Free lodging in China, but only if you speak English
Visitors seeking to see China on a budget would do well to brush up their English language skills to take advantage of a scheme that offers free lodging in Chinese homes in exchange for English tutoring.
With the cost of one hour of English tuition costing up to 500 yuan ($73.26) -- unaffordable for the vast majority of Chinese -- a not-for-profit Chinese organization called Tourboarding launched the initiative last month.
Lodgers must speak at least two hours of English a day in return for their keep while their Chinese hosts can learn for free from a resident live-in English teacher.
"In the past 30 days, 5,000 Chinese families have signed up," said Ken Chen, 38, one of the founding members for Tourboarding.
Chen said the aim of the company, which is run online (www.tourboarding.com/), is not to make money but to provide opportunity for the millions of Chinese keen to learn English.
Tourboarding hopes to tap into foreign demand for cheap accommodation in China, particularly in Shanghai, as hotel prices have soared since the start of the World Expo in May.
"Travel industry hates us, people love us," is the motto on its website, which prides itself on offering travelers airport pick-up and drop off, free accommodation with a family and two meals a day.
Travelers can choose to exchange their language for free accommodation, tour guiding or even Chinese cooking lessons.
Yang Yang, 16, a female student in Shanghai advertises her home on the Tourboarding website to prospective travelers: "The house is next to a lake, green is good. We can offer single rooms for you to live. My parents want me to invite a woman."
Chen said Yang is just one example of a rising number of Chinese opening their homes to foreigners in the hope of improving their English.
"We accept travelers from all over the world. In the future we will copy this model to imitate in new, booming countries such as Russia, Brazil and Vietnam," said Chen.
Chen who quit his job at Nike Sports China, joined forces with Nuno Zhang, 28, an ex-Google employee to create the Tourboarding concept. The company started up in April.
He added that the website would rely on donations from travelers until volume traffic increases.
"In the future we will bring in advertising to make the service sustainable but we will not charge hosts at all as they are from a developing country," Chen added.
People flock to Osaka cat cafe to enjoy carefree feeling
Nestled among the bars and trendy clothing outlets of the "America mura" section of Osaka's Minami district is a cafe whose primary attraction is not the quality of its coffee but the charms of its somewhat unconventional "staff."
The cafe, named "Neko no Jikan," which can be translated as cats' time, is one of the country's original cat cafes and is home to 21 felines, including a Maine Coon, a breed known for its large size.
Believed to have originated in Taiwan, cat cafes are establishments where cats are let loose indoors for customers to interact with.
Some of the cats at Neko no Jikan come to customers when called, while others sit or lie on the shelves lining the cafe's walls. Others still are stretched out on tables.
The shop is run by Yoko Yoshida, 53, who became the trailblazer for cat teahouses when she opened her first shop in Osaka's Kita Ward in 2005, when dog cafes were at the height of popularity in Japan.
America mura is in the busy Minami district straddling the city's Chuo and Naniwa wards. The name reportedly spread after a store converted from a warehouse started selling second-hand American records and sundries from the West Coast of the United States in the 1970s.
The ambience of the tea shop is quiet except for cats' occasional mews. Managed on a time-limit basis, Neko no Jikan charges 840 yen an hour and 1,050 yen with a drink.
At a cat "cafe," the emphasis is not on food and beverages but relaxing in the company of cats.
Yoshida said she wants customers to enter the cats' "space" in order to achieve relaxation.
Yoshida said not all customers are obvious cat lovers who like to play with the animals or feed them. Many come in business suits and appear like patrons of any other cafe.
Shop manager Junichi Sakai, 39, describes the 21 felines in the cafe as his "staff," adding they take a rest in a separate room on the second floor "when they are tired."
Yoshida said she plans to move her first cat cafe out of Kita Ward in the fall to utilize the vacated space as a genuine "cat house" with a tatami mattress floor.
Slightly preterm, healthy babies do OK later on
If babies are born a couple of weeks early, but are healthy, they're not at greater risk of developmental or behavior problems later on, new research shows.
But babies born at 34 to 36 weeks' pregnancy who have problems such as difficulty breathing or eating, the study's authors say, may still be at a developmental disadvantage later in life.
Such "late-preterm" infants (a full-term pregnancy lasts from 37 to 41 weeks) are known to be at higher risk for breathing and eating difficulties. Some studies have suggested that these infants have developmental and social problems as they get older, Dr. Matthew J. Gurka of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and his colleagues write.
However, they add, little research has been done on long-term outcomes for late preterm infants who are otherwise healthy.
To investigate, Gurka and his team looked at about 1,300 children who had been followed from birth through age 15. Fifty-three of the children were born at 34 to 36 weeks. The study participants underwent numerous tests several times between the ages of 4 and 15 to measure their achievement, social skills, behavioral problems, and mental function.
None of the 11 tests the authors examined showed any difference in social, emotional, or mental development between the late preterm children and the children born at full term.
The researchers caution that the new findings don't mean late preterm infants with early health problems won't have problems later on; "neither do these results endorse early elective delivery of babies."
The early medical problems seen in some late preterm infants could have contributed to the "academic, development, and behavior disadvantages observed in previous studies of late preterm children," Gurka said.
"Here, we are not making any claims about all late-preterm infants, as they are definitely at higher risk of health problems, and perhaps these problems lead to later developmental disadvantages," he added. "Our study was limited to only those born healthy - hence we can only make generalizations about this subset of late preterm infants."
Chinas Vice Premier urges more efforts to fight floods
Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu Friday urged local governments to enhance weather monitoring and step up efforts to fight floods as heavy rains may continue to pound southern China.
Hui, also Director of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, made the remarks during a three-day visit to Hunan and Jiangxi provinces from June 9 to 11.
"Local authorities must step up relief efforts to provide shelter, clothing and food for flood victims. They must also help flood victims rebuild their hometowns," Hui said.
He said local governments must quickly evacuate residents in low-lying areas, ramp up flood prevention measures, and ensure the safety of dams and hydropower plants.
As of June 8, floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains had killed 147 people and left 25 missing and direct economic losses had amounted to 22.3 billion yuan (3.26 billion U.S. dollars).