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More than 100,000 electric lifts in the capital are being fitted with GPS monitoring devices and automatic alarm systems in a move aimed at improving safety.

Beijing's elevators are being upgraded one week ahead of new national standards.

One in 10 elevators in China are in Beijing.

The upgrade has been approved by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and the Standardizations Administration, and will come into effect on March 1, the Mirror Evening News reported yesterday.

According to the new standard, alarm devices and talkbacks must be set up in lifts where they can easily be recognized and reached, the newspaper said.

The Beijing Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision says the GPS devices will be able to transfer the operation information to the terminal monitoring system, local media reported.

In the future, it is possible that all new lifts will have to include the devices before they can be sold to the Beijing market.

"Establishing the monitoring system in lifts could help operating staff get more information about lifts' operation. It's very important when accidents happen," Li Hualiang, director of the special equipment supervision department in the municipal bureau was quoted as saying.

The monitoring system will be similar to the "black boxes" in airplanes.

Li also said the automatic alarm system could help people communicate with elevator operating staff through video links in the event of a lift malfunction.

"Professional staff could help people inside the cage calm down and call for rescuers through the communication system," the director said.

As many as 80 percent of elevator accidents are caused by problems with lift doors because of a lack of regular equipment checks and repairs, the newspaper reported.

In one recent tragedy, a 68-year-old female resident, surnamed Liu, died in Fengtai district in June 2008 after the lift she was stuck in fell several floors. Twenty-one-year-old elevator mechanic Yang Yong was also injured in the incident and was in a coma for three days

The organizers of a snow carnival might sue a local newspaper after it reported almost 300 students had protested against low wages for part-time work over the Spring Festival.

The Beijing Times wrote yesterday that nearly 300 university students blocked a door of the Auti Outdoors Company for Winter Children Day. It said the students had signed contracts with the company from Jan 9 to March 1.

According to the article, the students claimed the company had promised to pay double wages for holiday work over the festival, 160 yuan per day, but the company later refused to pay the new rate.

Yu Tao, a spokesman of the carnival, said the contract asked the students to work from 9 am to 4 pm or 4 pm to 9 pm every day over the period. The wage is normally 50 yuan a day, which was then doubled during the Spring Festival.

"The newspaper was wrong. We never promised 160 yuan a day. We told students they would get 80 yuan a day before their working hours were extended on Jan 12, but didn't say this rate would be doubled during the festival," he said.

He also denied that the students had protested, adding that they had queued up in the corridor to collect their wages.

The students had their own version of the story.

"They told us we would get 160 yuan a day over the Spring Festival. It was 60 yuan more than the contract stated, which is why I decided to work for them," a student surnamed Fu told METRO.

Fu said 25 students in his team were asked to leave yesterday, after the number of visitors fell well below expectations.

"We waited hours to see if we could get the extra 420 yuan for the seven days of work, but left when the police turned up," Fu said.

The negative feeling was echoed by a second student, who asked not to be named.

"They didn't tell me to leave. If I quit before my contract ends, I get nothing. Worse than that, I actually have to give 2,000 yuan in compensation," he said, while holding up his contract.

Both students said they had been convinced the company was honest because the carnival was supported by the local government.

A software engineer who abused his position to gather account information on almost one million people has been sentenced to five years for credit card fraud.

Zhang Chunlei, 35, from Jiangsu province, was also fined 50,000 yuan at Tongzhou court.

Li Zhonghua, the trial judge, told METRO Zhang worked as a senior software engineer at Beijing Ruantong Power Information Technology Company when he cracked into some accounts.

Li said Zhang was responsible for inspecting and maintaining the ATM monitoring system for the Beijing branches of a major State-owned bank between 1999 and 2009.

During his work, he had access to customers' information.

According to the regulations of the bank, inspectors are not allowed to use storage devices to capture that information but Zhang secretly copied vast amounts of information, Li said.

The court heard Zhang then attempted to guess the passwords used by some credit card holders and created nine bogus credit cards using blank cards he bought in the Zhongguancun area.

On June 7, 2009, Zhang used a forged China Construction Bank credit card to obtain 7,900 yuan from an ATM at the Beijing Rural Commercial Bank's Yongshun branch in Tongzhou district.

And on June 20, Zhang wore a hat, mask, and gloves when he attended the Tongzhou branch, where he withdrew 70,000 yuan using eight counterfeit credit cards.

A passerby thought he looked suspicious and called police. Zhang was apprehended.

Zhang expressed remorse during the trial, but he said he would appeal the sentence to a higher court.

He explained that he committed the crime in a bid to get money to treat his father, who was battling esophagus cancer in Jiangsu province.

But Li told METRO the sentence was appropriate considering the amount of money involved.

"According to law, if a person is convicted of credit card fraud and the amount of money is between 50,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan, they will face imprisonment of between five and 10 years and a fine of between 50,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan."

Despite the fact that tourism authorities in the capital tried to give away two million free tickets to local attractions last year as part of a massive promotion, only 346,000 people made the most of the offer.

The freebies guaranteed entry to almost 50 tourism hot-spots in and around the city.

"Beijing was the first city to give away free tickets in China's tourism market," Wang Jian, director of the No 1 promoting department of the Beijing tourism administration, told METRO yesterday.

"It was a very successful marketing strategy during the global financial crisis last year." According to the latest press release on the administration's website, 980,000 people applied for tickets.

Of those, 346,000 visitors actually used them.

The most popular destination was The Summer Palace, which waved in 53,394 people brandishing free passes.

The give-away generated 980 million yuan for Beijing's tourism economy, the website said.

"Some people booked our free tickets with an errant address or unreadable handwriting, so 8.2 percent of the free tickets could not be delivered to those who registered for them," an officer, surnamed Shi, who was part of the free tickets registration team, told METRO yesterday. "We suggest people leave clear information for us during the following free-ticket events."

Shi explained that tourism authorities viewed the event as a success, even though only 346,000 of the two million free tickets were used. Some 300,000 were grabbed online during the Chinese New Year holiday.

"We were only expecting 200,000 people to use the free tickets, so it was much better than the benchmark we set in the beginning," Shi said. "We are expecting up to one million people to benefit from the free tickets this year."

Shi said the free tickets were responsible for an 11.8 percent growth in tourism income compared to the previous year. Of the free ticket users, some 25,000 people visited the China Central Television (CCTV) high-rise during the Spring Festival holiday. On one day, the influx broke the daily visitor record.

Zhao Yudong, general manager of the CCTV tower, said: "We accepted 4,193 free tickets but at least 10,000 others purchased theirs."

In light of last year's success, the tourism bureau is planning more promotional efforts for Beijing's tourism market.

"This year, we still plan to release up to two million free tickets in Beijing, mainly during the public holidays, and there will be more than 1,000 free rooms in hotels for more lucky visitors," Wang said.

Local villa owners compensated by developer for child killed by falling fireplace

The parents of a five-year-old girl, crushed to death by a falling fireplace in their home in 2009, will donate some of the compensation from the community's developer to start a charity foundation.

The girl surnamed Gong was killed by the collapse of a 100 kg fireplace in the family's villa in Napa Valley, Changping district, on May 17, 2009. Gong was sent to hospital but died six hours later.

The ensuing dispute between family and developer lasted for more than eight months. Gong's body was finally cremated on Feb 10, according to Li Fangping, a lawyer representing the family.

Li Wei, CEO of the developer, apologized to the family and signed a dispute settlement agreement with the family on Feb 5.

Lawyer Li said the developer would pay more than 2 million yuan to the family and buy back the villa at the current market value - currently 35,000 to 42,300 yuan per sq m.

"It is a pity we could not start a criminal investigation, but Gong's family now just want to start their new life," Li told METRO.

Li said Gong's father would set up a fund with part of the compensation to protect other children. The fund would be ready in May to mark the anniversary.

"After my daughter died, I checked and found that the fireplace had only been glued on the wall," Gong Yaobin, the girl's father, wrote in his blog.

Mao Daqing, vice-president of Vanke Co Ltd, wrote in his blog on Aug 24, 2009 that these types of heavy fireplaces must always be secured with metal reinforcements.

On May 25, Gong demanded the developer of the community to provide his family with an explanation. However, he only received a letter of sympathy from the property management company, a subsidiary of the developer.

"The developer refused to apologize or admit fault and even avoided our family for up to three months after the accident," Gong said in his blog on Aug 24.

Gong finally called the police on Sept 1. An investigation team went to his house the following day.

A report on the fireplace, announced by Changping police on Feb 8, said the design was below the State standard, but it was not a criminal case.

Beijing police confirmed Thursday they have detained 18 people for allegedly causing an affray and intentionally injuring artists at an art zone on Monday.

The artists staged a brief protest against the attack and the demolition of the art zone in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Monday afternoon, after the incident.

The Beijing Public Security Bureau's information office said the suspects allegedly broke into three artists' workshops in Changdian Village, Chaoyang, on Monday. Police later arrived to control the situation in response to a phone call from the artists.

More than 10 artists, including Ai Weiwei, rallied on Chang'an Avenue at about 3 pm Monday, expressing discontent over the demolition of the Chuangyi Zhengyang Art Zone in eastern Beijing's Chaoyang District.

Police are still investigating the dispute.

An 84-year-old man almost died in a State-owned hospital when nurses failed to notice his heart and breathing had stopped because they were playing cards, relatives claimed.

Chen Xiang, a retired Beijing railway employee who suffered from kidney cancer, underwent surgery at Fengtai Hospital on Jan 13. The hospital is a large local hospital with more than 1,600 medical staff and 1,100 beds.When my brother pushed open a second door, he found the head nurse and two other people playing cards with a doctor, surrounded by several nurses

After surgery, Chen was returned to his ward. Within minutes, Chen's sons noticed from medical machines that their father's heartbeat and breathing had stopped.

"We were scared and ran to call the doctor and nurses," said Chen Guangzong, one of the sons.

He said his brother Chen Yinghua knocked on the nurse's door but couldn't locate anyone.

"When my brother pushed open a second door, he found the head nurse and two other people playing cards with a doctor, surrounded by several nurses," he said.

He said they asked him to find the attending doctor and returned to their card game.

Chen's attending doctor, Wang Gang, an associate chief physician, came to check on him more than 10 minutes later after a nurse working in a neighboring room called him, Chen's relatives said.

Wang performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation that restarted Chen's heart, but was unable to initiate breathing. Chen was then transferred to the hospital's intensive care unit.

"How could medical care staff be so indifferent to a dying elderly patient?" asked Chen Yinghua.

Fengtai Hospital responded to protests by the family on Feb 2 with a written reply that stated they are investigating the allegation.

Fang Lihua, the head nurse accused of playing cards on duty, has been asked to admit responsibility and will not receive her bonus, the hospital said.

"Playing cards is unconnected to Chen's coma, and the attending doctor did well to save his life," said the hospital reply, Beijing Times reported.

An officer surnamed Ding with Fengtai district health bureau said nurses must always be available, even if there is no patient on the ward.

The bureau will track the investigation and request communication between the hospital and Chen's family, according to Beijing Times.

Statistics show that disagreements between hospitals and the families of patients are on the rise. Courts handled 862 medical malpractice conflict compensation cases in 2006, 997 in 2007 and 1,020 in 2008, according to Beijing Evening News.

A five-month-old Nanjing infant, sent to a local hospital with eye problems, got significantly worse when the on-duty doctor refused to help.

He was reported to be playing computer games that drowned out the desperate pleas of the child's parents. The infant died on Nov 4, 2009.

A family was attacked after quarreling with a tour guide on a trip to Badaling Great Wall over the recent Chinese New Year holiday, a time when 7.65 million visitors flocked through the city's gates.

Cui Jianguo and his family, from Zhangjiakou in Hebei province, were handed a flyer last Sunday outside the National Stadium for a one-day-tour to the wall, Beijing Times reported yesterday.

The Hebei family was picked up by a minibus near Guanzhuang at 4 am on Monday morning and taken to Xicheng district, then transferred onto a coach.

A female tour guide on the bus told Cui and his wife to seat their 9-year-old twin sons on their laps.

"She spoke us in a very impolite way, so we complained. We never thought she would get so mad at us," Hu Lin, Cui's brother-in-law, was quoted as saying.

Hu said the tour guide asked them to get off the vehicle but they refused.

"The woman rounded up seven or eight guys from the area who beat us up," Hu said.

According to medical records from Beijing No.2 hospital, Cui received a skull fracture and a wound behind his left ear, the newspaper reported.

Hu's hands were also injured, and the clothing of both men was damaged Local police said they have detained two people, who claimed they were licensed tour guides trying to stop the fight.

The rented coach belongs to the Beijing Automotive Group. The company dodged questions about who had rented their vehicle. Xicheng police is investigating the case.

"It is quite possible that the trip was arranged by an unlicensed travel agency," Song Jun, a press officer from the Beijing tourism administration, told METRO yesterday.

He said unlicensed travel agencies are a big problem for the Beijing tourism market. The administration is trying to regulate the market, but said it cannot do it alone.

"We are cooperating with Beijing police, urban administration and many other government agencies. We strongly suggest all travelers go to licensed agencies and not fall for random adverts," he said.

The recent Chinese New Year holiday saw a rise of more than 5 percent in visitors to Beijing, compared with last year. The tourism income hit almost 3 billion yuan and an 11.8 percent growth.

According to Ctrip.com, the biggest online travel agency in China, Beijing has taken over Shanghai as the most popular city.

A provocative anti-smoking ad campaign featuring teens in a subservient sexual position has sparked heated debate in France, media reported Thursday.

The three ads show teenagers on their knees with cigarettes between their lips, their faces at a man's waist, looking submissively into his eyes. The advertising slogan says, "Smoking means being a slave to tobacco."

"The campaign trivialises sexual abuse -- worse, it implies guilt on the part of the abused," the Telegraph quotes a commenter from the Droits des Non-Fumeurs Web site as saying.

France's minister for families, Nadine Morano, said she would take measures to get the advert banned on grounds of "public offense to decency".

Dawn Brancheau's family remembered the SeaWorld trainer who died in a fatal killer whale attack as a "loving person" who always dreamed of working with animals.

Here is a text of her family's statement issued through SeaWorld of Orlando, as reported by Florida TV's News 13.

You have all heard what an amazing trainer Dawn Brancheau was and it is true – she was the best. It came naturally to her. Being a trainer was a life-long dream that she achieved. She loved her job, and she loved her animals.

For her husband, family and friends, Dawn was so much more. She was a compassionate and loving person who lived life to the fullest. She touched so many lives. Those who knew and loved her have suffered a tremendous loss, one so unexpected that it is extremely difficult to even process or comprehend at this time. Our family sincerely appreciates everyone’s prayers and compassionate thoughts for Dawn, her husband and family.

While we understand that this tragic event is capturing headlines across the country, at this time, our family needs space and privacy to absorb our loss. We sincerely hope that the media will honor and respect this request.

Funeral and memorial arrangements are pending.

Chinese farmers who travel the country in search of nectar for their bees produce most of the world's honey. Cai Rupeng reports

Like many people from "Bee Town" in Lanxi, East China's Zhejiang province, Jiang Lizun is a bee farmer, who treks around the country searching for nectar. The 57 year old, who has been an apiarist since he was 17, follows the seasons while transporting more than 100 hives.

He is usually accompanied by his wife and though much of their time is spent among blossoms and flowers this honeyed life has a bitter taste.

They are rarely able to return home for Spring Festival and a gypsy kind of existence has its hardships.

In late November, every year, they pack up their hives, tents and the bare essentials to move south for the bee breeding season, from early spring until September.

Their journey of thousands of kilometers passes through dozens of provinces and cities, and is occasionally fraught with danger.

Last year, for instance, in Minxian county, Gansu province, the couple was caught up in a flood that endangered their lives and swept their tent and 70 hives down a hillside. Three Minxian residents were killed and eight were injured.

China is the world's top honey producer and provides 40 percent of the honey and 90 percent of the royal jelly. The country has more than 200,000 beekeepers, like the Jiangs.

In Lanxi, it has been a tradition for residents to keep bees. Even more have become apiarists since the 1990s, when the industry was commercialized.

By following the seasons, bee farmers have a constant supply of nectar sources, from the rapeseed fields of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, to the northwest cotton fields and orange trees in the south.

Where there are flowers, there are beekeepers.

Jiang's first stop in November is Guangning county, a mountainous area in north Guangdong province, where he stays for two months.

The warm weather here produces a rich pollen from a fist-sized red flower that results in a bee-breeding season that is at least two months earlier than in Lanxi.

Jiang sets up over 100 circle-shaped hives on the hillsides, where his bees double in numbers after feeding on the flowers and over 50 kg bags of white sugar.

In late February, when the cole flowers are blooming in the south, the couple move on to Lixian, Hunan province, to farm honey. If the weather is good, they can gather 150-200 kg every day.

This is time-consuming and difficult work, even though modern-day hives are more efficient than traditional honeycombs. They pick up the honeycomb from the hive, disperse the bees and then hand it over to their hired helper, who uses a honey extractor to harvest the precious commodity.

Although armed with incense, hats and masks they are still stung every day, as the bees are naturally protective of their hive.

Since bees only forage when their comb is empty they are constantly extracting the honey so the worker bees are always busy.

Royal jelly, the most valuable bee product, can only be collected manually from the numerous man-made queen cells.

When the cole flowers have finished blooming, Jiang and his wife travel to Dengzhou, Henan province, so they can keep farming honey.

"It's like honey is produced from our sweat," Jiang says. "The higher the temperature, the more honey flows."

Weather, of course, is a big factor in honey production and every day Jiang pays attention to the forecast. On a wet and windy day, farming is impossible.

There are other problems, man-made, that affect production, such as competing for resources and it is not uncommon for bee farmers to fight over pasture for their bees.

Also, some villages levy fees, called "transit guarantees" or "resource protection", which further erode profits.

"You pay your way to honey," Jiang says, adding he also has to give gifts, such as cigarettes and bee products, to avoid trouble from villagers.

Climate change and pollution are two other factors that have caused a deterioration in the quality and quantity of his honey.

Locust trees in Lixian county, Gansu province, for example, used to provide huge amounts of tasty and mellow acacia honey, which Jiang likes best among all the different kinds of honey. But these are becoming less plentiful.

He used to manage eight rounds of honey gathering there in previous years, but last year managed just three because of the scarcity of flowers.

Although much of their lives are spent on the road and they face many difficulties, Jiang and his wife say they will continue as bee farmers.

Each beehive can produce 500-800 yuan ($73-$117) profit a year and this is better than for most other farmers based in Lanxi.

"It's so much better than having a traditional farm," Jiang says.

Hunger drove a wild panda to break into a Chinese farmer's pig pen and eat their food, which was meat and bone, rather than bamboo.

State-run China Central Television said the giant panda had apparently descended from the mountains in a region of southwest China's Sichuan province and was spotted in a field before the animal was found inside the pig pen, chewing on bones and spitting out the meat.

After eating its fill, the panda quietly left.

Although classified as carnivores, the giant pandas' diet is mainly bamboo, but it also eats other foods including honey, eggs, fish, oranges and bananas when available.

Scientists believe there are around 1,600 giant pandas living in the wild in China, mostly in the mountains of the southwest.

The endangered species are considered a national icon and its existence

Competition to get into Beijing's top acting schools is tight and applicants often resort to unorthodox measures to stand out. During an interview at the Beijing Film Academy five years ago, an applicant slapped an interviewer across the face in an attempt to be remembered.

"They are so desperate to get into the top performing art schools that they do stupid things," said a witness to the incident who refused to give his name.

The competition is only getting more intense. The overwhelming number of applicants to acting and drama colleges this year even surprised long-time faculty.

"For the first two days more than 1200 students come here to register, about 300 more than last year," said Wang Jingsong, director of performing arts at the Beijing Film Academy.

Applications to the Beijing Film Academy and the Central Academy of Drama, perhaps the two most prestigious performing arts school in the capital, begin in mid-February.

Of the more than 4,000 prospective students who have so far applied to the Beijing Film Academy, only 60 will get in as performing arts majors and 20 as crosstalk majors.

Almost every applicant dreams of becoming a movie or television star and few are deterred by the long odds of even getting into school.

"It might be too hard to get into, but it is worthy trying," said Jin Shuai, a high school senior from Hunan province came to Beijing with her mother for the registration.

She said he is fighting to get in to her dream school. But Jin said he is aware how hard it will be to secure a spot. "Rumors say that if a male applicant is shorter than 180cm, he won't get in," he said.

Unrealistic expectations are one potential pitfall for hopeful applicants. An experienced actor recalled that, "Some applicants were over confident."

When he was waiting for his retest for the Beijing Film Academy, a boy in front of him in the line said he was good at dancing. But when asked how long he had been dancing, the boy said "I learned from a TV show yesterday."

But even those lucky enough to get admitted may see their dreams of becoming a star fade once they finish school, said Cheng Cheng, who graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 2008 and is currently acting on television shows while getting a master's degree from the academy.

She still vividly remembers going through the application process, with crowds of parents waiting outside the interview room, hoping their child would be a superstar one day.

"I remember being asked to act as an animal; the teachers there didn't care if you are professional or not, they care more about your passion, your personality and your thoughts," she said.

But now her attitude toward acting and being a star has changed. "I guess every student who comes here is dreaming to be surrounded by flowers and applauses one day, but it is not easy," Cheng said.

"Actors or actresses are just normal people, and acting is just a job, like many other professions," she added.

Cheng has been acting as the lead actress in the television show China Family.

Song Yanzhou experienced the same disparity between dreams and reality.

Song is from Lanzhou, Gansu province and loved drama so much that he applied two years in a row to the Central Academy of Drama.

Song finally got into the performing arts school in 2004 on his second try. Yet when he was actually sitting in the classroom, he said he felt lost and stressed.

"So many students were more talented than me; some even began acting in movies and commercials before they went to college," he said.

Few will become famous at all and those that do will have to work hard for it, said Wang.

"Opportunity only comes to those who are prepared," he added.

Fame and fortune for the lucky few

To anyone still dreaming of being famous overnight, working actors have only one thing to say - "Think again, it's hard work."

"In this field, to be successful is very tricky," said one freelance actor, who graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in 2007, and who now has a regular role in a soap opera.

He said as well as acting skills, social skills are the key to success.

"Opportunity does come, but you never know when," he said.

The actor still remembers the excitement in his class when a female classmate was chosen for a key role in aZhang Yimou film - and they all thought, "Maybe we are the next to be chosen!"

"But it's hard," he repeated. "Although sometimes it is not the actor's fault." Some actors for instance look much younger than their real age.

"Many of my colleagues with a young face can only play security guards or other secondary roles, if they are not handsome enough to act in youth idol dramas,"Song Yanzhou said.

Besides the harsh reality of looks, prospective actors are advised to have a wealthy family to support them, especially at the start of their careers.

Song said it was very hard for him as, "My family didn't support me in this career, because there are no other family members involved in this business and it is not a mainstream job."

Financial support is also important because actors and actresses need to dress up and take care of their image, and because it provides the luxury of choosing roles, for those not lucky enough to have such economic back-up, it may be imperative to take on a role in a bad film just to pay the bills.

"After several such roles, your reputation will be ruined," the soap actor said. "Besides, there is an opportunity cost: what if a really good script comes when you are in the middle of a bad one? You cannot just quit the early one, you have a contract!"

Unlike the dreams of many applicants, only a small number of actors in China will get millions overnight. "I guess only ten to twenty people in China can get a paycheck of 150 thousand yuan per episode in a soap opera," Song said.

Actress Cheng Cheng, who does have a good role in a soap drama said that even then it is hard work. At one point she worked 75 days in a row, staying on scene from morning to night. She recalled shooting a rain scene, which required her to stand under a shower from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. in December.

"To be a successful actor or actress involves 60 percent effort, 30 percent opportunity and 10 percent random chance," Cheng said.

It is hard to be a successful actor. But for those who love it and stick with it - break a leg.

Showing sheer grit, a young woman has braved roaring rivers, snowstorms, landslides and snakes to bring news of loved ones to residents of a remote township in Yunnan province. Mei Jia reports

As millions of Chinese gathered in front of the TV to watch CCTV's Spring Festival gala show this year, a Tibetan woman sitting in the front row of the studio audience of special invitees, won the loudest applause.

Postwoman Nyima says what scares her most as she travels around Deqen county is the eeries forms that the rocky silhouettes take on at dusk.

Postwoman Nyima says what scares her most as she travels around Deqen county is the eeries forms that the rocky silhouettes take on at dusk.

Nyima Lhamo, 34, never dreamed she would one day be in the spotlight when she first took up her job at the local post office, 11 years ago, for a paltry 300 yuan ($44) a month.

The first time she was assigned to cross the roaring Lancang River to deliver mail to 26 villages in Yunling township, northwestern Yunnan province, she hesitated.

Only a few years earlier, her younger brother had drowned in the river. Nyima had to slide across a steel wire suspended high above the angry waters and secured by hemp ropes. A fall meant certain death.

Nyima recalls how her legs felt leaden and hands trembled as the post office head gave the initial push that sent her flying.

But when she reached the other side, she found that all her fears had vanished.

From then on, sliding on the steel wire with mailbags weighing up to 30 kg became routine. It was only in 2006 that a bridge was constructed across the river.

Nyima is the only mail carrier of Yunling post office in Deqen county, Diqing Tibet autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province. Better known as the legendary Shangri-La, the area is locked by the Meili and Baima snow mountains and three big rivers.

Sitting at an average altitude of 3,800 m, with a drop of 4,900 m from the highest mountain peak to the lowest valley, the isolated area presents a major challenge for the provision of postal services. But showing unusual courage, Nyima has been delivering mail messages of hope and comfort to her fellow villagers.

"These letters and parcels mean a lot to the villagers who are shut-off from the outside world," she says. "Whatever the difficulties, I make sure they reach their destination."

A decade ago, it took Nyima five days to distribute each week's mail. She had to battle not just snowstorms and landslides, but also snakes and loneliness in her 350-km journey.

Sliding across the Lancang River became even more risky on rainy days. The brakes would fail to function and she would be flung against a rock face at the end of the wire slide. Even as she struggled to regain her balance, she had to make sure all her letters and parcels were intact, and move on.

Ye Na, a Yunnan correspondent with China Post News, has followed Nyima twice on her trips. She recalls that in 2004, they began their journey on a pathless slope.

"It was so steep that we had to crawl on both hands and feet. Nyima's feet were almost right on top of my head," Ye says.

Nyima says what she feared most was not the slide or even the precipices. Rather, after sunset, the rock silhouettes take on eerie, human forms. The wailing wind adds to the sense of creepiness and can chill the heart of a lonely traveler.

"I get scared but tell myself, 'Keep going, keep going. Once you get to the next destination, all your troubles will be gone'," she says, adding that she often sings to herself to calm her nerves.

But these are not the only challenges she faces. Many of the 5,800 Tibetan residents of Yunling township covering some 930 sq km, share similar names.

Nyima Lhamo slides across Lancang River carrying her mailbag.

Nyima Lhamo slides across Lancang River carrying her mailbag.

Once, Nyima had to deliver a letter from Jiangsu province for a Tibetan named Dawa. After walking for two days Nyima finally reached the remote village, only to find that there were more than 20 men named Dawa there.

She visited all the families and eventually found Dawa. The young man smiled brightly after reading the letter.

"Dawa's older brother had found a good job in Jiangsu. He asked his family not to worry about him," Nyima says.

"It is at such times that I feel all my efforts have been worthwhile."

After that experience, she began compiling a database of the villagers in her mind.

So when another letter arrived from a Tibetan who had left home 50 years ago and could provide only a vague address, Nyima was able to locate the sender's younger brother, who never imagined he would ever hear from his long-lost brother again.

August is Nyima's favorite month, because that's when outstanding students receive their letters of acceptance from universities or colleges.

"I love to deliver such mail and see the students' smiling faces. They bring hope of a better life to my hometown," she says.

In 2004, she spent six days to deliver such a letter. She climbed to a pasture 4,000 m above sea-level to find Tashi Tseding and hand him his acceptance letter from Yunnan Normal University.

Along the way, she experienced extreme weather - from sultry to freezing cold. Her jackets, which were at one time dripping with sweat, seemed frozen when she handed over the letter to the tearful young man.

Nyima has experienced great changes in her hometown in the past decade. She used to be granny Yungchen's sole connection to the outside world, with her two sons working outside the township. Today, she no longer needs to read letters to the 79-year-old or write letters for her so often, as phones have reached more families in Yunling.

Besides the bridge spanning the Lancang River, more roads have also been built in Yunling. She now makes between 1,700 and 2,000 yuan ($249-$293) every month.

As more tourists visit her hometown, Nyima now has more advertisements, newspapers and small parcels in her mailbag. But one thing remains unchanged - she is still the carrier of her fellow villagers' hopes and dreams.

She has earned many honors for her exemplary devotion. As a national role model, she was an Olympic torchbearer in 2008. She also participated in last year's Tian'anmen parade, held to celebrate the country's 60th anniversary.

Nyima, who has an 8-year-old son, is grateful for all the praise, but remains the devoted postwoman.

She also has a supportive husband, Ashbul, who never fails to remind her to check she is in proper clothing every time she sets out with her mailbag.

An English dog-owner has been fined after taking his pet for a stroll while driving next to him in his car. Prosecutors said Paul Railton was spotted driving at low speed along a country lane in December, holding his dog's leash through the car window as the animal trotted alongside.

Railton pleaded guilty Monday to not being in proper control of a vehicle. His lawyer, Paul Donoghue, said 23-year-old Railton acknowledged "it was a silly thing to do and there was an element of laziness" while exercising his lurcher, a type of crossbred sighthound.

Railton was ordered by magistrates in Consett, northeast England, to pay a 66 pound ($100) fine, plus costs.

He also received three more penalty points on his license and is now barred from driving for six months.

Rescuers found a puppy alive in a destroyed house in Constitucion, Chile, Monday, March 1, 2010.

An 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck central Chile early Saturday, Feb. 27, killed at least 708 people and destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes.

Nannies face sexual harassment and withheld wages at hands of employers, nanny agencies

The housekeeping industry is a big business in Beijing. The Beijing Homemaking Service Association estimates there are almost 400,000 maids in Beijing, providing domestic help to more than a million families.

But many employers treat their nannies poorly. A report from the Migrant Women's Club, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to helping female migrant workers, said that in 2009 about 20 percent of female housekeepers in Beijing had suffered from sexual harassment, 20 percent were not paid on time and 90 percent had no social insurance.

The report was based on the Club's survey of 100 female migrant workers.

"Those housekeepers are having a tough time in the city due to the absence of laws and regulations for their industry," said Han Huimin, director of the Migrant Women's Club.

"Taking sexual harassment as an example, more young housekeepers between the ages of 16 and 25 came to Beijing in the past five years, and most of them have no idea about their rights or how to protect themselves. When they suffered from sexual harassment, few of them even dare to speak about it," said Han.

Fan Xiaohong, a lawyer who has handled cases for housekeepers in the past three years, said that most nannies have little education and are uncertain what to do when they encounter problems.

Fan is currently dealing with a case in which a 16-year-old nanny alleges she was raped by her 40-year-old employer. The case is a tough one, not only because there is little evidence, but also because of the associated stigma for the girl.

"There are many victims who have little awareness of using laws to protect themselves. And many of them simply will not talk about their problem, particularly sexual harassment," Fan said.

Finding a good job and getting a fair salary, although perhaps not as serious as sexual harassment, are also big problems for nannies, said Fan.

More than 90 percent of the total cases Fan handles are related to housekeepers' salaries, she said.

Zhang Qiao'e, a maid who worked in Beijing for more than 10 years, said when she quit a small nanny company after the company did not get her a job as promised, the company refused to return her 300 yuan deposit.

"They promised to find a job for me within 10 days and asked me to pay 300 yuan first. But I didn't get any job after 20 days waiting. I can't get my money back because I didn't sign a contract with them," she said.

"Only about 20 homemaking service companies in Beijing are big. Most are small and middle-sized company, and those tend to be the ones that don't pay or pay lower salaries than promised," said Han. "A few even keep employees' identity cards to keep their nannies from leaving or protesting over problems."

Many housekeepers in the city don't realize they should sign contracts with companies to safeguard their rights.

Zhang also said that, at several companies she's worked for, maids were charged fees if they wanted to stop working with a particular family, even the family harassed the maid.

"We were also not allowed to talk to customers about salaries, so we didn't know how much money they paid the company for our services and, correspondingly, how much the company mangers then kept for themselves," said Zhang.

More than 100 housekeepers turned to the Migrant Women's Club in 2009 for legal aid. "The number of those who looked for help from nongovernmental organizations or the public sectors likely accounts for less than 10 percent of total sufferers," said Fan.

"There has not been any improvement in the past years, because maids are only taught homemaking skills when they get trained. No schools or companies teach them about their rights or the law," Fan said.

A pilot project will be launched in April this year, in which several housekeeping companies in Beijing will be required to sign contracts with their maids. These companies, rather than families, will be legally responsible for paying the nannies' salaries each month and will be required to buy medical and retirement insurance for them as well.

The Migrant Women's Club plans to send representatives to participate in forums held by the International Labor Organization in June this year to help start a discussion in China on creating new regulations and laws in the homemaking industry and refining those that exist.

"The housekeeping industry will gradually get better in the future with assistance from the government," said Han.

An ongoing public survey has shown that almost 80 percent of Chinese want the abolition of a bonus points policy for some candidates taking the annual National College Entrance Examination (NCEE).

The controversial bonus points policy allows candidates to receive additional points to raise their NCEE results, which can be decisive for enrolment at colleges and universities.

Different provinces and autonomous regions apply different criteria in implementing the policy.

For instance, a candidate who qualifies as a national second-class athlete can receive 20 bonus points on their actual NCEE scores, and those who are awarded a provincial-level title of outstanding student or student leader can receive at least 10 additional points.

Ethnic minority groups are also eligible for additional points or for preferential admission consideration over candidates of the Han ethnicity, the majority of the people in China.

Public complaints about the policy have surged since candidates were caught lying about their ethnic status or "buying" an outstanding student title or second-class athlete certificate.

The survey was initiated by minyi.net.cn, a leading public opinion site run by the China Youth Daily newspaper, after the central government invited public opinions on a draft of the National Outline for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) published Monday.

About 77 percent of 3,602 respondents interviewed in the survey opposed any system of bonus points for college admission and just 9.8 percent approved of such a system.

The education reform outline has stirred debate over the bonus points policy in the run-up to the annual session of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress, which is slated to open Friday.

Every summer, about 10 million Chinese sit the annual NCEE, which is widely regarded as a make-or-break event in their lives.

In China, performance in the NCEE, or "Gao Kao" in Chinese, is a prerequisite and decisive requirement for entrance into almost all higher education institutions.

Many describe the NCEE as "thousands of people on a single-log bridge" because of the increasing numbers of candidates and proportionately fewer college and university places.

Last year, for instance, 10.2 million people sat the NCEE to compete for 6.29 million seats in China's universities and colleges.

The latest draft of the education reform outline also proposes to introduce diversified channels for colleges and universities to enroll students rather than using the NCEE results exclusively.

Enrollment through recommendations by high school principals, and instiutions' own exams will be considered, according to the draft.

Performers in London's West End are having to cope with a different kind of stage fright in the form of mice, rat and flea infestations in theatres, according to a new survey by actors' union Equity.

"The findings have shocked even hardened West Enders," the union said in its report, which found that three quarters of actors and stage managers reported regular infestations including mice, rats and fleas.

Equity general secretary Christine Payne said the findings suggested that each night, more than 600 actors and stage managers would go to work knowing they were likely to see and smell vermin, "both living and decomposing," at work.

"I accept that many West End theatres are old and difficult buildings to manage, but this is running out of control," she added. "These appalling conditions must come to an end."

The survey was completed by nearly 350 performers and stage managers in 24 different theatres, many of them featuring world-famous shows.

Individuals surveyed reported that floors had been eaten by mice which also left droppings and unpleasant smells.

"I had tiny bite marks on my lipstick recently when I left the lid off," one respondent said.

I recently attended an art lecture held by the National Center for the Performing Arts, at which CCTV anchor Bai Yansong shared his views on classical music. Not a musician, nor an educator, Bai understands why most ordinary Chinese people feel classical music is a distant and high-brow art form.

"I did not enjoy classical music until my 30s. I did not enjoy it because I did not understand it," Bai, 42, said.

Right from primary school, Bai said, Chinese students like him were taught there is only one right answer to a question. This does not work when it comes to music, he said. Music is hard to describe or interpret in words, and different people have different feelings about a piece, equally valid.

If people of Bai's generation were focused on formal education at the expense of the arts, today's generation is headed in another direction. Now, parents often send their kids to after-school activities like learning an instrument, but more often than not it is so they earn extra points when they apply for a place in higher education - or because they think their child could become the next Lang Lang.

Contests such as the 10-level national piano tests encourage the teaching of challenging pieces that can show off good technique. After intense training, smart 6- or 7-year-olds can play Mozart and Chopin brilliantly, but there is little feeling or passion in their music.

It is the same in art. We usually start by imitating. Adults like to value a child's painting by judging whether or not it looks like the object being painted. Many little painters have won awards for their vivid imitation of a master's piece.

A friend told me, on Christmas day, a foreign guest visited her daughter's painting class. The teacher put a picture of a Christmas tree on the wall and asked the kids to paint it for the visitor. All the kids did a good or passable impression in just a few minutes. The guest was amazed. But when she covered the picture and asked them to paint a new tree, one kid complained: "We can't see the tree, how can we paint it?"

Are our kids not creative enough? No, they are. But they are trained to copy instead of imagining.

When I went to Brussels to report on the Europalia Festival last October, I met a group of kids who were taking art lessons in a museum. A dozen 4- to 5-year-old kids were scattered around the room. Some sat around a teacher reading an art book, others just lay on their stomachs scrawling.

What an interesting class! They seemed to be playing rather than studying.

"Since the beginning of time, children have not liked to study. They would much rather play, and if you have their interests at heart, you will let them learn while they play, you will find that what they have mastered is child's play," said Carl Orff (1895-1982), the German musician and educator who created the Orff Method, a way of teaching children about music that engages their mind and body through a mixture of singing, dancing, acting and the use of percussion instruments.

The Orff approach helps children learn at their own level of understanding. Improvisation, composition and a child's natural sense of play are encouraged.

At the lecture, Bai invited a 10-year-old girl to play Schubert's Improvisation and Grieg's To Spring. The girl's playing touched everybody. Sitting in the crowded lecture room, I could not see outside but as she played an early spring scene unfolded in my mind.

When a listener asked the girl what grade she had passed she responded: "I have never taken the national 10-level test. I just enjoy playing and the piano is my favorite toy."

Putting children in front of educational DVDs does not help boost their language skills, according to a U.S. study that focused on one product, the Baby Wordsworth from the Walt Disney Company's Baby Einstein series.

While The Baby Einstein Co does not make educational claims, it notes on its web page that the Baby Wordsworth DVD is a "playful introduction to words and sign language."

A study by researchers at the University of California, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, put the DVD to the test with one and two-year-olds.

For six weeks, 88 children were randomly assigned to either watching the DVD a few times a week or not at all. Researchers then tested the language skills in each group based on how many words the children knew according to their parents and how well they did in a lab test.

At the end of the period, toddlers who had watched the DVD fared no better than those who hadn't.

Children in both groups understood about 20 of the 30 words highlighted in the DVD, on average, and spoke 10. Their general language development showed no difference, either.

The researchers also asked parents about their childrens' television viewing before entering the study. The earlier a child started watching Baby Einstein DVDs, it turned out, the smaller his or her vocabulary was.

The Baby Einstein Company emphasized in an e-mail to Reuters Health that it "does not claim educational outcomes."

On its web page, it notes that its products "are not designed to make babies smarter," but rather "to engage babies and provide parents with tools to help expose their little ones to the world around them."

The study's finding is in line with earlier research, said Rebekah Richert, a psychologist at the University of California, Riverside, who led the study, but it is unclear if the DVDs themselves are responsible.

Parents who place their kids in front of the screen could be trying to remedy slow language development, or they could be using the DVDs as baby sitters, cutting back on social stimulation.

"A lot of children, particularly when they're young, seem to have these kinds of (DVDs)," Richert told Reuters Health. "My take-home message would be to encourage live interaction between parent and child."

Although it is not well understood how watching television affects language, Richert and colleagues wrote in their report that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children younger than two stay away from the screen.

Some experts have even suggested that baby videos might be harmful by impeding social and cognitive learning.

In a bizarre incident, a two-and- a-half year-old child has been booked at Kanpur city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for stealing power.

"A First Information Report has been registered against two-and- a-half year-old Shahnawaz and seven others on Feb. 3 when Kanpur Electricity Supply Company (KESCO) officials carried out raids to check power theft in a locality here," a senior police official told the media in Kanpur Friday.

The toddler's case came to light when the police reached the houses of the eight accused Thursday to arrest them.

"The child was spared from the arrest after the police realized the mistake," he said.

KESCO Chief Engineer Keshavram Friday said the mix-up happened as people of the locality did not give out the correct names of those involved in power theft. The company realized the mistake and asked the police to delete the toddler's name from charge sheet.