Rural Roots,City Shoots

China's vast army of rural migrant laborers is gradually finding a more permanent place in the cities Just months ago,Zhu Xueqin,a 31-year-old migrant worker in Shanghai,couldn't imagine that she would be in the center of the media limelight as one of three migrant worker deputies of the 11th National People's Congress(NPC)held in March. When she came to Shanghai from the countryside 12 years ago,she had only a middle school diploma.But her diligence and intelligence have helped her to work her way     

Li Zhaoping,Carer-in-Chief of Disabled Orphans

Helping orphans with disabilities has been the main occupation of 60-year-old Li Zhaoping -"Mom" to the 100 or so children in her care -for the past 20 years. QUALIFIED pediatrician Li Zhaoping makes it her business to seek out and treat Chinese orphans with congenital disabililie That her vocation is based on love and compassion is plain from the way her face lights up when she speaks of the 100 children in her care. Li is chairperson of the Beijing International Committee for Chinese Orphans (BICCO), and her extended     

Quality Medical Services at Doorway——Beijing's community-based medical institutions

For years suffering from hypertension, Mrs. Zhang, now in her 60s, is a frequent visitor to Beijing Dewai Community Hospital in her neighborhood. "I feel too painstaking to go to a 'big hos-pital,'" she says. "Buses are always overcrowded and slow, not suitable for people like me. Besides, community-based medical institutions charge less for treatment of the same diseases." In China, a "big hospital" is a medical institution large in size and fully equipped, in many cases staffed by some of the most reputed medical experts locally or nationwide. Meanwhile, community-based hospitals and clinics are often referred to as "small hospitals."     

大爱无疆的草原额吉——记“人民楷模”国家荣誉称号获得者都贵玛（英文）

正Duguima, a Party member and a herder from Inner Mongolia autonomous region, was a teenager when she was given the task of raising 28 orphans from Shanghai. Born in a Mongolian family in 1942, she was honored as a People's Role Model for her selfless contributions to ethnic unity and progress. In the 1970 s, Duguima's self-taught medical and obstetric knowledge allowed her to save more than 40 young mothers who lived on the prairie.     

Gender Bending——Social Trends You Can Wear

PASSING for a member of the opposite sex is a tirelessly amusing trick celebrated in several art forms over many centuries and in many cultures. In 1998,Walt Disney Pictures made the animated film named Mulan based on a story from the Sui Dynasty(581-618) about a Chinese legendary heroine Hua Mulan.Mulan impersonated a man and took the place of her ill father in the ranks of the army fighting invaders from the north.For her bravery in assuming a male role,and the sacrifice she made for her father,Mulan has been honored in history.There are many such female heroines in Chinese history,fictitious and real,such as Fan Lihua of the Tang Dynasty(618-907) and Qin Liangyu of the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644) whose legends celebrate female ferocity and their awakening to inner strength and power.     

College Education for Students From Needy Families

Thousands of youngsters in China feel overjoyed when admitted to an institution of higher learning, after years of painstaking studies and highly competitive entrance examinations. But Lin Xue from Dalian in northeast China's Liaoning Province wept for days upon admission from the China Medical University in Shenyang, the provincial capital, in 2000. Although she longed to enter the university renowned in the field of medical science education, Lin decided, painfully, to hide the admission letter from her parents and give up the rare opportunity to change her destiny. "I was fully aware that my parents could by no means afford my tuition and living expenses in college," Lin recalls. Both of her farmer parents were in poor health: her     

The Story of Xuer

Xuer, or "snow," lived in the world for six years. She was daughter of my wife and my best friend. Her father died of lymphoma six monthsbefore she was born, and I became her stepfather a month after her birth. We so named her because she was bom on a day when a sudden heavy snow hit Beijing. I promised my friend before his death to take good care of his wife, whom I loved secretly since I was in high school, and their unborn baby. But the happy days of the three of us lasted less than a yea…     

Statutory Warnings

There are hospitals,and then there are Beijing hospitals.My first brush with the medical profession in China was actuated by an emer- gency of sorts,when my girlfriend collapsed and blacked out briefly as she exited from the toilet of an Indian restaurant (the food was not the culprit,not this time).Flustered Chinese waiters revived her with water,but she awoke to sharp,crippling pain in the lower abdomen.I called our landlady,and bless her sweet overflowing Chinese heart, she arrived within minutes and escorted us to the nearest hospital.     

40 Years of Rural Cooperative Medical Service

Our story dates from 40 years ago, on August 10,1966, when China's first institution of rural medical service was inaugurated at a county called Changyang, Hubei Province, Central China, where people of Tujia, an ethnic minority group, live in compact communities. It was actually a clinic at a Dujia Village in the county, which charged itself with the task of making primary or basic medical care available-and affordable-to all the villagers. China has undergone tremendous changes since then, and now its economy becoming increasingly market-oriented. Despite that, rural cooperative medical service has kept expanding at     

WEEKLY WATCH

OPINION Mental Health of the Old Recently, an 88-year-old lady in Zhejiang Province sued her son for not allowing her to move to an old age home. She believes her son and daughter-in-law are expressing their filial responsibilities, but she just wants to have more privacy. Nowadays, while children do offer their parents a life with more materialistic support, they are too busy to care about the old people's psychological needs or respect their will. This can lead     

A Taste of the Southwest

Li Sulan gets up early in the morning to begin her daily routine.She prepares a breakfast of traditional rice noodles for her customers at a rural home inn where she is the owner.Li is of the Miao ethnic group from the Xijiang Miao Village of Leishan County in southwest China's Guizhou Province.Xijiang Village is home to wellpreserved aspects of aboriginal Miao culture,and is now a widely known cultural tour destination. "As many tourists from China and abroad learn about the Miao ethnic culture,we've seen a sudden boom in tourism in the past few years in our village," said Li with a smile.The flourishing tourist industry boosted the local service sector and revived the traditional Miao culture,bringing a host of benefits to local villagers like Li.     

Physical Perfectionists

M ILLIONS of Chinese people start their sum- mer’s day with a fi ght – a battle, that is, for a place in the shade in the local park. The 72-year-old Bai Yixu is one of them. Every morning, she rises at 6am, drinks down a yo- gurt with a small cake, and rushes to her local common to per- form her daily exercises. There she meets dozens of her peers, all competing for that spot in the shade that will protect these health enthusiasts from the blazing sun. Summertime tempera- tures in Beij…     

Building a New Life

<正>More needs to be done to help migrating seniors adapt to city living After her grandson was born three years ago,Feng Junru left her home in northeast China and moved to Tianjin to look after him.She took care of her grandson every day and found herself busier than she had been before she retired.In addition to taking care of the child,she undertook other household chores such as shopping for vegetables,cooking and cleaning.     

Being Chinese in the West

T he woman spoke a polished English with an Australian accent as she greeted us on board the rickety bus carry- ing us to Yangshuo, with the peasants and their marketwares. We became acquainted over the dusty potholes as shetold of spending time with her aunt in Shanghai and the com-plications she had faced with the Chinese language. It was notuntil she removed her sunglasses that the full extent of her plightbecame obvious, as she explained that most people expectedher to be fluent in Manda…     

Lessons With Love

正Volunteers and policies go hand in hand to improve rural educationWhen Zhang Chengxiang, a teacher from a technical college in east China, recently went to Xiliushui Hope Primary School in Guizhou Province in southwest China to be a volunteer teacher, it was her second mission in that isolated area. When she first got there, she was daunted by the high mountains that encircled the vil age and cut it off from the outside world.     

ONE-WAY TICKET TO PROSPERITY

<正>Transitions from farm to factory help to reduce poverty in south Xinjiang Uygur women in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,northwest China,are well known across the nation for their long braided hair and dancing talent.Raziya Kadir,though,deviates from the stereotype by virtue of her short hair,and her appearance often gives people the impression that she has a somewhat selfwilled disposition.So,the major life change     

FOR A HEAL THIER CHINA

The three-year reform to reaffirm government’s role in financing health care yields considerable resultsAs early as 10 years ago,basic medical insurance was virtually nonexistent for China’s vast rural population.Back then,farmers had to pay every cent of their medical bills out of their own pockets.According to a nationwide survey on medical services conducted by the Ministry of     

Inspirational Role Models

Winners of the annual Touching China Award recognized for their good deeds She carries the medical kit on her back,and her husband carries her on his.For 20 years,the couple has crossed over towering mountains and winding rivers,in sunshine or moonlight,to deliver medical services to people inthe village.It’s just another day in the life of Zhou Yuehua,a     

Lessons for Life

<正>A Beijing school struggles gamely to give migrant workers’children quality education Félicie,an orphan,dreams of becoming a bal erina.Though she lacks formal training,the young girl is determined to get enrol ed in a ballet school and runs away from her orphanage in rural Brittany to Paris.After overcoming a series of hurdles,she fi nally manages to be accepted as a student at the capital’s     

Building a More Prosperous Yamda

CLAD in a white fleece coat and pink woolen hat, Purbu sits on the thick carpet of her new two-storey house and sips from a bottle of juice. The small table beside her is piled up with candies and snacks, glossy Tibetan-style furniture fills the room and the windows, whose thick glass keeps out the harsh winter wind, offer a view of her spacious yard from which a yak peeps curiously into the room. Enjoying an hour of leisure, our hostess confesses that sometimes she is not sure if she is in a dream, and has to pinch her-