4-Day Classic Beijing Tour

The 4-day classic Beijing tour is designed for tourists who come to visit China for the first time. It covers the most popular and typical places in Beijing, fully displaying the scenery, culture, history, local lifestyles and features, food and drinks, business, etc. for you.

Day 1:Arrival in Beijing

Your guide meets you at Capital Airport, and helps you check in at your hotel

Enjoy Beijing Duck as welcome dinner.

Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 2:The Great Wall & the Summer Palace

Start your day at the most famous part of the Great Wall, the Badaling Great Wall. Leave the downtown for the Great Wall at 8 am. Since it is a long drive to the Great Wall (about 2 hours' riding) have a break at the Jade Museum on the way. Lunch will be enjoyed in a local restaurant. In the early afternoon come back to the city and have a sightseeing tour of the Summer Palace.

Recommended Activity: Beijing Opera Show (Liyuan Theatre,19:30-21:10 every evening)

Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 3: Beijing city sightseeing & Local experience

Your guide meets you at the hotel at 8 am and set out for the day's touring: Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

After visiting the two sites, have a break and get ready forlunch.

Hutong visit: see some traditional arts of the old Beijing, suchas paper cutting and kite making, and visit a local family.

Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 4: Beijing Olympic sites

Visit the Olympic sites: Bird's Nest, Water Cube and OlympicPark, witnessing the fast developing modern China. Enjoy some free time after visiting the sites.

After lunch, it is shopping time and then the tour is over.

    Yesterday I work up to the sound of music on my couch in my fifth floor apartment downtown. I couldn't possibly tell you what song was playing because my monologue of things to do that day had already begun. My thoughts ranged from what deals needed my attention today to what is the meaning of life. I felt as if it was going to be one of “those days”.

    After taking my son to school and glancing at my calendar, I noticed I was meeting my 85-year-old friend Harry. I remembered that we first met at a glass shop. I needed a new window and he was talking to the store clerk about his glass fireplace insert needing replacement. As I stood behind him in line, I found not how this old man funny and compassionate at the same time. By the end of his discussion I was so entertained that I decided to drum up a conversation with him. That was how our friendship began. I later learned this gentleman was originally from the mid-west and grew up on a farm. At 17, he joined the army and travelled the world until his late 40's. After the retirement, his wife passed away and now he lives alone in his three-bedroom home.

    We met at the appointed time. I promised to take him to lunch anywhere he wanted to go and he said, “I am a simple man; let's go to Taco Bell. Furthermore I don't need a pat on the back because it is only 18 inches away from a kick in the rear.” We both laughed as we got into the car.

    As we pulled into the parking lot of Taco Bell, Harry jumped out of the car and told me, “I have to go into the donut(甜甜圈) shop next door before going to Taco Bell.” Of course I agreed and in we went. He immediately walked in and began having a joke with the owner of the shop in his fashion. They bantered as she gave him a dozen donuts and off we went. I couldn't help but ask him, “What are the donuts for?” He quickly replied, “You will soon see.”

    As we opened the door to Taco Bell, the line was very long. It was lunch time. People were on their cell phones. Babies were crying and the waiters looked stressed and burnt out. Harry and I were waiting in line chatting about nothing until we reached the front of the line. As he walked to the counter, all the waiters began smiling. He placed the box of donuts on the counter and said, “These are for you and other staff.” Instantly, the mood in the restaurant changed. This single act of kindness made the customers, the waiters, the kids and even me take a look internally and ask: when was the last time we did something nice for a stranger?

    What was most amazing to me was earlier that morning I wasn't thrilled with my life. It felt like it was just another day. Watching this gentleman spend 6 dollars on donuts and provide them for the staff in a packed restaurant at the lunch rush hour changed my outlook on life. If you don't believe me, try it yourself. Take the approach in life that you make an effort to do the little things in order to make people feel appreciated on a daily basis. You will see that your life will be better and you will have less of “those days” I was talking about earlier in this article.

    When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet(图章)ring. They were the “in” thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.

    What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being “replaced”. We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new” stuff(东 西)we got was rally just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.

    Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took if off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.

    Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. “ You'll recognize this one.,” she said smiling.

    Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it. They realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.

    The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California is one of the world's most beautiful bridges. It is also one of the most visited places in the world. Vehicles(车辆)cross the bridge an average of 41 million times each year. More than 1800 hundred million vehicles have used the bridge since it opened more than 70 years ago.

    The bridge was painted "International Orange" because that color went well with the natural surroundings. The color also is easier to see in the heavy fog that often covers the area. But the Golden Gate Bridge was not named for its orange color. It was named for the body of water that it crosses，the Golden Gate Strait.

    The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate Bridge links the city of San Francisco with Marin County, California.

    Planning for the bridge began in the 1920s when the area around San Francisco was growing. People living in the area needed another way to get to the city besides small ferries(渡船).

    Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer for the project. Work began in 1934. Mr. Strauss demanded the strongest safety protections in the history of bridge building. These included the first use of "hard hats" to protect the workers' heads and special glasses to protect their eyes.

    A special safety net was suspended(挂)under the bridge. This net saved the lives of 19 men during the construction. However，11 other workers were killed when they fell from the bridge through the net. Still，this was a new safety record for the time.

    The Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937.It extends 1280 meters across the water. The total length is 2737 meters. It was the largest suspension bridge(吊桥)in the world until 1964.That is when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in New York City. Today，the Golden Gate Bridge is the ninth longest suspension bridge in the world.

Babies made from three people approved in UK

    Babies made from two women and one man have been approved by the UK's fertility regulator. The historic and controversial move is to prevent children from being born with deadly genetic diseases.

    Doctors in Newcastle—who developed the advanced form of In Vitro Fertilization or IVF (人工授精)—are expected to be the first to offer the procedure and have already appealed for donor eggs. The first such child could be born, at the earliest, by the end of 2017.

    Some families have lost multiple children to incurable mitochondrial (线粒体的) diseases, which can leave people with insufficient energy to keep their heart beating.

    The diseases are passed down from only the mother, so a technique using a donor egg as well as the mother's egg and father's sperm has been developed.

    The resulting child has a tiny amount of their DNA from the donor, but the procedure is legal and reviews say it is ethical (伦理的) and scientifically ready.

    "It is a decision of historic importance," said Sally Cheshire, chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). "I'm sure patients will be really pleased by what we've decided today."

    But some scientists have questioned the ethics of the technique, saying it could open the door to genetically-modified (转基因) 'designer' babies.

    The HFEA must approve every clinic and every patient before the procedure can take place. Three-person babies have been allowed only in cases where the risk of a child developing mitochondrial disease is very high.

    Prof Mary Herbert, from the Newcastle Fertility Centre, said, "It is enormously pleasing that our many years of research in this area can finally be applied to help families affected by these devastating diseases".

    "Now that we are moving forward towards clinical treatments, we will also need donors to donate eggs for use in treatment to prevent affected women transmitting disease to their children."

    Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, the director of the Welcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research at Newcastle University, said, "We are delighted by today's decision. We will also provide long-term follow up of any children born."

    NHS England has agreed to fund the treatment costs of the first trial of three-person IVF for those women who meet the HFEA criteria, as long as they agree to long-term follow up of their children after they are born.

 Lindsey Stallworth, a high school student from Alabama, is on her way to a promising career in paleontology (古生物学) due to an unexpected discovery on family property. For years, she had been collecting fossils on their land in Monroe County, unaware of significant scientific value. However, her teacher at the Alabama School of Math and Science, Dr. Andrew Gentry, a paleontologist himself, took an interest when she showed him her collection.

" Upon examining the fossil shark teeth Lindsey presented, I quickly identified one cr: became eager to learn about its origin," said Andrew.

Lindsey guided her teacher through the rural area where she had unearthed various relics, including shark teeth. Before long, they encountered an especially significant find on the. grounds:a large bone from a 34- million- year- old whale skeleton! This led the pair to launch the huge project of uncovering the rest of the bones. After two months of hard work, they' ve managed to find the animal's skull·(颅骨),

" Assuming the entire skeleton is present, it may require several years for us to have the entire animal back in the lab," Andrew explained.

 Lindsey secured a research scholarship to persist in her fossil- digging expeditions alongside her instructor. Her enthusiasm for the project was at an all- time high, though she had never imagined a childhood pastime would lead her down this road." We would go out and pick up shark teeth and fossil shells, but we never knew anyone that could tell us anything about them," she recalled." We just thought they were cool."

" The Research Fellows Program allows Lindsey to gain real- world experience in scientific research and even present that research at professional conferences," Andrew said." It's a once- in-a- lifetime opportunity for a high school student to stand out when applying to college and maybe even discover a new career path."