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The year of 2020 was a watershed in the preschool education industry as kindergartens around China responded to the Ministry of Education’s call to halt the spread of COVID-19 in their campuses by shifting their students’ lessons online. For our retail partners, the online learning courses for preschoolers created by Popular Beijing let them continue their operations during the pandemic. Furthermore, Popular Beijing’s first ever online sales conference served to provide a sense of normalcy in the preschool education industry and a solid foundation to welcome the start of the new semester. For the kindergartens, our two- month online preparatory courses for new preschoolers reached close to 14,000 families. Popular Beijing also organised close to 10 online lectures that featured renowned educator, Professor Qian Zhiliang of Beijing Normal University, where more than 150,000 principals and teachers of various kindergartens, as well as some 400,000 parents, participated in the live broadcasts. Endorsed by the Local Governments As the first year of China's 14th “Five- Year Plan", 2021 also saw Popular Beijing continue to work closely with preschool educators in the new online environment as we harnessed its tremendous potential. To help kindergartens that have encountered sluggish growth, Popular Beijing launched a mobile app and an online platform to give the preschool teachers a hand in making learning for their students fun. A key focus of China’s Ministry of Education is the learning of science in preschool education. Popular Beijing understands its importance well and has launched China's first domestic mobile application that aims to help young children learn scientific knowledge. Known as the “小众同学教学端”, the app comprises of various tools to help set the foundation for preschoolers to learn science in primary schools, and is also an invaluable teaching assistantforthepreschoolteachers.Ourapp was so well received that it was downloaded 3,000 times right after its official launch and garnered the endorsement of many local government’s education departments. In response to the Chinese government’s move towards more prevalent use of online learning, coupled with a lesser reliance on textbooks and increased use of learning through games, Popular Beijing relaunched our “KG World 幼儿园创意智 能教学系统” online learning platform on a new operating system. This new version incorporates quality educational resources that let young children enjoy the process of learning. Online learning and live broadcasts arenotjustthebeginningofaninnovative online learning journey in the future. They have also helped kindergarten teachers adopt a more in-depth approach in helping their students learn. Popular Beijing will continue to play our part in bringing the dedication and commitment of preschool educators online for their students. (Translated by Shawn Pang) 10 - popularnews 137 By Qi MengJie (Beijing) 文:齐梦捷(北京)