In 1983, Zhen Zhicheng, then 6 years old, was free as a bird in the steep mountains of Hubei province, where his parents, both Beijing natives, had been living since 1970 alongside tens of thousands mobilized from around China to work at the No 2 Automobile Plant in the small town of Shiyan.
The late American anthropologist Clifford Geertz once described a result of "agricultural involution", which was caused by internal pressures due to population growth, as increasing labor intensity in the paddy fields. China's agriculture faced the same problem, and its farmers were bound to the farmland for thousands of years.
The sheer scale and radical nature of transformations in China in the past century suggest that very few could claim not to be migrants of one sort or another.
Pan Yingjie, the president of Shanghai Ocean University, can never forget the summer of 1977 when an examination changed his life. It was not the easiest of times for the 27-year-old Pan then as life seemed bleak after the daily toil at a rural fertilizer plant in Anhui province that was not only sapping his energy, but proving a health issue for his pregnant wife.
English learning has changed over the years in China. I taught English first at Lanzhou University in 1990-1991 and 1992-1993. I have also taught English at Beijing International Studies University from September 2001 onward.
Driven by rapid urbanization and government efforts to stimulate domestic demand, China's smaller cities are emerging as a powerhouse for international and domestic retailers.
I was one of the first few that appeared for the gaokao, or the college entrance exam, in 1977, when it was resumed after the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976). I was 30 then. Nine years of hard labor in rural environs till then had made me, a Beijing native, give up hope of ever returning to a campus, let alone think of being one of the veterans of China Daily.
Rong Jikai, a retired senior professor in Beijing, has been overseas to "dozens of places?such as Japan, Thailand and Nepal ?but always for work and never as a tourist. But since his retirement, Rong, in his 80s, and his wife Xiao Shuqin, in her 70s, are trying their best to make up for this. So far, they have been to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, including many countries in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. And that's just from 2009.
The road winding its way in front of me looked endless, emerging from behind a slope at one point and disappearing into a misty bamboo jungle at another. Sometimes, it scraped by craggy cliffs high on the edge of the gorge overlooking the ribbon-like river down in the distance; sometimes it rolled away along the riverside in the gloom of the valley, rising and falling as it crossed tributary streams and dodged old villages.
Tourism in China has one huge advantage and believe me, it's not the food. What makes traveling in China different is that tourists here are ripped off a lot less than in other countries. I believe that's a significant observation into national character: If I were Chinese, I would take real pride in the behavior of ordinary people toward foreigners.
Qi Faren's name is linked with China's first satellite, its first unmanned spaceship and first manned spaceship, leading some to say his biography would be an abridged version of China's space history. Like his given name suggests ?"new things begin to emerge??he has created many historic "firsts?
China's space program has benefited from the reform and opening-up and has presented one vast scene of exuberance over the past three decades. Major technical innovations and breakthroughs were made during the period. In the early 1980s, the country averaged less than one satellite launch a year. But in 2010 alone, 15 launch vehicles blasted off, sending 20 satellites into orbit - and the number is expected to grow this year. China has also exported communications satellites and provided in-orbit delivery services in the international commercial launch service market.
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Raymond Zhou
Op Rana
Berlin Fang
Zhu Yuan
Huang Xiangyang
Chen Weihua
