Risa in Roma, Italy is chatting online with his friend Xiaoming, who has just moved to Beijing, China with his family. After a little while, Xiaoming tells Risa that it’s time for him to go to bed. Risa looks outside to see the sun shining and is confused why Xiaoming would go to bed when it’s so early! “What time is it?” Risa asks. “It’s 9:00 pm!” Xiaoming replies. What’s going on here? Is it some kind of time travel?

In fact, it is NOT. This is actually just something that happens every day to our planet. Risa and Xiaoming are having different times because Xiaoming is now in a different time zone.

A time zone is an area on Earth that has a specific time that all the people in that area can set their clocks to. You’ll pass through different time zones if you travel from east to west (or west to east) on the surface of Earth. Humans came up with the idea of time zones and decided which parts of Earth are in which time zones in the 1880s. The world now has 24 time zones and each time zone is one hour ahead (领先) or behind its neighboring ones. You can see part of these time zones on the map below. The numbers on the map show how many hours you must add to or subtract from the Greenwich Mean Time (格林威治时间) to get the local time.

Most countries, such as Ireland and Japan fall in one zone. Some large countries such as the U.S., Canada and Russia may be divided into three or more time zones. But China is the only large country besides India that only uses one time zone.

We need time zones because Earth is like a ball. Each day, Earth completes one full turn. As it turns, sun shines on only one part of it at a time. While the sun shines where you live, you are having the daytime, but it’s nighttime somewhere else. It would be silly if people all over the world used the same time.

A 30-year-old man from Chengdu has recently caught people’s eyes for his action of climbing China’s five great mountains in just five days over the May Day holiday. As this trip is challenging, it must be planned, he said that China’s traffic is really good, “With such good traffic, I can have such a trip.”

Throughout its long history, writing has been a big deal in China. Since the earliest dynasties, the skills of reading and writing have been highly respected. In fact, they form an important part of the Chinese art world. Calligraphy（书法）, the art of writing with a brush, is almost as old as writing itself. And though this art form dates back thousands of years, it is still very popular today.

________ The answer most likely lies way back in the Shang Dynasty（about 1600-1046 BC）. That’s when characters were first used in religious（宗教的）events. This practice showed a spiritual part which gave writing power in the eyes of common people.

Calligraphy spread during the Han Dynasty, when the, necessary tools and materials were more easily got. First there was the brush, made from bamboo and animal hair. Early ink was made by burning pinewood（松木）and mixing it with water. Early forms of paper were invented around AD105. Finally, there was inkstone, a smooth piece of stone used for mixing ink. Together, these tools were known as the “four treasures of study” in ancient China.

Calligraphy has been popular in China for thousands of years. Some say that it’s an even higher art form than painting. Though foreigners may not always get it, there’s something truly special about calligraphy. Every written character has a strict stroke（笔划）order. When viewing the results, you can experience every stroke of the artist’s brush. This allows for a close connection between artists and viewers. Calligraphy is something that’s best experienced by doing. Luckily, this ancient art is still widely practiced today. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and find yourself a teacher!