Here we will talk about some amazing and interesting facts about china. You will surely amazed after reading all the 88 interesting facts about china.
“About China, did you know …”: this is a small introduction that you will not hesitate to use during your next meetings with acquaintances, thanks to this list of 88 facts and anecdotes about China and the Chinese, compiled by China Information.
Interesting facts about China
Behaviors
1. During the hot seasons, many Chinese people like to pull up their T-shirt to breathe. This trend that started with the Cultural Revolution is not an indecent attitude in China.
2. In China, do not be offended if you are asked about your weight, your health, or your income. These questions, which are considered in the West as intimate, are quite natural in China.
3. The Chinese are used to let the clean linen dry in the sun. The clotheslines are placed wherever possible: inside, on the street, in the hallway and other common areas. There is an explanation for this: many people do not have a balcony or yard for hanging clothes. The sun cleans the laundry and this habit has the advantage of being economical and efficient. It is also surprising to see that the Chinese do not worry about theft.
4. In China, rain or shine, women often go out with sunshades, preferring a white complexion to a tan that could refer to a poor social category working in the fields.
5. Some men in China let their nails grow to signify their social status. Indeed, having long nails means that you do not work in the fields. In ancient China, some people were pushing the nail of a little finger to signify their rank. The more important he was in the hierarchy, the longer the nail was.
6. A finger pointed at a caller or a third person is impolite. To designate someone, one will reach out to him, palm open up.
7. Queuing is not yet a widespread principle in China. It is necessary to know at certain moments to elbow and even to express one’s discontent. Fortunately, the younger generation is better educated on this topic.
8. In winter, Chinese people often prefer to keep the windows open and wear big coats inside the homes rather than turn on the air conditioning because they think it’s better for the health.
9. Many people in China like to nap on the tables of some restaurants like KFC or McDonald’s, especially because of the air conditioning. Stores like IKEA are also favorite places for the nap of the Chinese mop.
Behaviors at the table
10. If you are invited to a Chinese meal, it is best to leave some food on the table or bowl to show your host that you have eaten enough.
11. We do not plant the rice in a meal with Chinese because it reminds of the sticks of incense burned as an offering to the dead. Likewise, the chopsticks must be arranged in parallel and not crossed.
12. During a meal in China, traditionally, the most important person (often the guest) is placed in front of the exit door. The less important the person is, the farther away from that first.
13. A turntable must be rotated only clockwise.
14. The Chinese take their food noisily, and drop their garbage on the table or on the floor, which offends Westerners. On the other hand, the Chinese can be shocked to see us touching food with our fingers.
15. At table with Chinese people, out of politeness, you may be able to put food in your bowl without asking for anything.
Gifts
16. At festivals in China, red envelopes filled with banknotes are more readily available than physical goods.
17. If you offer a good to a Chinese, it is normal to leave the price tag.
18. When you give a gift to a Chinese, most of the time, it will not open it in front of you.
19. During a friendly visit, the Chinese offer fruit rather than flowers.
20. In China, it is frowned upon to offer clocks, candles or incense that symbolize death or even umbrellas, cut pears and knives that represent the break.
21. When you want to give something to a Chinese, it may be that he refuses several times your gift by politeness, before accepting it.
Popular beliefs
22. In the Chinese tradition, red is the symbol of happiness and is commonly used in festivals and other happy occasions such as birthdays and weddings. White is the color of mourning.
23. For many Chinese, the number 4, because of its pronunciation close to the word “death” in Mandarin, brings bad luck. The number 8 is a lucky number.
24. At major festivals or ceremonies, Chinese people fire fireworks and firecrackers to ward off evil spirits.
25. Women giving birth in China respect the tradition of postnatal rest for one month. During this time, the young mother should make no physical effort, should not eat raw or cold, or drink tap water, alcohol or tea. She can not wash her hair and has to wear a hat to keep her head warm. She must also avoid watching television or any other screen to avoid eye problems while her metabolism is weakened.
Animals
26. According to popular beliefs, the bat is lucky, the fish is synonymous with abundance and the horse is associated with intelligence and money.
27. The dragon is the symbol of wisdom and supreme power in China. Unlike the Western idea that is made, it is benevolent.
28. The phoenix and the crane are the most important birds of Chinese legends. They are often associated with feminine grace and marital happiness.
History and politics
29. Shanghai was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the Holocaust without an entry visa.
30. Although a large majority of Chinese people do not have siblings, this is not the case for everyone. Despite China’s one-of-a-kind child policy, millions of families from ethnic minorities or rural areas have the right to give birth to 2-3 children. Moreover, since 2013, for all Chinese, if one of the parents is an only child, the couple is allowed to have a second child.
31. China is not really a communist country even though the Chinese Communist Party has been in power for 65 years now. In reality, China operates on a capitalist model: a consumer society with paid public services.
32. The four small stars of the Chinese flag, adopted in September 1949, symbolize the union of the people composed of workers, peasants, the “petty bourgeoisie” and “patriotic capitalists”.
33. Mao Zedong is not the only one to have had his portrait displayed on Tiananmen Square. That of Chiang Kai-shek was indeed hung before that of the Great Helmsman replaces him.
34. Every year since 1966, just before the Chinese National Day of October 1, the portrait of the Great Helmsman is replaced by a new one in the early hours of the morning. It is 6 meters high, 4.5 meters wide and weighs 1.5 tons.
Language
35. It is falsely thought that the Chinese have all spoken a single language for millennia: Chinese. In fact, there are more than 80 languages and dialects spoken in China. Thus, 400 million Chinese would not speak Mandarin.
36. The Chinese alphabet does not exist, there are only characters. The total number of modern and ancient characters is about 60,000. If we keep only the most used characters, we reduce this number to 10,000. With 1,500 basic characters, it is possible to read a newspaper.
37. Contrary to what one might think, a Chinese word is not always composed of a single character. It often takes two or more characters to compose a single word.
38. The most complicated Chinese character still used today is the biáng trait , consisting of 57 traits and refers to “Biang Biang Noodles” originating from Shaanxi Province. It is even impossible to write it with a computerized system.
Ethnology and anthropology
39. Chinese cuisine is one of the most varied in the world, so much so that we speak of “Chinese cuisines” in the plural. There are 4 large families classified by geographical area. To the north, the dishes have strong aromas. In the south, it is the steam kitchen that prevails. To the east, vegetarian and seafood dishes are preferred. And finally to the west, we like the dishes raised and strongly spicy.
40. The Chinese do not all have the same ethnic origin. If it is true that the 55 national minorities represent barely 8 to 10% of the current Chinese population, out of a mass of 1.4 billion Chinese, it still represents 140 million individuals, which is twice the French population.
41. There are more than 500 Chinese surnames, but about one million Chinese people share 100 identical surnames.
42. In 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics, more than 4,000 newborns were given the first name “Aoyun”, a diminutive for the expression “Olympic Games”.
43. Unlike the image we have, the Chinese are not all small. In northern China, the average height is as high as 1.78m for men and 1.68m for women. Moreover, Chinese have already entered the Guinness Book of Records for being the largest in the world in their day.
44. China has about 40 to 70 million Christians, 100 to 150 million Buddhists and about 20 million Muslims.
45. Many Chinese people, especially students, begin to dine around 16:30. For the majority of city dwellers, dinner is around 18:00, after work.
46. The Chinese New Year also called “Spring Festival”, based on the lunar calendar, is the most important holiday for the Chinese.
47. The Chinese eat almost no dogs today, preferring to keep them as pets.
48. In China, there are between 30 and 40 million fewer women than there are men.
49. More than 30 million Chinese live in troglodyte habitats. These caves sheltering housing are known under the name of “Yaodong”.
50. Raising a child in Hong Kong from birth to age 22 costs an average of € 550,000.
51. Transgender people who marry in Hong Kong can do so with their new sex.
52. There are Chinese, both red and blond, as well as blue-eyed Chinese who are neither albinos nor half-breeds of Western parents. Most of them come from northern China and more particularly from Liqian Village.
Inventions
53. China invented gunpowder, paper, silk, printing, compass, chopsticks (Chinese), lacquer, acupuncture, rudder, paddlewheel, harness, wheelbarrow , the sundial, the seismograph, the dominoes, the abacus, the incense, the screen, the umbrella, the kite, the noodles, the teapot, etc.
54. We know less, but China also invented ice cream, ancestor of the fridge, rocket launcher, nail polish, toilet paper, wooden coffin, suspension bridge, gas bottle , banknotes, Ketchup under the name of “ke-tsiap”, the electronic cigarette and even football according to FIFA.
55. To protect themselves from the sun’s rays and keep their skin white, the Chinese invented the face-kini, an integral combination that includes a sort of balaclava for the beach.
56. According to popular legend, tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shennong in 2737 BC when a tea leaf fell into boiling water during sleep.
57. Ping-pong is one of the most popular games in China but is not a Chinese invention. This is an English invention of the late nineteenth century.
58. “Fortune cookies” or “Chinese biscuits” are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented between 1915 and 1920 in the United States.
Geography
59. China is the fourth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada and the United States. Its area is 9,596,961 km².
60. Despite its large size, China officially has only one time zone (UTC + 8).
61. The inhabitants of Xinjiang, in addition to Beijing time, use a different local time. Some people wear two watches.
62. With more than 1.3 billion people, about one-sixth of the world’s population, China is the most populous country in the world.
63. China has the longest and oldest canal in the world with more than 24 locks and 60 bridges over about 1,795 km. This is known as the “Grand Canal”.
64. The Great Wall of China is the longest human construction in the world but is not visible from the moon contrary to some beliefs. It would measure exactly 8,851.8 kms and throw itself into the sea at Shanhaiguan.
65. The largest mountain in the world is in China. Mount Everest or Mount Qomolangma (meaning Mother Earth Goddess) is 8,848m high.
66. The 185-meter Three Gorges Hydropower Dam, which spans the Yangtze River, is the largest dam in the world.
67. Extending over an area of 72 hectares, the Forbidden City in Beijing, built between 1406 and 1420, is the largest imperial palace in the world.
68. The name of China’s capital has changed over the centuries. It has been known as Yanjing, Dadu, Beiping and finally Beijing (Beijing) meaning “Capital of the North”.
69. In Shenyang, Liaoning, China, a road that seems to go up, down … When you release the brakes of a vehicle down the “climb”, it goes up alone. Conversely, to “descend” this route, it is necessary to accelerate.
Records
70. Huaxi is the richest village in China. Each of the inhabitants works for the same company whose revenues are shared equally. The nearly 1,500 inhabitants are millionaires in yuan and possess luxurious villa, luxury car, etc.
71. In 2010, Beijing faced the biggest traffic jam that has ever existed in the world. It lasted 12 days and extended for about 100km.
72. The largest restaurant in the world, “West Lake” is located in Changsha, China; It can accommodate 5,000 people. The oldest restaurant in the world still in operation is also in China; Ma Yu Ching has been open since 1153 in Kaifeng according to the Guinness Book of Records.
73. At age 5, the Chinese He Yide became the youngest airplane pilot in the world after flying alone for 35 minutes.
74. Located in Luoshan, Henan, the 128-meter copper Buddha statue is the tallest statue in the world.
Fauna and flora
75. Pandas offered to foreign countries by China are all shipped by FedEx or DHL.
76. In order to stimulate the breeding of giant pandas, some zoos show them “porn movies” featuring other black and white coat ursids.
77. Kou Chun Cha tea is harvested only by young, virgin Chinese girls with strong breasts.
78. In some rural areas in China, police use geese instead of police dogs.
79. 20% of endemic plants in China are used for medicinal purposes.
Internet
80. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and many other social sites have been stuck in China since 2009. To circumvent this censorship the Chinese government media themselves are using VPNs.
81. In China, there are camps to deal with Internet addiction.
82. Entire villages in China live from online sales at the Taobao site. They are called “Taobao villages”.
83. On the Internet in China, it is possible to rent a “comforting girlfriend” with whom one can discuss by any means of communication existing.
Various
84. At family celebrations such as the Chinese New Year, singles hire a girlfriend to introduce their parents in order to avoid pressure from them.
85. Some Chinese people have the eyeball cleaned with razor blades by specialists working in the street.
86. Every 5 days, a new skyscraper is built in China.
87. Public toilets are rarely equipped with toilet paper. Tourists are advised to bring paper with them when a desire is felt.
88. It is unlikely to be a street fight involving martial arts such as kung fu when walking the streets of China.
