Chinasage : All about China
China sage's information will be of use to anyone keen to learn more about the world's upcoming nation. We cover all aspects of China in hundreds of detailed pages which include all sorts of cultural traditions , descriptions of every Chinese province and history , including all the dynasties. We hope you make ChinaSage the home for your study of China.
You can also check out your knowledge of China with our Quiz section .
Chinese New Year 2026
Wishing everybody a happy and prosperous Spring Festival.
In 2026 this will fall on 17th February. It falls quite late this year, the variation is due to the lunar cycle, it falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice on December 21st.
2026 is a year of the 'fire' horse according to the sixty year astrological cycle .
For a very comprehensive guide for this most important festival see our new year page .
I'd like to thank in particular the generosity of our Patreon supporters who have made it possible to pause advertising for most of 2025.
Traditions
About Chinasage
We’re building an extensive set of information all about China. We found other sites too detailed (such as Wikipedia) or just too old-fashioned. What we thought was needed was a carefully constructed site with strict editorial control so that everything is consistent and easy to navigate without clutter.
The name “Chinasage” came about because it can be read as either “China sage” (中 国 英 明 zhōng guó yīng míng ) or “China’s age” (中 国 时 代 zhōng guó shí dài ) , which promotes our new knowledge resource at a time when China has come of age in the world.
All the tea in China
Tea was the most important export that was weighed in the traditional Chinese unit of measurement called a 'catty'. It is known colloquially as the Chinese pound and is about 1.1pounds. In China it is known as the jin 斤 the word catty probably came from the Malay word. The modern weight is aligned to the metric system as exactly 500grams. The container for tea, a 'caddy', is believed to have been named after the measure.
Getting by in China There are many customs and traditions that you should know before traveling to China. Our customs page covers such things as giving gifts, banquets, sealing business deals and how to behave in public. A respect for age old traditions will impress your hosts who will appreciate your efforts to embrace the culture. Read more…
A history of Chinese Painting China has a very long tradition of painting. Most painting is done with the same style of brush and ink as calligraphy. Landscapes are the most cherished but exquisite paintings of nature subjects and portraits are also well represented. Read more…
Traditional performance China has a great range of traditional performing arts: theater, opera, dance, shadow and glove puppetry and story-telling. Many of these have roots back in ancient times - over a thousand years. Mass media has reduced popularity of most forms but devoted practitioners are helping to keep the art-forms alive. Read more…
Moutai liquor
Maotai (or Moutai) is a traditional strong liquor made in Guizhou province in the town of Maotai. It is a distilled spirit (53% alcohol) made from wheat and sorghum. It is the tipple of choice at banquets and frequently given as a gift to visitors. Read more…
Toad Frogs and toads are valued in China because they keep down insect pests on crops. In some regions their name is similar to qián 'money, coin' and this has given them an association with good fortune and luck. Read more…
Great Inventions The four great Chinese inventions are considered to be: paper; printing ; compass and gunpowder . Other key inventions include the abacus, iron casting, pasta, silk etc.. However the production of paper and then printing must be considered the most important of these. Read more…
Chinese Chess The Chinese game of chess is rather different to the version used in the west. There are strong reasons to suppose that the Chinese game 象 棋 Read more…
Traditional and Simplified When you start learning Chinese you soon across the fact that there are two written forms still in use, the simplified form used in China and the old, traditional form still used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other overseas Chinese communities. With 4,000 years of use the written Chinese language has many archaic features. On the formation of the Peoples' Republic an ambitious reform of the script was instigated which has made the learning of the characters far easier. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
History
Dip into history Our history section has a page for each major dynasty, for the whole period from the time of myths and legends 5,000 years ago all the way through the Han, Tang, Song, Ming dynasties to the last great dynasty the Qing. Read more…
Quintessence of the Nation Traditional Chinese Opera was the entertainment of all Chinese over many centuries. A long evening performance contains elements of drama, music, comedy, acrobatics and martial arts. Each region has its own distinctive form. Over time complex body movements represent specific meanings as a very sparse set is used. The art form has inspired many Western composers and playwrights to emulate the style. Read more…
Imperial officials The prized job in dynastic China was as an Imperial official. As well as prosperity and a life of relative leisure an official received respect from the community. As anyone who passed the Imperial examinations could hope for such an appointment the posts were potentially open to all men. Read more…
Top Academy in China 725-1911 China can lay claim to having the longest lived academic institution. The Hanlin Academy was founded way back in the Tang dynasty long before any European university. For nearly 1,200 years it employed all the top scholars in many disciplines and had its own set of buildings at the Imperial capital. The academy produced Imperial edicts, the Imperial histories as well as educating the Emperor's children and administering the university examination system . Read more…
The unluckiest nunber
The Chinese equivalent of unlucky 13 is the number 4. This is because the similarly sounding character 死 Read more…
Modern Leaders The leadership of the People's Republic since 1949 has been one of stability with an emphasis on steady progress. With China such a major power it is important to understand the background to the handful of people who have led China in a new direction. Read more…
Relations with Taiwan - the One China Policy An exploration into the current debate about the status of Taiwan with a look into the complex history and some thoughts on the future. Read more…
Imperial servants - the eunuchs For over two thousand years the Chinese Emperor was served by a large number of Imperial servants who had been castrated as young boys. With no possibility of having children themselves they were seen as having more loyalty to the Emperor than the, often scheming, Imperial family. Some eunuchs became fabulously rich as a result of their control of access to the Emperor. Read more…
Geography
China's diverse geography China has deserts, mountains, lakes, rain forests and almost every other type of geographical feature you can think of. Our geography section has pages for each individual province as well as the great Yangzi and Yellow rivers. There are also pages on climate, cities, population, ethnic people, airports and universities. Read more…
Population China has been the most populous nation for much of the last few thousand years. The draconian 'One Child Policy ' measure was introduced to curb the worrying explosive growth in the period 1950-80.
Read more…
Relations between Korea and China A history of the long and eventful history of Chinese relations with Korea. Chinese settlement first began two thousand years ago and at times since then China has intervened in Korean affairs, most recently in the Korean War 1950-53. Read more…
The Emperor's Canal The Grand or Emperor's canal is the longest canal system in the world. It links Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north - over 1,100 miles. Designed to carry huge amounts of rice from the south to the north it proved to be China's life line for over a thousand years. Read more…
The 13 Ming Tombs The tombs of the 13 Ming Emperors is one of the largest and most lavish burial complexes anywhere in the world. Like the Valley of the Kings in Egypt the tombs are scattered around a valley of 17 square miles but here only one tomb has been excavated and was found to be completely intact. Read more…
校 xiào school; military officer 木 mù wood; wooden radical 75, 交 jiāo to hand over; to deliver; to turn over]Origin The 'jiao' element gives rough phonetic, 'wood' may be taken to mean growth and nurturing Full information for 校
Language
The Chinese Language The Chinese language is rightly treasured as the country's greatest accomplishment. Our language section describes the language and its history. The section includes some introductory lessons and a guide to writing the characters. Read more…
Chinese numbers Learning the numbers in Chinese is easier than in many other languages. In our complete guide to the numbers we include the traditions associated them. For example, do you know why 4 is unlucky but 8 lucky? Read more…
A survey of Chinese literature As both the book and printing were invented in China it is not surprising that Chinese literature has a long and distinguished history. There are a number of very famous novels from before the time of Shakespeare including The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin. Read more…
Understanding the Date and Time in Chinese Telling the date and time is essential for travelers. In China the Arabic numbers are used for writing but the Chinese characters are used for reading. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
Imperial Examinations One of China's most important exports was the respect for scholarship and learning. China was the first nation to appoint on basis of what they knew rather than who they knew. Strict examinations were set up two thousand years ago and were the passport to a quieter life with a steady income. Read more…
Bits and Pieces
We need your help to keep the Chinasage web site growing. We'd love to keep this web site completely free of advertisements like Wikipedia. Please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber for however little or much you can afford. We have been running this campaign for two months and have so far raised only 10% of our target. So please help… or else advertisements will make a comeback!
To read more and take out a subscription simply click on the Patreon Patreon
Many thanks, much appreciated.
Tue 20th Sep 2022Patreon pictures Thanks to the generous donations from Chinasage's Patreon ➚ sponsors we've just added quality photographs to many of our pages.
Although you can get images of all sorts of thing for free you do still have to pay for quality, particularly for specialist subjects. This time we have used 123rf for the new images who claim to have 200 million images to choose from. It takes a long time to make a choice and then they all need editing for usage, tagging and finally putting on the appropriate place on our hundreds of pages. We hope you will agree that they make a significant improvement.
New Year dragon, Shanghai Read more…
All the tea in China
Tea was the most important export that was weighed in the traditional Chinese unit of measurement called a 'catty'. It is known colloquially as the Chinese pound and is about 1.1pounds. In China it is known as the jin 斤 the word catty probably came from the Malay word. The modern weight is aligned to the metric system as exactly 500grams. The container for tea, a 'caddy', is believed to have been named after the measure.
Mountainous Tibet The mountainous province of Tibet forms the highest possible land border between India and China. On the border with Nepal is the world's highest mountain: Mount Everest (or Qomolangma). Tibet's unique culture is a key attraction to visitors. Read more…
The Republic of China 1912-1949 The years 1912-49 marked the difficult transition from centuries of Imperial dynastic rule to that of a Republic. Sun Yatsen's dream of a democratic Republic was never achieved amidst the turmoil of the Japanese Occupation and then the Civil War with the Communists. Read more…
Air travel in China Here we list all China's main airports , giving information on location, facilities and easy to use distance calculator so you can plan a complex itinerary around China. We also give useful visitor information about air transport in China. Read more…
Ancient stone writings Stone steles form the most permanent of records. Over the centuries they have been used as memorials, reference libraries, calligraphy samples and poems. Visitors to China will have seen these revered inscriptions in all sorts of locations: mountains, houses, parks and museums documenting the lives and feelings of people over the centuries. They are a powerful and permanent expression of the continuity of Chinese history. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
The Drum Tower in Xi'an, Shaanxi. June 2007.Jeremy Barwick ➚ available under a Creative Commons license ➚
Conventions
We use a consistent style for links within Chinasage. An internal link taking you to another page within our site is shown like this while a link to a page on any other web site is shown like this ➚ .
We use Chinese characters wherever appropriate. Most browsers should display both the characters and the pinyin correctly. We highlight any use of the older Wade Giles system for 'spelling' characters. Except where stated all characters are the modern simplified form used in the People's Republic rather than the traditional ones (pre-1970s). To help you learn Chinese characters many of the very common characters are highlighted thus: 中
Dates are given using the BCE/CE ➚ (Before Common Era and in Common Era) year convention rather than BC/AD. If a date is not followed by BCE or CE it should be taken as CE.
Authorship
All the text on the Chinasage web site is my own, I do not copy and paste from other web sites. I research each topic from a number of authoritative sources (mainly books ). The only exception to this are quotations and image credits. All text is our copyright and can not be used/copied without my permission. I am independent of any other company or government, the opinions expressed are my own. I do not receive funding or backing from any agency or organization .
Teacup Media (China History Podcast)
I am delighted to be able to promote links to Laszlo Montgomery's excellent Teacup Media ➚ series created over the last 15 years. Laszlo Montgomery ➚ has in depth knowledge of building commercial contacts with China over 30 years. The set of 290 podcasts totals 150 hours of audio commentary which covers every conceivable topic in Chinese history. Highly recommended.
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the many people who have put their photographs online for anyone to adapt and use. Without them this site would be very drab. If I am not using the image license correctly please let me know. I am grateful to Kim Dramer ➚ for permission to use her short videos all about Chinese culture and traditions. Patreon subscribers have supported the web site and allowed us to amongst other things purchase some quality images of China for use here. Some pages use Javascript ➚ to create special effects such as our airport table and calendar . I am grateful to the original authors for providing their code to be used and adapted by anyone else. The online Chinese dictionary uses the definitions from the CC-CEDICT project ➚ for which I am grateful for a generous free license. Sound files kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.
Feel free to contact Chinasage to point out any errors, omissions or suggestions on how to improve this web site.
If you would like to support my work and keep us independent become a Patreon or make a Donation via Paypal.
