Teaching English in China a good Plan B

If you asked Cody Batchelor, an English teacher in China, a year ago what he planned to do after graduating from college, he would have said his first choice was law school.

Mounting a musical peak

On the day when he had his biggest sense of accomplishment, Zhang Yong was heavily in debt.

One man's lost-and-found service

Qiu Shenghua, 66, is carefully counting his money to purchase stamps at a post office in Xinyang, Henan province.

What's new

Sino-French relations reach golden year

Panda revelation

At the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, home to 118 captive pandas, many visitors get a sense that China has many pandas. So, they ask, how can we say they are an endangered species?

Looking to the past to understand the future

Contrary to the popular historical narrative that China's exposure to the West in the 1800s hastened a slew of problems for an inward-looking Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), historian Odd Arne Westad argues that the Qing was not only eager to expand outward but benefited immeasurably from Western creativity and knowledge.

IN BRIEF (Page 22)

Treasure trove

Whether it is wine or the weather, one never learns to appreciate how good things are if there is no basis for comparison. For Paris-based Chaumet, which first catapulted to fame as Napoleon's jeweler, excellence lies in the details.

Smart about health, and ready to wear

Two functional fashion items have been launched in China recently, with a focus on family.

When the crowd bays for blood

Renowned filmmaker Zhang Yimou has found himself in deep water. Not only has he been fined 7.48 million yuan ($1.24 million) for violating the family-planning policy, but many Chinese want even harsher punishment. The tidal wave of malignancy displayed online is nothing short of unsettling. It's like a virtual lynching.

Her has a useful message about trust

Does Spike Jonze's new movie, Her, a tale of a man who falls head over heels for his computer operating system, pander to US mistrust of China? Or does it merely use Shanghai as a stand-in for the Los Angeles of the near future to make an important point about how people interact in a high-tech society?

Steak in the heart

Eating at fine dining restaurants is sometimes not fine, but overwhelming, with difficulties over table manners, dress codes or the way to pronounce those peculiar French and Italian names on the menu.