Father of hybrid rice celebrates 90th birthday on lunar calendar

CHANGSHA -- Yuan Longping, a globally renown agronomist known for developing the first hybrid rice strains, celebrates his 90th birthday today, in accordance with the traditional Chinese lunar calendar.

Yuan, who was born on the ninth day of the seventh month in 1930, according to the lunar calendar, got a haircut at a single-chair barbershop yesterday in Changsha, in Central China's Hunan province, where he has been getting his hair trimmed for the last 17 years.