Society

With no knowledge of the Chinese language and no second thoughts, Javier Cantu boarded a flight to Beijing.

The 22-year-old University of Texas senior said he always spends his summers traveling around the world. China is the 32nd country he has added to his list. But this trip is no ordinary vacation. He moved in with the Li family in Beijing.

"If I can stay with a family long enough, I am going to learn the language because I'll be completely submerged in it," he said.

Javi, as the Li family calls him, came to Beijing for the summer to work as an au pair. But Javi isn't the typical au pair. His main job is to entertain the family's two children, David and Cici, while teaching them English.

The family was specifically looking for a native English speaker to help their kids learn the language. Rather than a formal setting with specific class times, Javi treats them to ice cream, but only after they properly ask for it in English.

Javi's host mother, Li Lin, travelled to Germany as a college student where she said she learned the importance of understanding and accepting foreign cultures. The lessons David and Cici learn from Javi are more valuable than those they would learn in traditional kindergarten, she added.

"The children may grow up and say, 'my family had a big brother who came from another country, and I want to go to another country,'" Li Lin said.

The Li family is not alone in its quest for learning beyond Chinese borders and there is no shortage of foreigners interested in coming to China.

Since opening in 2007, the International Department of the Beijing-based HHS Center, a group dedicated to matching foreigners with Chinese families looking for au pairs and language teachers, has seen a consistent increase in applicants, bringing six au pairs to China in the second half of their first year, 28 in 2008 and 53 in 2009.

Power equipment manufacturer Chint Group Corp said it will invest 22 billion yuan ($3.25 billion) to build two solar power projects in Gansu province to expand its portfolio in new energy sectors.

Zhejiang-based Chint has signed an agreement with Gansu provincial government to build a solar power plant in Lanzhou with capacity of 1 gigawatt (gW) and a solar module manufacturing venture in the city with initial manufacturing capacity of 200 megawatt (mW), said a company statement.

But the company did not disclose when the project would come on line.

At present, solar power projects completed or under construction in Gansu exceed 100 mW. The investment by the Chint Group would boost those numbers significantly, said analysts.

China plans to develop 13 solar power projects in the western region as part of a government plan to cut emissions and boost energy investment in the area. The government is tendering bids to develop similar projects in six provinces, which will have a combined capacity of 280 mW, said the National Development and Reform Commission in July.

The dead poisoned police dogs are lined up on the ground in Liuzhou city of South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, August 4, 2010. Twenty-nine dogs of the 31 in the training center died after they were fed anthelmintic tablets on August 2. The drug is normally used to expel parasitic worms. Two survived with one listed in a critical condition. The dogs involved belong to a study center with Guangxi Public Security department, and include nine Germen shepherds, eight Tibetan mastiffs, five great Danes, six Rottweilers, two Kunming dogs, and one Labrador retriever. An investigation into the incident is underway.

The Internet is the most important source of information about sex for Chinese teenagers, as sex education at school and home is inadequate, according to a survey.

More than three-quarters of the survey's 3,000 teenage respondents said the Internet is their most important source of information about sex. Books and friends were the next most important sources of knowledge about sex. School and parents ranked as the two least important sources.

The China Youth Daily newspaper conducted the survey.

"There is a severe lack of formal sex education in China, so many teenagers turn to the Internet," says Ye Qing, a post graduate student at the Second Military Medical University who runs an online sex education forum for Chinese youth.