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 .
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.
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
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…
All Chinese Festivals Our extensive section on Chinese festivals gives the dates and backgrounds on over 30 of them. Our festivals page has full details of the origin and observance of each of them as well as a handy diary for when they will next fall. Essential when planning a trip to China. Read more…
Dragons, master of rain and water The Chinese dragon is no fire-breathing monster, in China they are regarded as powerful but benevolent. As dragons are masters of rain, water and sea they need to be brought on your side if you want a good harvest, and so they need suitable offerings. The Dragon Boat festival is when everyone seeks to appease the dragon kings. Read more…
China's flag
The four smaller stars on the flag of the People's Republic represent the four classes of people: working class; peasantry; petit bourgeoisie and patriotic capitalists. Read more…
Peony The peony is a frequent art motif in China. It is considered one of the best flowers of spring and was much loved by Empress Wu Zetian . Read more…
How to write Chinese characters Many Chinese spend a great deal of time studying calligraphy. To be able to write (or more accurately paint) Chinese characters requires lots of practice as well as knowing both the brush strokes and the order in which to make them. Read more…
Game of Go or Weiqi The ancient game of 'Go' is called 围棋 wéi qí in China. It was a Chinese invention and has for centuries been the top game for learning strategy. Scholars would spend hours honing their skills to outwit an opponent with a disarmingly simple set of rules. 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…
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…
The Long March The epic tale of the struggle of thousands of soldiers over thousands of miles of challenging terrain has been held up as the chief heroic episode in the early days of the Communist party. It was during the Long March that Mao Zedong emerged as leader with his own vision for the future of China. Read more…
Yuan or Mongol dynasty The great Mongol hordes took northern China in 1215 but the south held out until 1279. Kublai khan established the capital of the Great Khan at Dadu, present day Beijing . Their brief period of rule (90 years) saw the Mongols take to Chinese ways, using existing administration and traditions rather than imposing their own. It was China's most cosmopolitan era with the famous visit of Marco Polo . Read more…
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
China's Neighbors The countries that surround China have an interesting history. Wars, conquest and religion have defined the current boundaries of the Peoples' Republic. India, Russia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Afghanistan all have important borders with China. Read more…
China's Space Mission China is putting a great deal of money and effort in building a space exploration program . Already missions have put people into orbit around the Earth and landed robots onto the Moon. Plans exist for a large space lab and manned landings on the Moon and even missions to Mars. In a race to put people on Mars it could well be China that gets there first. Read more…
Book of Changes - Deciphered
The Yi Jing is the premier ancient classic in China, and yet at the heart of this very strange but important book is a mystery that has remained unsolved for 3,000 years. The ‘Book of Changes - Deciphered’ describes the history and importance of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and proposes a new solution to the ancient mystery. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now also available in Kindle eBook format for just $5.99.
Details... ➚
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…
All about bamboo The most versatile of plants is the bamboo, it is used as food and for baskets, tubes, scaffolding, musical instruments and much more. In south-west China it forms vast forests. Read more…
The South China Sea China lays claim to a vast area of sea as far south as northern Borneo. The sea contains two groups of islands: the Paracels and the Spratleys. China's claim is disputed by all the neighboring countries surrounding the South China Sea. The U.S. navy continues to provocatively sailed through the region and plans further naval maneuvers. Read more…
Yellow River The valley of the mighty Yellow River was the cradle of Chinese civilization. The heavy load of silt that turns the waters 'yellow' creates rich farming land in the lower stretches. It is the second longest river in China after the Yangzi River . 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…
Proverb
常 在 河 边 走 ,哪能 不 湿鞋
Cháng zài hé biān zǒu, nǎ néng bù shī xié
You cannot routinely walk along a river without sometimes getting your shoes wet
You can't ignore the local conditions.
All about Chinese proverbs
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
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…
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…
1,000 character language primer One of the most loathed books in human history must be the Thousand Character Classic. For 1,500 years schoolchildren had to learn the whole set of 1,000 characters by rote. It was more about calligraphy practice rather than for making conversation. It remains a fact that learning a couple of thousand characters is a challenge to even young minds. 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…
Proverb
竭泽 而 渔
Jié zé ér yú
Drain the pond to harvest the fish
Choose short-term gain for long-term sorrow. Not planning for the long term. Short-termism. Similar to burning down a forest to capture wild animals - unsustainable.
Roughly equivalent to: Kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
All about Chinese proverbs
Places to visit There is a great deal to see in China; it is impossible to see everything in one visit. Our visitor attraction page gives a wide range of places to visit all over China, and not just the obvious ones. 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 button below, it will take you to the Patreon web site where you can subscribe simply and securely.
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…
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
The standing of women in China Attitudes to women have changed greatly in China over the centuries. The traditional subservient position of women in society was removed in only the last sixty years but there yet to be a woman appointed to the top rung of government. Our section describes the role of women down the centuries including the role of concubines and how some Imperial women bucked the trend. Read more…
Best China Sights In this page we give information on the top attractions all over China to tempt you to explore further. Each attraction is clearly marked on a map and further information on each place is readily available. From furthest Heilongjiang to Hong Kong and Lhasa to Shanghai we have selected the top travel highlights. Read more…
The Great Wall of China The iconic vision of the Great Wall snaking its way up mountainsides is known the world over. It stands as one of China's great accomplishments - the awe-inspiring Great Wall. Although it stands for China's enterprise and indomitable spirit, it in the end proved an expensive waste of effort. Read more…
Lucky Bats Bats are commonly used in handicrafts, paintings and artwork to give a wish for good luck. This is because 'bat' and 'good luck' sound the same in Chinese. Read more…
Book of Changes - Deciphered
The Yi Jing is the premier ancient classic in China, and yet at the heart of this very strange but important book is a mystery that has remained unsolved for 3,000 years. The ‘Book of Changes - Deciphered’ describes the history and importance of the Yi Jing (I Ching) and proposes a new solution to the ancient mystery. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now also available in Kindle eBook format for just $5.99.
Details... ➚
Mount Emei, Sichuan. June 2007.
Image by pookieevans ➚ 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 hovering the mouse over the character will pop up a box showing further information about it.
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.