A flower bed themed Belt and Road in Beijing. Photo taken on April 25, 2019. [Photo/IC] HONG KONG -- I didn't think of studying in the Chinese mainland until I went on a trip to Beijing last November, Mejorada Nicole Katelyn Remeticado, a Filipino student in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), told Xinhua her latest plan for the future. Remeticado is a student from Caritas Tuen Mun Marden Foundation Secondary School in the New Territories of Hong Kong, a local high school with a total of some 300 students from over 15 countries and regions. Unlike those famous local schools in Hong Kong, Marden Foundation Secondary School has not gained much attention from the society until recent years when the Belt and Road has become one of the buzzwords following its announcement in 2013. The Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond through the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road. Promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road cooperation is one of the five areas of connectivity proposed in the initiative. The school capitalizes on their Belt and Road population to enhance students' knowledge about the initiative and present young people with education opportunities in the mainland. According to Chu Yuen Yee, the assistant principal of the school, a large number of their students came from Belt and Road countries and regions, including Nepal, Pakistan, India, Yemen, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. During a trip to Beijing organized by her school in November last year, Remeticado visited the Beijing Foreign Studies University, where she met with a couple of alumni from Marden Foundation. They shared with me their college life in Beijing which I found impressive, the teenager said. I would like to do my tertiary education outside Hong Kong, and the mainland is definitely one of my choices. Like many of her fellow schoolmates, Remeticado learnt about the Belt and Road Initiative during Liberal Studies class, a core subject in Hong Kong high-school education. It's initiated by China with the aim to connect different countries together, she said. Lai Man Fat, Remeticado's Liberal Studies teacher, said that by talking about culture, they help students to build the concept of what the initiative is all about. We encouraged our students to start from their own culture in particular, which, Lai said, is an easier and more interesting way for young people to understand a national-level policy. The school has set up a Belt and Road exhibition room on the campus, showcasing national costumes, currencies and utensils from various countries and regions. They even extended the education about Belt and Road outside classroom, by organizing visits to the mainland, for instance. Besides, they have built collaborations with a number of universities on the mainland, all for creating a better path for students' future. Hong Kong is not a market big enough for students from Belt and Road countries and regions to develop their career, Yuen Kwok Ming, principal of the school, said. The mainland is a huge market and has close ties with different countries in business and economics, allowing young people to make the best of their talent. silicone-wristbandsrubber braceletsdual-layer-wristbandembossed-wristbandsilicone wristbands
Nobel Prize laureate Kurt Wuethrich of Switzerland receives a permanent residence card along with five others in Shanghai on Monday. [Photo/China News Service] Shanghai streamlined the procedures on Monday for highly skilled foreigners working in the municipality to get their residence permits within three working days through an online application, the municipality's latest measure to attract such overseas workers. High-level professionals identified by national or Shanghai authorities who manage human resources or foreign experts affairs will only need to go to crj.police.sh.cn and submit documents, according to the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau. They can retrieve their permits at exit-entry offices after three working days. High-end professionals employed by the 8,818 enterprises on a list seen as key leaders in Shanghai's quest to become a global technological innovation hub by 2030 will also become beneficiaries of the new measure, said Xin Wenke of the information office of the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau. The enterprises include high-tech and new technology companies or those in finance and strategic emerging fields, regional headquarters of multinational companies, and research and development centers that include foreign investment. The initiative in Shanghai, the first and the only one in the country, simplifies application procedures and assists the establishment of a talent system that is globally competitive, the bureau said. Before the measure was unveiled, applicants had to visit exit-entry offices and go through the formalities in person. The offices sometimes required interviews or supplementary materials. The procedure from start to finish typically took seven working days. Measures were unveiled in Shanghai in 2015 aimed at attracting talented people from overseas. In January, application requirements for permanent residency were further eased for the core foreign members of top scientific research teams and outstanding foreign university graduates who had worked in the city for three straight years. Also on Monday, Shanghai granted a permanent residence card, known as the Chinese green card, to a Nobel Prize laureate for the first time. The recipient was Kurt Wuethrich from Switzerland, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002 and is a chaired professor at ShanghaiTech University. Shanghai police declined to reveal the number of expats holding Chinese green cards in the municipality. According to the Ministry of Public Security, in 2016 alone 1,576 foreigners became permanent residents in China, up 163 percent year-on-year. Chinese green cards became machine-readable in July to make foreign permanent residents' daily lives and work easier. Similar to second generation Chinese citizens' ID cards, the smart cards contain a chip in which the foreigner's identity information is kept, and the information is shared with railways, airlines, hotels and banks. black rubber bracelets meaningembossed-printed-wristbandcustom-braceletsprinted-wristband80s rubber bracelets<%2fcenter>
