Compiled by LIEW JIA XIAN, GERARD GIMINO and R. ARAVINTHAN
A YOUNG woman from Heilongjiang, China, who wished to be known only as Ning, said she would have to travel more than 10,000km to get to her university, Blagoveshchensk State Pedagogical University in Russia, yet the university is only 500m across the border from her home.
It usually takes only five minutes by boat for her to get to Blagoveshchensk, China Press reported.
Ning, 31, who is from Aihui district, Heihe city, Heilongjiang, graduated six years ago in China, majoring in education, and will be pursuing a Master’s in September.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she was allowed to travel to Blagoveshchensk with just a weekly visa. She could go there in the morning and return home in the afternoon by taking a car or a boat.
However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, she would have to take a flight from Heihe to Beijing before flying over to Moscow, and then finally on to Blagoveshchensk.
The detour has stretched her travel distance to more than 10,000km.
It is understood that the passage for individuals to go to Russia through Heihe, China, is still closed and Harbin Taiping International Airport only allows cargo flights into Russia.
> K-drama star Park Shin-hye (pic) regained her slim and lean physique just a month after giving birth, Guang Ming Daily reported.
Park recently shared a picture on social media of her hand while she was making candles. In her caption, she said she enjoyed making new things.
Fans noticed that the actress had lost weight just a month after she gave birth to a baby boy.
Park, 32, and her longtime boyfriend Choi Tae Joon, 30, announced in November last year that they were getting married in January.
The couple, who have been dating for more than four years, also announced at the same time that Park was pregnant.
They held a wedding ceremony, attended by more than 200 guests, in Seoul on Jan 22 this year.
● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ‘ >’sign, it denotes a separate news item.