Figure skating couple Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the USA, practice their dance routine during a training session at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Thursday, February 3, 2022, in Beijing. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

The Longsheng Rice Terraces are located in Longsheng County, about 100 km (2 hours drive) from Guilin, Guangxi, China. The most popular are Ping An Rice Terrace and Jinkeng Rice Terrace. The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, the highest part being 880 m in elevation while the lowest part is 380 m[citation needed]. The coiling line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water glittering in the sun in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of golden rice in fall, and layers of silvery frost in winter. The terraced fields were mostly built during the Ming Dynasty, about 500 years ago.

“A team of expert cavers and photographers had been exploring caves in the Chongquing province of China – when they were amazed to discover the entrance to a hidden cave that was previously undiscovered. And they were stunned when they managed to enter the ginormous cave – and found that it was so large there was even a cloud inside it – a cave so large it has its own weather system. Photographer and caver Robbie Shone, from Manchester, was part of a team of 15 explorers on a month-long expedition who stumbled across the natural wonder”. – Caters News

A F-16 fighter jet from The Thai Royal Air Force performs during a media demonstration at the Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand, November 24, 2015. Thailand's military held an air show with China on Tuesday ahead of joint manoeuvres in a sign of warming ties, but Thailand said it was not distancing itself from the United States which downgraded the military relationship following a 2014 coup. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A humanoid robot named Kansei, meaning “sensibility” in Japanese, makes a facial expression depicting “happiness”, next to the word “Love” during a demonstration at a laboratory of Meiji University's Robot and Science Institute in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo in this June 4, 2007 file photo. Three-fourths of robot installations over the next decade are expected to be concentrated in four areas: transportation equipment, including the automotive sector; computer and electronic products; electrical equipment and machinery. Labor costs have climbed in countries such as China that have been popular for outsourcing production, while technological advances for robots allow them to be more flexible and perform more tasks. (Photo by Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

In this photograph taken on February 15, 2021, doctor Sergen Saracoglu (L) and nurse Yilzdiz Ayten (C) from the Bahcesaray public hospital vaccination team, arrive at the village of Guneyyamac in eastern Turkey, as part of an expedition to vaccinate residents of 65 years old or above with Sinovac's CoronaVac Covid-19 vaccine. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP Photo)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

“Newton was born in Berlin, the son of Klara “Claire” (Marquis) and Max Neustädter, a button factory owner. His family was Jewish. Newton attended the Heinrich-von-Treitschke-Realgymnasium and the American School in Berlin. Interested in photography from the age of 12 when he purchased his first camera, he worked for the German photographer Yva (Elsie Neulander Simon) from 1936. The increasingly oppressive restrictions placed on Jews by the Nuremberg laws meant that his father lost control of the factory in which he manufactured buttons and buckles; he was briefly interned in a concentration camp on “Kristallnacht”, November 9, 1938, which finally compelled the family to leave Germany. Newton's parents fled to South America. He was issued with a passport just after turning 18, and left Germany on December 5, 1938. At Trieste he boarded the “Conte Rosso” (along with about 200 others escaping the Nazis) intending to journey to China. After arriving in Singapore he found he was able to remain there, first and briefly as a photographer for the Straits Times and then as a portrait photographer”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Sigourney Weaver by Helmut Newton, 1995.