CHINA FACTS

China is the third largest country in the world. Only the CIS (or Commonwealth of Independent States – which used to be called the Soviet Union) and Canada cover more territory. But more people live in China than in any other country – about one fifth of the entire population of the world.

NAMES

The Chinese call their own country Zhongguo (pronounced "joong-gwarr"), which means "the Middle Kingdom" or "Centre of the World". Foreigners gave it the name China, which they probably took from the name of an early ruling family, the Qin dynasty – pronounced "chihn". The Chinese call their capital city Beijing (pronounced "Bay-jing"). It was two English scholars called Sir Thomas Wade and Herbert A Giles who turned this name into "Peking" in the late 1880s. They worked out a system for writing names in English, but they used a P for a B and a K for a J!


DATES

The Chinese have a different way of counting the years from the English. Our calendar is based on the year of the birth of Christ, dividing dates into BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini – which is Latin for "the year of our Lord"). By this method of counting we are now living in the ‘noughties. But the Chinese count the years in cycles of 60, starting from 2637 BC, when the legendary emperor Huangdi invented the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year has twelve months, but they are shorter than our moths, having either 29 or 30 days each. Seven times every 19 years, one moth is repeated so that the calendar stays in line with the seasons. The Chinese New Year begins on the second new moon after the start of winter, which in our calendar always falls between 20 January and 20 February.


THE GREAT WALL

The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure of Earth that can be seen from space. The main part of the wall is 2,150 miles long, but extra side sections add another 1,800 miles, making it the longest structure ever built. It follows a winding course from Quinhuangdao on the East Coast to Jiayuguan in North-Central China. Although parts of the Great Wall date back to the fifth century BC, the main construction was done in the reign of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, 221-206 BC. It was intended to keep out invaders, but it couldn’t stop the Mongol leader Genghis Khan, whose soldiers swept over the wall to conquer China in the 13th century AD. The Great Wall stands about 25 feet high, and is wide enough for five horsemen to ride side by side most of the way. It winds over mountains and hills, and along the borders of deserts, and was built entirely by hand, using stone, granite and bricks. Over the centuries the Great Wall has crumbled and collapsed in numerous places and has been repaired or rebuilt several times. Most of the Great Wall as it stands today was built between 1368 and 1644 AD, and several sections are missing.

ASTROLOGY

Both Western and Chinese astrology have twelve signs. Our zodiac has twelve divisions in one year – from Aries to Pisces – but Chinese astrology works on a cycle of twelve years, in this order: Rat, Buffalo, Tiger, Cat, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. To work out which sign of the Chinese zodiac applies to you, make a chart of the twelve animal signs and write in the years, working back from 1995, which is the year of the Pig, (1994 is the year of the Dog, and so on). But if your birthday falls between 20 January and 20 February, you’ll have to find out exactly when the New Year was in the year you were born!


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