2017-05-23 Special EnglishThis is Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. Here is the news.Beijing will award scholarships to students from the Belt and Road countries studying in 160 programs at universities in the city by 2020.The scholarship program was jointly initiated by the municipal education commission and finance bureau in December 2016. So far, a total of 64 programs have been covered by the scholarships, benefiting some 1,100 students.From 2016 to 2020, 32 undergraduate and postgraduate programs will be chosen each year.Last year, 32 programs of 23 universities were chosen, and 32 programs of 32 universities were chosen in 2017. The programs cover subjects including aerospace, legal studies and Traditional Chinese Medicine.Officials with the commission said they hope more high-level talent from Belt and Road countries will come study in Beijing and more educational cooperation will be carried out between Beijing and those countries.This is Special English.Chinese central government has called for more efforts in helping college graduates get jobs or start businesses. That's according to a statement issued recently after a national teleconference on employment.Premier Li Keqiang's written instruction on employment was read out at the conference, which was attended by other state leaders.The employment of college graduates matters to China's social stability, as a total of almost 8 million college students are expected to graduate this year.The central government asked local authorities and schools to encourage the students to work in the grassroots. They are also encouraged to seek jobs and start businesses in advanced manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, service and agriculture.In terms of general employment, the central government stressed enhanced vocational training and other public services.China has set employment targets of 11 million new urban jobs and a registered urban unemployment rate under 4.5 percent this year.You're listening to Special English. I'm Ryan Price in Beijing. The length of Shanghai metro system is now the longest in the world, surpassing the size of networks in other world cities, including New York and Paris.Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng said infrastructure transportation within the city is now an important part of the development between urban and rural areas of Shanghai. Han added that Shanghai strengthened its position as global port city, with the transport of containers leading the world for the past 7 years. Freight transport out of Shanghai's main airports ranks the third in the world. Air passenger volumes have reached 100 million, which tops in China.In the next 5 years, more efforts will be made in the transportation integration of the Yangtze River Delta. Plans are in place to make every city within the Yangtze River Delta region reachable within 90 minutes of one another.Additionally, Shanghai will work to make public transport the most convenient means of transportation for its citizens.This is Special English.China has started a yearlong experiment using an airtight advanced life-support system to house eight volunteers as a way to help with the nation's goal of long-term manned deep-space exploration.The project's operator said the Lunar Palace 365 experiment was launched at the Lunar Palace 1 bio-regenerative life-support laboratory in Beihang University in Beijing. The eight volunteers are all postgraduate students at the university. They are divided into two teams and will undertake the experiment in three shifts. Once the team has entered the lab, team members will stay for 60 days before another team takes over. The second group will live in the lab for 200 days before the first team will complete the remaining 105 days. Lunar Palace 1 is capable of providing a habitable environment similar to Earth's biosphere and can support four people each time