Picky student finally accepts place at chosen university; tourist pays high price to be among first in space and cash hidden in dumpster thrown out with rubbish.

Diligent students fight for tables

Pictures showing classroom desks surrounded by wire and tape or occupied by bricks have gone viral online. The internet user who published the images said they were taken around Aug 25 and the tables were being occupied by candidates preparing for January's postgraduate entrance exams at Jinan University.

Related: Waiting for library doors to open

Bidding high for out of this world trip

A 41-year-old Zhejiang man bought a space voyage ticket in an auction on Taobao.com for 629,999 yuan, and is expected to be among the first batch of Chinese space tourists in 2016, one of Xinhua News Agency's official weibo accounts "topnewsinternational" reported. According to earlier Mail Online reports, he will take a Lynx spacecraft seating two people - the passenger and a pilot – and ascend to 350,000ft in a journey lasting between 30 and 50 minutes. The service is provided by XCOR Aerospace based at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Related: Space voyage ticket sales take off in China

Newsmakers at Tsinghua opening day

A 32-year-old man who sat 10 national college entrance exams since 2000 but refused several prestigious offers, including one from Peking University, has finally enrolled in his dream school, Tsinghua University, The Beijing Times reported.

Also appearing at registration for new students was Chinese Olympic swimming star Ye Shiwen, who will study in the School of Law pursuing a bachelor's degree.

Related: New semester, new faces at Tsinghua University

Costly mistake

A woman hid 100,000 yuan in a dumpster but her son, knowing nothing about it threw the money away with other waste, Qianjiang Evening News reported. The woman surnamed Sheng, from Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, was going to deposit the cash in a bank account and had hidden it believing any thieves in the area wouldn't look in a dumpster.

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