Banks view online banking as a powerful “value-added” tool to attractand keep new customers while helping to eliminate costly paper handling or teller（出纳员）interactions in an increasingly competitive banking environment.

    Today, most large national banks, many local banks and credit unions offer some form of online banking, variously known as PC banking, home banking, electronic banking or Internet banking. Online banks are sometimes referred to as “brick-to-click”banks, both to tell them from “brick-to-mortar” banks that haven't yet offered online banking, as well as from “virtual”（虚拟）banks that have no physical branches or tellers whatsoever.

    The challenge for the banking industry has been to design this new service channel in such a way that its customers will readily learn to use and trust it. Most of the large banks can now offer fully safe , fully functional（功能的）online banking for free or for a small cost. As more banks succeed online and more customers use their sites, fully functional online banking will likely become as common place as automated teller machines (ATM).

    Online banking has a lot of advantages. Unlike your corner bank, online banking sitesnever close; they're at hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they're amouse click away. If you're out of state or even out of the country when a money problem appears, you can log on instantly to your online bank and take care of business. Online bank sites generally carry out and confirm deals at or quicker than ATM processing speeds. Many online banking sites now offer fashionable tools to help you manage all of your valuable items more effectively.

    Planning a visit to the UK? Here we help with ways to cut your costs.

    AVOID BIG EVENTS  Big sporting events, concerts and exhibitions can increase the cost of accommodation and make it harder to find a room. A standard double room at the Thistle Brighton on the final Friday of the Brighton Comedy Festival (19 Oct.) cost £169.15 at Booking.com. A week later, the same room cost £118.15.

    If you can be flexible and want to know dates to avoid—or you're looking for a big event to pass your time—check out sites such as Whatsonwhen.com, which allow you to search for events in the UK by city, date and category.

    STAYAWAY FROM THE STATION If traveling to your destination by train, you may want to find a good base close to the station, but you could end up paying more for the sake of convenience at the start of your holiday.

    Don't be too choosy about the part of town you stay in. Booking two months in advance, the cheapest room at Travelodge's Central Euston hotel in London for Saturday 22 September was £95.95. A room just a tube journey away at its Covent Garden hotel was £75.75. And at Farringdon, a double room cost just £62.95.

    LOOK AFTER YOURSELF Really central hotels in cities such as London, Edinburgh and Cardiff can cost a fortune, especially at weekends and during big events. As an alternative consider checking into a self-catering flat with its own kitchen. Often these flats are hidden away on the top floors of city centre buildings. A great example is the historic O'Neill Flat on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, available for £420 for five days in late September, with room for four adults.

    GET ON A BIKE London's ‘Boris bikes' have attracted the most attention, but other cities also have similar programmes that let you rent a bicycle and explore at your own pace, saving you on public transport or car parking costs.

    Among the smaller cities with their own programmes are Newcastle (casual members pay around £1.50 for two hours) and Cardiff (free for up to 30 minutes, or £5 per day).  (358 words)

    In the US, people prefer waiting for a table to sitting with people they don't know. This means a hostess may not seat a small group until a small table is available, even if a large one is. If you are sitting at a table with people you don't know, it is impolite to light up a cigarette first asking if it will disturb them.

    At American restaurants and coffee shops you are usually served tap water before you order. You may find the bread and butter is free, and if you order coffee, you may get a free refill.

    Most cities and towns have no rules about opening and closing time for stores or restaurants, though they usually do make rules for bars. Especially in large cities, stores may be open 24 hours a day.

    Serving in restaurants is often large, too large for many people. If you can't finish your meal but would like to enjoy the food later, ask your waitress or waiter for a "doggie bag". It may have a picture of a dog on it, but everybody knows you're taking the food for yourself.

    Supper and dinner are both words for the evening meal. Some people have "Sunday dinner". This is an especially big noon meal.

    Tips are not usually added to the check. They are not included in the price of the meal, either. A tip of about 15% is expected and you should leave it on the table when you leave. In some restaurants, a check is brought on a plate and you put your money there. Then the waiter or waitress brings you your change.

    It is obvious that all of our childhood memories are not accidental. When you are a child, every scent, every sound, every move, every toy, the first day of school, the first kiss, the first step… Everything together makes what is the personality of a man. All these are pieces of one whole entity.

    I was about 6 years old. My mom's best friend left to another town and asked my mom to stay at her place with me for two days in order to look after her two sons. One was a little older than I was, and the second boy appeared to be super grown-up, for he was already fourteen. I always enjoyed staying at their place.

    I remember the second day we were supposed to have the come-back party for my mom's friend at her place. I woke up. Mom went to work and reminded me to be nice and clean by the time she came back. I stayed with Tony, the older of the boys and suddenly somebody called him and though he was not permitted to leave me alone-he left. He said it would not be long. But it took him forever. I realized that I was alone. I could not come out of the house, so I opened the window. I was so desperate. So lonely. So betrayed. At that moment I pulled the curtain so strongly that I fell on the floor. And there I was standing-one little criminal-desperate to escape and knowing that I would be punished for destroying the curtain that was not even ours.

But then something changed. I stopped weeping. I looked around and realized that I was in a safe place, and that mom would come back and kiss me no matter what I had done.

    This was a moment of pure happiness, not the happiness of getting a new toy or a dog, or going to the party of your best friend. It was the moment of clarity for me-the first time in my life when I realized that I was happy to have my mom and that I was safe. My eyes saw the world in different shades that moment. And by the way-I was not punished for the curtain. I fell asleep on my mom's knees.

After releasing a short video on April 27 about planting and cooking peas, Chinese food blogger Li Ziqi witnessed her followers on YouTube go beyond 10 million.

This puts Li, who shot to fame with short videos recording her traditional and peaceful lifestyle in China's countryside, among the ranks of the most popular Chinese-language content creators on the platform.

"It's really surprising. I didn't expect such a wide response," Li told Xinhua in an interview, noting she was surprised by how foreign fans were taken with her works. "What I present is just a lifestyle I've long followed and appreciated," she said. "Maybe it's also what many other people have valued."

Li's YouTube videos center on her life with her grandmother in the rural parts of Sichuan Province. In the videos, Li, often dressed in graceful traditional dresses, rises at sunrise, rests at sunset, plants seeds and harvests flowers, cooks Chinese dishes and crafts bamboo furniture. Unlike many other food bloggers, Li's videos set China's countryside as the stage and start with how the foods are planted and harvested on the farm. She rarely speaks in the process.

Li's overseas followers have praised her videos for showing the amazingly charming, simple and beautiful side of China's rural life, but back home, there have long been debates on whether her presentation is unrealistically poetic.

In response, Li, who was raised in the countryside, said she never needs special arrangements when shooting a video about rural life as "everything is in my mind." "In the countryside, planting flowers, vegetables and trees is not difficult. There are tough elements of rural life of course, but I didn't put them in my videos," Li said. "Most people today are facing much stress in work and life, so I hope they can feel relieved and relaxed when watching my videos."

The giant Amazon rainforest in South America has been a mystery for centuries. It holds all kinds of natural wonders. Among them in Colombia, a river stands out as"the most beautiful river"in the world. 

Locally called Carni o Cristales, this special river lies in a national park. It is made up of several waterfalls, rapids, and plenty of pools. For most of the year, Canio Cristales looks like a common river: clean, green, and rocky. However, during the short period between September and November, the river explodes(迸发) with life and colour. It appears as any mix of colours including blue, green, yellow, orange, and a purplish red. So it is also known as the"River of Five Colours". 

Although at first it may appear as if some chemicals were added to the water, this rainbow river is completely natural. Cafio Cristales'colours are the result of a rare(稀有) water plant which needs sunlight to grow. The plants change col-our depending on how much sunlight they receive, and the amount is decided by the height and speed of the water. Therefore, it is possible for the plants to be totally colourless if the sunlight is too hard to get. They are a delicate plant. This makes them easily damaged in the water. 

Actually, the river faces some problems, including drier seasons, wildlife trouble, waste management, and budget(预算) cuts. In 2007, the park was forced to close because it was over-crowded with tourists. Now the park admits only 200 people a day and requires them to mind their behaviour. 

Today, Cano Cristales still shines among Colombia's most popular natural attractions, drawing thousands of tourists every year.