Interesting unusual and strange facts about CHINA:
* Total Land Area of China is 9,596,960 Sq. Kms. It is the fourth largest Country in the World. Shanghai and Beijing are two of the largest and most populous cities in the world.
* At least 14 countries and 4 seas border China . Since the country is so large, climate is extremely varied – it is sub arctic in the North and Tropical in the South.
* The population of China according to a July 2006 estimate is 1,313,973,713. It is officially the most populated country in the world. The Chinese Government has adopted a “one child” policy in an effort to curb the high numbers. Unfortunately this also makes China one of the fastest aging countries.
* Paper , Compass , Explosive Powder and Printing qualify as the “ Four Great Inventions of China ”. They are also credited with having invented the wheel and the first calender.
* Ice cream was invented in China in 2000 BC, by packing a milk and rice mixture in the snow. Marco Polo took the recipe of Ice Cream and Noodles back with him to Europe.
* Century Eggs , also known as One Hundred Year or One Thousand Year old Eggs are a delicacy in China . Usually these eggs are processed with special ingredients and buried underground for some days or weeks.
* China has 3240 Television Broadcast Stations and 259 FM channels.
* In Hong Kong , cars are driven to the left side of the road, following the British way, but the rest of China drives on the right side.
* People have been drinking tea in China for over 1800 years. Chinese White Tea is basically boiled water.
* Chi Le Mei You – “Have you eaten?” is the most traditional Chinese greeting .
* The Martial Art Kung Fu was invented by the Shaolin Monks who used it to protect themselves from robbers in lonely mountain roads.
* China has an obligatory Military service of 2 years for all men between 18 and 22. Women of the same age group are also recruited for specific military jobs.
* The Han Chinese is the largest majority group in China. Mandarin Chinese is the o fficial language . However in total, 55 official minorities and 206 listed languages are mentioned.
* The Jen Min Jih Pao or People's Daily is the largest official publication .
* The Tienanmen Square is the world's largest public gathering place and the Three Gorges Dam is the biggest dam.
* China is the world's largest economy.
* The exact population of China is unknown. Many of its people are "undocumented" by their own government. Its official population ranges from 1.3 billion to 2 billion people.
* 24% of the world speaks Chinese (there are over 200 different Chinese languages and regional dialects). The official state language is Pu-tong-hwa (Mandarin).
* According to economists, China will become the world's wealthiest nation by the year 2012.
* The Great Wall of China is NOT visible from outer space. Its too thin. Its just a myth that it can be seen. The only man-made structures visible from space are: The Pyramids of Giza and the Hoover Dam.
* Tea, popularized by the Chinese was first bagged and shipped around the world in 1903.
* China manufactures 60% of the world's bicycles (the United States buys 86% of the world's bicycles).
* Gunpowder was first discovered in China where it was used to create fireworks, signal flares and small missiles used for military purposes.
* In September 2005 China surpassed Canada as the #1 exporter of goods to the United States.
* As of January 2006 30% of China's exports are now electronics.
* China is one of the few countries where fossils of homo gigantus have been found. Homo gigantus is more commonly called "Big Foot".
* During the period of 1990 to 2005 Chinese export to the United States increased 1600 per cent. Thats 16 times more exports in only 16 years.
* Tsingtao Beer, brewed since 1903, makes up more than 50% of China's beer exports.
* Chinese President Hu Jintao's first visit to the United States was part of a world tour. He also visited Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Nigeria.
* Chinese President Hu Jintao loves Starbucks coffee (and so does Bill Gates).
* Whenever George W. Bush mentions China, he likes to mention their appalling human rights record in an attempt to make his own government look better by comparison.
* Chinese believers in Falun Gong are routinely executed and have their organs sold on the black market. The Chinese government also uses Falun Gong prisoners to conduct medical experiments. Some countries now ban organ exports from China due to their illegal practices.
* The United States has a $202 billion annual trade deficit with China. That is basically $202,000,000,000 of American wealth that is shipped over to China every year (and each year the trade deficit grows).
* The United States has $7 trillion national debt, much of which has been loaned to the USA from wealthy Chinese banks.
* Paper was first invented in China in 105 AD. It was a closely guarded secret and didn't reach Eurupe until the 8th century.
* Paper was invented by the eunuch Ts'ai Lun. According to the official history of the Han dynasty (3rd century A.D.), Ts'ai Lun was given an aristocratic title after he presented Emperor Ho Ti with samples of paper. In 751 A.D., Chinese papermakers were captured by the Arabs at Samarkand, and by 794 A.D. several state-owned paper mills operated in Baghdad. The Arabs were manufacturing paper in Spain around 1150. It was not until 1590 that the first English paper mill was founded, at Dartford.
* China exported $9 million US worth of garlic and ginseng to South Korea in 1999.
* China exported $593.4 billion US in 2004. They exported only $474.7 billion in 2003.
* In 2001 China exported $365 million worth of machinery/electronics to Canada.
* In 2004 the Chinese government spent $700-million to build a new oil pipeline to Afghanistan. It is now waiting for the Unites States to attack Iran and finish building the rest of the pipeline which will bring oil from Iraq all the way across Iran and Afghanistan to the new oil pipeline.
* China exported #134 million US in textiles (hats, clothes, umbrella, ect) to Canada.
* In 550 AD, two Chinese monks smuggled silkworms out of China and started the western world's silk boom.
* Shi Huang-Ti was the first emperor of China and founder of the Qin dynasty. Had he been a European ruler, he would likely be considered great today. The Chinese, on the other hand, have given him a black reputation for his ruthlessness, his massive conscription of labour, his wars, his harsh laws, and his burning of books in 213 B.C. [ China | Royalty ]
* Chinese Emperor Shi Huang-Ti built a network of 270 palaces, linked by tunnels, and was ao afraid of assassination that he slept in a different palace each night.
* The Ch'in Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) buried alive many scholars in its programme to suppress learning and Confucianism.
*A terracotta army of six thousand men and horses was buried with Shi Huang-Ti, China's first emperor, at Xianyang.
* Fingerprinting was used in China as early as 700 A.D.
* Liu Ch'ing, who became the governor of China's Shansi province in 955 A.D., was born with two pupils in each eye.
* In 213 B.C., the Chinese emperor Shi Huang-ti ordered the burning of all of China's books, except for a select few on subjects such as agriculture and medicine. He ordered the burning because people used several of those writings to criticise the emperor, and also because Shi Huang-Ti styled himself as the "First Emperor". Vast numbers of valuable works were lost and it was only through the efforts of a few brave teachers and scholars that any of the earlier literature of China survived. It was nearly 150 years before it was safe to bring the surviving books from their hiding place. [ China | Royalty ]
* The purpose of the Great Wall of China, the monumental fortification separating China from Mongolia, was not especially to keep out the Huns from the north. The Huns could easily find places along the stretch that they could scale with ladders. But they couldn't get their horses across. Without their horses, they weren't very effective warriors.
* The Chinese physician Hua T'o, born sometime between 140 and 150 A.D., was the first doctor known to perform surgery under general anaesthetic. The potion used to render his patients unconscious was a mixture of hemp and strong wine called ma fei san. Prior to the communist revolution, a national holiday commemorated his birth. [ China | Medicine ]
* The brightest astronomical event in historic times was the supernova of 1054, which produced the Crab Nebula. The supernova was far brighter than Venus. It was bright enough to be visible in daylight and to cast a shadow at night. We know of it through the astronomical records of China, Japan, and the Middle East.
* The Sui, who ruled China briefly around 600 A.D., devoted much of their reign to constructing the Grand Canal, a waterway 100 feet wide, lined with roads and trees, and stretching for 1,000 miles. The canal was completed in less than 25 years, at a terrible cost in human life. Almost 5.5 million people were involved in the construction, and it has been estimated that 2.5 million died due to the harshness of the working conditions. The canal, extending from Peking to Hangchow, is as navigable today as when it was built almost 1,400 years ago.
* In Kublai Khan's China, anyone who had crops struck by lightning was excused taxes for three years. This was not selfless charity, as the Chinese believed that lightning was a sign of God's disapproval. So, if the Khan had accepted money from someone who had incurred God's wrath, he could have brought ill fortune upon himself.
* Cheng Ho, court eunuch and great admiral of the Ming Dynasty, led Chinese fleets on seven voyages of conquest and diplomacy, between 1405 and 1433. As a result of Cheng Ho's voyages, which ranged as far as West Africa, 36 countries sent tribute to China. However, in 1433, the eunuchs' opponents gained the upper hand in a power struggle in the Chinese court, and the fleets stopped, shipyards were dismantled, and outbound shipping was forbidden. Had these voyages continued, it is possible that the Chinese would have "discovered" America before Columbus.
* The first Ming Emperor, Hung Wu, was so afraid of the malign influence of a former ruler's vital force, a force he believed resided in Peiping, the former Yuan Dynasty capital, that he ordered the city leveled, in 1368. But first he had his officials catalogue the beauty and grandeur of the Yuan Great Interior, the imperial palace.
* The Ming Emperor Hung Wu (1368-98) has been called the harshest and most unreasonable tyrant in all of Chinese history. He had so many people executed that, midway through his reign, government officials got into the custom of saying their last goodbyes to their families if they were required at a morning audience and of exchanging congratulations with fellow officials if they survived until evening.
* In one ten-day period late in his reign (1368-98), the first Ming Emperor, Hung Wu, had to approve 1,660 documents dealing with 3,391 separate matters.
* Among the important devices in naval technology developed by the Chinese are: the stern-post rudder, which appears on a pottery model of a boat dating from the first century A.D.; watertight compartments; and the paddle wheel, descriptions of which date from the fifth century A.D.
* It is not true that the early Chinese used gunpowder only for fireworks. They had forms of guns (invented in 1288), bombs, grenades, rockets, land mines, and other arms.
* How to manufacture porcelain, or "china", was a mystery known only to the Chinese until around 1700. Although imitation porcelain was made earlier in Italy, it was Johann Friedrich Böttger, of Saxony, who made true porcelain (the Dresden china) for the first time in the Western world.
* When a Chinese bystander ashore was killed accidentally by a cannon salvo of greeting from an England ship, during the early days (1830's) of the China-Western trade, the England were forced to turn over to China the hapless gunner, who was promptly strangled. (Strangling was thought by the Chinese to be a less severe punishment than other forms of execution, because the body would not be permanently disfigured.)
* In 1985 the Chinese press announced the discovery of a strip of land 1,000 metres by 15 metres, running down from a hill to a river, in Huanre County, Liaoning province. In winter when the surrounding temperature dips to -30° Celsius, the strip remains at 17° Celsius. In summer the reverse occurs, and the strip freezes to a depth of 1 metre. The locals use the strip for growing vegetables in winter and as a refrigerator in summer.
ABOUT CHINA:
China, officially the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means “Central Country” or “Middle Kingdom.” The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced “chin”), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century bc.
China proper centers on the agricultural regions drained by three major rivers—the Huang He (Yellow River) in the north, the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) in central China, and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) in the south. The country’s varied terrain includes vast deserts, towering mountains, high plateaus, and broad plains. Beijing, located in the north, is China’s capital and its cultural, economic, and communications center. Shanghai, located near the Yangtze, is the most populous urban center, the largest industrial and commercial city, and mainland China’s leading port.
One-fifth of the world’s population—1.3 billion people—live in China. More than 90 percent of these are ethnic Han Chinese, but China also recognizes 55 national minorities, including Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and many smaller groups. Even among the ethnic Han, there are regional linguistic differences. Although a common language called Putonghua is taught in schools and used by the mass media, local spoken languages are often mutually incomprehensible. However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent syllables or words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way; this greatly aids communication across China.
In ancient times, China was East Asia’s dominant civilization. Other societies—notably the Japanese, Koreans, Tibetans, and Vietnamese—were strongly influenced by China, adopting features of Chinese art, food, material culture, philosophy, government, technology, and written language. For many centuries, especially from the 7th through the 14th century ad, China had the world’s most advanced civilization. Inventions such as paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, silk, and the compass originated in China and then spread to other parts of the world.
China’s political strength became threatened when European empires expanded into East Asia. Macao, a small territory on China’s southeastern coast, came under Portuguese control in the mid-16th century, and Hong Kong, nearby, became a British dependency in the 1840s. In the 19th century, internal revolts and foreign encroachment weakened China’s last dynasty, the Qing, which was finally overthrown by Chinese Nationalists in 1911. Over the course of several decades, the country was torn apart by warlords, Japanese invasion, and a civil war between the Communists and the Nationalist regime of the Kuomintang, which established the Republic of China in 1928.
In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Kuomintang fled to the island province of Taiwan, where it reestablished the Nationalist government. The Nationalist government controlled only Taiwan and a few outlying islands but initially retained wide international recognition as the rightful government of all of China. Today, most countries recognize the PRC on the mainland as the official government of China. However, Taiwan and mainland China remain separated by different administrations and economies. Therefore, Taiwan is treated separately in Encarta Encyclopedia. In general, statistics in this article apply only to the area under the control of the PRC.
After coming to power in 1949, the Communist government began placing agriculture and industry under state control. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, the government implemented economic reforms that reversed some of the earlier policies and encouraged foreign investment. As a result of the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese economy grew almost 10 percent a year from 1980 to 2005, making it one of the largest economies in the world in the early 21st century.
In 1997 Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China under an agreement that gave the region considerable autonomy. Portugal recognized Macao as Chinese territory in the late 1970s and negotiated the transfer of Macao’s administration from Portugal to China in 1999. Macao, too, was guaranteed a special degree of autonomy.
China, officially the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means “Central Country” or “Middle Kingdom.” The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced “chin”), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century bc.
China proper centers on the agricultural regions drained by three major rivers—the Huang He (Yellow River) in the north, the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) in central China, and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) in the south. The country’s varied terrain includes vast deserts, towering mountains, high plateaus, and broad plains. Beijing, located in the north, is China’s capital and its cultural, economic, and communications center. Shanghai, located near the Yangtze, is the most populous urban center, the largest industrial and commercial city, and mainland China’s leading port.
One-fifth of the world’s population—1.3 billion people—live in China. More than 90 percent of these are ethnic Han Chinese, but China also recognizes 55 national minorities, including Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and many smaller groups. Even among the ethnic Han, there are regional linguistic differences. Although a common language called Putonghua is taught in schools and used by the mass media, local spoken languages are often mutually incomprehensible. However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent syllables or words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way; this greatly aids communication across China.
In ancient times, China was East Asia’s dominant civilization. Other societies—notably the Japanese, Koreans, Tibetans, and Vietnamese—were strongly influenced by China, adopting features of Chinese art, food, material culture, philosophy, government, technology, and written language. For many centuries, especially from the 7th through the 14th century ad, China had the world’s most advanced civilization. Inventions such as paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, silk, and the compass originated in China and then spread to other parts of the world.
China’s political strength became threatened when European empires expanded into East Asia. Macao, a small territory on China’s southeastern coast, came under Portuguese control in the mid-16th century, and Hong Kong, nearby, became a British dependency in the 1840s. In the 19th century, internal revolts and foreign encroachment weakened China’s last dynasty, the Qing, which was finally overthrown by Chinese Nationalists in 1911. Over the course of several decades, the country was torn apart by warlords, Japanese invasion, and a civil war between the Communists and the Nationalist regime of the Kuomintang, which established the Republic of China in 1928.
In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Kuomintang fled to the island province of Taiwan, where it reestablished the Nationalist government. The Nationalist government controlled only Taiwan and a few outlying islands but initially retained wide international recognition as the rightful government of all of China. Today, most countries recognize the PRC on the mainland as the official government of China. However, Taiwan and mainland China remain separated by different administrations and economies. Therefore, Taiwan is treated separately in Encarta Encyclopedia. In general, statistics in this article apply only to the area under the control of the PRC.
After coming to power in 1949, the Communist government began placing agriculture and industry under state control. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, the government implemented economic reforms that reversed some of the earlier policies and encouraged foreign investment. As a result of the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese economy grew almost 10 percent a year from 1980 to 2005, making it one of the largest economies in the world in the early 21st century.
In 1997 Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China under an agreement that gave the region considerable autonomy. Portugal recognized Macao as Chinese territory in the late 1970s and negotiated the transfer of Macao’s administration from Portugal to China in 1999. Macao, too, was guaranteed a special degree of autonomy.
Land and Resources
The total area of China is 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi) including inland waters. The country stretches across East Asia in a broad arc that has a maximum east-west extent of about 5,000 km (about 3,000 mi). From the country’s northernmost point to the southern tip of Hainan Island, the north-south extent is about 4,000 km (about 2,500 mi). China borders the East China Sea and North Korea on the east; Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan on the north; Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan on the west; and India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, and the South China Sea on the south.
China’s vast territory encompasses a great diversity of landscapes. Generally speaking, the land forms three giant steps that descend from high mountains, plateaus, and great basins in the west to a central band of lower mountains, hills, and plateaus, then to lowlands, plains, and foothills near the eastern coast. Deserts and steppes lie across the northwest and north central parts of China.
Natural Regions
According to a Chinese geographic classification scheme, the country may be divided into seven large natural regions: Northeast China, North China, Subtropical East Central China, Tropical South China, Inner Mongolian Grassland, Northwest China, and the Tibetan Plateau (Qing Zang Gaoyuan).
China in the 21st Century
Jiang retired as general secretary of the CCP in November 2002, launching a generational shift in the leadership of China. All but one of the members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the CCP’s inner policymaking circle, retired along with Jiang. The remaining incumbent member, Hu Jintao, was chosen to succeed Jiang as the party’s general secretary. Hu also succeeded Jiang as president of China in March 2003. However, Jiang retained his post as head of the Central Military Commission, which controls the military, and was expected to exert considerable behind-the-scenes influence in the governance of China.
The new leadership immediately faced a public health crisis, working to contain the spread of a pneumonia-like illness that had emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in late 2002. By February 2003 new cases of the illness were reported in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and Canada, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue a global alert. Scientists identified the illness as a new contagious disease of unknown cause, naming it severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). By the time WHO declared the SARS outbreak contained in July 2003, more than 8,000 cases had been reported in 32 countries, and the disease had caused 800 deaths. China’s initial failure to report the outbreak of a contagious disease attracted much international criticism, and even the Chinese news media exposed official efforts to conceal the outbreak.
Meanwhile, China pursued an ambitious space program, which had been the focus of accelerated development since late 2001. Signaling to the world its technological advancement, China launched a piloted spacecraft into Earth orbit in October 2003, becoming only the third nation to accomplish this feat. Astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times over a 21-hour period in the spacecraft Shenzhou 5 (Divine Vessel 5) before returning to Earth on October 16. The successful launch and orbit demonstrated China’s commitment to its space program, which also included plans for other space missions, including an unpiloted spaceflight to the Moon.
In March 2004 the legislature of China approved a constitutional amendment that provided the first legal protection of private property since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In March 2005 the legislature passed a law authorizing the use of military force against Taiwan if its government moved toward a formal declaration of independence. The anti-secession law heightened cross-strait tensions. In late April 2005 the leader of the KMT (or Nationalist Party), Lien Chan, arrived from Taiwan to meet with CCP officials, marking the first visit by a KMT leader since the party withdrew to Taiwan at the end of China’s civil war in 1949.
In January 2006 China reported that its economy grew 9.9 percent in 2005, marking the third consecutive year of nearly 10 percent growth. This made China’s economy the world’s fourth largest, after the United States, Japan, and Germany.
Reference: Encarta
* Total Land Area of China is 9,596,960 Sq. Kms. It is the fourth largest Country in the World. Shanghai and Beijing are two of the largest and most populous cities in the world.
* At least 14 countries and 4 seas border China . Since the country is so large, climate is extremely varied – it is sub arctic in the North and Tropical in the South.
* The population of China according to a July 2006 estimate is 1,313,973,713. It is officially the most populated country in the world. The Chinese Government has adopted a “one child” policy in an effort to curb the high numbers. Unfortunately this also makes China one of the fastest aging countries.
* Paper , Compass , Explosive Powder and Printing qualify as the “ Four Great Inventions of China ”. They are also credited with having invented the wheel and the first calender.
* Ice cream was invented in China in 2000 BC, by packing a milk and rice mixture in the snow. Marco Polo took the recipe of Ice Cream and Noodles back with him to Europe.
* Century Eggs , also known as One Hundred Year or One Thousand Year old Eggs are a delicacy in China . Usually these eggs are processed with special ingredients and buried underground for some days or weeks.
* China has 3240 Television Broadcast Stations and 259 FM channels.
* In Hong Kong , cars are driven to the left side of the road, following the British way, but the rest of China drives on the right side.
* People have been drinking tea in China for over 1800 years. Chinese White Tea is basically boiled water.
* Chi Le Mei You – “Have you eaten?” is the most traditional Chinese greeting .
* The Martial Art Kung Fu was invented by the Shaolin Monks who used it to protect themselves from robbers in lonely mountain roads.
* China has an obligatory Military service of 2 years for all men between 18 and 22. Women of the same age group are also recruited for specific military jobs.
* The Han Chinese is the largest majority group in China. Mandarin Chinese is the o fficial language . However in total, 55 official minorities and 206 listed languages are mentioned.
* The Jen Min Jih Pao or People's Daily is the largest official publication .
* The Tienanmen Square is the world's largest public gathering place and the Three Gorges Dam is the biggest dam.
* China is the world's largest economy.
* The exact population of China is unknown. Many of its people are "undocumented" by their own government. Its official population ranges from 1.3 billion to 2 billion people.
* 24% of the world speaks Chinese (there are over 200 different Chinese languages and regional dialects). The official state language is Pu-tong-hwa (Mandarin).
* According to economists, China will become the world's wealthiest nation by the year 2012.
* The Great Wall of China is NOT visible from outer space. Its too thin. Its just a myth that it can be seen. The only man-made structures visible from space are: The Pyramids of Giza and the Hoover Dam.
* Tea, popularized by the Chinese was first bagged and shipped around the world in 1903.
* China manufactures 60% of the world's bicycles (the United States buys 86% of the world's bicycles).
* Gunpowder was first discovered in China where it was used to create fireworks, signal flares and small missiles used for military purposes.
* In September 2005 China surpassed Canada as the #1 exporter of goods to the United States.
* As of January 2006 30% of China's exports are now electronics.
* China is one of the few countries where fossils of homo gigantus have been found. Homo gigantus is more commonly called "Big Foot".
* During the period of 1990 to 2005 Chinese export to the United States increased 1600 per cent. Thats 16 times more exports in only 16 years.
* Tsingtao Beer, brewed since 1903, makes up more than 50% of China's beer exports.
* Chinese President Hu Jintao's first visit to the United States was part of a world tour. He also visited Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Nigeria.
* Chinese President Hu Jintao loves Starbucks coffee (and so does Bill Gates).
* Whenever George W. Bush mentions China, he likes to mention their appalling human rights record in an attempt to make his own government look better by comparison.
* Chinese believers in Falun Gong are routinely executed and have their organs sold on the black market. The Chinese government also uses Falun Gong prisoners to conduct medical experiments. Some countries now ban organ exports from China due to their illegal practices.
* The United States has a $202 billion annual trade deficit with China. That is basically $202,000,000,000 of American wealth that is shipped over to China every year (and each year the trade deficit grows).
* The United States has $7 trillion national debt, much of which has been loaned to the USA from wealthy Chinese banks.
* Paper was first invented in China in 105 AD. It was a closely guarded secret and didn't reach Eurupe until the 8th century.
* Paper was invented by the eunuch Ts'ai Lun. According to the official history of the Han dynasty (3rd century A.D.), Ts'ai Lun was given an aristocratic title after he presented Emperor Ho Ti with samples of paper. In 751 A.D., Chinese papermakers were captured by the Arabs at Samarkand, and by 794 A.D. several state-owned paper mills operated in Baghdad. The Arabs were manufacturing paper in Spain around 1150. It was not until 1590 that the first English paper mill was founded, at Dartford.
* China exported $9 million US worth of garlic and ginseng to South Korea in 1999.
* China exported $593.4 billion US in 2004. They exported only $474.7 billion in 2003.
* In 2001 China exported $365 million worth of machinery/electronics to Canada.
* In 2004 the Chinese government spent $700-million to build a new oil pipeline to Afghanistan. It is now waiting for the Unites States to attack Iran and finish building the rest of the pipeline which will bring oil from Iraq all the way across Iran and Afghanistan to the new oil pipeline.
* China exported #134 million US in textiles (hats, clothes, umbrella, ect) to Canada.
* In 550 AD, two Chinese monks smuggled silkworms out of China and started the western world's silk boom.
* Shi Huang-Ti was the first emperor of China and founder of the Qin dynasty. Had he been a European ruler, he would likely be considered great today. The Chinese, on the other hand, have given him a black reputation for his ruthlessness, his massive conscription of labour, his wars, his harsh laws, and his burning of books in 213 B.C. [ China | Royalty ]
* Chinese Emperor Shi Huang-Ti built a network of 270 palaces, linked by tunnels, and was ao afraid of assassination that he slept in a different palace each night.
* The Ch'in Dynasty (221-207 B.C.) buried alive many scholars in its programme to suppress learning and Confucianism.
*A terracotta army of six thousand men and horses was buried with Shi Huang-Ti, China's first emperor, at Xianyang.
* Fingerprinting was used in China as early as 700 A.D.
* Liu Ch'ing, who became the governor of China's Shansi province in 955 A.D., was born with two pupils in each eye.
* In 213 B.C., the Chinese emperor Shi Huang-ti ordered the burning of all of China's books, except for a select few on subjects such as agriculture and medicine. He ordered the burning because people used several of those writings to criticise the emperor, and also because Shi Huang-Ti styled himself as the "First Emperor". Vast numbers of valuable works were lost and it was only through the efforts of a few brave teachers and scholars that any of the earlier literature of China survived. It was nearly 150 years before it was safe to bring the surviving books from their hiding place. [ China | Royalty ]
* The purpose of the Great Wall of China, the monumental fortification separating China from Mongolia, was not especially to keep out the Huns from the north. The Huns could easily find places along the stretch that they could scale with ladders. But they couldn't get their horses across. Without their horses, they weren't very effective warriors.
* The Chinese physician Hua T'o, born sometime between 140 and 150 A.D., was the first doctor known to perform surgery under general anaesthetic. The potion used to render his patients unconscious was a mixture of hemp and strong wine called ma fei san. Prior to the communist revolution, a national holiday commemorated his birth. [ China | Medicine ]
* The brightest astronomical event in historic times was the supernova of 1054, which produced the Crab Nebula. The supernova was far brighter than Venus. It was bright enough to be visible in daylight and to cast a shadow at night. We know of it through the astronomical records of China, Japan, and the Middle East.
* The Sui, who ruled China briefly around 600 A.D., devoted much of their reign to constructing the Grand Canal, a waterway 100 feet wide, lined with roads and trees, and stretching for 1,000 miles. The canal was completed in less than 25 years, at a terrible cost in human life. Almost 5.5 million people were involved in the construction, and it has been estimated that 2.5 million died due to the harshness of the working conditions. The canal, extending from Peking to Hangchow, is as navigable today as when it was built almost 1,400 years ago.
* In Kublai Khan's China, anyone who had crops struck by lightning was excused taxes for three years. This was not selfless charity, as the Chinese believed that lightning was a sign of God's disapproval. So, if the Khan had accepted money from someone who had incurred God's wrath, he could have brought ill fortune upon himself.
* Cheng Ho, court eunuch and great admiral of the Ming Dynasty, led Chinese fleets on seven voyages of conquest and diplomacy, between 1405 and 1433. As a result of Cheng Ho's voyages, which ranged as far as West Africa, 36 countries sent tribute to China. However, in 1433, the eunuchs' opponents gained the upper hand in a power struggle in the Chinese court, and the fleets stopped, shipyards were dismantled, and outbound shipping was forbidden. Had these voyages continued, it is possible that the Chinese would have "discovered" America before Columbus.
* The first Ming Emperor, Hung Wu, was so afraid of the malign influence of a former ruler's vital force, a force he believed resided in Peiping, the former Yuan Dynasty capital, that he ordered the city leveled, in 1368. But first he had his officials catalogue the beauty and grandeur of the Yuan Great Interior, the imperial palace.
* The Ming Emperor Hung Wu (1368-98) has been called the harshest and most unreasonable tyrant in all of Chinese history. He had so many people executed that, midway through his reign, government officials got into the custom of saying their last goodbyes to their families if they were required at a morning audience and of exchanging congratulations with fellow officials if they survived until evening.
* In one ten-day period late in his reign (1368-98), the first Ming Emperor, Hung Wu, had to approve 1,660 documents dealing with 3,391 separate matters.
* Among the important devices in naval technology developed by the Chinese are: the stern-post rudder, which appears on a pottery model of a boat dating from the first century A.D.; watertight compartments; and the paddle wheel, descriptions of which date from the fifth century A.D.
* It is not true that the early Chinese used gunpowder only for fireworks. They had forms of guns (invented in 1288), bombs, grenades, rockets, land mines, and other arms.
* How to manufacture porcelain, or "china", was a mystery known only to the Chinese until around 1700. Although imitation porcelain was made earlier in Italy, it was Johann Friedrich Böttger, of Saxony, who made true porcelain (the Dresden china) for the first time in the Western world.
* When a Chinese bystander ashore was killed accidentally by a cannon salvo of greeting from an England ship, during the early days (1830's) of the China-Western trade, the England were forced to turn over to China the hapless gunner, who was promptly strangled. (Strangling was thought by the Chinese to be a less severe punishment than other forms of execution, because the body would not be permanently disfigured.)
* In 1985 the Chinese press announced the discovery of a strip of land 1,000 metres by 15 metres, running down from a hill to a river, in Huanre County, Liaoning province. In winter when the surrounding temperature dips to -30° Celsius, the strip remains at 17° Celsius. In summer the reverse occurs, and the strip freezes to a depth of 1 metre. The locals use the strip for growing vegetables in winter and as a refrigerator in summer.
ABOUT CHINA:
China, officially the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means “Central Country” or “Middle Kingdom.” The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced “chin”), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century bc.
China proper centers on the agricultural regions drained by three major rivers—the Huang He (Yellow River) in the north, the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) in central China, and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) in the south. The country’s varied terrain includes vast deserts, towering mountains, high plateaus, and broad plains. Beijing, located in the north, is China’s capital and its cultural, economic, and communications center. Shanghai, located near the Yangtze, is the most populous urban center, the largest industrial and commercial city, and mainland China’s leading port.
One-fifth of the world’s population—1.3 billion people—live in China. More than 90 percent of these are ethnic Han Chinese, but China also recognizes 55 national minorities, including Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and many smaller groups. Even among the ethnic Han, there are regional linguistic differences. Although a common language called Putonghua is taught in schools and used by the mass media, local spoken languages are often mutually incomprehensible. However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent syllables or words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way; this greatly aids communication across China.
In ancient times, China was East Asia’s dominant civilization. Other societies—notably the Japanese, Koreans, Tibetans, and Vietnamese—were strongly influenced by China, adopting features of Chinese art, food, material culture, philosophy, government, technology, and written language. For many centuries, especially from the 7th through the 14th century ad, China had the world’s most advanced civilization. Inventions such as paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, silk, and the compass originated in China and then spread to other parts of the world.
China’s political strength became threatened when European empires expanded into East Asia. Macao, a small territory on China’s southeastern coast, came under Portuguese control in the mid-16th century, and Hong Kong, nearby, became a British dependency in the 1840s. In the 19th century, internal revolts and foreign encroachment weakened China’s last dynasty, the Qing, which was finally overthrown by Chinese Nationalists in 1911. Over the course of several decades, the country was torn apart by warlords, Japanese invasion, and a civil war between the Communists and the Nationalist regime of the Kuomintang, which established the Republic of China in 1928.
In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Kuomintang fled to the island province of Taiwan, where it reestablished the Nationalist government. The Nationalist government controlled only Taiwan and a few outlying islands but initially retained wide international recognition as the rightful government of all of China. Today, most countries recognize the PRC on the mainland as the official government of China. However, Taiwan and mainland China remain separated by different administrations and economies. Therefore, Taiwan is treated separately in Encarta Encyclopedia. In general, statistics in this article apply only to the area under the control of the PRC.
After coming to power in 1949, the Communist government began placing agriculture and industry under state control. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, the government implemented economic reforms that reversed some of the earlier policies and encouraged foreign investment. As a result of the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese economy grew almost 10 percent a year from 1980 to 2005, making it one of the largest economies in the world in the early 21st century.
In 1997 Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China under an agreement that gave the region considerable autonomy. Portugal recognized Macao as Chinese territory in the late 1970s and negotiated the transfer of Macao’s administration from Portugal to China in 1999. Macao, too, was guaranteed a special degree of autonomy.
China, officially the People’s Republic of China (Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo), country in East Asia, the world’s largest country by population and one of the largest by area, measuring about the same size as the United States. The Chinese call their country Zhongguo, which means “Central Country” or “Middle Kingdom.” The name China was given to it by foreigners and is probably based on a corruption of Qin (pronounced “chin”), a Chinese dynasty that ruled during the 3rd century bc.
China proper centers on the agricultural regions drained by three major rivers—the Huang He (Yellow River) in the north, the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) in central China, and the Zhu Jiang (Pearl River) in the south. The country’s varied terrain includes vast deserts, towering mountains, high plateaus, and broad plains. Beijing, located in the north, is China’s capital and its cultural, economic, and communications center. Shanghai, located near the Yangtze, is the most populous urban center, the largest industrial and commercial city, and mainland China’s leading port.
One-fifth of the world’s population—1.3 billion people—live in China. More than 90 percent of these are ethnic Han Chinese, but China also recognizes 55 national minorities, including Tibetans, Mongols, Uighurs, Zhuang, Miao, Yi, and many smaller groups. Even among the ethnic Han, there are regional linguistic differences. Although a common language called Putonghua is taught in schools and used by the mass media, local spoken languages are often mutually incomprehensible. However, the logographic writing system, which uses characters that represent syllables or words rather than pronunciation, makes it possible for all Chinese dialects to be written in the same way; this greatly aids communication across China.
In ancient times, China was East Asia’s dominant civilization. Other societies—notably the Japanese, Koreans, Tibetans, and Vietnamese—were strongly influenced by China, adopting features of Chinese art, food, material culture, philosophy, government, technology, and written language. For many centuries, especially from the 7th through the 14th century ad, China had the world’s most advanced civilization. Inventions such as paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, silk, and the compass originated in China and then spread to other parts of the world.
China’s political strength became threatened when European empires expanded into East Asia. Macao, a small territory on China’s southeastern coast, came under Portuguese control in the mid-16th century, and Hong Kong, nearby, became a British dependency in the 1840s. In the 19th century, internal revolts and foreign encroachment weakened China’s last dynasty, the Qing, which was finally overthrown by Chinese Nationalists in 1911. Over the course of several decades, the country was torn apart by warlords, Japanese invasion, and a civil war between the Communists and the Nationalist regime of the Kuomintang, which established the Republic of China in 1928.
In 1949 the Chinese Communist Party won the civil war and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland. The Kuomintang fled to the island province of Taiwan, where it reestablished the Nationalist government. The Nationalist government controlled only Taiwan and a few outlying islands but initially retained wide international recognition as the rightful government of all of China. Today, most countries recognize the PRC on the mainland as the official government of China. However, Taiwan and mainland China remain separated by different administrations and economies. Therefore, Taiwan is treated separately in Encarta Encyclopedia. In general, statistics in this article apply only to the area under the control of the PRC.
After coming to power in 1949, the Communist government began placing agriculture and industry under state control. Beginning in the late 1970s, however, the government implemented economic reforms that reversed some of the earlier policies and encouraged foreign investment. As a result of the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese economy grew almost 10 percent a year from 1980 to 2005, making it one of the largest economies in the world in the early 21st century.
In 1997 Hong Kong was transferred from Britain to China under an agreement that gave the region considerable autonomy. Portugal recognized Macao as Chinese territory in the late 1970s and negotiated the transfer of Macao’s administration from Portugal to China in 1999. Macao, too, was guaranteed a special degree of autonomy.
Land and Resources
The total area of China is 9,571,300 sq km (3,695,500 sq mi) including inland waters. The country stretches across East Asia in a broad arc that has a maximum east-west extent of about 5,000 km (about 3,000 mi). From the country’s northernmost point to the southern tip of Hainan Island, the north-south extent is about 4,000 km (about 2,500 mi). China borders the East China Sea and North Korea on the east; Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan on the north; Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan on the west; and India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, and the South China Sea on the south.
China’s vast territory encompasses a great diversity of landscapes. Generally speaking, the land forms three giant steps that descend from high mountains, plateaus, and great basins in the west to a central band of lower mountains, hills, and plateaus, then to lowlands, plains, and foothills near the eastern coast. Deserts and steppes lie across the northwest and north central parts of China.
Natural Regions
According to a Chinese geographic classification scheme, the country may be divided into seven large natural regions: Northeast China, North China, Subtropical East Central China, Tropical South China, Inner Mongolian Grassland, Northwest China, and the Tibetan Plateau (Qing Zang Gaoyuan).
China in the 21st Century
Jiang retired as general secretary of the CCP in November 2002, launching a generational shift in the leadership of China. All but one of the members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, the CCP’s inner policymaking circle, retired along with Jiang. The remaining incumbent member, Hu Jintao, was chosen to succeed Jiang as the party’s general secretary. Hu also succeeded Jiang as president of China in March 2003. However, Jiang retained his post as head of the Central Military Commission, which controls the military, and was expected to exert considerable behind-the-scenes influence in the governance of China.
The new leadership immediately faced a public health crisis, working to contain the spread of a pneumonia-like illness that had emerged in the southern province of Guangdong in late 2002. By February 2003 new cases of the illness were reported in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and Canada, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to issue a global alert. Scientists identified the illness as a new contagious disease of unknown cause, naming it severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). By the time WHO declared the SARS outbreak contained in July 2003, more than 8,000 cases had been reported in 32 countries, and the disease had caused 800 deaths. China’s initial failure to report the outbreak of a contagious disease attracted much international criticism, and even the Chinese news media exposed official efforts to conceal the outbreak.
Meanwhile, China pursued an ambitious space program, which had been the focus of accelerated development since late 2001. Signaling to the world its technological advancement, China launched a piloted spacecraft into Earth orbit in October 2003, becoming only the third nation to accomplish this feat. Astronaut Yang Liwei orbited the Earth 14 times over a 21-hour period in the spacecraft Shenzhou 5 (Divine Vessel 5) before returning to Earth on October 16. The successful launch and orbit demonstrated China’s commitment to its space program, which also included plans for other space missions, including an unpiloted spaceflight to the Moon.
In March 2004 the legislature of China approved a constitutional amendment that provided the first legal protection of private property since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. In March 2005 the legislature passed a law authorizing the use of military force against Taiwan if its government moved toward a formal declaration of independence. The anti-secession law heightened cross-strait tensions. In late April 2005 the leader of the KMT (or Nationalist Party), Lien Chan, arrived from Taiwan to meet with CCP officials, marking the first visit by a KMT leader since the party withdrew to Taiwan at the end of China’s civil war in 1949.
In January 2006 China reported that its economy grew 9.9 percent in 2005, marking the third consecutive year of nearly 10 percent growth. This made China’s economy the world’s fourth largest, after the United States, Japan, and Germany.
Reference: Encarta
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CHINA on INTERESTING and UNUSUAL FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING
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