西安品茶联系方式实体海选

Editor's Note:

Chinese President Xi Jinping highly values culture and has a profound understanding of human civilization.

For President Xi, culture plays a unique and irreplaceable role in the rejuvenation of China and the building of a global community of shared future. He speaks from Chinese wisdom, which has been passed down for millennia, advocating for the mutual prosperity of global civilizations, welcoming the flourishing of popular cultural products, and encouraging the youth to join the path to inheriting and reinventing their proud traditions.

This episode focuses on how Xi's actions have promoted friendly people-to-people exchanges between China and the US, which is a perfect example of facilitating coexistence and mutual learning among civilizations.

The lush cedar trees, the ancient wells, Western-style villas… Kuliang is a pleasant place in the mountains where both young and old Fuzhou residents, natives and foreigners, never want to miss.

But their appreciation for Kuliang goes beyond these elements. 

Kuliang, a resort area in the suburbs of Fuzhou, capital city of East China's Fujian Province, is also a place which was once full of endless flavor of the carefree play between Chinese and American children, witnessing their friendship transcend the limits of time and space. This place has also witnessed generations of insightful people striving to promote friendly exchanges and carry on the most sincere friendship between these two countries.

At the end of June, a group of former Fuzhou residents crossed mountains and oceans to return to this beloved place. 

The group "Kuliang Friends" formed by the descendants of American families who once lived in Kuliang as early as a century ago gathered together to participate in the "Bond with Kuliang: 2023 China-US People-to-People Friendship Forum." 

When they arrived in Kuliang, as they got out of the car, a few of them shouted out in fluent Fuzhou dialect, "We're home!"

At the China-US people-to-people friendship forum, another special former Fuzhou resident sent his blessings and encouragement to these American friends. "I hope that you will continue to write the Kuliang story and carry forward the special bonds, so that the friendship between our two peoples can stay forever strong and robust like the thousand-year-old cedar trees in Kuliang," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a congratulatory letter sent to the forum.

Their stories have shown once again that the Chinese and American peoples can transcend differences in system, culture and language, and build profound friendship, said Xi.

How should the two civilizations of China and the US coexist to bring prosperity and stability to their people? 

The Chinese leader has always advocated people to people exchanges between countries and civilizations. "The foundation of China-US relations lies in the people. We have always placed our hope on the American people and wish all the best for the friendship between the two peoples," Xi said, while meeting with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in Beijing on June 16, 2023. 

With the care and reconnection of treasured old friends, there is a sequel to the Kuliang story written by the people of China and the US. They share the firm belief that the relationship between the two countries is full of new opportunities.

Beautiful views remain

No matter how many times they visit Kuliang, the "king of cedar trees" is always a must-visit spot for these foreign friends, where two trees embrace each other and have stood for over 1,000 years.

The origin of the Kuliang story comes from this cool shade. In the mid-19th century, a large number of foreigners came to Fuzhou to work and live, many of whom were businessmen, missionaries, and also consular officials. During the summer, many foreigners chose to escape the heat in Kuliang. 

At its peak, Kuliang had over 300 Western-style villas, one of which was home to Milton Gardner. 

Gardner was born in the US in 1901. As a child, he came to live in Fuzhou with his parents. 

Foreigners liked to plant cedar trees in front of their villas, Gardner and some Chinese children living close used to spend their childhood playing together under the trees. 

After returning to the US with his family in 1911, Gardner's greatest wish was to return to his childhood home in China. However, unfortunately, he was never able to fulfill his wish. 

In 1992, with the help from Chinese students in the US, Gardner's wife Elizabeth Gardner finally found out that the place her husband had been dreaming of for his whole life was Kuliang in Fuzhou.

That same year, Xi, secretary of the Communist Party of China Fuzhou Committee at the time, after learning about the story of Gardner, invited Elizabeth Gardner to visit Kuliang and helped her fulfill her husband's wish.

In 2012, when visiting the US as China's vice president, Xi shared the Kuliang story with the audience at a welcome luncheon held by American friendly groups. This received a warm response from all sectors from both countries.

On June 26, 2023, a grand donation ceremony was held in Kuliang. Lee Gardner, grandnephew of Milton Gardner, donated a complete family chronicle and related documents from his several visits to Fuzhou.

Elyn MacInnis, 72, a cultural expert from the US, brought three suitcases of her collection from the US to donate to the museum, along with members of three other Kuliang families who also made donations.

MacInnis and her husband Peter's bond with China date back to her father-in-law Donald MacInnis, who was a member of the Flying Tigers, a group of US volunteer fighter pilots who helped China fight the Japanese troops during World War II. After Donald MacInnis died, Elyn MacInnis and her husband scattered some of his ashes into the Minjiang River, Fuzhou's "mother river," as he had requested.

"The place where our ancestors lived and left traces is home, and we are bringing old objects home this time," Elyn MacInnis told the Global Times.

"When I tell my family and friends about Kuliang, I tell them about the house we lived in on the side of the mountain and the whispering pines, the wide slippery rock beside it where we would play, and the green rice fields... They want to experience China also," Priscilla Brewster Gill, another Kuliang Friends, told the Global Times.

This time in Fuzhou, Gill, and her granddaughter Katy Barber fulfilled their dream of experiencing a new version of the charm of Kuliang. Gill was born in Fuzhou in 1936, and her father Harold Brewster was the last foreign president of the current Fuzhou Medical University Union Hospital. 

As she came to Fuzhou once again, Gill said that she was amazed by the changes in the city: the beautiful parks in the city and along the river, the magnificent Naval History Museum, the cleanliness, the vast amount of greenery, the carefully restored old buildings, the wide roads and highways, the lovely gardens, "and the state of the art Union Hospital where many years ago my father was surgeon and Medical Superintendent. There is so much to admire!" She said.

In Kuliang, Barber walked with Gill to a well, where the words "Foreign and Local Public Well" were inscribed. 

"At that time, public facilities such as hospitals, post offices and photo studios in Kuliang were funded and built by foreigners, and the local residents of Kuliang were also happy to share this important resource of well water to us," Gill said.

Barber had heard the story of the well countless times, in Kuliang, she imitated her grandmother's actions, drawing a bucket of clear water.

"The beautiful views remain," Gill said of Kuliang. Now, back at Rhode Island, she has a new and wonderful memory. "I am touched by my experience there last week with the welcoming people, and the great care with which I was treated. They are symbols and pictures showing great thought and effort and giving me a wonderful opportunity to display the spirit of friendship between our peoples."

Expanding friends circle

The ever-richer picture of life in Kuliang was made possible by generations of continued efforts.

In the past, Elizabeth Gardner traveled all over China looking for a place called Kuliang until she finally located the place in Fuzhou.

Our family is very grateful to President Xi for helping to fulfill the wishes of an elderly American he never even knew, whose actions have touched and inspired many people, said Lee Gardner.

In 2016, Elyn MacInnis and her like-minded partner Professor Lin Yinan, an expert in Kuliang culture at East China University of Science and Technology, formed a multinational research team. They conducted on-site surveys of old buildings in Kuliang, searched through archival materials at various universities, including the Yale and Harvard University libraries. Elyn MacInnis established a website so they could locate the descendants of foreign families who lived in Kuliang; Lin and his students built a platform which could use the AI technology to identify the people from historic photos.

"Reunions are always a chance to share memories and in the process, strengthen friendships and ancient ties," Gail Harris, granddaughter of Harry Russell Caldwell, a missionary known for managing and building schools in China, told the Global Times.

In Fuzhou, Harris met her "twin sister" Li Yiying again.

"In this photo, they were still babies," Lin said, as he showed an old photo to the Global Times reporters, in which he discovered this pair of "twins." 

In 1941, Harris was born in Yangkou, Nanping and a friend of her parents' had a daughter who was born in the same day, which also happened to be the 60th anniversary of the founding of  Anglo-Chinese (Ying-Hua) College of Fuzhou, the predecessor of Affiliated High School of Fujian Normal University, where they worked. In order to commemorate this special fate, the parents named their respective daughters "Li Yiying" and "Bi Lehua," splitting the school's Chinese name Ying-Hua.

On June 24, 2023, under Lin's arrangement, the two 82-year-olds were reunited in Fuzhou. Li didn't speak English and Harris could only speak a few words of Fuzhou dialect. However, once they met, they sat down together and held hands as if they never wanted to let go.

Currently, we have a team which consists of Americans and Chinese academics as well as local villagers that have come together in friendship, regardless of nationality, to study Kuliang culture and history, Elyn MacInnis noted. 

With a lot of hard work, they brought together and reunited real people, like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. 

Thanks to their joint efforts, they have collected more than 1,000 pieces of written and oral materials, pictures and objects related to the story of Kuliang.

Today, more young people have been involved in this drive. Lin noted that most of the members of Lin's research team are his students, who come from all over China. "They all have a passion for studying Kuliang culture and exploring China-US friendship. On June 28, when Harris left Fuzhou for the US, my students were in tears," Lin said.

The 39-year-old Barber, now living in San Francisco and working as a primary school teacher, introduces students to the geography and culture of China, such as the Chinese people's traditions and cuisines.

From the US, she told the Global Times that "everyone loves to see my pictures and hear about the people there [in Fuzhou]." 

She believes while storytelling is important, there is nothing quite like experiencing something first hand. In the near future, she plans to invite more members of her family as well as friends to this land full of love and hope. 

Amity between peoples the key

The story of Kuliang is a resemblance of how the two civilizations of China and the US should coexist to benefit their people. It is not just a Chinese story or an American story, but a story belonging to all of humanity, the American families said in unison.

Elyn MacInnis has eloquently described the "Spirit of Kuliang" as Love, Peace, Friendship, Sensitivity and Respect, which received the full approval of the "Kuliang Friends."

"I very much agree with her, because those qualities are my own memories of living in Kuliang since childhood. As an adult, I have come to understand that those qualities transcend politics," said Harris.

Lin believes that the "Spirit of Kuliang" proves that friendship between people on Earth can overcome all kinds of barriers such as language, culture and ideology. "This is because peace and friendship is what everyone needs. It doesn't deteriorate, it doesn't change, but it gets stronger over time. And it is universal, showing the Chinese people's hospitality. As always they embrace these, perhaps, unfamiliar faces, with open arms," he said.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor on Chinese language and literature at Peking University, told the Global Times that the beautiful Kuliang story about the China-US people's friendly relationship that has been passed down generations for over a century shows that the US government's current hostile attitude toward China has no benefit to the countries' shared future.

The Kuliang story has become a cultural symbol as well as a spiritual heritage between China and the US, and it conveys the values that only mutual respect and frequent friendly exchanges can lead to a better development, Zhang said.

In the face of the current cloud over the China-US relationship, the American people are also worried. "I am always sad that political differences often override the profound friendships among people," Harris told the Global Times.

However, unlike Western politicians' hyping of the differences between the two countries, "China and the US have had friendship for so many years, and that both countries want the same things for their people was something I learned at the Forum. We have such a deep bond with the people and the place that we want to keep it a part of our lives," said Gill.

"We couldn't agree more with President Xi's vision that amity between peoples holds the key to the relationship between countries and the people are the cornerstone of its growth," she said.

Meaningful people-to-people exchanges are essential and should not be interrupted by prejudice and arrogance, Zheng Changling, secretary general of the China Folk Culture Innovation and Development Center, told the Global Times.

The Chinese nation is a peace-loving nation, as proven by numerous historical records and archaeological facts. Countless developments in real life demonstrate our unwavering commitment to this principle, Zheng noted.

Zheng pointed out that President Xi's deep understanding of people-to-people interactions is very insightful and attaches great importance to exchanges between civilizations. "This not only provides a top-level blueprint for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation but also contributes Chinese wisdom and proposals to the future development of human society including the Global Civilization Initiative," he said.

Harris said that she prefers the vision of a shared future for mankind over politics before people.  

"The fate of our planet really does depend on good-will and cooperation. I would like to see more Americans visit China and learn firsthand about the great generosity, warmth and friendliness of the Chinese people. And I look forward to extending my own hospitality to my Chinese friends," Harris said.

Over the past eight days, people in China enjoyed a vacation that combined the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day. People chose to spend the holiday in various ways, showcasing a surge in travel and consumption.

Over the first five days of the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, key business districts across the country were bustling with activity. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, foot traffic in key business districts in 36 major cities nationwide increased by 150.4 percent compared to the same period in 2022. 

According to consumption data for this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays compiled by Meituan, daily average consumer spending across the country increased by 153 percent compared to the same period in 2019, marking it the most prosperous holiday season in five years. Among the top five cities in terms of consumer spending were Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Shenzhen.

On October 1, the highly anticipated National Day flag-raising ceremony took place at the Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, drawing hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. 

Zhang Yunyi, a resident of Beijing, booked his ticket for the flag-raising ceremony a week in advance and arrived at Tiananmen Square in the early hours of the morning, waiting for five hours in the pre-dawn darkness. 

"The wait was long and the night was cold, but when I finally saw the national flag slowly rise along with the national anthem, it filled my heart with deep emotion," Zhang told the Global Times.

After the flag was raised, doves symbolizing peace were released, eliciting cheers from the onlookers.

In Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, the combination of the extended holiday and the Asian Games sparked a tourism boom. Data from multiple online travel agency platforms showed that hotel bookings in Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8 increased more than eightfold compared to the previous year, while ticket bookings spiked nearly twelvefold, CNR reported.

In Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, even the pandas were busy welcoming visitors. During this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding had limited daily ticket availability, with only 60,000 tickets available each day. Tickets for the panda base were consistently sold out, making it quite challenging to catch a glimpse of the superstar panda, Hua Hua.

Many people also chose to travel abroad, marking a significant resurgence in the outbound tourism market. On Fliggy Travel, bookings for outbound travel during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays increased by over 20 times compared to the previous year, setting a new annual peak in outbound travel. Popular destinations included Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, and Indonesia, while Egypt, New Zealand, Vietnam, Turkey, and Spain showed the fastest growth rates, according to Economic Daily.

Back on domestic social media networks, a trend called the "24-Hour Gourmet Challenge" or "Special Forces-Style Travel" has emerged, where participants attempt to sample all the local delicacies of a city within 24 hours.

After marathon negotiations, the G20 summit held in New Delhi, India, finally managed to reach a joint declaration on September 10, avoiding the embarrassment of a fruitless summit. The Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting and Foreign Ministers' Meeting hosted by India before the summit failed to produce a decent joint declaration, highlighting the significant differences in positions and opinions among the countries as well as the Indian government's struggle to deal with a divided world.

The joint declaration of this summit once again clarifies the positioning of the G20 as "the premier forum for international economic cooperation," and it states that "while the G20 is not the platform to resolve geopolitical and security issues, we acknowledge that these issues can have significant consequences for the global economy." G20 members have reached a consensus and invited the African Union (AU) to become a formal member of the mechanism. This can be seen as a "rectification" to counter the attempts by the US and the West to hijack the G20 summit agenda, as well as a response from developing countries and the Global South.

Despite the discontent in Ukraine and the difficulty of reaching consensus, Western diplomats were willing to "let through" the declaration's wording on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, probably believing it was a price worth paying. Aljazeera commented that "many Western countries, concerned about China's rising power, want New Delhi - a strategic counterweight to Beijing - to be able to claim this summit was a great success."

Inviting the AU to join the G20 is an important outcome of this summit. As the largest developing country and a member of the Global South, China was the first country to explicitly express its support for the AU's membership in the G20. Of course, India's efforts to include the AU may imply a calculation to win the support of African countries for India's bid for permanent membership in the UN Security Council.

Since taking over as the rotating chair of the G20 summit in December last year, the Modi administration has regarded the G20 summit as a "golden opportunity" to confirm India as a "global leading power." It also intends to turn this into a major diplomatic achievement domestically and use it as an opportunity for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to campaign for next year's general elections.

At the same time, India sees itself as a bridge between the "Global South" and the "Global West." The External Affairs Minister of India, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said India has the potential to become "a bridge between the established and emerging orders."

However, India's dream of being a great power is idealistic, but the reality and setbacks it encounters are cruel. From the beginning, India has been under pressure from the US and the West, demanding condemnation of Russia at the G20 summit. New Delhi wants to maintain its special partnership with Moscow, while also trying to please the US and the West and act as the spokesperson for the "Global South." Meanwhile, the current administration wants to campaign for the BJP in next year's general elections. It is obvious that India expects too much from the G20 summit.

It is understandable that India wants to use the G20 summit stage to demonstrate its status as a major power and shape an international order that is favorable to itself. 

However, the excessive political calculations and geopolitical considerations introduced into the G20 summit agenda have led to reduced expectations from relevant countries and have deprived the international community of an opportunity to concentrate on substantively addressing global challenges such as food and energy crises.

China and India have had good cooperation in many areas. However, in recent years, India has deliberately highlighted its differences with China in such areas as regional and global governance as well as sustainable development, with the intention of marginalizing China from the Global South community. New Delhi's practice of undermining developing countries' unity and cooperation and boosting itself by belittling other countries deserves vigilance. It is destined to be recorded in the history of the G20 New Delhi Summit and reflects the delusional side of India's dream of becoming a major power.

While EU's trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis urges China to do more to help "reduce the perception of risk," there are multiple signs that bilateral economic ties are embarking on fast-track development. Obviously, the European business community hopes EU's priority is to promote cooperation, rather than "de-risk" its relationship with China.

Amid global uncertainty, European and Chinese senior officials held high-level economic and trade talks on Monday. Despite some disagreements which are continually hyped up by some EU politicians, the high-level trade talks serve as a good opportunity for China and the EU to enhance communication and understanding.

Ahead of the dialogue, some statistics showed German companies continue to invest heavily in China despite calls from a number of German politicians to reduce their exposure in China. Investment in China as a share of Germany's overall investments increased to 16.4 percent in the first half of this year from 11.6 percent in 2022 and 5.1 percent in 2019, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing data from the German Economic Institute, a private economic research institute in Germany.

Germany has been Europe's economic engine for decades. However, persistent inflation has pushed the German economy into a technical recession with data showing that the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2023. Overall, German direct investment outflows dropped sharply, to 63 billion euros ($67 billion) in the first half of 2023 from 104 billion euros in the first half of 2022. 

At a time when Europe's largest economy is battling recession, the Chinese economy offers opportunities for German enterprises. That's why in spite of the so-called decoupling or de-risking rhetoric made by some Western officials, European investments continue to pour into China. 

It is worth noting that there is a trend that the more open China becomes, the more vigilant the EU has become against China. It is true that economic and trade disputes exist in China-EU relations. The European Commission launched an investigation on September 13 into whether to impose additional tariffs to protect EU producers against cheaper Chinese electric vehicle (EV) imports it says are benefiting from the so-called state subsidies. Trade protectionism could be a double-edged sword for bilateral relations, as China is now an important overseas market for European enterprises.

Dombrovskis said in a speech he delivered at Tsinghua University in Beijing on Monday that Europe's economic ties with China are deep, but China "could do a lot to help reduce our perception of risk," according to a Reuters report. The report said the EU has long complained about "a lack of level playing field in China" and "the politicization of the business environment," which is mainly a Western narrative to sow discord and to pressure China to give foreign investors supernational treatment. 

As a matter of fact, Europe is the party that adopts protectionist measures to disrupt economic and trade cooperation. China welcomes investment from European countries, but the ball is in the European's court to break down barriers over mutually-beneficial economic cooperation. The best way to help reduce European perception of risk is to put geopolitical thinking aside, stop adopting protectionist measures, fully consider the feelings of European companies, and resolve each other's concerns through dialogue and consultation.

Monday's dialogue, the first in-person meeting post-pandemic, has drawn wide attention. It's impossible to solve each and every problem overnight, especially amid the "decoupling" calls and the instigations by the US, but achievements will add up through frank dialogues and communications, pushing forward China-EU economic ties.

Monday's trade talks won't become the endpoint for both sides to seek common ground and solutions to resolve differences and problems. Future efforts should be made and the European side should take more responsibility, as it is the party bowing to trade protectionism. Whether it can "reduce the perception of risk" depends on Europe's attitude toward trade protectionism.

Travel heat continued to spread nationwide. The number of railway trips made by Chinese passengers is expected to hit 16.40 million on Monday, the fourth day of eight-day-long National Day holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

On October 1, the national railway transported 16.29 million passengers, China Railway, the national railway operator, said on Monday. On October 2, it is estimated that the national railway will transport 16.40 million passengers, with 11,274 passenger trains in operation, including 906 additional trains.

The Yangtze River Delta region is expected to transfer 3.5 million passenger trips, which is about 28 percent more than the same period in 2019, according to media reports.

The 2023 Golden Week started from September 29 to October 6. The 8-day holiday is the longest public holiday of the year. 

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism estimated there will be 896 million domestic tourists traveling during the Golden Week holiday, an increase of 86 percent compared to last year. Domestic tourism revenue is expected to reach 782.5 billion yuan ($107.2 billion), up by 138 percent on a yearly basis.

The popularity of scenic spots, urban leisure, rural tourism, and visiting relatives and friends has increased significantly, the ministry said.

Localities on Monday started to release travel statistics for the first three days.

Beijing's major scenic spots received 6.825 million tourists during the first three days of the holiday, up by 60.6 percent year-on-year. Tourism revenue reached 4.19 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.2 percent year-on-year.

A netizen posted a photo of the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing, saying that it is not exhausting at all climbing the Great Wall, when you only take two steps in three minutes.

Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, which is hosting the 19th Asian Games, has welcomed a record number of tourists during the holiday. During the first three days, the city welcomed a total of 4.7 million tourists.

Tickets of many popular scenic spots were sold out, with some sold out even before the holiday started.

Tickets for Mount Taishan in East China's Shandong Province were all sold out until Wednesday. Tickets can be booked 14 days in advance. The current daily limit is 80,000 tourists.

A netizen posted a photo of crowds queuing at the entrance of Mount Taishan at 4:30 in the morning, attempting to avoid huge tourist flows. 

Mount Huangshan in East China's Anhui Province said in an announcement on Sunday that tickets for Monday have been sold out and advised tourists who failed to buy a ticket to avoid the site. Huangshan welcomed 29,753 tourists alone on Sunday.

A number of museums also announced that they have reached their daily limits.

Sichuan Museum in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, said its reservations have reached daily limit of 10,000 visitors until Wednesday.

The Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province was also fully booked until Wednesday, with only few tickets left for Thursday and Friday.

A netizen who visited the museum joked: "Even the terracotta warriors would not have room to stand, if they were not put inside the protection window."

China launched its largest solid propellant rocket Lijian-1 on Wednesday, successfully sending 26 satellites into preset orbit and setting the country's new record for launching multiple satellites in one go. The satellites will mainly provide commercial remote sensing information services.

The Wednesday launch marks the second flight of Lijian-1, indicating the maturity of the solid propellant rocket's technology and the continuous improvement of its reliability, which can further boost the commercialization of China's launch vehicles.

In an exclusive interview with the Global Times, chief engineer assistant on Lijian-1 Shi Xiaoning said he was quite confident about the rocket as its reliability has been verified. But he was still concerned about the separation of satellites from the rocket. 

"This time, there were more satellites to send and we not only needed to ensure that each of them could be successfully separated, but also ensure the accuracy of the satellite's orbit insertion, which was quite challenging," Shi said. "Therefore, we closely monitored data for each satellite separation, but in the end we accurately delivered each satellite to the designated orbit."

Lijian-1 made its maiden flight on July 27, 2022, successfully sending six satellites into their preset orbits. According to its developer, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the 2.65-meter-diameter and 30-meter-long new rocket is the largest of its kind in China.

It has achieved breakthroughs in six key technologies and utilized 13 domestic technologies for the first time, enriching China's spectrum of solid carrier rocket launch capabilities and making significant contributions to the technological transformation of China's carrier rocket industry.

Lijian-1 is a four-stage launch vehicle weighing 135 tons at launch with a thrust of 200 tons. It is capable of sending payloads of 1,500 kilograms into 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbits (SSO). Prior to that, the capacity of Chinese commercial space rockets in SSO was below 1,000 kilograms.

For the next step, the rocket developer Guangzhou Zhongke Aerospace Exploration Technology Co (CAS Space) will continue to enrich the spectrum of China's solid propellant launch vehicles. In addition to building a sea launch platform for Lijian-1, a new solid rocket with a diameter of 3.5 meters is also under development, the Global Times has learned.

Despite massive public health campaigns, the rise in worldwide obesity rates continues to hurtle along like a freight train on greased tracks.

In 2014, more than 640 million men and women were obese (measured as a body mass index of 30 or higher). That’s up from 105 million in 1975, researchers estimate in the April 2 Lancet. The researchers analyzed four decades of height and weight data for more than 19 million adults, and then calculated global rates based on population data. On average, people worldwide are gaining about 1.5 kilograms per decade — roughly the weight of a half-gallon of ice cream.
But the road isn’t entirely rocky. During the same time period, average life expectancy also jumped: from less than 59 years to more than 71 years, George Davey Smith points out in a comment accompanying the new study. Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of Bristol in England, boils the data down to a single, seemingly paradoxical sentence: “The world is at once fatter and healthier.”

Two newly discovered Triceratops relatives sported some peculiar headgear.

Researchers uncovered skull fragments of Machairoceratops cronusi in 77-million-year-old mudstone from the Wahweap Formation in southern Utah. Unlike other horned dinosaurs, the roughly 8-meter-long M. cronusi had two grooved horns with spatula-like tips bowed forward from the back of its neck shield. The grooves’ function baffles researchers.

A different research team found a younger cousin of M. cronusi in Montana’s Judith River Formation. Spiclypeus shipporum lived about 76 million years ago and had distinct brow horns that protruded sideways from its skull along with unusual spikes on its neck shield — some pointing outward, others bent forward. S. shipporum’s distinct horns and spikes may have allowed individuals of the species to recognize one another, says Jordan Mallon, a paleobiologist involved in the research at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

The new finds add to the diversity among the herbivorous horned dinosaurs that roamed North America during the Late Cretaceous period. “We thought we knew most things [about horned dinosaurs],” says Eric Lund, a paleontologist at Ohio University in Athens who analyzed M. cronusi. “But we’ve just scratched the surface.”

Papers detailing the new species were published May 18 in PLOS ONE.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Weight gain may depend on how an individual’s genes react to certain diets, a new study in mice suggests.

Four strains of mice fared differently on four different diets, William Barrington of North Carolina State University in Raleigh reported July 15 at the Allied Genetics Conference.

One strain, the A/J mouse, was nearly impervious to dietary changes. Those mice didn’t gain much weight or have changes in insulin or cholesterol no matter what they ate: a fat-and-carbohydrate-laden Western diet, traditional Mediterranean or Japanese diet (usually considered healthy) or very low-carbohydrate, fat-rich fare known as the ketogenic diet.
In contrast, NOD/ShiLtJ mice gained weight on all but the Japanese diet. Those mice’s blood sugar shot up — a hallmark of diabetes — on a Mediterranean diet, but decreased on the Japanese diet.

FVB/NJ mice didn’t get fat on the Western diet, but became obese and developed high cholesterol and other health problems on the ketogenic diet. The opposite was true for C57BL/6J mice. They became obese and developed cholesterol and other problems linked to heart disease and diabetes in people on the Western diet, but not on the ketogenic diet. They also fattened up on the Mediterranean diet.

The results indicate that “there’s no universally healthy diet,” Barrington said. The findings echo results of a human study in which blood sugar rose in some people after eating some foods, even when the same food had no effect on other people (SN: 1/9/16, p. 8). Such individual reactions to food suggest that diets should be personalized.

Barrington and colleagues are working to find the genes that control the mouse strains’ varying responses to what they eat. There is still no way to predict how people will fare on a given diet, he said.

WASHINGTON — When bacteria lose genes needed to make enzymes for important chemical reactions, defeat isn’t inevitable. Sometimes other enzymes will take on new roles to patch together a work-around chain of reactions that does the job, biologist Shelley Copley reported August 4 at the 2nd American Society for Microbiology Conference on Experimental Microbial Evolution.

Bacteria that can adapt in this way are more likely to survive when living conditions change, passing along these new tricks to their descendants. So studying these biochemical gymnastics is helping scientists to understand how evolution works on a molecular level.
Working with different strains of Escherichia coli bacteria, Copley and colleagues deleted genes responsible for making crucial enzymes. The team then watched the microbes replicate for many generations to see how they worked around those limitations.

Most enzymes are highly specialized: They only work well to speed up one type of reaction, the way a key fits only one lock. But some enzymes are more like master keys — they can boost multiple reactions, though they tend to specialize in one. These so-called “promiscuous” enzymes can switch away from their specialty if conditions change.

Copley’s team found that new enzymes would sub in to replace the missing ones. For instance, E. coli missing an enzyme needed to make vitamin B6 synthesized the vitamin using a different set of enzymes. But surprisingly, the promiscuous enzymes didn’t end up directly triggering the same reaction as the enzymes they replaced. Instead, the replacement enzymes cobbled together a different (often longer) work-around series of reactions that ultimately achieved the same function.

“We were rerouting metabolism,” said Copley, of the University of Colorado Boulder.

By modifying the bacteria’s genes and forcing the microbes to survive with a more limited chemical toolkit, Copley’s work gives a more detailed look at the biochemistry underlying evolution, says biologist Gavin Sherlock of Stanford University, who was not involved in the research.
Betul Kacar, a synthetic biologist at Harvard University, says promiscuity could also be a window into the past, giving hints about enzymes’ previous roles earlier in evolutionary history. The role that an enzyme jumps in to play in a pinch could have once been its main job. “Trying to understand how novel pathways arise, what kind of mechanistic underlying forces shape those trajectories, is quite essential,” she says.

Bacteria can piece together all sorts of alternative routes in response to missing enzymes, depending on specific environmental conditions, Copley said. The ones that are most successful are more efficient —they have fewer steps, or they yield more of the desired reaction product.