China Thread

Couldnt resist seeing all the other threads so I thought Id throw my $0.02 in. China is a really kickass country. It has mythic landscapes, good food and really cool people. Their language is also unique, and the characters are amazing creations if you ever study them in depth. I was lucky to study there for a month in 2001 and I will return this August to teach English for a year.

Here are some interesting facts:

They are the oldest (known) continuous population/culture, with a
recorded history of over 5000 years (more than 10 times longer than
America!).

China and America are nearly equal in land area, however China feeds a population that is 4 times larger.

The people are crammed into a 1/3 of their country, as another 1/3 is Tibet and the other 1/3 is the Gobi desert (both relatively unihabited).

China has only 13% arable land, wheras America has 20%.

China's arable land happens to be where all the people live, whereas America's breadbasket (the midwest) is the most sparsly populated portion of our country (as opposed to the west, south, northeast, etc)

If you are Chinese, you share your birthday with more than 3,000,000 countrymen (Thats a lot of cake!)

Chinese inventors brought us paper (and paper currency), printing, compasses, gunpowder, hot-air ballons, wheelbarrows, umbrellas, silk harvesting, porcelin, brandy and whiskey (we are forever in your debt, O China), chess, decimal mathmatics, and lots of other goodies.

While China has persecuted Tibet and (illegally) annexed it, the people themselves are truly a joy to be around. They are cheerful, hardworking (I saw men carry 100 lb bags up and down a mountain for less than $10 a day), and have an excellent outlook on life. And nothing is more endearing than the face of a Chinese elder. I crack up just thinking about their wrinkled, toothless grins. Anyhoo, the next time you eating with chopsticks out of your porcelin bowl and drinking your whiskey, give a cheers to The Middle Kingdom.