Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A woman poses for a photo next to lotus flowers in West lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 09 June 2025.. Lotus flowers bloom from late May to August in Vietnam and are commonly found growing in the muddy waters of lakes and ponds across the country. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA)

A honour guard soldier gives a flower to a girl on International Women's Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 8, 2024. International Women's Day on March 8 is an official holiday in Russia. Per tradition, men give flowers and gifts to female relatives, friends and colleagues, even though in the past two years flowers have gotten more expensive. Marches, demonstrations and conferences are being held the world over, from Asia to Latin America and elsewhere. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A woman collects lotus flowers at a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 20 June 2018. Lotus flowers, that bloom every June, are collected by Vietnamese people for their inner parts to be mixed with tea for fragrance. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

Two men carrie a basket of flowers purchased from the flower market as a woman makes a selfie on the eve of an International Women's Day, in Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 7, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A vendor stands in a flooded flower market following heavy monsoon rains in Mumbai on September 23, 2020. (Photo by Sujit Jaiswal/AFP Photo)

Some are in it just for the money, others to help buy a meal. Then there are those who trade for fun or to spend time among friends. Millions of investors – pensioners, security guards, high-school students – dominate China's stock markets, conducting about 80 percent of all trades. Retirees gather in brokerage houses dotted around China also to enjoy some company and savour the air conditioning on hot days. Some start as young as 13, trading from home with an eye on future careers in finance. Winning isn't guaranteed. This year, among the most turbulent in China's financial history, its stock markets more than doubled in the six months to May, only to crash amid concerns that growth in the country, which makes everything from cars to steel, is slowing faster than previously thought. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Women wearing flower and sprout-like hairpins walk past an advertisement board in Beijing, China, September 25, 2015. Wearing antenna styled hairpins in the shape of various flowers and plants at scenic spots has become a new trend in Beijing. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)