Space lecture A special lecture will begin at 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, given by the three Shenzhou-13 crew members aboard China’s space station, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced on Monday. The three astronauts, namely Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, will interact with students on Earth. The primary ground classroom will be at the China Science and Technology Museum. Classrooms will also be set up in Nanning of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Wenchuan County of Sichuan Province, Hong Kong and Macao, said the CMSA. The astronauts will introduce and display their living and working scenes in the Chinese space station. Deep-ocean expedition The scientific research ship Tansuo-1 returned to a port in the city of Sanya, in South China’s Hainan Province, on Sunday, after completing its deep-ocean expedition to the Mariana Trench. The vessel, which carries the deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe (Striver), berthed on Sunday morning, according to the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. During the 53-day expedition, which started Oct. 14, the China-built Fendouzhe successfully completed 23 dives, six of which exceeded a depth of 10,000 meters. Relic protection The local legislature in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has passed a regulation to protect the Great Wall in the region. According to the regulation passed at a session of the standing committee of the regional people’s congress, Ningxia will hire patrollers to guard and inspect the ancient wall, subsidizing them at the salary levels of public service posts. The regulation stipulates that all the construction projects and activities that might affect the safety and environment of the Great Wall will be prohibited. Severe breach of the regulation might incur a fine as high as 50,000 yuan (US$7,845). Hukou registration Fresh graduates obtaining a master’s or doctoral degree from Shanghai universities and who are employed in the municipality’s five new towns and the new area of the free trade zone can now apply for permanent household (hukou) registration in Shanghai, according to a new policy released by the Shanghai Student Affairs Center on November 30. The center announced that qualified applicants can begin applying for the permanent household registrations in December. The policy is aimed at attracting more talents to the city, especially to its five new towns — Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian and Nanhui. Shanghai had in January unveiled the plan to build the new towns as part of its efforts to optimize the development layout and create new engines for future growth. (SD-Agencies) | 