China Picture quiz 1

The Russian influence in the province of Heilongjiang is quite pronounced reflecting years of Russian domination in the early 20th century. The "onion" domes of the Cathedral of Saint-Sophia, Harbin is a striking example.

The world famous Shaolin monastery (literally ‘Small Forest Temple’) is close to Songshan in Henan; it was immortalized by the ‘Kung Fu’ series of the 1970s. It is a Zen Buddhist temple and dates back to the Wei dynasty.

Erhu is a two stringed violin with the bow string between the two strings. 二胡 èr hú means literally 'two' 'fiddle'. There is a less common instrument with four strings 'sihu'.

The Dragon boat festival falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese calendar. This varies in date on the Gregorian calendar but normally falls in June but in some years it can be in late May.

This form of stupa which often contains sacred Buddhist relics is common in Tibet, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia.

The Potala palace in Lhasa is the winter palace of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

The Sun Yatsen memorial hall is in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province; the province where he was born.

Chinese chess 象棋 xiàng qí is played with discs on which characters are inscribed so can look like chequers from a distance.

The view is from “The Peak” on Hong Kong island looking over Victoria to Kowloon.

Laozi the founder of Daoism is typically depicted as an old man with a long flowing beard.

Yellow roof tiles can only be used for Imperial buildings as yellow was the dynastic color of the Qing dynasty. As three is a potent yang number the square of 3, nine, is an even more potent yang number. It was associated with the Emperor and many things in the Forbidden City are in nines.

The yurt is made from layers of felt draped over a wooden framework. It can be very quickly moved to another location as the herdsmen follow their flocks.

It is the caterpillar of the silkworm moth that spins a silk cocoon. It is usually fed on white mulberry leaves.

Hainan island is famous as a semi-tropical beach resort.

The style of the stone ornamentation of the Old Summer Palace shows that it was designed by European architects (mainly Jesuits) working for the Qing Emperors.

The famous White Dagoba stands in Beihai Park and was built in the Mongol dynasty.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests within the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan) complex, Beijing.

Every province has its own internal hall within the ‘Great Hall of the People’. It lies on the west side of Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

It is the Great Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi’an that was built to house the Buddhist scriptures brought back to China by Xuanzang.

The old part of Macau has a number of buildings of colonial Portuguese design including the church of Sao Lourenco.