In China, Tree Planting Day arrives on March 12, but more often people plant trees during Qingming Festival in early April. Trees can survive (成活) more easily with a warmer climate (气候) and often spring rains fall at that time.

Planting willows (柳树) during the Qingming Festival is a traditional custom in China. March 12 was set as national tree planting day in 1979 in memory of Sun Yat-sen, who died on March 12, 1925. Sun had called for planting trees.

Since 2013, President Xi Jinping has joined Beijing citizens in tree planting activities. President Xi called on the public to stick to the tradition of planting trees in spring and could build an ecological civilization with the government’s continuous efforts. Students should set up a sense of protecting the environment and cherish the green plants, Xi said in 2017 when attending a tree planting activity in Chaoyang district of Beijing.

China has seen a remarkable growth in forest resources and planting projects. Nationwide voluntary tree planting campaigns in China over the past forty years have seen increased participation (参与) by members of the public and nearly 79 billion trees have been planted.

“Our forest coverage rate has risen from 12% in the early 1980s to 23.04% now. Our forest has increased from 9.028 billion cubic meters (立方米) to 17.56 billion cubic meters. The campaign has made China the country with the largest increase in forest resources and the largest area of planted forests,” said Zhang Wei, a senior official of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration in 2021.

Traveling by train is a great way to go around China. It’s more comfortable than taking a plane and faster than driving or taking a bus. It’s also more relaxing to take the train. On a train, you can sit and enjoy beautiful things along the way. You can use your phone freely. What’s more, trains can run even in the rain and snow.

There’s a very popular kind of train in China high-speed (高速) trains. Two of the top high-speed trains are Fuxing trains and Hexie trains. They can move far away in the blink of an eye. But do you know which one is faster?

Fuxing trains are the fastest trains in China now. They can go up to 400 km/h. Also, Fuxing trains are more comfortable than Hexie trains, They have better seats, free Wi-Fi, more charging ports (充电口) and more space available for your legs when you are sitting.

Hexie trains can go up to 380 km/h. They’re not so fast as Fuxing trains, but they still have comfortable seats and take you where you need to go fast. The differences are that Hexie trains have no Wi-Fi, fewer charging ports, and less space for your legs.

So, which train do you like better, Fuxing or Hexie? No matter (无论) which one you choose, you’ll have a wonderful time traveling by train in China.

If you look at the top of your phone, you’ll usually see a small symbol that shows 3G or 4G. The “G” means the “generation (代)” of your mobile network. But they will become history after 5G network fully arrives.

In recent years, China makes great achievement in 5G network. Now it’s making efforts to popularize the business use of 5G. Shanghai is the first city in China to start testing 5G networks. On March 30, 2019, Wu Qing, one of the leaders of Shanghai, made the first 5G video call with Huawei Mate Smartphone.

5G allows people download and upload data faster than ever before. It is 100 times faster than 4G mobile network. But 5G doesn’t just bring faster mobile Internet. People can use it for many other things as well. For example, 5G can make self­driving cars safer.

Today’s self­driving cars have one problem-time lag (滞后). When a self­driving car “sees” an obstacle (障碍物), it sends this information to data center and receives instructions. However, it takes time to do that. That’s the time lag. With this kind of lag, the car might have an accident because it doesn’t receive instructions in time. But with 5G, the self­driving car can receive instructions more quickly.

5G can also be used to power the Internet of Things (IoT). This refers to a large online network that connects all things and people. Fast Internet speeds will be the key to developing this technology. For example, with IoT, your smart fridge could order eggs online when it notices that there are no eggs left inside.