COMING OUT TO PLAY: Yuan Zai, the first giant panda born in Taiwan, plays at Taipei Zoo on January 7, 2014. The six-month-old cub, born to a pair of giant pandas given to Taiwan by the Chinese mainland, made his first public appearance the previous day (XINHUA)

Math Document

Chinese archaeologists and experts announced on January 7 that they have discovered the country's earliest mathematics document, dating back more than 2,200 years ago.

The document consists of a mathematical method inscribed on bamboo slips from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), according to Li Xueqin, head of the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Texts at Tsinghua University.

The unearthed document provides a method for the multiplication of any two whole numbers under 100 and certain fractions, said Li, a well-known historian.

The document is the earliest of its kind discovered so far, and has filled in a historical blank for math documents prior to the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.), said Guo Shuchun, Director of the Chinese Society of the History of Mathematics.

It is older and has greater calculating functions than other ancient multiplication tables discovered, said Guo. "It was very advanced for the world at that time, and is an important discovery in the mathematical history of China and even the world."

In July 2008, Tsinghua University acquired a rare collection of 2,500 bamboo items belonging to the late Warring States period, which had previously been smuggled out of China.

Foreign Students

The Ministry of Education is drafting a regulation on the enrollment and instruction of international students in Chinese schools that aims to unify admission conditions and boost educational quality.

The draft, open to public opinion until February 3, stipulated that schools must not enroll foreign students who don't meet admission standards or haven't completed insurance procedures. Likewise, the draft said that minors, staying in China without the company of their parents and lacking entrusted custody papers, cannot be enrolled.

According to the draft, China's higher education institutions should provide specialty lessons in English or other foreign languages if their resources permit.

International students must leave the country within a specified time after they finish their education in China, the draft added.