diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 57af2eb..fa34c48 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -51,6 +51,31 @@ Enable the site lrr: `sudo a2ensite lrr`.  Restart the apache server: `sudo syst
 Visit the LRR application by entering this URL in a web browser: http://121.4.94.30/.
 
 
+### Solving the coding problems in the dump file
+
+If the database contains Chinese characters, the dump file (e.g., lrr_database_dump.sql) may contain *weird* characters, e.g., `研究生`, so weird that no one can tell their meaning.
+
+We need to correct these abnormal characters before we import them to the new database, so that the PHP program can correctly display Chinese information.
+
+The simplest solution is using the ftfy (fixes text for you) Python package to convert them, as follows:
+
+```
+from ftfy import fix_text
+
+with open('lrr_database_dump.sql') as f:
+    content = f.read()
+
+content2 = fix_text(content)
+with open('lrr_database_dump_sql_fixed.txt', 'w') as f:
+    f.write(content2)
+```
+
+Now, import data using lrr_database_dump_sql_*fixed*.txt.
+
+If you encounter the 'Unknown MySQL server host' problem during import, replace all apostrophes with a space in the dump file.  For example, if a database table field contains *can't*, then the apostrophe between *n* and *t* can cause that problem.
+
+
+
 ## Enock steps
 
 Enock, a graduate student here, has made a tutorial about how he deployed LRR to a remote server (http://lanlab.org/course/2021s/spm/PuTTY-Server.txt).