Every time the patrol passes the Sonamdaje monument on Kunlun Mountain, members stop to pay their respects.

Sonamdaje, a former official in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, was shot dead by poachers when patrolling the Hoh Xil region in 1994.

With an average altitude of over 4,600 meters, the region is an ideal habitat for endangered Tibetan antelopes and other wildlife such as Tibetan gazelles and wild yaks. It was added to the world heritage list last month.

The area was beset by poachers in the 1980s, who hunted Tibetan antelopes for their hide to be made into expensive shahtoosh shawls. Each shawl, priced up to US$50,000, cost the lives of three to five antelopes.

The antelope population declined sharply from 200,000 to 20,000 due to illegal hunting.

Local people began riding yaks to patrol the mountain in 1992. When the Hoh Xil nature reserve was set up in 1996, a 16-person patrol was set up. Currently, over 70 people are employed to patrol the mountains.

The patrols are dangerous. In addition to steep mountainous roads and inhospitable wetland and marsh, members face the threats of guns and wild animals.

Zhao Xinlu has been patrolling the area for 20 years. He recalls catching an armed gang of poachers. “We were not as well-equipped as they were, and the seized rifles were all loaded,” he said.

A dozen years ago, Zhao and his team seized over 500 antelope skins, but the smell of blood soon attracted a pack of wolves.

“They followed us to our vehicles and surrounded us at night,” he said. “We fired shots into the air to scare them away.”

The antelope population is now back over 60,000.

“Ten years ago, tourists asked me what the antelopes look like. Now they ask whether an antelope is male or female,” said Lodro Cering, while feeding a baby antelope with a bottle of milk.

In the protection station where Lodro works, seven baby antelopes are being cared for.

Every June, when it is time for antelopes to give birth and migrate, patrollers save ill or orphaned animals. Since 2001, they have saved over 500.

Besides professional patrollers, thousands of local villagers are employed as part-time rangers to clean up garbage and protect local wildlife.

Herder Dawa, who is paid 1,800 yuan (US$270) a month, said: “Although we were asked to keep less cattle to help the environment on the grassland, our income has increased thanks to the new job. It’s great to see the grassland turning cleaner and the wildlife population growing.”

However, Hoh Xil is now facing new challenges posed by climate change, said Budro, head of the Hoh Xil nature reserve administrative bureau. “The thawing icebergs have led to overflowing local lakes, forming new lakes totalling about 200 square kilometers,” he said.

Inclusion in the world heritage list has raised the standards for Hoh Xil.

Lodro said: “In the future, we will not only patrol mountains, but also work as ecological observers to help heighten local people’s environmental awareness.”

Not every person wants to get married — indeed for some Shanghai singletons, it’s the last thing they want.

More than 57 percent of unmarried respondents to a survey in Shanghai said they had never dated, and 13 percent said they wanted to keep their single status forever.

The IT industry had the largest percentage of single men, 16.74 percent, said the survey by recruitment website Zhaopin.com, which was published yesterday. The survey interviewed 3,502 singles in Shanghai.

Most single male respondents in the IT industry ticked the box that “they don’t grasp the skills of how to catch the hearts of women.”

Many high-earning single women in the finance industry tagged themselves as “extremely difficult to be pleased and demanding.”

Although 13 percent of respondents said they just wanted stay single, nearly 40 percent expressed an eagerness to bid farewell to their single status.

Wang Yuru, deputy director of the Shanghai Psychological Counseling Association, said “some singles do not view marriage as an important thing in life and some forsake marriage because they don’t want a child.”

Jessy Chen, a 34-year-old human resources worker, said she did not mind whether or not she found a partner.

“If I can meet my Mr Right, I will marry, but if I don’t meet anyone who suits me, I will keep single for the rest of my life.”

Chen has never dated and spends her spare time traveling, meeting friends and shopping.

Looks, character, and moral quality were the top three criteria for single respondents on what they want from potential sweethearts, accounting for 24.7, 22.3 and 22 percent respectively, according to the survey.

In total, 12 percent of those surveyed believed the reason for their single status was because they were “ugly,” while 24 percent of men among them still demanded any girlfriend should have a beautiful face.

In total, 25 percent of singles born after 1990 said they put looks first, while 30 percent born after 1970 and 1980 gave moral quality the top priority.

More than 40 percent of single men said they had been put under pressure to marry by their parents, while 36 percent of women said they had the same experience.

The survey was released before qixi — the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar that is also known as Chinese Valentine’s Day, which falls on August 28 this year.

Meanwhile, a report by China’s biggest dating website jiayuan.com revealed some qixi “nightmares” for singletons.

Top of the list was meeting their ex on the street accompanied by their current boyfriend or girlfriend, being pressured to find a partner by their parents, and being surrounded by lovebirds during qixi.

Chinese scientists have found a compound that appears to enhance the ability of a virus to target and kill liver cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. The discovery offers new hope for treating the world’s second-most common form of cancer, according to a study published on Wednesday.

A therapy using viruses that selectively kill cancer cells－called oncolytic viruses－is rapidly progressing through clinical evaluation, but the therapeutic efficacy in humans has been less than expected in preclinical studies, the study said. It was published in the US journal Science Translational Medicine.

Oncolytic virotherapy involving the M1 virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that mainly causes mild illnesses in horses, is believed to have potential for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer.

In order to boost the virus’s antitumor effects, Yan Guangmei, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, together with colleagues, screened 350 small molecules to identify compounds that can enhance viral killing of cultured HCC cells.

The researchers found that Eeyarestatin I－an inhibitor of the protein VCP, which may help trigger cell malignancy－increased the potency of the M1 virus by as much as 3,600-fold against the HCC cells.

The dual regimen had no effect on noncancerous cells, they said.

In multiple mouse models of HCC, a combination of M1 and Eeyarestatin I was found to shrink tumors and significantly prolong survival.

Researchers further demonstrated that the combination was safe and well-tolerated in monkeys.

“We can describe the M1 oncolytic virus as a guided missile that automatically targets tumor cells, and the addition of the VCP inhibitor is just like binding the missile to powerful explosives with the ability for auto-selection,” Yan said.

“The outcome is evident with such a strong combination,” he said.

Yan said the team plans to submit a clinical trial application for the combination therapy strategy in 2018.

Relief workers on Thursday began the arduous task of recovery in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao after Hato — the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year — made landfall on Wednesday, causing 17 deaths and major damage.

The Macao government stepped up its post-typhoon relief work on Thursday after Typhoon Hato left eight people dead and over 150 injured and cut power and water supplies to some parts of the special administrative region.

Two transformer stations in Zhuhai, which were damaged and cut power to Macao about noon on Wednesday, resumed operation about 9 pm on Thursday. Backup facilities were used during the repair process, according to China Southern Power Grid Co.

Macao Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-on apologized for insufficient actions taken by the Macao government in response to the typhoon. He and 14 other senior officials of the Macao government, expressed condolences to the victims and their families. The government will offer a total of 1.35 billion MOP ($167 million) for emergency relief to those who were affected by the disaster.

Meanwhile, Fong Soi-kun, the SAR’s Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau director, resigned on Thursday.

In Hong Kong, the airport operated overnight to ease air traffic to and from Hong Kong after Hato forced the cancellation of 480 flights on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Airport Authority estimated that it would have to handle more than 1,200 flights on Thursday alone.

Guangdong Party chief Hu Chunhua visited a hospital, a village, a residential community and a water plant in Zhuhai on Thursday, urging all agencies and businesses to make greater efforts to safeguard people’s lives and property and to bring life and production back to normal.

There were touching moments in some areas struck by Hato, as professional rescuers were joined by volunteers in rescuing and relief efforts.

Ten military divers sent by a brigade of the Southern Theater Command rescued on Wednesday three people trapped in underground garages submerged by muddy seawater in residential complexes in Zhuhai, the People’s Liberation Army Daily reported.

Twelve SWAT police officers and an armored vehicle were dispatched Wednesday morning to bring back more than 80 people who were unable to move in fierce winds or unable to get out from the bus as their vehicles were stranded by fallen electrical cables and poles and capsized trucks on Zhuhai Bridge.

Food deliverer Yuan Zuzhuo and two of his colleagues helped clear fallen trees in roads, as soldiers, police officers, urban managers and sanitation workers cleaned up roads blocked by fallen trees and items blown from buildings and structures.

A store owner surnamed Yuan in Jida, Zhuhai, handed out 20,000 steamed buns free to local residents before dinnertime on Wednesday. “We found most supermarkets, stores and markets were closed. There was no power or water supply. We thought that many people would not have enough food. They don’t cost much but can fill the stomach,” he said.

China’s top disciplinary watchdog has named a number of grassroots officials implicated in abuse of poverty relief funds.

The nine cases involve dereliction of duty, embezzlement of poverty relief funds and theft of allowances for house renovation, according to the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

In one case, Long Zuoshi, former Party chief of Jile Village in Hunan Province, was stripped of his CPC membership for stealing 81,800 yuan (12,300 U.S. dollars) of poverty relief funds and abusing his power to help another villager illegally obtain 100,000 yuan. Long’s case has been transferred to judicial organs.

Xiao Guangliang, head of the agricultural cooperative society of Fenghuang village in Guizhou Province embezzled 150,000 yuan for his personal use and hosted banquets using public funds, among other violations, from 2014 to 2016. Xiao was stripped of his CPC membership and his case has been transferred to judicial organs.

The CCDI ordered harsh punishments for officials implicated in misuse of poverty relief funds.

China has set 2020 as the target year to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society, which requires the eradication of poverty.