Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making thisepic 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.

Learning in the Field

A fun farming class took place in the fields! On Sept 15, Grade 7 students from Jinan No.34 Middle School, Shandong, went on a field trip. They learned about farming, reported Qilu News. At the grain base (粮食基地), teachers talked about grains with students and answered their questions. The students saw millet and soybeans (小米和大豆). They touched the wheat (小麦) and learned that people usually harvest (收获) the wheat at the end of September.

Young Reporters Put on a Show at School

Students at Johnson Middle School in US, are reporting their school's news in their own news program. The students take turns to make the program. They set up a green screen, sit down and give their classmates the headlines (新闻提要) of the day. They include (包括) what's going on in the school and news about future events. They share the lunch menu of the day. "The kids come in excitement. They love being on the news and sharing the news with other kids. They are eager (渴望) to know what's happening around them." said B.J. Burke, the school teacher.

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On Nov 8, students from Nanjing Foreign Language School have a special class. During the class, they have a hands-on experience of making folk clothes. The students took on the challenge (挑战) making their own bags through tie-dyeing (扎染). It is a dyeing skill to make blue calico (印花布). The dye and the cotton material (材料) used to make blue calico all come from nature. "Tie-dyeing is a magical art. Everyone does it a bit differently, and you never know exactly how it will look in the end." said Ma Qianyu, a grade 8 student, happy with her work. The students will later go to Nanjing Museum to get more knowledge about life in Jiangsu and the folk customs there.

What kind of vehicle (工具) will you choose when travelling between provinces (省)? Many people may like travelling by train because it's safer and cheaper. Now the high-speed railways have connected (连接) eastern and western China as well as the south and the north. 

A new high-speed railway opened on Sept. 10th, 2016. It connects Zhengzhou in Henan Province with Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province. With this railway, China's high-speed railways are over 20,000 kilometres long. It is the world's longest and makes up 60 percent of the world's total (全部的) high-speed railway lines. 

Besides length, China also does better in speed. China is the only country with trains running at 350 kilometres an hour, such as the Beijing-Tianjin and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railways. 

With these surprising numbers, it is easy to forget that China wasn't the first in the high-speed rail game. Japan started 50 years ago, while Germany did 20 years ago. China only began to build its high-speed railways 14 years ago. 

China's high-speed railways are developing (发展) fast now. Behind it, there is the country's growing need for transportation. China's high-speed trains gave 961 million trips to people last year. 

"The high-speed railways not only bridge the distance (距离), but connect people, information and goods," said Huang Xin, an official from the China Railway Corp. 

Yet, China's building of high-speed railways is still going on. China plans to have 38,000 kilometres of high-speed railways by 2025. 

No model has ever received more attention in China than the Xiaomi SU7, which was launched(上市) on Thursday night in Beijing.

It may sound unbelievable but the launch event attracted more than 40 million views on Xiaomi Auto's Weibo alone. Even guessing its price level had been a popular topic on China's social media platforms for weeks.

Xiaomi, one of the world's leading smartphone companies, began accepting orders in China through an app on Thursday night, after founder Lei Jun finished a more than two-hour presentation(发布会) on the SU7 car by stating the much-awaited price range: 215,900 yuan to 299,900 yuan.

Xiaomi said that it received 50,000 orders for the SU7 in the first 27 minutes after sales opened at 10 p.m. Beijing time. Lei mentioned that Beijing-based Xiaomi aims to become one of the world's top five car makers in the next 15 to 20 years. "It's hard to make a car, but it's cool to succeed," he said.

Lei said Xiaomi would lose money on the basic model at 215,900 yuan, a price that is lower than the Tesla(特斯拉) Model 3 in China. In his opinion, the SU7 car did better than the Tesla in most areas, but the type of the SU7 is not as good as the Porsche(保时捷) Taycan.

"There is still a long way to go for our cars to become a Porsche," he said, but if Xiaomi keeps working hard for another five to ten years. "One day we will finally catch up with and even surpass Porsche."

The first "forest library" in Shanghai recently opened to the public, giving readers the chance to relax and read in a natural environment. 

Known as Read & Joy Forest, the forest library was developed by Pudong New Area and Shanghai Library. It is in an urban (城市的) green space area near Shanghai Library East. It can make visitors take a pleasant walk in the quiet and green forest. 

People tried not to harm the forest when building the forest library. The library is in the open air and has facilities (设施) such as benches and an information boot h (亭). Wooden walkways connect green spaces. 

"I learned about the forest library from my friends. so I came here," said a 21- year- old college(大学) student. "The green outdoor environment helps reduce eyestrain (视疲劳). I will come back for sure. "

Most of the visitors to the forest library are young people and parents with their children. They read carefully or take a walk slowly in the forest. "I like the fresh air and the trees here. I've spent the whole morning indoors and wanted to get some fresh air. The library makes it possible to enjoy reading in nature. I feel very relaxed here," said one reader sitting on a bench.