzerland-based artist Klaus Littmann came across a great drawing titled The Unending Attraction of Nature by Austrian artist and architect Max Peintner. The drawing displays a scene in which nature is so separate (分开的) from the environment that it becomes just a small area of ground, protected for amusement.

“When I first saw the pencil drawing, I was interested. I knew that one day this work would be the starting point for a major art project in public space,” says Littmann. Now, decades later, Littmann has achieved the vision with the installation (大型艺术作品) of FOR FOREST: The Unending Attraction of Nature. The installation sets a native central European forest in the middle of Worthersee Football Stadium in Klagenfurt, with almost 300 trees planted, some weighing up to six tons each.

In the face of climate crisis and deforestation, FOR FOREST comes with a more pressing urgency. As explained in a statement about the installation, “In support of today’s most pressing issues about climate change and deforestation, FOR FOREST aims to challenge our perception of nature and question its future. It reminds us that nature may someday only be found in special places, as is already the case with animals in zoos.”

Overseen by Enea Landscape Architecture, the forest is made up of a diverse range of species. This attracting panorama (全景) will pave the way for a whole new view and understanding of forests.

In a short video about the work, Littmann says his goal is never to make something that will last forever; rather, he says, “My goal is for this picture to remain in people’s head for a lifetime.”

Every year, at the end of October, tens of thousands of people flock to a Buddhist temple in China to see a huge gingko biloba tree (银杏树) drop its foliage (枝叶) and turn     1     temple from green to gold.

The Gu Guanyin Buddhist temple, located in the Zhongnan Mountains of China’s Shaanxi Province is home     2    a 1,400-year-old gingko biloba tree.

It towers superbly over the temple,    3    for a few days every autumn, it rains down a gold carpet of leaves that stands out against the muted tones of the season.

Inspired by the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing, Cao decided to cover the route by hiking as a tribute (致敬) to the ancient Silk Road.     1     friend of his, Wu Fan, volunteered to be his companion during the trip.

Now, Cao has started the second part of his dream to walk along the Belt and Road route. He flew 4, 700 kilometers     2     Xi’an to Kashgar on Sept. 20, planning to hike back to Xi’an in five months.

6 . As data and identity theft becomes more and more common, the market is growing for biometric(生物测量) technologies—like fingerprint scans—to keep others out of private e-spaces. At present, these technologies are still expensive, though.

Researchers from Georgia Tech say that they have come up with a low-cost device(装置) that gets around this problem: a smart keyboard. This smart keyboard precisely measures the cadence(节奏) with which one types and the pressure fingers apply to each key. The keyboard could offer a strong layer of security by analyzing things like the force of a user’s typing and the time between key presses. These patterns are unique to each person. Thus, the keyboard can determine people’s identities, and by extension, whether they should be given access to the computer it’s connected to—regardless of whether someone gets the password right.

It also doesn’t require a new type of technology that people aren’t already familiar with. Everybody uses a keyboard and everybody types differently.

In a study describing the technology, the researchers had 100 volunteers type the word “touch” four times using the smart keyboard. Data collected from the device could be used to recognize different participants based on how they typed, with very low error rates. The researchers say that the keyboard should be pretty straightforward to commercialize and is mostly made of inexpensive, plastic-like parts. The team hopes to make it to market in the near future.

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7 . Today’s world is not an easy adjustment for young adults. A key skill set for success is persistence (毅力), a characteristic that researchers say is heavily influenced by fathers. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that fathers are in a unique position to help their adolescent children learn persistence.

BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 American families over several years. And over time, the persistence gained through fathers led to higher achievement in school.

“There are relatively few studies that stress the unique role of fathers,” Padilla-Walker said. “This research also helps to prove that characteristics such as persistence — which can be taught — are key to a child’s life success.”

Researchers determined that dads need to practice an “authoritative” parenting style. Authoritative parenting is not authoritarian: rigid, demanding or controlling. Rather, an authoritative parenting style includes some of the following characteristics: children feel warmth and love from their father; responsibility and the reasons behind rules are stressed; children are given an appropriate level of autonomy (自主权).

In the study, about 52 percent of the dads exhibited above-average levels of authoritative parenting. A key finding is that over time, children raised by an authoritative father were significantly more likely to develop persistence, which leads to better outcomes in school.

This particular study examined 11 to 14-year-olds living in two-parent homes. Yet the researchers suggest that single parents still may play a role in teaching the benefits of persistence, which is an avenue of future research.