1. The modern word “China” most likely derives from the
name of the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty. First Emperor
Qin Shi Huang (260-210 B.C.) of the Qin dynasty first
unified China in 221 B.C., beginning an Imperial period
which would last until A.D. 1912. k
2. China is often considered the longest continuous
civilization, with some historians marking 6000 B.C. as the
dawn of Chinese civilization. It also has the world’s longest
continuously used written language. c
3. China is the fourth largest country in the world (after
Russia, Canada, and the U.S.). It has an area of 3,719,275
square miles (slightly smaller than the U.S.) and its borders
with other countries total more than 117,445 miles.
Approximately 5,000 islands lie off the Chinese coast. a
4. One in every five people in the world is Chinese. China’s
population is estimated to reach a whopping 1,338,612,968
by July 2009. China’s population is four times that of the
United States. a
5. Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom.
They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong
Noodle Factory in San Francisco. i
6. China is also known as the “Flowery Kingdom” and
many of the fruits and flowers (such as the orange and
orchid) are now grown all over the world. i
7. Toilet paper was
invented in China in the late
1300s. It was for emperors
only. m
8. The Chinese invented
paper, the compass,
gunpowder, and printing. c
9. The Chinese invented
kites (“paper birds” or “Aeolian harps”) about 3,000 years
ago. They were used to frighten the enemies in battle, and
Marco Polo (1254-1324) noted that kites were also used to
predict the success of a voyage. It was considered bad luck
to purposely let a kite go. i
10. Cricket fighting is a popular amusement in China.
Many Chinese children keep crickets as pets. m
11. Despite its size, all of China is in one time zone. h
12. Many historians believe soccer originated in China
around 1000 B.C. f
13. Ping-pong is one of the most popular games in China,
but it was not invented in China. It originated in Britain,
where it is called table tennis. m
14. The number one hobby
in China is stamp
collecting. m
15. Giant Pandas (“bear
cat”) date back two to three
million years. The early
Chinese emperors kept
pandas to ward off evil
spirits and natural
disasters. Pandas also were considered symbols of might
and bravery. i
16. White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for
mourning and funerals. i
17. Though Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is credited with
designing the first parachute, Chinese alchemists
successfully used man-carrying tethered kites by the fourth
century A.D. Parachutes were not used safely and
effectively in Europe until the late 1700s. m
18. The custom of binding feet (euphemistically called
“golden lilies”) began among female entertainers and
members of the Chinese court during the Song dynasty
(A.D. 960-1279). Tightly wrapped bandages gradually broke
the arch of the foot and caused the woman’s toes and heel
to grow inward toward one another. Her leg muscles would
also atrophy and become very thin. Bound feet were seen
as highly sexual. m
19. Historians speculate that as the Chinese population
grew, people had to conserve cooking fuel by chopping food
into small pieces so that it could cook faster. These bite-
sized foods eliminated the need for knives and, hence,
chopsticks were invented. c
20. In A.D. 130, Zhang Heng, an astronomer and literary
scholar, invented the first instrument for monitoring
earthquakes. The machine could detect and indicate the
direction of an earthquake. c
21. China invented ice
cream, and Marco Polo is
rumored to have taken the
recipe (along with the
recipe for noodles) back
with him to Europe. i
22. A civil servant named
Su Song built the first
mechanical clock between
A.D 1088 and 1092. It could tell the time of day and also
track the constellations so that accurate horoscopes could
be determined. c
23. On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang made the first
spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut. l
24. The Chinese were the first to invent the waterwheel to
harness water in A.D. 31—1,200 years before the
Europeans. China was also the first country in the world to
use an iron plow. Europe didn’t begin using the iron plow
until the seventeenth century. m
25. The name of China’s capital has changed over the
centuries. At one time or another it has been known as
Yanjing, Dadu, and Beiping. Peking or “Beijing means
“Northern Capital.” Beijing is the officially sanctioned pinyin
spelling based on the Mandarin dialect. Beijing is the
second largest city after Shanghai. h
26. It was customary for wealthy men and women in the
late empire to grow the nails of their little fingers extremely
long as a sign of their rank. They often wore decorative gold
and silver nail guards to protect their nails. c
27. By the fourth century B.C., the Chinese were drilling for
natural gas and using it as a heat source, preceding
Western natural gas drilling by about 2,300 years. m
28. By the second century B.C., the Chinese discovered
that blood circulated throughout the body and that the heart
pumped the blood. In Europe, circulation wasn’t discovered
until the early seventeenth century by William Harvey
(1578-1657). m
29. The Chinese were using the decimal system as early
as the fourteenth century B.C., nearly 2,300 years before
the first known use of the system in European
mathematics. The Chinese were also the first to use a place
for zero. m
30. The crossbow was invented and first used by the
Chinese. They were also the first in the world to use
chemical and gas weapons, 2,000 years before gas was
used in Europe during WWI. m
31. The Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam spans the
Yangtze River and is the largest dam in the world. It is also
the most controversial dam in the world because it has
been plagued by corruption, human rights violations,
technological difficulties, and has caused dramatic
environmental changes. e
32. According to popular
legend, tea was discovered
by the Chinese emperor
Shennong in 2737 B.C.
when a tea leaf fell into his
boiling water. The Chinese
consider tea to be a
necessity of life. i
33. Martial arts are
practiced throughout China
and were largely developed from ancient farming and
hunting methods. i
34. The most important holiday in China is the Chinese
New Year or Lunar New Year. Chinese traditionally believe
that every person turns one year older on the New Year and,
thus, that day is considered to be everyone’s birthday. i
35. Chinese is spoken by 92% of China’s population. There
are at least seven major families of the Chinese language,
including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and
Min. i
36. Red symbolizes happiness for the Chinese and is
commonly used at Chinese festivals and other happy
occasions such as birthdays and weddings. i
37. In ancient China, the lotus was seen as a symbol of
purity and was sacred to both the Buddhists and Daoists.
The peony (“King of Flowers”) symbolized spring, the
chrysanthemum symbolized long life, and the narcissus
was thought to bring good luck. i
38. The Chinese have made
silk since at least 3,000 B.C.
The Romans knew China as
“Serica,” which means “Land
of Silk.” The Chinese fiercely
guarded the secrets of silk
making, and anyone caught
smuggling silkworm eggs or
cocoons outside of China
was put to death. i
39. According to a Chinese
legend, silk was discovered in 3000 B.C. by Lady Xi Ling
Sui, wife of the Emperor Huang Di. When a silk worm
cocoon accidentally dropped into her hot tea, fine threads
from the cocoon unraveled in the hot water and silk was
born. i
40. The oldest piece of paper in the world was found in
China and dates back to the second or first century B.C.
Paper was so durable, it was sometimes used for clothing
and even light body armor. m
41. The Chinese were the first in the world to use stirrups
in the third century A.D. m
42. China’s “one child” policy has contributed to female
infanticide and has created a significant gender imbalance.
There are currently 32 million more boys than girls in China.
In the future, tens of millions of men will be unable to find
wives, prompting some scholars to suggest that this
imbalance could lead to a threat to world security. m
43. The first known species of Homo erectus , the Peking
Man, was found in China and lived between
300,000-550,000 years ago. It is thought that he knew how
to manipulate fire. c
44. During the first half the twentieth century, Shanghai
was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the
Holocaust without an entry visa. i
45. Chinese mathematics evolved independently of Greek
mathematics and is consequently of great interest to
historians of mathematics. m
46. Originating as far back as 250 B.C., Chinese lanterns
were an important symbol of long life. Lanterns were once
symbols of a family’s wealth, and the richest families had
lanterns so large, it required several people with poles to
hoist them into place. i
47. In the Tang dynasty, anyone with an education was
expected to greet as well as say goodbye to another person
in poetic verse composed on the spot. i
48. In 1974, a group of farmers digging for a well in the
Shaanxi province uncovered some bits of very old pottery.
They discovered the tomb of Qin (259-210 B.C.) the first
emperor who united China. The tomb contained thousands
of amazing life-sized soldiers, horses, and chariots. c
49. China’s Grand Canal is the
world’s oldest and longest canal
at 1,114 miles (1,795 km) long
with 24 locks and around 60
bridges. e
50. The bat is a traditional good
luck symbol that is frequently
depicted in designs for porcelain,
textiles, and other crafts. i
51. The bicycle was introduced
into China around 1891 by two
American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. The
bicycle is now the primary transportation for millions of
Chinese. The last Qing emperor (Puyi) rode a bicycle around
the Forbidden City in Beijing. China is currently the leading
bicycle manufacturer. i
52. The Boxer Rebellion between 1898 and 1901 in
northern China was against Christian missionaries, foreign
diplomats, and technology by a secret group called the
“Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists” (Yihequan or I-
ho-ch’uan ) so named because its members practiced
weaponless martial arts as well as secret rituals. Westerns
called it “shadow boxing” and the members “Boxers.” m
53. Suspension bridges were invented in China in 25 B.C,
1,800 years before such bridges were known in the West. m
54. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize was
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) for her novels about China, most
notably The Good Earth (1931). Amy Tan (1952-) is a best-
selling Chinese-American author of The Joy Luck Club . i
55. The Chinese word for civilization (wen ) is pronounced
the same as the word for script, pattern, or calligraphy. In
fact, calligraphy was thought to reveal the calligrapher’s
moral and spiritual self-cultivation as a type of “heart
print.” i
56. The carp is a symbol of strength and perseverance.
The scales and whiskers of the fish make it resemble a
dragon, the greatest symbol of power in China. Fish in
general play a large role in Chinese culture and the words
for “fish” and “abundance” are pronounced the same in
Chinese (yu ). i
57. In some parts of China,
“pigtails” were associated
with a girl’s marital status.
A young girl would wear
two pigtails, and when she
married, she would wear
just one. This may have
contributed to the Western
view that pigtails are
associated with children
and young girls. i
58. In ancient China, mirrors were believed to protect their
owners from evil, making hidden spirits visible and
revealing the secrets of the future. A person who had been
scared by a ghost could be healed by looking in the mirror.
Mirrors were often hung on the ceilings of burial chambers. i
59. The longest river in China is the 3,494-mile Yangtze
(Changjian) River and the 2,903-mile-long Yellow (Huanghe)
River. e
60. The Chinese developed a theory of three levels of
heaven—Heaven, Earth, and man—which has been
influential in landscape painting and flower arrangements. e
61. The horse most likely originated in Central Asia and
became very important in China. A horse is considered to
be associated with the masculine symbol, yang , and with
the element of fire. A person born in the Year of the Horse
is considered cheerful, independent, clever, talkative, quick
to anger, and able to handle money. i
62. Because the cicada (katydid) has the longest life span
of any insect (up to 17 years) and sheds its skin, it has long
been a symbol of regeneration and rebirth for the Chinese.
In ancient China, the Chinese would place jade cicadas in
the mouths of the dead because they were thought to slow
down the decay process and speed up the rebirth in another
world. i
63. Concubinage has been practiced throughout Chinese
history, primarily by wealthy men who could afford it.
Chinese emperors had large harems with hundreds of
concubines.j
64. The phoenix is the most important bird in Chinese
legend and represents the feminine power of the empress.
The graceful crane, which is a symbol of long life, is the
second most important bird in Chinese legend. Ducks are
also important symbols and represent happiness and
marital faithfulness. i
65. The Cultural Revolution (the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution) from1966-1976 resulted in severe famine,
thousands of deaths, and the erosion of thousands of acres
of farmland. m
66. While the dragon is typically seen as an evil creature in
Western culture, it holds first place among the four greatest
creatures in Chinese mythology, including the phoenix, tiger,
and tortoise. It is typically associated with the emperor. i
67. The highest mountain in the world (29,028 feet) is
named in the honor the Welshman Sir George Everest who
was the first surveyor of India. The Chinese call Mount
Everest Qomolangma, which means “Mother Goddess of the
Earth.” e
68. China’s national flag
was adopted in September
1949 and first flown in
Tiananmen Square (the
world’s largest public
gathering place) on October
1, 1949, the day the People’s
Republic of China was
formed. The red in the flag
symbolizes revolution. The
large star symbolizes
communism and the little stars represent the Chinese
people. The position of the stars represents the unity of the
Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist
Party. i
69. China has the world’s oldest calendar. This lunar
calendar originated in 2600 B.C. and has 12 zodiac signs. It
takes 60 years to complete. i
70. The number of birth defects in China continues to rise.
Environmentalist and officials blame China’s severe
pollution. d
71. The consumption of mushrooms was recorded in
Chinese historical documents more than 3,000 years ago. In
1996, China produced 600,000 tons of mushrooms, making
it the world’s leading producer, and it has 60% of the
world’s mushroom varieties. i
72. In 2007, dog food and toothpaste products made in
China were recalled because they contained poisonous
ingredients. In July, China’s head of the State Food and
Drug Administration was found to have accepted bribes
from pharmaceutical companies. He was executed. g
73. Famous Chinese and Chinese-American actors include
Jackie Chan (Hong Kong), Chow Yun Fat (Hong Kong),
Bruce Lee (San Francisco), Jet Li (Beijing), Zhang Ziyi
(Beijing), and Lucy Lui (New York). e
74. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were the most
expensive games in history. b While the 2004 Athens Games
were estimated to cost around $15 billion, the Beijing
Games were estimated to cost a whopping $40 billion.

SOURCE: http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/04_china.html

interesting