  In the paper, we discuss the development of the multi-gap resistive plate
chamber Time-of-Flight (TOF) technology and the production of the STAR TOF
detector in China at the beginning of the 21st century. Then we review recent
experimental results from the first beam energy scan program (BES-I) at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Topics cover measurements of
collectivity, chirality, criticality, global polarization, strangeness,
heavy-flavor, di-lepton and light nuclei productions.
