Seaside blues

Careering down a mountain along a metal half-pipe track, loosely strapped into a flimsy plastic sled, you can't help but have a little giggle to yourself.

Life Health

The funny thing about health

MUNICH: Popular wisdom has it that laughter is the best medicine. And now, a growing number of scientific studies are now providing proof.

A new look at old medicines

CHICAGO: Scientists are studying traditional food supplements used for centuries - from ginseng and flaxseed to shark cartilage - for possible cancer-curing qualities, according to research presented at a major cancer conference in Chicago.

Battle of the bulge

Ten-year-old Chang Tai is always hungry. The little fellow particularly enjoys wolfing down pork, chicken legs, and hamburgers. He already weighs 50 kilograms, almost 15 kilograms heavier than most boys of his age and height, and his weight problem is shattering his confidence.

IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Life Book

Xinhua Bookstore turns 70

The Xinhua Bookstore was founded on April 24, 1937, in the Qingliang Mountains in Yan'an. Communist revolutionaries opened the first store at their Shaanxi Province base.

A comic take on drinking up fine-wine culture

TOKYO: The aroma is like a rock concert, with notes of butterflies dancing over a pond and an aftertaste of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

The final chapter?

Roaming about a bookshop used to be the favorite pastime for Huang Jiwei, a famed Beijing-based writer, publisher and avid book collector. He takes great pleasure in spending hours sauntering among the stalls and shelves, discovering interesting titles and taking them home.

Life Expat

Great haul of China

They are here for a good time - and a long time. When months stretch into years and life becomes a string of farewell parties for friends returning home, there comes a time in an expatriate's life when they must ask: have I gone native?