Students take up AIDS challenge

At first, it was merely an online game to 14-year old Yang Chengcheng - a game started by clicking a floating red ribbon on the computer screen, then proceeding to read and answer questions.

But this game yielded more than fun; Yang, an eighth-grader in Yunnan province, ended up with a store of important knowledge about AIDS, from basic facts to prevention and treatment information to anti-discrimination guidelines. In fact, this was a national contest - and Yang also won an mp3 player.

Yang had learned about the challenge in her computer class, when the teacher displayed the website www.health.cbern.gov.cn. Having no computer at home, she had gone to a cousin's home and spent a whole afternoon struggling with the 100 questions, organized in nine sections and proceeding in five stages from easiest to hardest.