Short facts about China :) Hope you enjoy!

1. THE AMAZING
FACTS OF
CHINA

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Fortune cookies are not a
traditional Chinese custom. They
were invented in early 1900 in
San Francisco.

6. China uses 45 billion
chopsticks per year.

7. Reincarnation is forbidden in
China without government
permission.

8. The World's Biggest Mall,
located in China

9. Facebook, Twitter and The New
York Times have been blocked in
Chinasince 2009.

10. The World's First Paper
Money was created in
China1,400 years ago.

11. In China, over 35 million people
still live in caves.

12. The Sunrise in parts of China
can be as late as 10 AM

13. 1 in every 3 socks you have
were made in the district of
Datang in Zhuji, China, now
known as "Sock City".

14. One in every five people in the
world is Chinese. China’s
population is estimated to reach
a whopping 1,355,692,544 by
July 2014. China’s population is
four times that of the United
States.

15. Toilet paper was invented in
China in the late 1300s. It was
for emperors only.

16. The Chinese invented kites
(“paper birds” or “Aeolian harps”)
about 3,000 years ago. They
were used to frighten the
enemies in battle.

17. In the Tang dynasty, every
educated person was expected
to greet as well as say goodbye
to another person in poetic verse
composed on the spot.

18. The Chinese invented ice cream
by packing a milk mixture and
rice into snow

19. Tickling was a form of torture
used in ancient China on nobility
because it left no mark and
recovery was quick.

20. A forbidden love in China between a
young man and older widowed woman
forced the couple to live in a mountain
cave. Over the course of 50 years, the
man carved a 6,000 stairs into the
mountainside so that his wife could
easily descend from the cave

21. 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.

22. The Chinese invented paper, the
compass, gunpowder, and
printing.

23. Cricket fighting is a popular
amusement in China. Many
Chinese children keep crickets
as pets.

24. The number one hobby in China
is stamp collecting.

25. 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.

26. On September 27, 2008, Zhai
Zhigang made the first
spacewalk by a Chinese
astronaut.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. Martial arts are practiced
throughout China and were
largely developed from ancient
farming and hunting methods.

32. Anyone caught smuggling the
secrets of silk making out of
ancient China were put to death

33. 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.