A former Chinese whizkid who entered university at the age of 10 and was already a PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at 16, spends his days doing nothing and relies on his parents for money.

Zhang Xinyang had always been destined for greatness. At just two and a half years old, he learned over a thousand Chinese characters within three months, and by age four, he was already in primary school. Born into a modest family, Zhang benefitted from his father’s tutelage and managed to skip several grades. At age six, he was already in fifth grade, and by age nine, he was enrolled in the third grade of high school. When he was ten years old, Zhang Xinyang became China’s youngest university student, getting accepted at the Tianjin University of Technology and Education. His genius surprised everyone, but as he grew, his attitude started to change…

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An android waitress working at a restaurant in Chongqing, China, went viral last month, mesmerizing viewers with its precise robotic movements, but she turned out to be nothing more than a choreographed illusion.

With the threat of AI-powered robots stealing humans’ jobs looming over the world these days, the sight of a humanoid robot seemingly working as a waitress at a restaurant in China scandalized a lot of people when videos of it started circulating on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok). Some viewers were in awe of the android’s human-like appearance and its ability to interact with real people, greeting them as they entered the Chongqing restaurant, taking their orders, and bringing them to their tables, but others declared themselves a little creeped out by it, a relatively common reaction to the uncanny valley effect. But it turned out that the android waitress was more lifelike than people thought…

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A Chinese man barely managed to get off his smart toilet with his bum intact after smoke started coming out of the toilet bowl and the whole thing burst into flames.

The Yangtze Evening News newspaper recently reported the story of a man from Xiamen, Fujian Province, who recorded his smart toilet burning after a suspected short-circuit. The incident occurred on November 10, while the man was using the toilet. At first, there was the smell of smoke, then plumes of white smoke started billowing from the toilet bowl, and finally, just as the man got up from the toilet, the smart toilet burst into flames. Photos taken by the shocked man show that he didn’t even have time to put his shorts on before the toilet started burning.

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China’s hospitality sector routinely holds bed-making competitions that both showcase the skill and dedication of hotel employees and motivate others to achieve the same level.

In order to provide guests with the best hospitality services, Chinese luxury hotels require their staff to undergo intensive bed-making training, and the very best of them get to participate in bed-making competitions hosted by the hotel chain, or held at a regional or national level. And these contests are no joke! Participants need to be masters of their trade to stand a chance of convincing the jury that they deserve to win. Apart from speed – the first contestant to finish gets bonus points – competitors have to abide by certain rules and make sure that they pay great attention to detail.

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A recently divorced woman denounced her husband’s obsession with running, claiming that he once left their 5-year-old daughter locked in a car for hours so he could run a marathon.

In an angry post on Chinese social media, Zhao, a woman living in southern China’s Hunan province, said that her former husband’s obsession with running ended up destroying their family. Although he never really admitted he was obsessed with running, Zhao claims that it was always his number one priority. At first, she had encouraged him to run in order to preserve his health, but soon it became the only thing he cared about. In the end, it caused a rift between the spouses and one of the husband’s desperate actions convinced the woman that she was better off on her own.

Photo: unitea/Pixabay

According to Toutiao News, Zhao wrote in her post that her ex-husband once left their 5-year-old daughter alone in a car for several hours, just so he could do what he loved most, run. The woman did not observe this herself, but her daughter later told her everything. Apparently, her ex-husband bought the 5-year-old girl breakfast, gave her his phone for entertainment, locked her in a car, and went to run in a marathon.

Confronted by Chinese media after Zhao’s post went viral all over the country, the father, Peng, admitted to leaving his daughter alone in the car so he could run in the marathon. However, he claimed that he only ran a short distance before returning to the girl.

“I only ran 1.5km then returned to the car to find her sleeping,” Peng said, before telling the mother that if she didn’t like the way he raised their daughter, she should take her away with her.

“His addiction to running destroyed our family,” Zhao said.

An offline business in China’s Shandong Province has been getting attention for offering divorcing couples the chance to destroy their wedding pictures in a cheap and effective way.

Tearing up wedding photos after a failed marriage isn’t as easy as it sounds in China, a country where it’s customary to immortalize wedding stills on tough acrylic canvases that also happen to be very resistant to flames. That leaves divorcing couples with few options, like simply throwing their wedding pictures in the trash, which many are reluctant to do for fear that they might get recognized by someone. That’s where a new business venture from Shandong Province comes in. Founded by a young man surnamed Liu, the new company specializes in shredding wedding photographs, helping clients put their past behind them while also protecting their privacy.

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The so-called ‘Guyiang White House’ is a gigantic structure located in the posh Huaguoyuan Wetland Park area of Guiyang City, in China’s Guizhou Province. It has gone viral as China’s largest mansion, but you can’t believe everything you read online…

Featuring an architectural style usually observed in European palaces and museums, the Guiyang White House has become one of the most iconic sights in the Chinese city of Guiyang. Although many have described it as ‘kitsch’, ‘over-the-top’, and overly opulent’, there is no denying the eye-catching appeal of this megalithic structure, both during the day and at night, when it is illuminated by countless light installations. The structure got its name because of its white exterior and Western architectural influences, but when it comes to size, it actually dwarfs its Washington namesake. The entire complex, including the artificial pond in front of the edifice, is said to cover an area of ​​18.3 million square meters.

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A 63-year-old Chinese man who only started learning ballet a decade ago has gone viral on social media as a living example that you are never too old to follow your dreams.

Liu Ziqing has been a fan of ballet for as long as he can remember. He fell in love with it as a little boy, after watching The Red Detachment of Women ballet show in the early 1960s, more than 10 times, but he never really got the chance to practice it himself. Growing up in a poor family in a village near Baotou, the largest city in Northern China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, his main focus was always on helping his family and putting food on the table. Dancing was a luxury he could not afford. He ended up becoming a farmer but also worked as a street cleaner in order to make ends meet. But he never got over his love for ballet, and at age 53, he decided to become a ballet dancer.

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A Chinese food vlogger found herself at the center of a social media storm after she posted a controversial video of herself killing, deboning, and cooking a 90 kg alligator.

Nowadays people do all sorts of crazy, controversial things on camera for attention, from eating tapeworm-infested fish to crashing small airplanes, but most of them draw the line at gratuitous animal cruelty. One Chinese influencer recently learned the hard way that people don’t like it when you kill, dismember, and cook a defenseless wild animal for their viewing pleasure, and that the stunt may now get her in trouble with the law. Chu Niang Xiao He, a female food vlogger with over 3.5 million followers on Douyin (China’s version of TikTok), recently posted a short clip demonstrating how to kill and prepare an alligator in the comfort of your own home. It was meant to shock and draw attention, but it also attracted a wave of negative reactions and accusations of animal cruelty.

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Security guards at a shopping mall in Shanghai, China recently discovered a young man who had allegedly been living comfortably under a staircase for over six months.

Shopping malls are busy places, so keeping an eye on every suspicious-looking individual can be challenging even for the most attentive security guards, but failing to notice someone living in a shopping mall continuously for about half a year is a little suspicious in itself. And yet, that seems to have happened at a busy mall in Shanghai, where a young man managed to remain undiscovered for more than six months while living quite comfortably. According to a White Deer video that went viral, the unnamed young man had installed a sleeping tent under a secluded staircase in the building, along with a small desk and an office chair. He charged his laptop and mobile phone from the shopping mall electric outlets and managed to keep a very low profile.

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A Chinese woman was recently charged with fraud for allegedly cheating 3 men out of nearly $100,000 by marrying them in staged ceremonies, despite being already legally married.

The 35-year-old fraudster was already married and raising a daughter when she started dating other men with the specific purpose of defrauding them. It is unclear what drove the woman to a life of constant pretending, because, according to Chinese media, her husband had his own business and the family had a good financial situation. One thing is for sure, though, one of the factors that allowed the woman, known only as Zhou, to juggle between four husbands over several years was the fact that her real husband was always busy with work and didn’t pay too much attention to his wife.

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Lazy tourists visiting scenic mountain spots in China’s Zhejiang Province can now skip mountain hiking altogether and ride giant escalators hundreds of meters long to reach the best view spots.

Tour operators in China’s Zhejiang Province have installed massive escalators on mountains to help tourists gain access to the best views with virtually no effort. Scenic scots that were once only accessible by hiking on precarious trails are now available to anyone willing to ride one of these escalators for a few seconds, minutes at most. For example, Tanyu Mountain, in Zhejiang’s Chun’an county, has an altitude of only 350 meters, but due to the precarious relief, tourists have to walk three mountains around the mountain in order to reach the summit, making it inaccessible to the elderly and young children. But thanks, to the new escalator, anyone can now reach the top of Tanyu Mountain with virtually no effort.

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Chinese engineers once set a Guinness World Record After Rotating a 30,000-tonne bus terminal in Xiamen 288 meters by using hundreds of hydraulic jacks and rolling tracks.

The Houxi Long Distance Bus Station is situated in the Jimei District of Xiamen, China’s Fujian Province.  Four years ago, local authorities decided to move one of its terminals from one street to another in order to make room for a new high-speed railway project. After weighing their options, engineers decided that the best solution was to rotate the gigantic building at a 90-degree angle, using one of its narrow sides as the center point. The far side of the terminals needed to slide along the ground for about 288 meters, which is hard to do with a structure that weighs 30,000 tons, or as much as 170 Boeing 737 passenger planes.

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The Goupitan shiplift in China’s Guizhou Province is the largest shiplift in the world. It can lift ships with a displacement of up to 500 tons to a height of 199 m (653 ft).

Dams are characterized by a drastic change in water levels and that makes navigating large waterways a daunting task. Luckily, advanced technology makes things a lot easier, and the Goupitan shiplift incorporated into the Goupitan Hydropower Station is a perfect example. Completed in 2021, it consists of three different hydraulic lifts connected by navigable water channels with a total distance of 2.3 kilometers. Located on the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River in Guizhou, the Goupitan shiplift is one of the world’s most intriguing technological marvels, one that makes shipping along the waterway so much easier.

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China’s Qiantag River is famous for a unique natural phenomenon, a wavy pattern tide that was only observed for the first time in 2021 and has come to be known as fish scale tide.

The Qiantang River’s estuary in Zhejiang Province has long been famous for having the strongest tidal bores in the world. At times, they can get as tall as nine meters, which means the area regularly sees trains of large waves moving upstream against the normal current. However, in 2021, during a scientific expedition, researchers discovered another intriguing natural phenomenon unique to this estuary. When certain conditions are met, the tide comes in spiraling waves that look like fish scales on the water’s surface. The phenomenon hs become known as ‘fish scale tide’.

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