China Scene: East
Train fare late, but better late than never
Racked with guilt over an unpaid train journey more than 30 years ago, an elderly woman in her 60s in Taiwan went to Shanhua Railway Station on Sunday to pay 3,000 NTS ($97.40).
The woman surnamed Hu approached the station's ticket window, giving the director a sealed envelope. The director later opened it and found the money and a letter, which explained how more than 30 years ago she and her sister took a midnight train but failed to find the train crew to buy tickets, and that she had been tortured by guilt ever since.
The station director said the journey the woman took 30 years ago would cost her less than 500 NTS ($16).
(Tong Hua Daily News)
Scarecrow tradition revived among students
To promote traditional straw-weaving skills among young students, a primary school in Yunlin County of Taiwan invited an elderly scarecrow maker to campus to teach them how to weave animals and clothes with straw.
Yunlin County is known as "a rice county" for its vast areas of rice fields. Previously local farmers erected scarecrows in the fields to scare away birds. However, scarecrows are rarely seen in the fields nowadays. Not long ago the school invited Wang Chengde, the 77-year-old folk scarecrow maker, to teach students how to produce small items with straw, followed by a scarecrow festival on Saturday when all the scarecrows made by students were displayed.
(www.chinataiwan.org)
Unmanned stall makes money without seller
A tiny community in Jinan, Shandong, is a good model for honesty.
For 14 years, Liu Shangcui has never tended to her newspaper stall because no buyers have so far cheated her.
From 6-11 am every day, 200 copies are sold at the news stall, while Liu delivers newspapers to the doors of dozens of subscribers.
The buyers, mostly neighbors in the community, put the money into a basket on the stall and when they don't have the right sum, they pay later.
(www. xinhuanet.com)
College student walks the talk with smart investing
A business-savvy college senior in Nanjing, Jiangsu, earned 360,000 yuan ($46,753) in one year by investing in stocks.
The senior, Xiao Lin, majoring in foreign trade in the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, grew his original assets of 3,000 yuan ($389.60) to 360,000 yuan by speculating in stocks last year.
Supporters said speculating in stocks was a good practice of campus knowledge and an exercise of mentality and vision, while critics said this may take up too much study time, give rise to gambling and cause mental and social problems.
(Jiangnan Times)
Yak puts up a fight, didn't want medicine
Thanks to modern medicine, it's fairly easy for people to get over an illness like the common cold.
Yaks are another story. Staff at a zoo in Huai'an, Jiangsu, had their work cut out for them when one of their Yaks fell ill with pneumonia and red-eye disease. The yak was also strong, hot-tempered, and rather uncooperative when it came to giving its medicine.
Zoo staff had to round it up with a rope, pull it to a tree and bound its limbs, just so they could keep it still long enough to inject it with vitamins and antibiotics and apply eyedrops.
(Yangtze Evening News)
(China Daily 04/03/2007 page6)
