Here are 25 Interesting Facts About China – Part 2. For part 1, click here.
1-5 Interesting Facts About China
1. Over the past few years, China has built a new skyscraper every five days, more than 30 airports, metros in 25 cities, the three longest bridges in the world, more than 6,000 miles of high speed railway lines, 26,000 miles of motorway, and both commercial and residential property developments on a mind-boggling scale. – Source
2. The only thing that is keeping China from claiming part of the South China Sea is an old partially-sunken WWII era US warship which the Filipino government refuses to decommission, thus making it an extension of its government. – Source
3. In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett made a trip China to encourage philanthropy among China’s super rich. They were mainly ignored because Philanthropy (outside of supporting family) is not part of Chinese culture. – Source
4. About 90% of college students who come from China to US cheat to get admitted. – Source
5. In the mid-1990s, the bees in a region of China disappeared. People started pollinated apple trees by hand using brushes made of chopsticks and chicken feathers. When humans pollinated, apple production increased 30-40%. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About China
6. Shipping is cheap. So cheap that, rather than fillet its own fish, it is cheaper for Scotland to send its cod 10,000 miles over to China to be filleted and returned to Scotland. – Source
7. A man named Hu Songwen in rural China built his own dialysis machine to keep himself alive for 13 years. He was a college student when he was diagnosed in 1993 with kidney disease. He underwent dialysis treatment in hospital but ran out of savings after six years. His solution was to create his own machine to slash his costs. – Source
8. Professional p*rn censors in China get paid to watch over 150 pornographic DVDs each week, start to finish. One 70-year-old worker says, “When you’re in this job, even if you don’t want to watch anymore, you have to keep watching closely.” – Source
9. In 2010, there was a traffic jam in Beijing, China that lasted 9 days and 100km. – Source
10. During the Cold War, Chairman Mao held meetings in his swimming pool to embarrass Nikola Khrushchev, who had to wear a floatie as he couldn’t swim. Khrushchev felt insulted and the incident furthered the deterioration of relations between the Soviet Union and China. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About China
11. China retains ownership of all the giant pandas around the world, which are selectively loaned to other countries. The fee for a pair is usually $1 million a year, with funds going toward conservation efforts in China. Rentals typically last for 10 years, with a renewal option. – Source
12. In 221 BCE, China’s Emperor Qin Shi Huang sent his magician Xu Fu to find the elixir of life. Xu Fu asked for 3000 boys, 3000 girls, and large quantities of grains for sacrifice to the immortals in exchange for the elixir. Xu Fu sailed with the “sacrifice” and never returned to China. To this day, Chinese believed that he said sailed to Japan and settled there. Some even believed that Xu Fu became the first emperor of Japan. – Source
13. In 1958, China’s Mao Zedong ordered the extermination of several pests, including sparrows because they ate grains. This ill-fated campaign that eventually led to catastrophe. Since sparrows also eat insects, their absence caused a locust epidemic. Locust populations swarmed the countryside with no sparrows in sight. They ravaged crops, which caused Great Chinese Famine that killed millions of people. It got so bad that the Chinese government started importing sparrows from the Soviet Union. – Source
14. Millions of disposable chopsticks used in China are made in the USA. – Source
15. During the Qing Dynasty in China, emperor Qianlong was able to cancel taxes four times during his reign because the imperial treasury was so full. – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About China
16. Chopsticks actually replaced forks in China after they were developed, as opposed to the country having never developed them as many people think. – Source
17. There are hundreds of primary schools in China that are sponsored by tobacco companies, and they have such slogans as “Talent comes from hard work – Tobacco helps you become talented.” – Source
18. Some police stations in China use geese instead of guard dogs to keep watch at night. Geese are very territorial and have better vision than humans. – Source
19. In ancient China, in order to immunize people against small pox, dry smallpox scabs were ground up and blown up the noses of healthy people. – Source
20. In 16th century China, when the imperial army and navy failed to defeat Japanese pirates, Shaolin monks were dispatched to get rid of them. In one battle, the monks were especially ruthless, killing every single opposing pirate over a ten day period, including one’s wife that tried to flee – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About China
21. Chinese armed forces use crossbows at all unit levels to stop persons carrying explosives without the risk of causing detonation. – Source
22. The Chinese invented a 1-wheeled wheelbarrow in 200AD. One man could carry up to 6x the weight than if he were using a Western wheelbarrow. Some Chinese wheelbarrows were further improved by adding sails, turning them into 3rd-century wind-powered land-ships. – Source
23. About 85% of Chinese share 100 surnames, and “Li” and “Zhang” covers 13% of the Chinese population. – Source
24. The 50-Cent Party is a group of trained internet commentators who are paid 50 cents per post by the Chinese government to sway public opinion in their favor. – Source
25. A Chinese law promulgated in 1981 requires that every citizen over the age of 11 plant at least one tree per year. – Source
