Nearly 7,000 medical workers in the team supporting Central China's Hubei province left the capital, Wuhan, the hardest-hit city in the novel coronavirus outbreak in China, and went back to their hometowns on Tuesday, March 31, marking the largest scale departure (离开) of medics (医学工作者)since the first group left on March 17. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has organized 51 planes to support the departure.

    More than 42,000 medics from other parts of the country have joined the battle with local medics to fight against COVID-19. The support teams came from 21 provinces, cities and autonomous regions(自治区) and some of them worked on several battlefields during the past months. The support team from the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, was among those in the group. Sixty members were in charge of treating COVID-19 patients in 100 beds in the Union Hospital and treated 174 patients who have been seriously ill since they arrived on Feb 10.

    Wang Zhenning, the leader of its support team, expressed his thanks to the Wuhan people who offered great help to them. "I am proud to witness and play a role in history. We've been here, seen it happen and become better. Wuhan is our second hometown. We will forever care about the city and the people fighting with us." he said.

    Wuhan city government showed great thanks to all medics in a letter, expressing their gratefulness of the medics' efforts to save lives in the battle. "Thanks to your arrival, Wuhan welcomes today's peace and stability. We will always remember your kindness!" the letter said. In it, the city government also invited the medics to visit Wuhan in the future for sightseeing. Local people volunteered to line up and see medics off as the medics left for home after finishing their mission(使命) in Wuhan. Wuhan traffic police led the way for medics to the airport.

    Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White's second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out whether he has broken the record or not.

    White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June, 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe first, and then the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and finally the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

    The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to get away with the little money he had. The worst thing that had happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometers he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and wants to write a book about his adventures.