Fun Facts About China
China is a country with ancient history and rich cultures. If you’re interested in learning more about this vast country, you’ve come to the right pace! Read below to learn 12 fascinating facts about the incredible country of China:
Did you know…?
1. As the world’s largest man-made structure, stretching over 6,000km, the Great Wall of China is so long that it could wrap around the Earth’s equator almost twice! Remember, the Great Wall is not actually one continuous wall but is instead made up of many different sections.
2. China has given the world many inventions, including the “Four Great Inventions” of paper, gunpowder, the compass, and the concept of printing (which dates back to 105 BC).
https://ich.unesco.org/en/USL/wooden-movable-type-printing-of-china-00322
3. The Terracotta Army in Xi’an was discovered completely by accident in March 1974 by a group of 7 farmers who uncovered fragments of pottery whilst digging a well. The finds would later become an estimated 8,000-strong terracotta army built to protect Emperor Qin Shi Huang in the afterlife.
4. On the topic of the Terracotta Army, amazingly, no two figures are exactly alike. Despite the huge number of warriors, each has their own unique facial features, clothing, and hairstyles.
5. Have you ever wondered how the Forbidden City got its name? The complex is called the Forbidden City because it was forbidden to enter or leave without the emperor’s permission. The common English translation of the Chinese name “Zijin Cheng”, means “The Purple Forbidden City”.
6. Surprisingly, the world’s longest man-made canal is not in the Netherlands, but instead runs from Beijing to Hangzhou! Called the Grand Canal, it was built between the 5th and 7th centuries and is more than 2,000km long. It was built as a means of communication for the Empire and became useful for transporting grain and raw materials across the country.
7. It's believed that Chinese fortune cookies were actually invented in San Francisco in the early 1900’s by a Japanese man named Makoto Hagiwara!
8. China has an excellent high-speed railway network that can take us just about anywhere in the country in the nick of time, but at 93,000km long, China’s railway lines could loop around Earth twice!
9. When Beijing hosted the Summer Olympics, it was estimated that they spent $6.8 billion USD, but that didn’t include the tens of billions more used to build roads, stadiums, subway lines, and an airport terminal! Some put the total cost at closer to $40 billion USD!
10. The Bailong Elevator is the tallest outdoor elevator in the world and carries visitors more than 300m up the side of a cliff in the country’s famous Zhangjiajie national park (better known as the Avatar Mountains). It is a double decker glass elevator that can carry up to 50 people at a time.
11. An architectural innovation, the Great Wall has stood for over 2,300 years thanks to… sticky rice! The mortar between bricks of the Great Wall are comprised of a mixture of slaked lime and sweet rice flour. Withstanding the test of time, it seems sticky rice mortar is stronger than the regular stuff!
12. Some 30 million people still live in caves in China. Mainly concentrated in Henan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces, residents explain that the caves are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Even China’s current President, Xi Jinping, once lived in a cave for 7 years during the cultural revolution.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-01/xi-zhongxun-xi-jinpings-father-biography/100173986