(Written by a friend in Shanghai)

          I am very happy to see the sun shining in Shanghai again.  We had rainy days for nearly two weeks and that bothered me a lot.  The moist air, the crowded buses, the traffic jams, and damp clothing made me fall into a depression.  Many of my friends and colleagues were also down in spirits.  There is no doubt that weather affects moods.

          The blue sky, the white clouds, and the shining sun make me happy though it is still quite cold outside.  I have decided to go out this afternoon to enjoy the sunny day.

          The Spring Festival will come next week.  Every year at this time, armies of migrant workers, students, and other travelers are hurrying to return to their homes for family reunions.  We like to call it "Spring Festival travel".  While it's going on, it is very hard to buy a ticket for an airplane, bus or train.  It's not surprising to see people waiting in long lines day and night.  The busy time at the stations usually begins one month before the Spring Festival and peaks two weeks before it.  The employees at the airport and the bus and railroad stations make every effort to get all those people to their homes comfortably and conveniently.  Everything is usually in good order when the peak comes, but this year a snowstorm in central China caused chaos.

          The storm shut down Zhengzhou, the intersection of the nation's main north-south and east-west rail arteries, and it almost caused railway paralysis.  Most trains were late, and thousands of passengers were delayed.  A news reporter said that on Thursday there were up to 100,000 passengers delayed in Beijing, 60,000 in Zhengzhou, 10,000 in Xian.  In Shanghai, there were also thousands of people waiting in and around the station.  As the hours passed, and with the combined efforts of railway workers, fewer and fewer trains were delayed and more and more passengers got home.  However, the situation was a red alert to the nation's railways.

          I feel that I am so lucky.  My home is right here in Shanghai so I didn't have to take a bus, a train or an airplane.

(Translated by Hu Ao, a high school student in Beijing)

          A five-year-old girl lost both of her arms in an accident.  Everyone in the family was very upset, but her parents told her that she should not give up, that she could still be a beautiful person.

          The  family was very poor, and they had trouble finiding enough money to pay the doctor, but they gave her good advice, and she decided to be brave and fight for a good life even though she knew that would be difficult.

          When she was eight, she sneaked onto the grounds of a nearby school and hid under a window to listen to the lessons every day.  Those were the only kind of "school days" she thought she would ever have.

          One day during math class, the teacher gave the students a difficult problem, and none of the students answered, as they couldn't figure it out.  There was silence in the room until suddenly a sweet little voice breezed in from the outside with the right answer.  All the students gazed at the window curiously, and when the teacher walked over to it and looked down, she was shocked by what she saw.  There was the little girl curled up under the window, and it was obvious that she had no arms!

          The girl was very frightened to have been discovered, and she didn't know what to do when the teacher called down to her saying, "You can come in."  It seemed impossible that the teacher had said that and she didn't move.

          The students by that time were all at the windows looking at what was happening out there and some of theme actually screamed when they saw the girl with no arms.  The teacher shushed them and said again to the girl, "Come in.  Come in."

          The girl was so confused that she continued to sit there as if she were frozen in that spot.

          "Please tell me", the teacher continued, "why you're not willing to come inside and study with the others."

          The teacher's voice was so warm that the little girl began to feel calmer.  She stared off in the distance at the gray mountains under a very blue sky and said, "Because I'm different.  I don't have arms.  No school would ever let me in."

          The students became very quiet and the teacher felt her eyes welling with tears as she said, "We will help you.  You should plan to come to school tomorrow."  Hearing those words, the students filled the classroom with applause.

          When the teacher told the headmaster, he was very moved and agreed to admit the girl.  She formally became a student the very next day.

          Many years later, the girl became a well-known person throughout that whole region of China.  She had learned to write with her toes, was always a good student, and was also able to cook and ride a bicycle.

          When people asked her how she had overcome her handicap, she told them, "I never thought of giving up.  On the contrary, I consider myself to be very lucky, as I can live anywhere in the world.

          "A person's life is just like sailing.  There are not only beautiful views along the way, but also icebergs and tsunamis.  Some may choose to give up when they're challenged, but I've always chosen to stand up for myself and try to overcome all the obstacles."