March Quiz

The Wenchang space center on Hainan island has become the launch location for most of China's space rockets. This is due its location in southernmost China - it is much easier to get satellites into orbit from near the equator and the huge component parts can be transported far easier by sea rather than overland.

The inner ring has twelve columns one for each complete lunar month of the year.

Mazu or Ma-tsu is the principal goddess of the sea along China's coasts. There were many shrines to her where seaman would make offerings to secure a safe journey.

Zhou aged 19 stayed in for Japan two years, but he failed to get a place at a Japanese university and so returned to China. Japan was at that time home to many revolutionaries and reformists.

In dynastic China the country was named after the ruling dynasty : 大清国 Dà Qīng guó in Chinese.

In 1641 the Yellow Hat sect beat the Red Hat sect to become the leading religious group and installed the first Dalai Lama.

Lapsang Souchong is a tea from the Wuyi mountains, Fujian. It is dried by smoking over a pinewood fire giving it a distinctive flavor.

Mainly to prove he was still physically fit, Mao Zedong, then aged 72, swam in the Yangzi river near Wuhan. He actually did not cross the river - which would have been quite a feat for anyone. It marked the start of his coming back to power to launch the Cultural Revolution.

Sun studied some medicine at the Guangzhou Boji Hospital but his main place of study was at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese which went on to become part of the The University of Hong Kong. He studied with James Cantlie with whom he had a long friendship. From his class of 12 students, Sun was one of only two who graduated as doctors.

Petuntse is formed when granite has been subject to heavy weathering and consists of mica and feldspar. The name comes from the Chinese 白墩子 bái dūn zi literally ‘small white bricks’ which is the form in which it was delivered to porcelain factories. It forms the solid framework for porcelain without it china clay is too soft.

The official language at the Imperial court of Beijing became the spoken language of all the officials (mandarins) and so became the standard dialect taught to Chinese people.

Jiang was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province and studied at Shanghai University and then rose to be mayor of Shanghai. Born in 1926 he is the elder statesman of China.

The phrase was intended to instill unquestioning loyalty. An edict may require the recipient to immediately commit suicide.

Completed in 2018 at a cost of $18.8 billion, this bridge connects Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau is both the longest sea bridge and the longest open-sea fixed link in the world.

It is polite to stand up to greet the new guest.