Chair of UNESCO's Governing Body

(XINHUA)

Hao Ping, Vice Minister of Education of China and representative to the executive board of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was elected president of UNESCO's 37th General Conference for a two-year mandate on November 5.

The appointment made him the first Chinese representative elected to chair the supreme governing body of UNESCO.

Hao, 54, served as vice president of Peking University from 2001 to 2005 and president of Beijing Foreign Studies University from 2005 to 2009. He obtained a master's degree in history from the University of Hawaii and holds a Ph.D in international relations.

Celebrated Film Director

(XINHUA)

Feng Xiaogang, one of China's highest-grossing film directors, immortalized his handprints in cement at TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood on November 1. He was the first Chinese mainland director to receive the honor.

"This is a good and interesting thing. Being accepted in this Hollywood family, I feel it's a recognition of my work," Feng said.

Feng achieved a box-office total of 2.5 billion yuan ($410 million) over his two-decade career as film director. Seven of his films, including Back to 1942, Aftershock and Cellphone, were screened at the TCL Chinese Theater on November 2 and 3.

"The historically low water levels of the Poyang Lake are caused by droughts as well as man-made factors, including the massive illegal dredging of sand for construction purposes."

Kong Fanxiang, a senior research fellow with the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, explaining the shrinkage of China's largest freshwater lake

"First, the number of government cars should be reduced. Second, the monitoring over their purchase and use should be intensified. Third, the fiscal supervision system should be improved and government budgets drafted more democratically."

Deng Lianfan, professor at the School of Law of Central South University, suggesting methods for a new round of reforms on government vehicles

"The nature of acrobatics is to explore the limits of the human body. African students have fairly good physical condition and relatively better balance and flexibility compared to their Chinese counterparts."

Ma Shumin, a teacher at Wuqiao Acrobatic Art School in north China's Hebei Province, commenting on performances of African learners of the school on November 3

"A quarter of east Asia's world heritage sites have been threatened by the booming tourism."

Peter Ogden, a project expert for the UNESCO Beijing Office, commenting at the Lushan Forum on World Heritage Cultural Landscape in East Asia