55 Astonishing Facts About China

China has been the world’s fastest-growing economy for the last 30 years. It is also known as the factory of the world and is the world’s third-largest country. Noodles, Szechwan Chilli Chicken, Spring Roll, and dumplings are among the many foods of China that are popular worldwide. China is the world’s oldest continuous civilization and one of the world’s oldest civilizations. There is archaeological evidence dating back over 5,000 years. China also has one of the oldest writing systems in the world (and the oldest in use today). So let’s have a look at these Interesting facts about this great country.

1. China is share land border with fourteen countries that are Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.
2. China is the biggest producer of bibles in the world. The amity printing company in Nanjing is the largest producer of the bible in the country. The company print about 20 million copies of the holy book each year.
3. The country is on course of becoming the world’s biggest Christian country in the coming 15 years. The stats show that more people in china go to church on Sunday than in the whole of Europe.
4. In 1990 the poverty rate of china was about 85 percent which has fallen to 7 percent in 2015. It is estimated and hoped that poverty will fully eradicate in the country by 2020.
5. Since 1990, the number of people living in poverty in China has fallen from 85% to 15%.
6. In the last ten years, china conducted two major moon missions. The first was chang’e 3, which included lander and rover; it was launched on December 1, 2013, and made a soft landing on the moon on December 14, 2013. The second mission was chang’e 4, which was launched on December 7, 2018, and landed on January 3, 2019, on the moon’s dark side, which is also known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin.
7. Almost half of all babies, or about 46 percent of babies in the country, are born by Caesarean section rather than vaginal birth.
8. A Chinese billionaire name long liyan was murdered in 2011 when he was having business lunch. He was murdered by means of poison in his boiled cat meat casserole.
9. In 2017 china got about 76 skyscrapers ready which means one skyscraper was built every five days. Now china has four times more skyscrapers than the United States.

   

10. In the next thirty years, about thirty million Chinese men will be unable to find wives as women will be outnumbered due to the declining sex ratio of women in the country. This has happened due to the Chinese government’s one-child policy, which has significantly created a gender and sex ratio imbalance in the country.
11. The country has about 677.6 million pigs which means half of the total population of pigs in the world is in China. So China is the biggest pork producer worldwide and produces about 55 million metric tons of pork every year.
12. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the seven-year preparation resulted in the unemployment rate in the city to zero percent and increased the average income by 89.9 percent.
13. The Chinese city of Zhuji makes 8 billion pairs of socks every year, contributing 35% of total worldwide socks production, which makes it the socks capital of the world.
14. All pandas that are present in other parts of the world are loan from China.
15. About one-third of the total Chinese population is not able to speak its official language.
16. In around 200 BCE, the western Han dynasty used a lottery to pay for the expansion and repairs of the great wall of china.
17. Among Chinese people, the common and most liked hobby is collecting stamps.
18. The Population of China is 1.45 billion, and it is the largest country in the world in terms of population.

    

19. The country has the second-largest defense budget on the planet after the united states and the largest standing army in the world.
20. Over 30 million people in the country are living in caves.
21. In every 30 seconds, a baby with some birth defect is born in the country. Only 20 to 30 percent of these infants are able to be treated or cured.
22. The national sport of the country is table tennis. In the 1950s, Mao Zedong, who himself was a table tennis player, declared this sport as their national sport. Since then, the Chinese have won many trophy’s in the sport.
23. Karate was actually originated in India and was further developed in China. It was brought to China by a Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma.
24. The word china is most likely derived from the name of the Qin(pronounced as chin) dynasty. The first emperor of the country, qin Shi Huang (260-219 B.c) of the Qin dynasty, first unified China in 221 B.C., beginning an imperial period that lasted till A.D. 1912.
25. China is the fourth largest country on the planet (after Russia, Canada, and the U.S.). It has an total area of 9,600,000 km2 (3,700,000 sq mi). There are about 5,000 islands that lie off the Chinese coast.
26. China has one of the biggest coastlines in the world and comes at the 10th spot with about 14,500 Km of coastline.
27. The country is often considered one of the longest continuous civilizations, the dawn of civilization started in about 6000 BC. The Chinese language is also the world’s longest continuously used written language.

    

28. In every five people on the planet, one is Chinese. The population of the country is four times higher than that of the United States.
29. The fortune cookies, which are served at Chinese restaurants, are not a traditional Chinese custom. The cookies were invented in 1920 by a worker in the key heong noodle factory in San Francisco.
30. The country is also known as the “flowery kingdom” as many of the fruits and flowers like orange and orchid are native to China and now grown all over the world.
31. Toilet paper was first introduced in China in late 1391. However, it was invented for the emperor and their family only.
32. Back in history, the Chinese gave the world some very important inventions. They invented the compass (2nd century BCE and 1st century C.E.), Gunpowder (9th century), papermaking (AD 105), and printing (year 868).
33. The Chinese invented kites about 3,000 years ago. At first, they were used to frighten the enemies in the battle. In 1254-1324 Marco polo noted that kites were also used to predict the voyage’s success. At that time, it was considered bad luck to purposely a kite go.
34. Many historians believe soccer originated in China around 1000 B.C. in the Han dynasty. It is also thought that in history, it was played in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
35. China invented the ice cream in 200 BC when a milk and rice mixture was frozen by packing into the snow. Marco Polo is rumored to have taken the recipe and the recipe for noodles back with him to Europe.
36. For the last 1000 years or the tang dynasty, cricket fighting is a popular amusement in China. Many Chinese children keep crickets as pets.

    

37. The country was the first to invent the waterwheel to harness water in A.D. 31-1200 years before the Europeans. The Chinese were also the first to use an iron plow to till the land faster. Europe didn’t begin using an iron plow until the seventeenth century.
38. The name of the capital has been changed a lot of times. It was known as Yanjing, Dadu, and beeping. Then finally, in 1403, it got the name Beijing which means northern capital. Beijing is the second-largest city in the country after shanghai.
39. Martial arts is practiced throughout the country and was developed by ancient hunting and farming methods.
40. The Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is considered to be the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. The people of China believe that every person turns one year older on this day and thus considered this day to be everyone’s birthday.
41. In the country, over 92 percent of the total population speaks the Chinese language. At least seven Chinese language families include mandarin, wu, Cantonese, Gan, Hakka, Xiang, and min.
42. In ancient times and even in modern times, the lotus flower is seen as a symbol of purity and considered sacred to Buddhists and Daoists. The peony is thought to be as king of flowers that symbolize spring, long life, and good luck.
43. The Chinese discovered making silk in at least 3,000 BC. At that time, Romans knew china as “serica,” which means “land of silk.” The emperor of that time fiercely guarded the secrets of silk-making, and anyone who got caught smuggling silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of the country was sentenced to death.
44. The oldest piece of paper on the planet was found in China and dated back to the second or first century B.C. The paper of that time was so durable that it was sometimes used for clothing and even light body armor.
45. The color red has a special place in the country. The people believe that red color is a symbol of happiness, luck, and fertility. It is commonly used in festivals and other happy occasions such as weddings and birthdays.

    

46. The Chinese was the first country to use stirrups on horses back in the third century A.D.
47. The first known species of homo Erectus or also called as Peking man was discovered in 1929-37 during the excavations near Beijing. They believed that they lived about 300,000-550,000 years ago and thought they knew how to manipulate fire.
48. The bicycle was first introduced in China around 1891 by two American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. Now it is a primary transportation for millions of Chinese, and the country is now the leading bicycle manufacturer in the world.
49. The first American woman who won the Nobel prize was Pearl S. Buck(1892-1973). She was awarded the Nobel prize for her novels about China. The main novel was The Good Earth(1931).
50. China’s national flag was adopted in September 1949 and first flown in Tiananmen Square (the world’s largest public gathering place) on October 1, 1949, when the People’s Republic of China was formed. The red in the flag symbolizes revolution. The large star symbolizes communism, and the little stars represent the Chinese people. The position of the stars represents the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party.
51. China has one of the world’s oldest calendar. This lunar calendar originated in 2600 B.C. and has 12 zodiac signs. It takes 60 years to complete.
52. The number of birth defects in China continues to rise. Environmentalists and officials blame China’s severe pollution.
53. The consumption of mushrooms was recorded in Chinese historical documents more than 3,000 years ago. In 1996, China produced 600,000 tons of mushrooms, making it the world’s leading producer, and it has 60% of the world’s mushroom varieties.
54. China’s grand canal, or Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the oldest and longest canal on the planet. It stretches over 1,795 km (1,114 miles) has 25 locks and around 60 bridges.

    

55. In 2007, dog food and toothpaste products made in China were recalled because they contained poisonous ingredients. In July, China’s head of the State Food and Drug Administration was found to have accepted bribes from pharmaceutical companies. He was executed.