It is quite reasonable to blame traffic jams, the cost of gas and the great speed of modern life, but manners on the road are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest man would become fierce tigers behind the wheel. It is all right to have a tiger in a cage, but to have one in the driver's seat is another matter.

    Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense. It takes the most cool-hearted drivers great patience to give up the desire to beat back when forced to face rude driving. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards reducing the possibility of quarrelling and fighting. A friendly nod or a wave, or thanks in answer to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of good will and becomes so necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such behaviors of politeness are by no means enough. Many drivers nowadays don't even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.

    However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical example is the driver who waves to a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path of oncoming cars that may not be able to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they want to.

    An experienced driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if drivers learnt to correctly join in traffic stream without causing total jams that give rise to unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, modern drivers can't even learn to drive, let alone master the roadmanship(驾车技能). Years ago, experts warned us that the fast increase of the car ownership would demand more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time that all of us took this message to heart.

    As the G20 Leaders Summit(峰会)kicked off on Sept 4, Hangzhou, the host city, took measures to promote its reputation for entrepreneurship(企业), as well as its many beauty sports, to those overseas people.

    Although many may have been surprised when Hangzhou was chosen to host the summit over bigger cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, economic statistics suggest that it's well deserving of the honor.

    When the national economy grew at 6.7 percent in the first half of this year, the lowest in more than two decades, Hangzhou steamed ahead with a huge 10.8 percent growth, becoming one of the only two cities in China, alongside Chongqing, with a double-digit growth rate.

Walking along the streets of Hangzhou, through centuries-old paths and along the Broadway—like Yan'an Avenue, a tourist can pick up whatever he or she wants with just a smartphone, via Alipay or WeChat Pay—no cash or credit cards needed.

    And starting this month, one can also rent public bikes simply by scanning the QR code(二维码)with a smartphone.

Meanwhile, a short video showing the beauty of Zhejiang Province and its capital, Hangzhou, was being aired on CNBC channels during prime time until Sept 12.

    The promotional video, created by CNBC's Catalyst Content Studio, highlighted some of Hangzhou's most charming attractions.

From eye-pleasing beauty spots like the Qiantang River and West Lake to the towering headquarters of leading Internet corporations, the promo(宣传片)showed how the city built its culture on a long history of commerce and developed into a vast modern center of technology, imports and exports.

    Once there was an old man, who was completely broke (破产的), living in a tiny house. He had to live on a $105-a-month social security (保障) check.

    At 65 years of age, he decided things had to change. So he thought about what he had to offer. His friends thought highly of his chicken recipe (烹饪法). He decided that this was his best shot at making a change.

    He left Kentucky and traveled to different states to try to sell his recipe. He told restaurant owners that he had a mouth-watering chicken recipe. He offered the recipe to them for free, just asking for a small percentage (比例) on the items sold. Sounds like a good deal, right?

    Unfortunately, not to most of the restaurants. He heard "NO" over 1, 000 times, but he didn't give up. He believed his chicken recipe was something special. He got rejected (拒绝) 1,009 times before he heard his first yes.

    With that one success, the old man changed the way Americans eat chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken, popularly known as KFC, was born. The old man was Colonel Harland Sanders, who was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. His name and image (肖像) are still symbols of KFC now.

    When returning to south-western Germany, where my parents live, it is compulsory for me to go on a hike to connect with nature and reconnect with myself. So, that is exactly what I did the first sunny Sunday back in the beautiful Black Forest. The Huzenbacher See is a tarn in the middle of the northern Black Forest with abundant nature surrounding it. Approaching it after a good hour walk, I saw fascinating blue dragonflies in quantity that attracted us by the way they flew around. They didn't stand still for a photo, as they landed on leaves for a split second. We were also surprised at the yellow water lilies that can be seen floating on its surface between June and July.

    Sitting down at one of the benches surrounding the lake for a picnic was satisfying in two ways. I was aware of the world's beauty that gave me the energy to continue up the mountain to reach the most amazing view looking over the lake. The other was to really fill myself up in order to continue the adventure adequately, full up on some snacks and refreshing water from the well.

    The hike up wasn't as hard as expected and a good path was provided with dirty rocks and slippery stones all under the shade of the tall trees. This took about an hour and a half until reaching the beautiful view of the lake and land below. Once we had taken in the astonishing views, the walk back down took another hour or so, making the hike a 3-to4-hour round trip, which was well worth it!

    Simply being back in the Black Forest and having such pleasant hikes is definitely good for the soul and I highly recommend getting yourself outside, be it in the Black Forest or anywhere outdoors. Get your intake of vitamin D and, most importantly, take in the moments that nature has to offer.

    I.M. Pei, the Chinese-American, who was regarded as one of the last great modernist architects, has died at the age of 102.

    Although he worked mostly in the United States, Pei will always be remembered for a European project: His redevelopment of the Louvre Museum in Paris in the 1980s. He gave us the glass and metal pyramid in the main courtyard, along with three smaller pyramids and a vast subterranean (地下的) addition to the museum entrance.

    Pei was the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre in its long history, and initially his designs were fiercely opposed. But in the end, the French—and everyone else—were won over. Winning the fifth Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1983, he was thought as giving the 20th century "some of its most beautiful inside spaces and outside forms … His talent and skill in the use of materials approach the level of poetry."

    After studying architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Pei set up his own architectural practice in New York in 1955.

    Designing the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in 1964 established him as a name. His East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1978 changed people's ideas of a museum. The site was an odd trapezoid (梯形) shape. Pei's solution was to cut it in two. The resulting building was dramatic, light and elegant—one of the first crowd-pleasing cathedrals of modern art.

    Though known as a modernist, and notable for his forms based on arrangements of simple geometric (几何的) shapes, he once urged Chinese architects to look more to their architectural tradition rather than designing in a western style.

    In person, I.M. Pei was good-humored, charming and unusually modest. His working process was evolutionary, but innovation (创新) was never an intended goal.

    "Stylistic originality is not my purpose," he said. "I want to find the originality in the time, the place and the problem."

Comments on the July Issue of Reader's Digest

    Jennie Gardner, Bath

    I couldn't agree more with Lee Child, that books are really important. Yes, you can get lost in them but you can also find yourself and new worlds and possibilities in them. Books help us to forget and remember. They remind us both of what's really important and what's not.

    And, as Lee says, they let us hold the whole world in our hands, We can feel the weight of this word, we can mark our favourite spots, add in our own thoughts and see our progress through the pages as the story leads us back home, allowing us to re-find ourselves along the way.

    Jayne Wile, North Wales

    Brian Blessed's I Remember was most enjoyable. I love Brian, a popular actor of stage and screen. It was interesting to learn more about his life. I noted how he enjoyed being involved in the Space Program, doing 600 hours training in Moscow and I have to agree with his thought："We need to get out to Mars because the Earth has got to rest." Mars has always been a source of inspiration for explorers and scientists.

    Melanie Lodge, West Yorkshire

    I was thrilled to read author Lee Childs If I Ruled The World. I was most impressed that he wanted to make teachers the most respected and highest paid professionals.

    I work as a teaching assistant in a primary school and have done so since my youngest daughter began school 12 years ago. Until then I had no idea just how much planning was involved in each lesson and how much patience was required in a class of 30 children! I also agree with Lee that there's nothing more rewarding than finishing a good book.