General quiz about China 6

Built in 1372 of tamped soil the Jade Gate, Gansu controlled the narrow pass the Silk Road followed into China. The 35 feet [11 meters] high walls were wide enough for horses to ride along the top.

Fourteen neighboring countries : Korea (North), Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Only Russia can claim as many but only by stretching a point.

The great Tang dynasty poet Du Fu lived in the thatched house (759-763) close to the Nan River at Chengdu, Sichuan. He built the house himself.

Much of China is desert or mountainous or both. It is only in the lowlands around the Yellow, Yangzi rivers and in Liaoning that the land is flat and supports intensive agriculture.

As far back as the Han dynasty the Wen-Wu strategies were developed. The doctrine of 文 wén (cultured debate) and 武 wǔ (military force) became central. Among friends and citizens people were persuaded by intellectual debate (soft power), foreigners and rebels on the other hand should be treated with military force (hard power).

The number four in Chinese is 'si' which has unfortunately sounds like the Chinese for 'die'. To avoid the bad luck some buildings do not have a fourth floor and streets do not have a house number four.

The five soldiers (pawns) are placed on alternate lines across the chess board. The board has 9 vertical lines so there are 5 soldiers. Each side has 16 pieces to begin with.

According to legend when the poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo river, people went out in boats to look for his body. The Dragon Boat festival commemorates this event but also an older festival associated with asking dragons to bring rain for the crops.

Xi Jinping was born in Beijing but his family has roots in Shaanxi province. His father, Xi Zhongxun was a leader of the Communist party from its earliest years rising to be Vice Chairman of the NPC.

The island of Taiwan was fiercely independent of China for much of its early history. It was briefly settled by the Dutch before Ming loyalist Guoxingye ejected them and it became his last refuge against the Manchu conquerors. The Manchus defeated him and the island was added to the Chinese empire where it remained for 200 years before being ceded to the French and then the Japanese.

Lu yu (733-804) is considered the sage on the subject of tea. By this early date the cultivation of tea was already advanced and an elaborate tea ceremony had developed to imbibe the precious liquid.

The Terracotta Warriors that guard the Emperor Qin Shihuangdi's tomb were discovered by chance by a farmer in 1974 just east of Xi'an.

Ming Emperor Yongle in 1403 set 2,180 scholars six years to produce an amazing work totaling 11,095 volumes. The Yongle Dadian aimed to collect all human knowledge in one great work - the Wikipedia of its day.

The Book of Changes (Yi Jing or I Ching) is a set of all possible 64 combinations of six broken or unbroken lines. Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) was greatly encouraged in his study of the binary number system by the apparent use of binary in the ancient Chinese Yi Jing.

Weifang, Shandong is particularly associated with kites, it holds annual competitions that attract enthusiasts from many countries.

The Zhuang people number about 16 million and most live in Guangxi's extensive mountains. Several of the leaders of the Taiping Rebellion were ethnically Zhuang.

There are about 25 million Overseas Chinese in Taiwan; Hong Kong and Macau; 20 million in south-eastern Asia and about 5 million elsewhere in the World. In Singapore the Chinese hold 81% of the nation's wealth.

There is no astronomical basis for a seven day division of the year, unless perhaps, as roughly one quarter phase of the moon. The Chinese originally had a ten day week 旬 xún as this divides a month nearly precisely into three (four seven day weeks gives 28 days while three ten day weeks gives 30 days while the accurate month length is 29.53 days). At this time the days of the week were named after the Ten Heavenly Stems (tian gan). Most things in China were counted in tens in ancient times long before Napoleon.

Confucius (23 Aug 551BCE - 479BCE) led what has been the leading philosophic tradition in China for much of her long history. The temple complex at his birthplace Qufu, Shandong rivals the splendor of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

'River Elegy' caused immense controversy in mainland China due to its negative portrayal of Chinese culture. Many believe it led directly to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.