China never ceases to amaze and amuse, from paper money to Chinese football there are endlessly fascinating facts and features of Chinese life that never fail to delight and amuse.
The Great Wall of China is more than just a wall – it’s an intricate network pieced together over millennia by ancient emperors using Chinese characters as small works of art that tell their own unique tale.
The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China has long been seen as an emblem of Chinese pride and resilience, inspiring millions of visitors with its architectural grandeur and cultural significance – as well as being immortalized in numerous movies and books. But what lies behind these astonishing ancient works of engineering?
In reality, however, the Great Wall of China is much more complex. It’s more accurate to describe it as an intricate network of walls stretching 20,000 kilometers along China’s northern borders that connect ancient and imperial territories – built over centuries and centuries by various dynasties and kings from ancient Chinese history; even then it never fully completed.
Although today the wall is an icon of national pride, its status wasn’t always so. Mao Zedong encouraged citizens during his 10-year Cultural Revolution movement (which killed 1.5 million and imprisoned millions more), to dismantle sections of it to use in building homes; therefore 1/3rd of it has disappeared over time.
Even with its loss, remaining sections of the Great Wall remain in remarkable condition today – a testament to Chinese people resilience and creativity. They’re more than brick walls; they feature guard towers, gates, fortresses and barracks along their length in 15 regions in north China including Heilongjiang, Jilin Liaoning and Inner Mongolia.
But perhaps the greatest China fun fact about the Great Wall is its incredible durability. While most of its components – stones and earth – may seem innocuous enough, its longevity stems from an unexpected addition: glutinous rice flour in its mortar recipe. This produces a strong water-resistant paste made of glutinous rice flour mucilaginous paste with amylopectin found within rice providing natural cohesion properties and adding an additional bonus: natural adhesive properties due to amylopectin found in grains!
The result of these efforts is a wall that may stand for millennia. Walking along its length provides a uniquely thrilling experience compared to visiting more tourist-friendly sections; out west where these two sides meet, brick and stone give way to earth or nothing at all – often becoming part of its fabric!
The Four Great Inventions
The Four Great Inventions, more commonly referred to in Chinese as Si Da Fa Ming, are four ancient Chinese inventions with lasting global impacts that remain significant today: papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass.
Papermaking is one of the four inventions considered most significant because it revolutionized how information is recorded and disseminated. Prior to paper’s invention, people relied on writing surfaces like bones, tortoise shells or bamboo strips; however, these materials lacked longevity limiting their practical applications. Paper on the other hand was lightweight yet long-term thus facilitating quicker information sharing among civilization members which fostered its expansion.
Printing was another pivotal invention that enabled books to be mass produced, spreading knowledge and education throughout China and beyond its borders. Furthermore, translation capabilities enabled books to be translated into multiple languages allowing a global culture. Compass and gunpowder are widely regarded as important inventions due to their profound effects on navigation and warfare respectively.
One of the more remarkable and surprising China fun facts is that though these inventions were developed in China, their full use and advancement came later from Westerners. For instance, while Chinese people invented a compass to improve navigation, Westerners utilized gunpowder for fireworks and weaponry production and employment later by Westerners.
Though these four inventions are often associated with China, there were many more technological advances made during ancient Chinese history that later made their way to Westerners. According to historian Joseph Needham there were at least 26 technologies developed there that later spread throughout the Western world.
The Chinese Zodiac
Chinese culture has long used animals as symbols to represent their zodiac signs, which serve to predict people’s personalities, fortunes and compatibilities with others. Since Chinese Zodiac follows lunar calendar rules each year will represent by different animals.
According to legend, the Jade Emperor held a race to select which animals would feature prominently in his Chinese calendar. He decided that each year of this cycle would be represented by one animal; first place winner (Rat) had the honor of choosing their year for a 12-year cycle.
The racecourse consisted of a river, and each animal needed to cross it to claim their prize. Rat convinced Ox to carry him across, but just before reaching their goal on the other side, Rat shoved Cat into the river instead and won first prize as part of Chinese zodiac.
After the Ox, came the Tiger, which proved adept at jumping effortlessly between stones in a fast-flowing river. When explaining itself to Jade Emperor, Tiger noted its agility allowed them to quickly grab hold of floating logs before they were washed away downstream – winning second place overall in race.
Horse and Goat were very welcoming of each other as they headed toward the finish line, allowing each other to pass them as they headed in opposite directions. Horse and Goat were recognized for their kindness with seventh and eighth place respectively. Next came Monkey who used his agility to leap between trees and stones quickly in order to catch up to other animals quickly – this earned Monkey ninth place while Dog and Pig came last.
Today, the Chinese zodiac remains immensely popular and can even help people find love! Not only can its twelve animals serve to determine your personality and predict your future; birthdate and time determine which zodiac animal you receive as your zodiac animal – this practice known as “Ying Yang li” plays an integral part in Chinese culture.
The Chinese Calendar
The Chinese calendar is a lunisolar system, meaning that it correlates both solar and lunar cycles. To determine dates, Chinese people use both mathematical analysis and observations along with agricultural considerations that change with seasons or phenology to set dates for their calendar. It is widely used throughout most of Asia.
Initially developed during the Zhou dynasty period, early Chinese calendars utilized both a basic sexagenary system and lunisolar calendar to record dates; additionally, an elementary horologic system was also established with 24 solar terms used as division points within each year. Heavenly stems and earthly branches also serve as identification of dates in this system while months can either be designated long (Chinese: Da) or short (Xiao; lit. ‘small”).
Qin Shi Huang unified China and introduced the Qin calendar around 221 BCE. Although similar to previous calendars such as Xia and Zhuanxu calendars, its monthly order and leap months differed as well as having one additional month after every tenth month.
Many traditional Chinese festivals still follow the lunar calendar; for instance, Spring Festival falls on the first day of a lunar year, the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of a lunar month, and Mid-Autumn Festival takes place fifteenth day. Furthermore, Chinese calendar serves as the basis of Chinese zodiac, consisting of 12 animals such as rats ox tiger rabbit snake horse goat sheep monkey rooster dog and pig.
China is an amazing nation filled with history and culture that spans millennia. Home to some of the most recognizable landmarks on Earth, a vibrant economy, and numerous fascinating traditions, there’s so much more to discover about this amazing nation – whether you are passionate about history or simply eager to expand your horizons, we hope this blog has given you inspiration to discover China!