China Scene: East

Farmer's cash appears among the tea leaves

Hu, a farmer in Wuwei, Anhui province, recently left a plastic bag containing 120,000 yuan ($16,900) at a teashop.

Upon discovering that he had forgotten his money, he returned to the shop, but the bag was gone. Thinking the shop's owner, Zhou, had hidden the money, Hu started shouting at him.

Zhou told police several people had bought tea and one of them might have taken Hu's bag by mistake.

Police visited each of the buyers and finally found Tao, who had taken several bags of tea from the shop to his car. When he opened his car, Hu found his bag of money mixed in with Tao's tea. Tao said he had taken the money by accident.

(Xin'an Evening News)

Helicopter dreams buoyed by wooden blades

Wu Shuzai, a 66-year-old farmer in Qianshan county, Jiangxi province, recently made a helicopter out of wood. He has yet to take it out for its maiden flight.

Wu has made two helicopters in the past five years. Last year, the first helicopter he made fell apart after flying to a height of 100 m.

Wu has lived alone ever since his wife died and his four daughters were married off. In his free time, Wu has dreamt of seeing the world outside his mountainous village.

One day in 2003, he saw a lecture on helicopter mechanics on TV, and his interest was piqued. Since then, he has bought many books on helicopters to learn how to make them.

Despite his failure to make his first helicopter fly, Wu says he hopes the second one will succeed.

(China News Photo)

(China Daily 03/26/2008 page6)