China is a land of bicycles．At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country．Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle．Millions of them，all black．Cars were rare．Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I've found the opposite is true．There are millions of cars．However, people still use their bicycles to get around．For many, it's the easiest and cheapest way to travel today．Bicycles also come in different colors—silver, green, red, blue，yellow, whatever you want．

    It's fun people biking．They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic，and ride even on sidewalks．Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can't provide．

    Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture，I decided to buy a bicycle．Great weather accompanied my great buy．I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home．

    My first ride home was orderly．To be safe, I stayed with a“pack”of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times．I didn't want to get hit．So I took the ride carefully．

    Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States．The streets here were wide，so crossing took time，skill and a little bit of luck．

    I finally made it home．The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful．I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people．Biking made me feel alive．

    Singapore's public transport system is one of the best in the world, so you should have no problem finding your way around like a local. There are three main forms of public transport that you would find in any other major city－trains, buses and taxis.

TRAINS

    Trains run from 6:00 am to midnight. Single trip tickets start at 80 cents. If you buy an EZ-Link card for $15, you can ride the trains and buses as you like.

If you need more information, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

BUSES

    There are several bus services in Singapore and fares start at 80 cents. Be sure always ask the driver the cost of your ticket as he cannot give change.

If you need help, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

TAXIS

    There are three main taxi companies－City Cab, Comfort and Tibs. Booking can also be easy by calling the numbers listed above.

RENTAL CARS

    Driving in Singapore is a pleasure and if you like to travel at your own pace, renting a car is a good choice. Renting takes away the hassle of getting to places around Singapore. Just sit back and enjoy the city. It also means you'll get to see a lot more that a trains or a bus won't let you see.

    For car rental, call Avis on +65 6737 1668.

    I was born in England, but I am an American. Americans like to travel on their yearly holiday. Today, more and more travelers in the United States are spending nights at small houses or inns (客栈) instead of hotels. They get a room for the night and the breakfast the next morning.

    Rooms for the night in private homes with breakfast have been popular with travelers in Europe for many years. In the past five to ten years, these bed­and­breakfast places have become popular in the United States. Many of these America's bed­and­breakfast inns are old historic buildings. Some bed­and­breakfast inns have only a few rooms; others are much larger. Some inns do not provide telephones or televisions in the rooms; others do.

    Staying at a bed­and­breakfast inn is much different from staying at a hotel. Usually the cost is much less. Staying at an inn is almost like visiting someone's home. The owners are glad to tell about the areas and the interesting places to visit. Many vacationers say they enjoy the chance to meet local families.

    Artificial intelligence（AI）is making it possible for companies to monitor workers' behavior in great detail and in real－time（实时的）. Start to slack off（懈怠）and AI could talk to your boss.

    One company offering such services is London－based start－up Status Today. Its AI platform relies on a regular supply of employee data, including everything from the files you access to when you use a key card.

    From this, it builds a picture of how employees normally function and signals any unusual performance. The idea is to spot when someone might become a security risk by doing something different from their usual behavioral patterns. “All of this gives us a fingerprint of a user, so if we think the fingerprint doesn't match, we raise a warning, ”says Mircea Dumitrescu, the company's chief technology officer.

    The system also aims to catch employee actions that could accidentally cause a security breach（漏洞）, like opening malware（恶意软件）. “We're not monitoring if your computer has a virus。”says Dumitrescu. “We're monitoring human behaviors. ”

    But catching the security breach means monitoring everyone, and the AI can also be used to track employee productivity. “It seems like they are just using the reputation of AI to give an air of lawfulness to old－fashioned workplace surveillance（监视）, ”says Javier Ruiz Diaz of digital campaigning organization the Open Rights Group. “You have a right to privacy and you shouldn't be expected to give that up at work. ”

    Exactly how companies use the system will be up to them, but it's hard to shake the picture of an AI constantly looking over employees' shoulders. “It will bother people, and that could be counterproductive if it affects their behavior, ”says Paul Bernal at the University of East Anglia.

Phil Legg at the University of the West of England says it will never catch every security risk. “If people know they're being monitored, they can change their behavior, ”he says.

    This story starts with my two kids. We were hiking in the Oakland woods when my daughter noticed some plastic litter in a creek. She looked at me and said, "Daddy? That doesn't go there”.

    When she said that, it reminded me of my summer camp. On the morning of that camping day, right before they'd let our anxious parents come through the gates, our camp director would say Quick! Everyone pick up five pieces of litter, "We got one hundred kids each picking up five pieces, and pretty soon, we got a much cleaner camp. So I thought, why not apply that crowdsourced cleanup model to the entire planet? And that was the inspiration for Literati. The goal is to create a litter-free world. Let me show you how it started. I took a picture of a cigarette using Instagram.

    Then I took another photo, and another. And at the end of a few days, I had 50 photos on my hone and I had picked up each piece, and I realized that I was keeping a record of the positive impact I was having on the planet. That's 50 fewer things you might see, or you might step on, or some bird might eat. So I started telling people what I was doing, and they started participating. I realized that Litterati was more than just pretty pictures; we were becoming a community that was collecting data. Each photo tells a story. It tells us who picked up what, a geo-tag tells us where and a time stamp tells us when. Gradually, the community grew.

    Litter —it's blending into the back ground of our lives. But what if we brought it to the fore front? What if we understood exactly what was on our streets, our sidewalks and our school yards?

    How might we use that data to make a difference?

    Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you'll have no trouble answering these questions.

    Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child's day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb(麻木的）to new stimulation(刺激), new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.

    The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they'd felt cold water at first.

    Another block to awareness is the obsession(痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a "ruby-crowned kinglet" and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.

    The pressures of "time" and "destination" are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what's around them. I asked them what they'd seen. "Oh, a few birds," they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.

    Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.