Portal:China/Did you know

Portal:China/Did you know/1

• ...that zaojing, an elaborately ornamented wooden ceiling, shaped like a well and often painted with water plants, was believed by the ancient Chinese to prevent wooden buildings from burning?
• ...that the first medical missions in China began in part because the missionary Robert Morrison wanted to discover whether the Chinese pharmacopoeia could cure disease in the West?
• ...that the study of sociology in China was repressed as a bourgeois pseudoscience during the early communist era?

Portal:China/Did you know/2

• ...that director Zhang Yuan's 1999 film, Seventeen Years was the first Chinese film allowed to film inside a Chinese prison?
• ...that in 132 CE, Zhang Heng, a Chinese court astronomer during the Han Dynasty, produced a seismometer (pictured) with an inverted pendulum that indicated the direction of earthquakes that occurred hundreds of kilometers away?
• ...that the oil spill which spread from the Wei River to the Yellow River was ultimately contained in the Sanmenxia reservoir?

Portal:China/Did you know/3

• ...that the Tibetan Plateau (topography pictured) is known as the "roof of the world"?
• ...that in 1975 a freak Typhoon caused the Banqiao Dam in China's Henan Province to fail, killing over 200,000 people?
• ...that the Buddhist scholar Jizang spent eleven years transcribing 2,000 copies of the Lotus Sutra by hand?

Portal:China/Did you know/4

• ....that in China, access to water supply and sanitation varies greatly between rural areas, where only 67% of the population has access to improved water supply, and cities, where 93% does?
• ...that the piaohao and the qianzhuang were financial institutions in ancient China?
• ...that the Sun Ning Railway Company, South China's first significant railway, was dismantled in December 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War to deny its use by the Japanese military?

Portal:China/Did you know/5

• ...that Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, (pictured) a Yuan Dynasty painting by Huang Gongwang, now exists in two halves, one of which is kept in Mainland China while the other is kept in Taiwan?
• ...that the Battle of Zhuolu, fought in the 26th century BC and the second recorded battle in Chinese history, is often considered a pivotal moment in the establishment of the Han Chinese civilization?
• ...that the urban villages found in some of China's major cities are inner city slums with Chinese characteristics?

Portal:China/Did you know/6

• ...that the Chengziya Archaeological Site (roadside marker pictured) in China is thought to be the largest prehistoric settlement found to date?
• ...that in 1899, Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico was prohibited by the United States Chinese Exclusion Act?
• ...that Charter 08, a declaration signed by hundreds of Chinese intellectuals, was modeled on Czechoslovakian Charter 77?

Portal:China/Did you know/7

• ...that the Tarim mummies indicate that Caucasoid populations lived in Xinjiang in western China during the 1st millennium BCE?
• ...that the Sarikoli language is often referred to as "Tajik", despite being only distantly related to Tajikistan's national language?
• ...that the first railway locomotive in China was in service for only 15 months between 1876 and 1877 (pictured) before being purchased and deliberately destroyed by the ruling Qing dynasty?

Portal:China/Did you know/8

• ...that Tui bei tu, a banned 7th century prophecy book about China which has been compared to the work of Nostradamus, became a bestseller in the 1990s?
• ...that traditional Chinese phoenixes in carved reliefs of the Qianling Mausoleum are modeled on ostriches?
• ...that Bailin Temple (inner yard pictured) in Beijing was not pillaged by Anglo-French forces in 1860 or by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900 because of the superstitious fear that Tibetan Buddhism inspired in the invaders?

Portal:China/Did you know/9

• ...that the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, the second-largest shopping mall in the world, has attracted as few as 20 shoppers in an hour?
• ...that the history of science and technology in China was made known in the West largely through the work of the Jesuits (pictured) and later through Joseph Needham?
• ...that dark eggplant skins were historically used by aristocratic women in China to make black dye, which they often used to stain their teeth?

Portal:China/Did you know/10

• ...that the Tai chi classics are manuscripts and commentaries that are used as standards for the correct study and practice of the art of tai chi chuan?
• ...that after endangering himself to control the imperial horse, Qi Ying was made an imperial attendant by Emperor Dezong of Tang?
• ...that the Beiyue Temple (pictured) has China's largest surviving wooden building from the Yuan Dynasty?

Portal:China/Did you know/11

• ...that Liugong Island is considered the "birthplace of China's first navy" and is also the site of its defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War?
• ...that Ming Dynasty general Gang Bing castrated himself and placed his severed organs under Emperor Yongle's saddle to avoid being accused of sexual improprieties?

Portal:China/Did you know/12

• ...that it was at the urging of Pei Mian and Du Hongjian that Emperor Suzong of Tang China claimed the throne, despite the fact that his father Emperor Xuanzong was still alive?
• ...that when Tang dynasty general Zhang Yi signed a peace treaty with Tufan, he made an offering of goats instead of the customary cattle and horses because he was embarrassed to be dealing with "barbarians"?
• ...that rhinoceroses in ancient China were used as models for wine vessels (example pictured)?

Portal:China/Did you know/13

• ...that the Tang dynasty general Wang Zhongsi was raised inside the palace of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang after Wang's father was killed in battle in army service when he was still young?
• ...that China has sought to cultivate strong ties with Burma by providing extensive aid and vetoing a UN resolution proposed in 2007 condemning Burma for human rights violations?
• ...that Guo Moruo wrote a poem about the Liujiaxia Dam (pictured), while the displaced farmers received about RMB 364 per person?

Portal:China/Did you know/14

• ...that numerous specimens of dinosaurs have been excavated from the Dashanpu Formation, first discovered by a natural gas company that found the formation's first dinosaur, Gasosaurus?
• ...that the Ordos culture includes some of the easternmost Scythians, who were settled for several centuries in an area about 300 kilometers from modern Beijing in China?
• ...that Yingzao Fashi (bracket arm pictured) is a Chinese technical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship written during the mid-Song Dynasty?

Portal:China/Did you know/15

• ...that the capital city Chang'an during the Chinese Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) had 111 Buddhist monasteries and 41 Daoist abbeys within its walls?
• ...that the Underground City in Beijing is a bomb shelter said to accommodate six million people?
• ...that Zhenguo Temple's Wanfo Hall (pictured) is the only surviving building that was built during China's Northern Han dynasty?

Portal:China/Did you know/16

• ...that according to the Zizhi Tongjian, Tang dynasty warlord Wu Yuanji painted an archery range with the blood of a family he had executed?
• ...that the magnitude 6.8 1981 Dawu earthquake in China killed or injured more than 450 people?
• ...that the world's tallest concrete-faced rockfill dam is Shuibuya Dam (pictured) on the Qingjiang River in China?

Portal:China/Did you know/17

• ...that both the number and magnitude of foreshocks and aftershocks of the 1969 Yangjiang earthquake were unusually small, considering the size of the mainshock?
• ...that during the Sino-Xiongnu War, the Han empire attempted alliance with a people whose king's skull the Xiongnu had made into a drinking cup?
• ...that the Tholing monastery (pictured) of the Purang-Guge kingdom was built by Yeshe-Ö, the first notable lama-king in Tibet?

Portal:China/Did you know/18

• ...that the Yuanwang-class of ships (pictured) is used by the People's Republic of China for tracking and supporting their Shenzhou spacecraft?
• ...that the People's Republic of China is the world's second largest consumer market for luxury goods, next only to Japan?
• ...that Hao Peng has worked as a sent-down youth, a flight control system technician, vice chairman of Tibet, and governor of Qinghai?

Portal:China/Did you know/19

• ...that the indemnity money paid to the U.S. after the Boxer Rebellion was used to fund a scholarship program which led to the founding of Tsinghua University in Beijing?
• ...that the earliest known Chairman Mao badges (pictured) were made from used toothpaste tubes?
• ...that many sturgeons of the Sungari River spent the last several months of their lives in Fate Town, Jilin?

Portal:China/Did you know/20

• ...that the People's Republic of China attempted to promulgate a second round of orthographical reform in 1977, only to retract it 9 years later amidst mounting opposition and confusion?
• ...that the life of Han Dynasty poet and composer Cai Wenji (pictured) is depicted in Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute?
• ...that Jewish mandarin Zhao Yingcheng helped rebuild Kaifeng's synagogue after its destruction in 1646?

Portal:China/Did you know/21

• ...that the Communist Party of China is one of the largest political party with a membership of 87.79 million as of 2015?
• ...that Xi Jinping (pictured) is elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China at the 18th National Congress in 2012?
• ...that Zhongnanhai serves as the central headquarters for the Communist Party of China and the State Council (Central government) of China?