Before last year's Shanghai World Expo, Beijing Zoo was known for its endangered indigenous species: giant pandas, Siberian tigers and the Tibetan gazelle. Pretty soon it may include another beast altogether: flying men from Latvia ricocheting around vertical wind tunnels.
From May until October last year I spent almost every day surrounded by hundreds of diamonds as the assistant manager of the Diamond Exhibition Corner of the Belgian Pavilion at Expo Shanghai 2010.
More than 73 million visits were recorded for the six-month Shanghai World Expo 2010. It might seem a staggering number; indeed, it was a historic high, but in my opinion, more people should have come to see it.
"The biggest change that Hong Kong has experienced since the handover was to remain unchanged," says Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, 65, president of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
If a survey is to be undertaken about the most striking difference before the handover in 1997 and today, I think the most common answer is that Hong Kong is not what it used to be.
1984: Sino-British Joint Declaration is signed in Beijing, stating that the People's Republic of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories) from July 1, 1997.
Byline | Zou Hanru
As food is at the core of culture and lifestyle, gastronomy in China is as diversified as its 56 ethnic groups, 23 provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions and two special administrative regions, drawing on a 5,000-year-old heritage.
One of Bian Jiang's most vivid memories of Beijing in the 1980s was the long queues of people, waiting in the late autumn chilly wind, to buy large amounts of cabbages and sweet potatoes to take home.
The way to a man's heart is certainly through his stomach. I don't know about women, but if a city wants to keep her man, she needs to feed him well.
Sept 30, 1980: Beijinger Liu Guixian and her husband open Yue Bin Restaurant in Cuihua Hutong in Beijing, the first privately-run restaurant in China.
Ensconced in my office in Brussels, I must admit I was a bit perplexed when asked to write a piece on the transformation of the environment and energy sectors over the past 30 years in China. Much as I hate to admit it, the first memories that come to my mind are not happy ones, but those tinged with sadness and bitterness.