China's Shenzhou-23 crew members aboard the country's space station introduced the space vegetable garden during a "Tiangong Class" space lecture for students in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SAR) on Wednesday.
The three astronauts—Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Lai Ka-ying—served as space teachers. More than 200 primary and secondary school students from Hong Kong and Macao attended the class at Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial College in Hong Kong, which is the alma mater of Lai Ka-ying, Hong Kong's first payload specialist. Many more students across the two regions watched the class via livestream.
During the lecture, Lai pointed to the compact garden setup before explaining how the cultivation system is structured.
"Everyone, take a look: this is the space vegetable garden, one of the most eye-catching features in the space station. Here we have sweet potatoes, mint, different varieties of lettuce, and kale. Up here on the space station, there's no soil, no natural rainfall, no sunlight. Plants depend entirely on this space plant cultivation device to survive. The space garden is made up of cultivation cups, water supply units, light units, ventilation units, and other components that together provide a good growing environment for the plants," Lai told the students.
"We take great care of them and witness the plants' growth, step by step, from sprouting to maturity. Seeing those green leaves is especially soothing. Once the vegetables are ready, we use a rotational harvesting method that preserves the roots, so a single lettuce plant can keep producing, ensuring we always have fresh vegetables to eat," she added.
Later, Lai invited commander Zhu Yangzhu to try some freshly picked lettuce.
The event featured scientific explanations, demonstrations conducted aboard the space station and questions from students, followed by a live dialogue between the astronauts and students in Hong Kong and Macao.
Chinese astronauts first successfully grew lettuce aboard the Shenzhou-11 mission in November 2016, using a miniature space greenhouse. Since then, astronauts have completed the full life-cycle cultivation of rice and wheat, mastering plant-growing techniques in microgravity.
Shenzhou-23 crew livestream space vegetable garden to HK, Macao students
The United Nations needs deep reforms to become more focused on people and better respond to today's global challenges, former UN Under-Secretary-General Erik Solheim said on the sidelines of the 2026 Global Governance Forum in Xiong'an, north China's Hebei Province.
Hosted by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, the three-day forum opened on Friday in Xiong'an New Area under the theme "Rebuilding Confidence and Cooperation: Reforming and Improving Global Governance in a Transforming World," with discussions centered on multilateral cooperation, artificial intelligence and sustainable development.
In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Solheim echoed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks on multilateralism at the forum, saying that solidarity among countries is the only way to address shared challenges.
"You have huge international challenges: peace in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, other places, protecting the planet against destruction and climate change and bringing everyone out of poverty, and these are huge global challenges. We cannot solve them -- one country by itself. We need to find a common solution. If we work together, we are stronger. It's nothing like a zero-sum game. All the big issues of our time, we can win together or lose together," he said.
Stronger multilateral cooperation and a reformed UN are essential to tackling those challenges, Solheim added.
"I think that's absolutely critical, because all big challenges of our time need answers to come from China, from the United States, but also from India, Europe or Africa -- all the rest of the world together. We can resolve these issues. There's nothing we cannot achieve if we work together. However, the United Nations, which is at the core of the multilateral system, needs deep reforms. We need a new leadership; we need a new Security Council composition. And we need a different culture in the UN much more focused on the people out there, much less focused on bureaucracy and process. It's not like there will be peace tomorrow, it is not that simple, but unless you make a concerted effort, you will never get there," he said.
Solheim also hailed the way Xiong'an has been planned and built, saying its scientific approach has produced a smart, digital and livable city from which others can learn.
"What makes Xiong'an different from any other city in the world is that [it was] a planned city from the very beginning. All other great cities in the world where there is Xi'an and Beijing in China, or Mumbai in India, or Paris in Europe, they have grown organically over a long time. Xiong'an is a planned city and that has made it probably the smartest city in the world, most digital city in the world, with a fantastic underground network of canals which can solve problems for people, all that has been taken care of in the planning process in Xiong'an. While of course other cities cannot just take a blueprint from Xiong'an because they already exist, they can learn from this planning so that all other cities are better planned than they are at the moment, because without a plan, we cannot make a people-friendly city," he said.
Former UN official urges deep reforms to help world body meet today's challenges
