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People: Foreigner helps village tourism drive in Zhejiang

Emmanuel Denis, a Frenchman whose Chinese name is Ding Yimu, has been working as an assistant to the head of Hehong village in Zhejiang province for the past year. His main job is to promote tourism. Ding, 54, is married to a local woman and has lived in the province for 15 years. Before coming to China, he worked for large financial companies in the West. Recently, he invited a dozen foreigners to the village to see the tourism resources there.

Culture: Tales of the Silk Road wows Frankfurt audience

The dance drama Tales of the Silk Road was performed to a packed audience in Frankfurt, Germany, last week. It is a love story between Mogao and Yueya, whose names were inspired by two historical sites in Dunhuang, Gansu province. The stage and costume designs brought back the scenes of common people's daily lives in Dunhuang a thousand years ago.

Health: Any exercise will be beneficial, study finds

Weekend warriors, take a victory lap. People who pack their workouts into one or two sessions a week lower their risk of dying over roughly the next decade nearly as much as people who exercise more often, new research suggests. The study by George Washington University shows that even people who get less exercise than recommended have less risk than folks who don't break a sweat at all.

Book: Chinese books win German design awards

Two Chinese books have won awards for their designs. The Book of Bugs was awarded a silver medal and Board Carvings was given an honorary award at the 2017 world design competition in the German city of Leipzig. The Book of Bugs, designed by Zhu Yingchun and Huangfu Shanhan, contains no words, but only "works" by various types of insects: either trails of them crawling by with ink on their feet, or traces left after munching on leaves.

Sports: Martial artists strike gold in Russia

Chinese martial artists chopped and kicked their way to success at the first international martial arts competition of the year in the Russian capital Moscow last week. More than 200 competitors from 21 countries took part. Chinese contestants took home four gold medals.

Society: Beijing square dancers may face penalties

Starting next month, square dancers in Beijing could risk legal repercussions if they are deemed to be disturbing the peace. Beijing's newly revised regulation stipulates that fitness activities should not disturb the public order. Violators will be subject to penalties or even criminal prosecution.

Buzzword: Dutch Reach

The Dutch Reach is a practice where instead of using your near hand - usually the driver's left hand - to open your car door, you use your far hand - your right hand. In doing that, you automatically swivel your body. And you position your head and shoulders so you are looking directly out. Then you are very easily able to look back and see if there are oncoming bicycles or cars or whatever.