A 58-year-old man can consider himself lucky to be alive after being found by a fishing boat floating on a rainbow-colored swimming ring a few miles from the coast of Taiwan.

On July 7, the Wanli Princess 168, a fishing boat heading toward the port of New Taipei, spotted something strange in the water, a few miles from the shoreline. As the boat approached the strange object, it became apparent that it was a topless man in a colorful swim ring, the kind kids use at the beach. In a clip that has since gone viral online, the crew can be seen throwing the stranded man a life buoy and then pulling him into the boat before taking him back to port and calling emergency services. Although visibly weak and dehydrated, the 58-year-old man appeared in good health, which was a bit surprising considering that he had been drifting in his colorful swim ring for 19 hours before being miraculously spotted by the fishing boat.

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A 17-year-old Chinese student from a rural vocational school who shocked her country by ranking 12th among 802 participants in an elite math contest is now facing accusations of cheating.

Math contests are a big deal in China, but it’s very rare for such competitions to capture the attention of an entire country like this year’s Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition. Organized by Alibaba’s DAMO Academy and the Alibaba Foundation, the contest is free to enter for math enthusiasts from around the world, but it is usually dominated by math majors from prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, and MIT. However, this year, something extraordinary happened. Not only was 17-year-old Jiang Ping the only girl in the top 30 after the first round of the competition, but she was also the only one whose studies didn’t focus on math. The unlikely math genius studies fashion design at a rural vocational school in Jiangsu Province, and only studies advanced mathematics as a hobby.

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At least five Srilankan fishermen have tragically lost their lives and three more are in critical condition after consuming the mysterious contents of bottles found floating in the open sea.

The Sri Lanka Navy recently reported that at least five fishermen have died after consuming an unknown liquid from bottles they found while at sea, around 320 nautical miles from Tangalle, a town on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. It’s unclear how many of these mysterious bottles were found floating out at sea, but a Navy spokesperson told journalists that they contained some sort of alcohol. The bottles were shared among the sailors of the fishing vessel named Devon, and before long, some of them started feeling sick. Despite receiving rudimentary assistance on the boat from Sri Lanka Navy medical personnel, at least five of the fishermen have died, and another is in critical condition. Unfortunately, the crew is believed to have shared the mysterious bottles with other fishing boats.

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A military buff in China alerted authorities after discovering that the discarded books he had bought from a recycling station for just one dollar were classified military documents.

China’s Ministry of State Security recently took to social media to praise the actions of a military enthusiast surnamed Zhang who had alerted authorities after buying some military books from a recycling station without knowing that they actually contained confidential military secrets. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Zhang called a hotline to report the incident and then handed over the documents to the appropriate authorities. The Ministry praised his responsible reaction, acknowledging that things could have been very different had the military secrets ended up in the hands of bad actors. But how do such secrets end up on the open market, especially in a strict country like China?

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A Japanese supermarket that implemented an extra-slow checkout where customers are never rushed recently reported a ten percent increase in sales.

Most supermarkets these days are constantly looking for ways to speed up the checkout process, and for good reason – with time being such a valuable commodity, many customers feel pressured by their peers to pack their groceries and pay as quickly as possible, so as not to hold up the line too long. Unfortunately, some people just can’t be that fast, either because of their age, various disabilities, or even being pregnant. Some of these individuals are often left feeling guilty about moving too slowly, so much so that they avoid going to the supermarket altogether. However, one supermarket in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture seems to have solved the problem with an extra-slow checkout register where people can spend upwards of 20 minutes without feeling pressured in any way.

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The unusual love story between a 23-year-old woman from China’s Hebei Province and an 80-year-old man she met at a nursing home sparked a heated debate in Chinese society.

23-year-old Xiaofang (pseudonym), met the love of her life while working as a volunteer at a retirement home in Hebei Province. 80-year-old Mr. Li (pseudonym) was a resident there and the two quickly became friends after realizing that they shared many interests and hobbies. But, as time went by, their friendship evolved into something more, as Xiaofang was attracted by Mr. Li’s maturity, stability, and wisdom, while he was moved by Xiaofang’s youthful vitality and kindness. Unfortunately, the young girl’s family did not approve of her romantic relationship with a man old enough to be her grandfather, but she decided to follow her heart and severed ties with her parents to be with Mr. Li.

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Benten Mountain, in Tokushima Prefecture, is considered Japan’s shortest natural mountain with a height of just 6.1 meters and a diameter of under 60 meters.

Located in the middle of fertile paddy fields along Tokushima’s Prefectural Road 10, Benten Mountain is the shortest mountain in Japan and one of the shortest in the world. It takes the average person just one minute to reach the summit and yet over 10,000 people make the journey here every year for this specific purpose. For some, it’s just the novelty of scaling a 6.1-meter-tall mountain, others come to admire the wax tree, camelias, and other flowers that call the rocky mass their home, and a few make the short trek to reach the Itsukushima Shrine built in honor of Benzaiten, the goddess of wisdom.

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China’s Yuntai Waterfall is generally regarded as Asia’s most impressive waterfall and is often described as a natural wonder. However, it turns out that its spectacular water show is artificially enhanced.

Yuntai Waterfall is the most popular scenic spot in the Yuntai Mountains, drawing millions of tourists annually. The tallest waterfall in Asia (a sheer drop of 314 meters) offers stunning vistas and a breathtaking spectacle that was recently revealed to be the result of modern technology. A Chinese vlogger managed to make their way to the top of Yuntai Waterfall where they spotted large metal pipes feeding water into the waterfall for an enhanced video effect. At first, the viral video of the discovery was criticized as fake, but sources from the Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area acknowledged that the waterfall is slightly enhanced to ensure a pleasant experience for tourists, regardless of natural factors.

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A so-called blind dating cafe in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, has come under fire for installing a one-way window that allows men to see the girls they are talking to, but not vice-versa.

On June 1st, a blind dating cafe in Ho Chi Minh’s District 1 went viral for a controversial reason. According to multiple reports, Mina Cafe features two different rooms for men and women, separated by a glass wall. The controversy lies in the fact that the wall is advertised as a mirror when in reality it is only a mirror from the women’s side. The men’s room is dark and they can clearly see the person on the other side. Basically, the blind date part is only valid for the women, as the men can freely admire their potential partners like items on display.

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There is a bizarre craze sweeping China’s primary and secondary schools. Students are adding all sorts of smelly ingredients to plastic bottles to create the stinkiest recipes possible.

Chinese media recently reported multiple incidents involving bottles of foul-smelling water created by young school students using online recipes. Apparently, they were related to a strange craze where students add all sorts of disgusting ingredients to a plastic bottle of water and let the mix ferment to create the stinkiest concoction possible. They write the recipe on the bottle, and if stinky enough, share it online so that other can take the experiment even further. It has been dubbed the “stink-raising water” craze and education authorities are scrambling to prevent it from becoming even more popular, as experts believe it puts public health at risk.

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The organizers of a recent festival at a university in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea, were forced to apologize after the host decided to give away the water bottles used by the members of an idol group as prizes.

On May 22, the popular girl group Oh My Girl performed at a university festival in Asan, South Chungcheong Province. However, it was what occurred on stage after the group’s performance that made news headlines all around the country in the days that followed. On May 26, several videos were posted on South Korean social media showing the host of the event inviting male fans of Oh My Girl on stage and then collecting the used water bottles left behind by the members of the group. Fans were asked to participate in a talent show for the chance to win an unusual prize – the used water bottle of the Oh My Girl member of their choice.

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China’s Guizhou Province is home to about a dozen conical hills known as the Anlong Pyramids because of their resemblance to the much more famous pyramids of Egypt.

In recent years, Anlong County has become a popular tourist destination thanks in no small part to its pyramid-like mountains which have captured the imaginations of millions of people around the world. Apart from their pyramid-like shape, these formations also feature layers of rock stacked on top of each other so neatly that you could swear they were placed like that by someone or something. Ever since photos and videos of the Anlong Pyramids started circulating online around 2018, conspiracy theories about their origin began appearing as well, and despite experts’ best efforts to convince the public that these pyramids are completely natural, some people still believe that they are the work of an ancient human civilization or of aliens.

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Photos and videos of unmanned vending machines selling live animals like cats, small dogs, and rodents installed in various Chinese cities have been going viral and sparking outrage among the general public.

The significant technological developments of the last decade have created a fast-growing “unmanned economy” that continues to spread into almost every sector of the global economy. However, there are still some industries that are incompatible with unmanned, self-service devices. The pet-selling sector has so far been considered incompatible, but things are apparently very different in China, as more and more unmanned vending machines selling live pets are being spotted all around the country. One such video showing a pet vending machine in a busy part of Beijing recently went viral on Chinese social media, sparking a heated debate around the ethics of this controversial business model.

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A Chinese man wanted for murder managed to avoid police detection for over 20 years by pretending to be a deaf and mute scavenger in the mountains of Hubei Province.

On the evening of May 22, 2004, a young and quick-tempered man named Xiao got into a heated argument with a neighbor in his home village of Oumio Daying, in Xianyang’s Xiangcheng District. At one point, Xiao allegedly picked up a shovel and hit his neighbor over the head with it, killing him on the spot. That night, knowing that he risked spending the rest of his life behind bars or worse, getting the death penalty, Xiao decided to abandon his wife and 11-year-old child to go on the run. He ran into the mountains of Anxi County, in Fujian Province, where he became a scavenger selling scraps to survive. To make sure he never gave anything away about his past life, Xiao pretended to be deaf and mute for the next 20 years, only smiling at people and communicating through gestures.

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A Chinese man recently lost his life while performing a controversial type of exercise that requires practitioners to hang only by their chins to relieve neck and spine pain by reducing pressure on nerves.

Over the past decade or so, a bizarre form of exercise has been getting traction throughout China. It basically involves swinging one’s body while hanging in the air supported only by a leather chin strap. Reportedly invented around 2017 by Shenyang native Sun Rongchun as a way to relieve back pain, neck swings quickly became a familiar sight in parks and outdoor gyms all over the country. Although hanging in the air by one’s chin doesn’t sound like the safest thing in the world, paractiotioners swear by it, claiming it does wonder for neck and back pain. Still, doctors have been warning about the dangers of neck hanging for years and a recent tragedy suggests that when performed incorrectly, this type of exercise can be lethal.

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