1 . 72 Hours in Beijing

Traveling to China is no longer a luxury for many foreign passport holders. The Chinese government has permitted a 72-hour visa-free policy that offers access to visitors from 53 countries including the US, France and Austria. Let’s start with the capital of China, Beijing. Here’s a pick of the best in Beijing!

Mutianyu Great Wall

Your trip to Beijing isn’t really complete without seeing one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World”, the Great Wall of China. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is by far the most well-preserved of all. Taking a one-hour bus ride Mutianyu would be your ideal location for a half day of hiking away from the large crowds in the city. Also the authorities have allowed tourists to paint graffiti on a specific section of the Great Wall since 2014. The Great Wall was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

798 Art Zone

This would be on the top of my list! Named after the 798 factory that was built in the 1950s. The art zone is home to various galleries, design studios, art exhibition spaces, fashionable shops and bars. You could easily spend half your day wandering around the complex, feeling the contrast of the present and the past.

Summer Palace

Located in northwestern Beijing, the Summer Palace is by far the city’s most well-preserved royal park. With its huge lake and hilltop views, the palace offers you a pastoral escape into the landscape of traditional Chinese paintings. The Summer Palace was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.

Sichuan Provincial Restaurant

While in Beijing, apart from trying the city’s best-known Peking duck the Sichuan provincial restaurant is one of the places where you can enjoy regional delicious food. It offers one of China’s eight great cuisines, Sichuan, which ranges from Mapo tofu to spicy chicken.

2 . With the cold weather drawing nearer, few people will choose swimming as a daily or usual activity.     1     Here come the reasons.

Good for your brain.

Swimming is one of the best activities you can do all year round, which benefits your body and your mind. Swimming has been found to increase blood flow to the brain, which leads to more oxygen.     2    

Work your muscles.

Every time you swim, it is like doing a mini-resistance workout. Each kicks and pull works your muscles more than you could imagine, especially your arms, shoulders and gluteus — the muscles that are inactive all day when you’re sitting at your desk.     3     So along with building fitness, it is a wonderful full body exercise.

Lift your spirits.

    4     They can cause a positive feeling into your body which makes you happy. Swimming has been shown to reduce stress and tension. The repetition, movement and the breathing can help you to relax , and that’s why swimming is also regarded as a relaxing exercise.

    5    

While swimming is an individual sport, it is also very social. You can meet people from all walks of life when swimming. Have a chat in the lap pool, join a swimming club or get involved in social water sports to get to know people in your community. Besides, the great thing about swimming is that you can do it — rain or shine. Although your backyard pool, the river or beach cools down over winter, most inside swimming pools run heated pools year round, so you’ve got no excuse to stop swimming.

3 . My sister is nine years old, a little bit fat and doesn’t _______ really well at school. She is heavily made fun of and thus has developed some _______ and distrust towards adults, who usually don’t put high hopes in her.

Yesterday we went to an art _______ together. There were paintings from kids with disabilities. My little girl has _______ eyes, for the paintings she liked most were also the best of the show. She also voluntarily helped to _______ the chairs and table for a sharing session（分享会）, painted by herself alongside new friends while I attended the sharing, and _______helped me to do many other things, which doesn’t _______ often at home as she’s usually _______ in her iPad.

We went to a book store. I bought a book written by a mom _______ her journey with her autistic（自闭症的）son. On the bus back home, I briefly ________ the book to my sister, and to my surprise she was truly ________. She kept asking me to tell more stories about this friend in the book who ________ with small things in life. This is the first time I’ve seen her so interested in a ________. Usually when she talks to me, she describes events at school and at home ________ a clear focus. I’m very ________ that the life of an unknown ________ has found its way into this little girl’s heart.

I’m very thankful for the ________ of books, for the beauty that my sister showed to me, and for the time we had together. I pray that I can ________ seeing clearly the wonderful things in her, so that whenever the not-so-kind world puts her ________, I can remind her how truly ________ she has always been.

4 . At thirteen, I was diagnosed (诊断) with kind of attention disorder. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.”

She glanced down at me through her glasses, “You are not different from your classmates, young man.” I tried, but I didn’t finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braile. He lived in a time when the blind couldn’t get much education. But Louis didn’t give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind.

Wasn’t I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was not different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problem, why should I ever give up?

I didn’t expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day — with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words, “See what you can do when you keep trying?”

6 . “Ni Hao! I am your foreign friend. Just have a bite of our organic apples and place your orders here!” Erik Nilson, a Swedish traveler, greeted through TikTok livestreams (抖音直播) in a village of Jiangxi Province. His appearance online increased that day's sales greatly. After experiencing a special day of livestreaming, Erik said jokingly. “I wish I could change my job.”

This village is not alone. Nowadays, China's e commerce platforms like TikTok and Taobao have helped open up online markets for Chinese farmers' produce. This has made livestreaming sales a new way to remove poverty (贫穷), with mobile phones becoming “new farm tools”.

“How can you make the audience believe that your products are delicious just through the screen in front of you?” The government in Hainan Province invites experts to teach farmers some necessary skills ranging from short video editing (编辑) to livestreaming sales. “However, at first, only a few villagers wanted to have a try. We helped them get training in livestreaming, short video marketing, and other courses. It wasn't fancy, but simple, practical, and effective.”

“Everybody, please take a look. This is the best banana. Taste it.” said Pei Yanqin, 59, speaking with a strong local accent but communicating smoothly with audience through her livestreaming software. Just over a year ago, she was one of those villagers with the least interest to get training.

Today, the village has developed eight e-commerce livestreaming courtyards. Some presenters work alone, while others are husband and wife teams. In the next step, the government will train more farmer presenters and develop multi-variety online sales.

The Strand’s task has always been simple. It is to get good ________ in the hands of readers. For over 93 years, the   ________ my grandfather founded has become so much more than just a bookstore---The Strand has become a community center, welcoming all book ________ with open arm.

In order to ________ The Strand as a business, with no income and no clear idea as to when we can   ________ our door, we have had to temporarily fire(解雇) the most of our workers. Due to the rapid ________ of COVID-19, we make the ________ to close our doors a week before the government order, as we felt it was unsafe for our ________ and community.

This is the first time in our ________ that we have had to have a layoff (裁员). All of our workers have been ________ for the week and we are paying out any vacation. We are also working with our union and our providers to extend(延长) health insurance as long as possible. We know that it is our booksellers that make The Strand so ________, so our goal is to ________ this so we can rehire(重新雇佣) every employee as soon as possible.

We won’t ________ now. We have put forward a request to the Governor’s office in order to regain our ability to start online and phone orders as ________ as possible. We strongly believe that our books are a very important resource(资源) the world could ________ use right now.

8 . One day in summer, little Jack was playing on the beach with his father. Suddenly, he saw a little tortoise moving slowly on the sand. He started to look at it carefully and began to touch it with his hand. To his surprise, the tortoise stopped moving. It pulled in its head and legs, and closed its shell tightly. He touched it again but the tortoise didn't move at all. Jack became angry. He used a stick and tried to force it to open.

When his father saw this, he stopped him and said, "No, son, you mustn't do that! You will kill the tortoise. You won't get it open with a stick. "Jack was curious and asked, "Why?"

"Just wait and see, "his father replied. Then he picked up the tortoise and put it in a bag.

After they came back home, the father took the tortoise out of the bag. He put it near the fireplace. After a few minutes, the tortoise began to move a little. The tortoise stretched out its head and legs. At last, the tortoise began to crawl across the room. How excited Jack was when he saw this！

"Son, now you see, "said his father."Sometimes, you can't force someone to do things he doesn't like. But if you get him warm first, he will do what you want him to do."

9 . Today’s grandparents are joining grandchildren on social media, but the different generation’s online habits couldn’t be more different. The over-55s are joining Facebook in increasing numbers, meaning that they will soon be the site’s second biggest user group, with 3.5 million users aged 55-64 and 2.9 million over-65s.

Sheila, aged 59, says, “I joined to see what my grandchildren are doing, as my daughter posts videos and photos of them. It’s a much better way to see what they’re doing than waiting for letters and photos in the post. I think I’m lucky I get to see so much more of their lives than my grandparents did.”

However, Sheila’s grandchildren are less likely to use Facebook themselves. Children under 17 are leaving the site—only 2.2 million users are under 17---but they’re not going far from their smartphones. Chloe, age 15, even sleeps with her phone. “It’s my alarm clock so I have to,” she says. “I look at it before I go to sleep and as soon as I wake up.”

Teenagers might have their parents to thank for their smartphone and social media addiction as their parents were the early adopters of the smartphone. Peter, 38 and father of two teenagers, reports that he used to be on his phone or laptop constantly. He says, “How could I tell my kids to get off their phones is I was always in front of a screen myself?” So, in the evenings and at weekends, he takes his SIM card out of his smartphone and puts it into an old-style mobile phone that can only make calls and send text messages. “I’m not completely separated from the world if emergent, but the important thing is that I’m setting a better example to my kids and spending more quality time with them.”

Is it only a matter of time until the generation above and below Peter catches up with the new trend (趋势) for a less digital life?

10 . Thousands of years ago, people didn't live in cold places because they didn't know how to keep themselves warm. Later they learned to make clothes. When an animal was killed, they made use of its skins to cover their bodies. The skins kept them warm. Nature is people's good friend. It once helped people find fire, when lightning hit a forest and started a fire. People took some of this fire to their homes. The fire kept them warm, and also frightened wild animals. Soon people found the food cooked tasted much better, so they began to use the fire to cook food. But people still didn't know how to make a fire. When they got a fire from the forest they tried to keep it burning. If it went out, they had to wait for years. But later they found different ways to make fire. For example, they made fire by burning wood or knocking two pieces of stones.

Today it's easy for people to make fire because they have matches, lighters and different kinds of heaters. They can make fire at any time they need.