1.
Shunfengshan Park
–
Shunfengshan Park, located at the foot of Taiping Mountain in Shunde District, Foshan City, is one of the Ten Attractions of Shunde. It was built between 1999 and 2002, and was opened to public on October 24,2004, the paifang inside is the symbol of the park. Its called Chinas No.1 Paifang because of its massive size, the paifang is 37.6 meters high and 88 meters wide, decorated with engravings of dragons, lions, birds and gods
2.
Shunde District
–
Shunde District is a district in the city of Foshan in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Province, China. Once a traditional agricultural county, it has one of the most affluent counties in Guangdong. Since 2009, it is administrated independently of Foshan city, answerable directly to the Guangdong provincial government, Shunde was a county-level city until 8 December 2002, when it became a district of Foshan prefecture-level city. It is independent of Foshan city and has been answerable directly to the Guangdong Provincial government since 2009, since the implementation of policies related to reform and openness began in 1978, the people of this area were given full control over their geographical position and culture. This has allowed Shunde, once an agricultural county, to gradually develop into a modern industrial boomtown. Shunde was approved as a city for the comprehensive reform of Guangdong in 1993. From 2000 to 2003, Shunde was ranked first among Chinas top 100 counties for Basic Economic Competitiveness for four consecutive years, in 2005, Shundes GDP was 2,170 billion yuan. Situated in the fertile Pearl River Delta, the its economy was dominated by agriculture, fisheries. Since the Chinese economic reform, this has been superseded by industrial manufacturing and development, especially the manufacturing of furniture, some mainland Chinese product brands like Kelon or Midea are made in Shunde. Recently a new industrial park has also been opened in this area. Galanz, a maker, has its headquarters in Shunde District. Today, this area has one of the most affluent counties in Guangdong. The GDP reached 127.5 billion yuan in 2007, an increase of 18%. Tourist attractions include the Qinghui Garden, which features fish ponds surrounded by osmanthus, bamboo and mulberry bushes, shunfengshan Park was opened to the public in 2004 and has a memorial archway which is 88 metres wide and 38 metres high. Baolin Temple is accessible through the park, travelling from Shunde is easy with many different options. There are ferries and buses that go directly to Hong Kong, including an option to Hong Kong International Airport, bus tickets can be purchased at the New World Centre Hotel. Macau is easily accessible by train, taking less than an hour, guangzhou is accessible by train, taxi or bus. Martial artist Bruce Lees ancestral roots are traced to Gwanon in Seundak, a street in the village is named after the actor, and his ancestral home is open to the public
3.
Foshan
–
Foshan, formerly romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province in southeastern China. The entire prefecture covers 3,848.49 km2 and has a population around 7.2 million. It forms part of the side of the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone. Foshan is regarded as the home of the Cantonese forms of Chinese opera, kung fu, lion dancing, fóshān is the pinyin romanization of the citys Chinese name 佛山, based on its Mandarin pronunciation. The Postal Map spelling Fatshan derives from the same names local Cantonese pronunciation, other romanizations include Fat-shan and Fat-shun. The town grew up around a monastery founded nearby that was destroyed in 1391, the towns nicknames include the Hometown of Cantonese Opera, of Lingnan Kung Fu, of Lingnan Lion Dancing, and of Lingnan Dragon Boat Racing. Foshan remained a settlement on the Fen River for most of Chinas history. It grew up around a Tang-era Buddhist monastery that was destroyed in 1391, the Foshan Ancestral Temple, a Taoist temple to the Northern God that was rebuilt in 1372, became the new focus of the community by the 15th century. By the early Ming, Foshan had grown one of the four great markets in China, primarily on the strength of its local ceramics. Under the Qing, its harbor on the Fen River was limited to ships of a thousand tons burden, by the 19th century, it was considered the Birmingham of China, with its steel industry responsible for the consumption of the majority of the provinces iron production. It was connected to Guangzhou and Sanshui by rail in the early 20th century, the Ancestral Temple was converted into the Foshan Municipal Museum upon the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Foshan remained primarily focused on ceramic and steel production until the 1950s, on 26 June 1951 it left Nanhai County to become a separate county-level city and, in 1954, it was made the seat of the prefectural government. In 1983, Foshan was promoted to a city with its former core becoming the new Chancheng District. On 8 December 2002, Shunde and Nanhai joined its urban core as a full district, Shunde has gone on to obtain an unusual autonomous status in 2009, placing its oversight in the hands of the provincial government rather than the prefectural one. Foshan lies on the Fen River in the making up the west side of the Pearl River Delta. Guangzhou lies 25 kilometers to the northeast, Zhongshan to the southeast, Jiangmen to the south, Qingyuan to the west, Foshan experiences a humid subtropical climate. The prefecture-level city of Foshan administers five county-level divisions, all of which are districts, the five districts are, Chancheng, Nanhai, Sanshui, Gaoming and Shunde. These are further divided into 64 township-level divisions, including 37 towns and 27 subdistricts, Foshan is close to Guangzhou and considers its link with Guangzhou very important
4.
Chinese language
–
Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
5.
Standard Chinese
–
Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
6.
Pinyin
–
Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
7.
Bopomofo
–
Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect. The first two are traditional terms, whereas Bopomofo is the term, also used by the ISO. Consisting of 37 characters and four marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system, the Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, and at the International Organization for Standardization in 1982. The informal name Bopomofo is derived from the first four syllables in the ordering of available syllables in Mandarin Chinese. The four Bopomofo characters that correspond to these syllables are placed first in a list of these characters. The same sequence is used by other speakers of Chinese to refer to other phonetic systems. The original formal name of the system was Guóyīn Zìmǔ and Zhùyīn Zìmǔ and it was later renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào, meaning phonetic symbols. In official documents, Zhuyin is occasionally called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I, in English translations, the system is often also called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols. A romanized phonetic system was released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu, which was based on Zhang Binglins shorthand. A draft was released on July 11,1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education and it was later renamed first Guoyin Zimu and then, in April 1930, Zhuyin Fuhao. The last renaming addressed fears that the system might independently replace Chinese characters. Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones, in elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Zhuyin as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News. In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some communities use Zhuyin as a learning tool. The Zhuyin characters were created by Zhang Binglin, and taken mainly from regularised forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. It is to be noted that the first consonants are articulated from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, Zhuyin is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters
8.
Wu Chinese
–
Wu is a group of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of Chinese primarily spoken in the whole city of Shanghai, Zhejiang province, southern Jiangsu province and bordering areas. Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, Wenzhou/Oujiang, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Wu speakers, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei, occupied positions of great importance in modern Chinese culture and politics. Wu can also be found being used in Shaoxing opera, which is only in national popularity to Peking opera, as well as in the performances of the popular entertainer. Wu is also spoken in a number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai, Qingtian. Suzhou has traditionally been the center of Wu and was likely the first place the distinct variety of Sinitic known as Wu developed. Suzhou dialect is considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family. Due to the influence of Shanghainese, Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as simply, Shanghainese, among speakers of other Sinitic languages, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is an idiom in Mandarin that specifically describes these qualities of Wu speech, Ngu nung nioe ngiu, Wu varieties have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Jinhui dialect spoken in Shanghais Fengxian District has 20 vowel qualities, Wu Chinese, along with Min, is also of great significance to historical linguists due to their retention of many ancient features. These two languages have proven pivotal in determining the history of the Chinese languages. More pressing concerns of the present are those of language preservation, however, many analysts believe that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely. Saying one speaks Wu is akin to saying one speaks a Romance language and it is not a particularly defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch. They do this by affixing 話 Wo to their locations endonym, for example, 溫州話 Wēnzhōuhuà is used for Wenzhounese. Affixing 閒話 xiánhuà is also common and more typical of the Taihu division, Wu, the formal name and standard reference in dialectology literature. Northern Wu, Wu typically spoken in the north of Zhejiang and it by default includes the Xuanzhou division in Anhui as well, however this division is often neglected in Northern Wu discussions. Southern Wu, Wu spoken in southern Zhejiang and periphery, comprising the Oujiang, Wuzhou, Western Wu, A term gaining in usage as a synonym for the Xuanzhou division and modeled after the previous two terms since the Xuanzhou division is less representative of Northern Wu. Shanghainese, is also a common name, used because Shanghai is the most well-known city in the Wu-speaking region. The term Shanghainese is never used by linguists to refer to anything
9.
Hakka Chinese
–
Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Southern Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintellegible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is classified as a variety of Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features, Taiwan, where Hakka is the native language of a significant minority of the islands residents, is a center for the study and preservation of the language. Pronunciation differences exist between the Taiwanese Hakka dialects and Mainland Chinas Hakka dialects, even in Taiwan, two local varieties of Hakka exist. The Meixian dialect of northeast Guangdong in China has been taken as the dialect by the Peoples Republic of China. The Guangdong Provincial Education Department created a romanization of Moiyen in 1960. The name of the Hakka people who are the predominant original native speakers of the variety literally means guest families or guest people, Hak 客 means guest, and ka 家 means family. Among themselves, Hakka people variously called their language Hak-ka-fa 客家話, Hak-fa, 客話, Tu-gong-dung-fa 土廣東話, literally Native Guangdong language, and Ngai-fa 我話, My/our language. The forebears of the Hakka came from present-day Central Plains provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, the presence of many archaic features occur in modern Hakka, including final consonants -p -t -k, as are found in other modern southern Chinese varieties, but which have been lost in Mandarin. Due to the migration of its speakers, Hakka may have influenced by other language areas through which the Hakka-speaking forebears migrated. For instance, common vocabulary is found in Hakka, Min, in recent times, many She people have become Hakka speakers. A regular pattern of change can generally be detected in Hakka, as in most Chinese varieties. Some examples, Characters such as 武 or 屋, are pronounced roughly mwio and uk in Early Middle Chinese, have an initial v phoneme in Hakka, being vu and vuk in Hakka respectively. Like in Mandarin, labiodentalisation process also changed mj- to a sound in Hakka before grave vowels. Middle Chinese initial phonemes /ɲ/ of the characters 人 and 日, among others, for comparison, in Mandarin, /ɲ/ became r-, while in Cantonese, it merged with initial /j/. The initial consonant phoneme exhibited by the character 話 is pronounced f or v in Hakka, the initial consonant of 學 hɔk usually corresponds with an h approximant in Hakka and a voiceless alveo-palatal fricative in Mandarin. Hakka has as many regional dialects as there are counties with Hakka speakers as the majority, some of these Hakka dialects are not mutually intelligible with each other. Surrounding Meixian are the counties of Pingyuan, Dabu, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua, each is said to have its own special phonological points of interest
10.
Cantonese
–
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
11.
Jyutping
–
Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
12.
Southern Min
–
Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
13.
Hokkien
–
Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
14.
Simplified Chinese characters
–
Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
15.
Traditional Chinese characters
–
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
16.
Shanghai
–
Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
17.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
18.
Chinese architecture
–
Chinese architecture is a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details. Since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a influence on the architectural styles of Korea, Vietnam. The architecture of China is as old as Chinese civilization, throughout the 20th Century, Western-trained Chinese architects have attempted to combine traditional Chinese designs into modern architecture, with only limited success. A very important feature in Chinese architecture is its emphasis on articulation and bilateral symmetry, bilateral symmetry and the articulation of buildings are found everywhere in Chinese architecture, from palace complexes to humble farmhouses. When possible, plans for renovation and extension of a house will often try to maintain this symmetry provided that there is enough capital to do so, secondary elements are positioned either side of main structures as two wings to maintain overall bilateral symmetry. The buildings are planned to contain an even number of columns in a structure to produce an odd number of bays. With the inclusion of a door to a building in the center bay. In contrast to the buildings, Chinese gardens are an exception which tend to be asymmetrical. The principle underlying the composition is to create enduring flow. In much of traditional Chinese architecture, buildings or building complexes take up an entire property and these enclosed spaces come in two forms, the, Courtyard, The use of open courtyards is a common feature in many types of Chinese architectures. This is best exemplified in the Siheyuan, which has consisted of an empty space surrounded by buildings connected with one another either directly or through verandas. This structure is essentially an enclosed courtyard formed from the intersections of closely spaced buildings. These enclosures serve in temperature regulation and in venting the building complexes, northern courtyards are typically open and facing the south to allow the maximum exposure of the building windows and walls to the sun while keeping the cold northern winds out. Southern sky wells are relatively small and serves to collect water from the roof tops. They perform the duties as the Roman impluvium while restricting the amount of sunlight that enters the building. Sky wells also serve as vents for rising hot air, which cool air from the lower stories of the house. The projected hierarchy and importance and uses of buildings in traditional Chinese architecture are based on the placement of buildings in a property/complex
19.
Arch
–
An arch is a curved structure that spans a space and may or may not support weight above it. Arch may be synonymous with vault, but a vault may be distinguished as a continuous arch forming a roof, an arch is a pure compression form. It can span an area by resolving forces into compressive stresses and. This is sometimes referred to as arch action, as the forces in the arch are carried to the ground, the arch will push outward at the base, called thrust. As the rise, or height of the arch decreases, the outward thrust increases, in order to maintain arch action and prevent the arch from collapsing, the thrust needs to be restrained, either with internal ties or external bracing, such as abutments. The most common true arch configurations are the arch, the two-hinged arch. The fixed arch is most often used in reinforced concrete bridge and tunnel construction, because it is subject to additional internal stress caused by thermal expansion and contraction, this type of arch is considered to be statically indeterminate. The two-hinged arch is most often used to long spans. This type of arch has pinned connections at the base, unlike the fixed arch, the pinned base is able to rotate, allowing the structure to move freely and compensate for the thermal expansion and contraction caused by changes in outdoor temperature. However, this can result in additional stresses, so the two-hinged arch is also statically indeterminate, the three-hinged arch is not only hinged at its base, like the two-hinged arch, but at the mid-span as well. The additional connection at the mid-span allows the arch to move in two opposite directions and compensate for any expansion and contraction. This type of arch is not subject to additional stress caused by thermal change. The three-hinged arch is said to be statically determinate. It is most often used for structures, such as large building roofs. Another advantage of the arch is that the pinned bases are more easily developed than fixed ones, allowing for shallow. Arches have many forms, but all fall into three categories, circular, pointed, and parabolic. Arches can also be configured to produce vaults and arcades, Arches with a circular form, also referred to as rounded arches, were commonly employed by the builders of ancient, heavy masonry arches. Ancient Roman builders relied heavily on the arch to span large
20.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
21.
Torana
–
For the Australian car, see Holden Torana. A toran or torana is a type of gateway seen in the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architecture of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and East Asia. Toranas are associated with Buddhist stupas like the Great Stupa in Sanchi, as well as with Jain and Hindu structures, symbolic toranas can also be made of flowers and even leaves and hung over the doors and at entrances, particularly in Western and Southern India. They are believed to bring fortune and signify auspicious and festive occasions. They can also serve didactic and narrative purposes or be erected to mark the victory of a king, during Vesak festival of Sri Lanka it is a tradition to erect electrically illuminated colorful Vesak toranas in public places. These decorations are temporary installations which remain in public display for couple of starting from the day of Vesak. Toranas are also referred to as vandanamalikas, there are many different types of toranas - dvara-toranas, patra-toranas, ratne-toranas and so on. These are mentioned in medieval Indian architectural treatises, the earliest archaeological evidence of Torana dates back to Sanchi stupa built by Mauryan Empire in 3rd century BCE. The Sanchi torana and architecture is imitation of timber and brick construction in stone, both Chinese paifang gateways and Japanese torii gateways have been derived from the Indian torana. The Korean gateway is also related to the Japanese torii, a great deal of cultural exchange between these countries took place in ancient times, so that many Indian, Thai, Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultural practices are related. For example, Benzaiten is a Japanese name for the Hindu goddess Saraswati, and the ancient Siddhaṃ script, in Kalinga architecture we can see the Toran in many temples built from the 7th to 12th centuries. Jagannath Temple, Puri, Rajarani Temple and Mukteswar Temple are the few example of Kalinga architecture having torana, Toran Torii Paifang Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, Vol 4, part 3, p137-138. Ram Nath, Studies in Medieval Indian Architecture, M. D. Publications Pvt. Ltd.172 pages. ISBN 81-85880-56-5 Nick Edwards, Mike Ford, Devdan Sen, Beth Wooldridge, David Abram, The Rough Guide to India
22.
Hutong
–
Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods, since the mid-20th century, a large number of Beijing hutongs were demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, many hutongs have been designated as protected, in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history, during Chinas dynastic period, emperors planned the city of Beijing and arranged the residential areas according to the social classes of the Zhou Dynasty. The term hutong appeared first during the Yuan Dynasty, and is a term of Mongolian origin meaning water well, in the Ming Dynasty the center was the Forbidden City, surrounded in concentric circles by the Inner City and Outer City. Citizens of higher status were permitted to live closer to the center of the circles. Aristocrats lived to the east and west of the imperial palace, the large siheyuan of these high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants often featured beautifully carved and painted roof beams and pillars and carefully landscaped gardens. The hutongs they formed were orderly, lined by spacious homes, farther from the palace, and to its north and south, were the commoners, merchants, artisans, and laborers. Their siheyuan were far smaller in scale and simpler in design and decoration, nearly all siheyuan had their main buildings and gates facing south for better lighting, thus a majority of hutongs run from east to west. Between the main hutongs, many tiny lanes ran north and south for convenient passage, each fang was enclosed by walls or fences, and the gates of these enclosures were shut and guarded every night, somewhat like a modern gated community. Each fang was further divided into several plate or pai, which is equivalent to a current day community, each pai, in turn, contained an area including several hutongs, and during the Ming Dynasty, Beijing was divided into a total of 36 fangs. At the turn of the 20th century, the Qing court was disintegrating as Chinas dynastic era came to an end, the traditional arrangement of hutongs was also affected. Many new hutongs, built haphazardly and with no apparent plan, began to appear on the outskirts of the old city, the social stratification of the residents also began to evaporate, reflecting the collapse of the feudal system. Many such hutong-like areas have been demolished, during the period of the Republic of China from 1911 to 1948, society was unstable, fraught with civil wars and repeated foreign invasions. Beijing deteriorated, and the conditions of the hutongs worsened, siheyuans previously owned and occupied by single families were subdivided and shared by many households, with additions tacked on as needed, built with whatever materials were available. The 978 hutongs listed in Qing Dynasty records swelled to 1,330 by 1949, today, in some hutongs, such as those in Da Shi Lan, the conditions remain poor. Following the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, many of the old hutongs of Beijing disappeared, replaced by wide boulevards, many residents left the lanes where their families lived for generations for apartment buildings with modern amenities. In Xicheng District, for example, nearly 200 hutongs out of the 820 it held in 1949 have disappeared, however, many of Beijings ancient hutongs still stand, and a number of them have been designated protected areas
23.
Tang dynasty
–
The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
24.
Ming dynasty
–
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
25.
Beijing
–
Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
26.
Song dynasty
–
The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
27.
Yingzao Fashi
–
The Yingzao Fashi is a technical treatise on architecture and craftsmanship written by the Chinese author Li Jie, the Directorate of Buildings and Construction during the mid Song Dynasty of China. A promising architect, he revised many older treatises on architecture from 1097 to 1100, by 1100, he had completed his own architectural work, which he presented to Emperor Zhezong of Song. With his book becoming a success, Li Jie was promoted by Huizong as the Director of Palace Buildings. In 1145, an edition of Lis book was published by Wang Huan. Between 1222-1233, a third printing was published and this edition, published in Pingjiang, was later handcopied into the Yongle Encyclopedia and Siku Quanshu. In addition, a number of handcopied editions were made for private libraries, one of these handcopies of the Pingjiang edition was rediscovered in 1919 and printed as facsimile in 1920. Some of Lis book used material from preexisting architectural writings, but most of it is documentation of the traditions of craftsmen. Lis book provides a glossary of terms that includes mathematical formulae. He incorporated topography in his estimations for buildings on various types of sites and he also estimated the monetary costs of hiring laborers of different skill levels and types of expertise in crafts. His estimates take a work as their basis and include the materials needed. Lis work incorporates building rules and regulations, accounting information, standards for used in construction. The 34 chapters in the book specify in detail the units of measurement, the construction of moats and fortifications, included are the mixing proportions for mortars in masonry, brickwork and glazed tile. The book provides hand-drawn illustrations of all the practices and standards and he outlined structural carpentry in great detail, providing standard dimensional measurements for all the components. For instance, Li developed a standard 8-rank grading system for different sizes of timber elements, the system was known as the cai-fen system of units and could be universally applied to buildings. Although others were written and compiled beforehand, Lis book is the oldest existing technical manual on Chinese architecture to have survived intact, Yingzao Fashi Architecture of the Song Dynasty Technology of the Song Dynasty De architectura Bracket Sets in the Yingzao Fashi
28.
Chinese calligraphy
–
Chinese calligraphy is a form of calligraphy widely practiced in China and revered in the Chinese cultural sphere, which often includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. There is a standardization of the various styles of calligraphy in this tradition. Chinese calligraphy and ink and wash painting are closely related, since they are accomplished using similar tools, Chinese painting and calligraphy distinguish themselves from other cultural arts because they emphasize motion and are charged with dynamic life. According to Stanley-Baker, Calligraphy is sheer life experienced through energy in motion that is registered as traces on silk or paper, with time, Calligraphy has also led to the development of many forms of art in China, including seal carving, ornate paperweights, and inkstones. In China, calligraphy is referred to as Shūfǎ, literally, the way/method/law of writing, Shodō in Japan, Chinese calligraphy is normally regarded as one of the arts in the countries where it is practised. Chinese calligraphy focuses not only on methods of writing but also on cultivating ones character, Calligraphy is also considered an art where works are appreciated more or only for their aesthetic qualities. Chinese characters can be retraced to 4000 BC signs, in 2003, at the site of Xiaoshuangqiao, about 20 km southeast of the ancient Zhengzhou Shang City, ceramic inscriptions dating to 1435–1412 BC have been found by archaeologists. These writings are made in cinnabar paint, thus, the dates of writing in China have been confirmed for the Middle Shang period. The ceramic ritual vessel vats that bear these cinnabar inscriptions were all unearthed within the area of this site. They were unearthed mostly in the sacrificial pits holding cow skulls and cow horns, the inscriptions are written on the exterior and interior of the rim, and the exterior of the belly of the large type of vats. The characters are mostly written singly, character compounds or sentences are rarely seen, the contemporary Chinese characters set principles were clearly visible in ancient Chinas Jiǎgǔwén characters carved on ox scapulas and tortoise plastrons around 14th - 11th century BCE. Brush-written examples decay over time and have not survived, during the divination ceremony, after the cracks were made, characters were written with a brush on the shell or bone to be later carved. With the development of Jīnwén and Dàzhuàn cursive signs continued, moreover, each archaic kingdom of current China had its own set of characters. In Imperial China, the graphs on old steles — some dating from 200 BC, despite the fact that the main writing implement of the time was already the brush, little paper survives from this period, and the main examples of this style are on steles. The Lìshū style which is more regularized, and in ways similar to modern text, were also authorised under Qin Shi Huang. Kǎishū style — still in use today — and attributed to Wang Xizhi and its spread was encouraged by Emperor Mingzong of Later Tang, who ordered the printing of the classics using new wooden blocks in Kaishu. Printing technologies here allowed shapes to stabilize, the Kaishu shape of characters 1000 years ago was mostly similar to that at the end of Imperial China. But small changes have made, for example in the shape of 广 which is not absolutely the same in the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 as in modern books
29.
Stonemasonry
–
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since humanity could use and make tools - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, quarrymen split veins, or sheets of rock, and extract the resulting blocks of stone from the ground. Sawyers cut these rough blocks into cuboids, to required size with diamond-tipped saws, the resulting block if ordered for a specific component is known as sawn six sides. Banker masons are workshop-based, and specialize in working the stones into the shapes required by a design, this set out on templets. They can produce anything from stones with simple chamfers to tracery windows, detailed mouldings and the more classical architectural building masonry. When working a stone from a block, the mason ensures that the stone is bedded in the right way. Occasionally though some stones need to be orientated correctly for the application, the basic tools, methods and skills of the banker mason have existed as a trade for thousands of years. Carvers cross the line from craft to art, and use their ability to carve stone into foliage, figures. Fixer masons specialize in the fixing of stones onto buildings, using lifting tackle, sometimes modern cements, mastics and epoxy resins are used, usually on specialist applications such as stone cladding. Metal fixings, from simple dowels and cramps to specialised single application fixings, are also used, the precise tolerances necessary make this a highly skilled job. Memorial masons or monumental masons carve gravestones and inscriptions, the modern stonemason undergoes comprehensive training, both in the classroom and in the working environment. Hands-on skill is complemented by intimate knowledge of each type, its application and best uses. The mason may be skilled and competent to carry out one or all of the branches of stonemasonry. In some areas the trend is towards specialization, in other areas towards adaptability, stonemasons use all types of natural stone, igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary, while some also use artificial stone as well. Igneous stones, Granite is one of the hardest stones, with great persistence, simple mouldings can and have been carved into granite, for example in many Cornish churches and the city of Aberdeen. Generally, however, it is used for purposes that require its strength and durability, such as kerbstones, countertops, flooring, igneous stone ranges from very soft rocks such as pumice and scoria to somewhat harder rocks such as tuff and hard rocks such as granite and basalt. Metamorphic, Marble is a fine stone easily workable, that comes in various colours and it has traditionally been used for carving statues, and for facing many Byzantine and Renaissance Italian buildings. Their work was preceded by older sculptors from Mesopotamia and Egypt, the famous Acropolis of Athens is said to be constructed using the Pentelicon marble
30.
Chinatown
–
A Chinatown is historically any ethnic enclave, of Chinese or Han people outside of Mainland China or Taiwan, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as Chinatown exist throughout the world, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australasia, a Chinatown, as a Chinese enclave, is defined as. Any small, distinct area or group enclosed or isolated within a larger group, the development of most Chinatowns typically start with mass migration to an area having zero or very few Chinese. The Oxford Dictionary defines Chinatown as, a district of any non-Chinese town, especially a city or seaport, in which the population is predominantly of Chinese origin. However, some Chinatowns may have little to do with China, some Vietnamese enclaves are in fact a citys second Chinatown, and some Chinatowns are in fact pan-Asian, meaning they could also be counted as a Koreatown or Little India. One example includes Asiatown in Cleveland, Ohio and it was initially referred to as a Chinatown but was subsequently renamed due to the influx of non-Chinese Asian Americans who opened businesses there. Today the district acts as a factor for the Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Nepalese. As isolated from the population as Hispanics. This contrasts with narrower definitions, where the only described Chinatown in a city setting. In some cities in Spain, the term denotes an area, neighborhood or district where prostitution or other related to the sex industry are concentrated. Some examples of this are the Chinatown of Salamanca and the Chinatown of Barcelona, trading centres populated predominantly by Chinese men and their native spouses have long existed throughout Southeast Asia. Emigration to other parts of the world from China accelerated in the 1860s with the signing of the Treaty of Peking, early emigrants came primarily from the coastal provinces of Guangdong and Fujian in southeastern China – where the people generally speak Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew and Hokkien. As conditions in China have improved in recent decades, many Chinatowns have lost their initial mission, as net migration slows, the smaller Chinatowns have slowly decayed, often to the point of becoming purely historical and no longer serving as ethnic enclaves. Binondos Chinatown located in Manila, Philippines is the oldest Chinatown in the world, several Asian Chinatowns, although not yet called by that name, have a long history. Those in Nagasaki, Japan, Binondo in Manila, Hoi An, glodok, the Chinese quarter of Jakarta, Indonesia, dates to 1740. Chinese presence in India dates back to the 5th century AD, a Chinatown first appeared in the Indian city of Calcutta and subsequently in Mumbai and Chennai. The first Chinese settler in Calcutta was Young Atchew around 1780, the Chinatown centered on Yaowarat Road in Bangkok, Thailand, was founded at the same time as the city itself, in 1782. Many Chinese immigrants arrived in Liverpool in the late 1850s in the employ of the Blue Funnel Shipping Line, the commercial shipping line created strong trade links between the cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Liverpool, mainly in the importation of silk, cotton and tea
31.
Chinatown (Washington, D.C.)
–
It is known for its annual Chinese New Year festival and parade and the Friendship Arch, a Chinese gate built over H Street at 7th Street. Other nearby prominent landmarks include the Verizon Center, a sports and entertainment arena, and the Old Patent Office Building, the neighborhood is served by the Gallery Place-Chinatown station of the Washington Metro. The Chinatown area was home to many Chinese immigrants. The newcomers marked it with decorative metal latticework and railings as well as Chinese signage, at its peak, Chinatown extended from G Street north to Massachusetts Avenue, and from 9th Street east to 5th Street. The colorful, US$1 million work of art includes seven roofs up to 60 feet high,7000 tiles. Erected to celebrate friendship with Washingtons sister city of Beijing, it was hoped the arch would reinforce the neighborhoods Chinese character, according to the plaque next to the arch, it is the largest such single-span archway in the world. In 1993, the Friendship Archway underwent a renovation funded by D. C. Artisans from China performed extensive repairs on the archway and repainted its decorations, in 1986, the Metro station was given its present name, Gallery Place-Chinatown. The city constructed the Wah Luck House apartments at 6th and H Streets, NW, designed by architect Alfred Liu, the apartment building introduced modern Chinese design motifs due to the red-paneled balconies. The MCI Center was completed in 1997, after the construction of the Verizon Center, AsianWeek said in 2000 that the neighborhood barely remains. Chinatown had fallen into disrepair after the 1968 riots, ethnic Chinese residents, as well as many others, left for suburban areas in Maryland and Virginia. In 2010, the tract that contains Chinatown has around 3,000 residents. Chinatown is only 21% Asian, compared to 1990, when it had a majority Chinese American population, in 1990, its population was 66% Asian and 20% African American. Approximately half of Chinatowns residents live in the Wah Luck House, the closest Chinese supermarket, the Great Wall Supermarket, is fourteen miles west in Falls Church, Virginia. North Potomac, Maryland is 18. 4% Chinese American, the highest of any community within the Washington metropolitan area, the Maryland city of Rockville also has a significant population of residents of Chinese descent, at eight percent. In Virginia, sizable Chinese American communities are located in Centreville, Chantilly, within a short time, a significant mixed-use office-residential-retail development on the southeast corner of 7th and H streets commenced construction. Chinatown has become home to many technology companies, such as Blackboard, Blue State Digital, LivingSocial. It is also the location of the Washington branch of the Goethe-Institut, Chinatowns most prominent businesses are the approximately 20 Chinese and Asian restaurants, almost all of which are owned by Asian American families
32.
History of China
–
Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC under the Shang dynasty. Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty, with thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the worlds oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy developed during the Zhou dynasty. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history, between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China, in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang united the warring kingdoms and created for himself the title of emperor of the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly, in the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite, the Scholar-officials. Young men were selected through difficult examinations and were well-versed in calligraphy and philosophy. What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago, recent study shows that the stone tools found at Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago. The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus, the excavations at Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of Homo erectus found in China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1923–27, fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125, 000–80,000 BC have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County in Hunan. The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC, Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC. The earliest evidence of cultivated rice, found by the Yangtze River, is carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago, farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia,3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC, some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols were the earliest Chinese writing system. With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Bronze artifacts have been found at the Majiayao culture site, The Bronze Age is also represented at the Lower Xiajiadian culture site in northeast China. Sanxingdui located in what is now Sichuan province is believed to be the site of a ancient city. The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986, Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings
33.
Widow
–
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man in that situation. The state of having lost ones spouse to death is termed widowhood and these terms are not applied to a person after he or she becomes divorced from their former spouse. The term widowhood can be used for sex, at least according to some dictionaries. Occasionally, the word viduity is used, the adjective form for either sex is widowed. When the death of a spouse occurs, it is said that an effect is to arise. This is a phenomenon that refers to the mortality rate after the death of a spouse. It is “strongest during the first three months after a death, when they had a 66-percent increased chance of dying”. Most widows and widowers suffer from this effect during the first 3 months of their spouses death, in societies where the husband is the sole provider, his death can leave his family destitute. The tendency for women generally to outlive men can compound this, in some patriarchal societies, widows may maintain economic independence. A woman would carry on her spouses business and be accorded certain rights, more recently, widows of political figures have been among the first women elected to high office in many countries, such as Corazón Aquino or Isabel Martínez de Perón. In 19th-century Britain, widows had greater opportunity for social mobility than in other societies. Along with the ability to ascend socio-economically, widows—who were presumably celibate—were much more able to challenge conventional sexual behaviour than married women in their society. Many immigrants from these cultures to the United States as recently as the 1970s have loosened this strict standard of dress to only two years of black garments. However, Orthodox Christian immigrants may wear black in the United States to signify their widowhood. In other cultures, however, widowhood is much stricter and unarguably more demeaning to womens rights, often, women are required to remarry within the family of their late husband after a period of mourning. As of 2004, women in United States who were widowed at younger ages are at greatest risk for economic hardship, similarly, married women who are in a financially unstable household are more likely to become widows because of the strong relationship between mortality and wealth. In underdeveloped and developing areas of the world, conditions for widows continue to be more severe. A variable that is deemed important and relative to the effects of widowhood is the gender of the widow
34.
Death
–
Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death, other concerns include fear of death, necrophobia, anxiety, sorrow, grief, emotional pain, depression, sympathy, compassion, solitude, or saudade. The potential for an afterlife is of concern for some humans, the word death comes from Old English deað, which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *dauthuz. This comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem *dheu- meaning the Process, act, when a person has died, it is also said they have passed away, passed on, expired, or are gone, among numerous other socially accepted, religiously specific, slang, and irreverent terms. Bereft of life, the person is then a corpse, cadaver, a body, a set of remains, and when all flesh has rotted away. The terms carrion and carcass can also be used, though more often connote the remains of non-human animals. As a polite reference to a person, it has become common practice to use the participle form of decease, as in the deceased. The ashes left after a cremation are sometimes referred to by the neologism cremains, senescence refers to a scenario when a living being is able to survive all calamities, but eventually dies due to causes relating to old age. Almost all animals who survive external hazards to their biological functioning eventually die from biological aging, some organisms experience negligible senescence, even exhibiting biological immortality. These include the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii, the hydra, and the planarian, unnatural causes of death include suicide and homicide. From all causes, roughly 150,000 people die around the world each day, physiological death is now seen as a process, more than an event, conditions once considered indicative of death are now reversible. Where in the process a dividing line is drawn between life and death depends on factors beyond the presence or absence of vital signs, in general, clinical death is neither necessary nor sufficient for a determination of legal death. A patient with working heart and lungs determined to be dead can be pronounced legally dead without clinical death occurring. As scientific knowledge and medicine advance, formulating a precise definition of death becomes more difficult. The concept of death is a key to understanding of the phenomenon. There are many approaches to the concept. For example, brain death, as practiced in medical science, One of the challenges in defining death is in distinguishing it from life. As a point in time, death would seem to refer to the moment at which life ends, determining when death has occurred requires drawing precise conceptual boundaries between life and death
35.
Dongsi Subdistrict, Beijing
–
Dongsi literally, the Eastern Four or the Eastern Quadrangle, is the name of an intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Dongcheng District, Beijing. Dongsi, at the intersection of what is now Dongsi Avenues North, South and West and Chaoyangmen Inner Street, dates to the Yuan Dynasty. The intersection is named after four paifangs or Chinese sign gates that marked the location and is known in Chinese as the Eastern Four Sign Gates or Eastern Four for short. Directly due west in Xicheng District, another intersection with four gates is called Xisi or the Western Four. The sign gates at Dongsi and Xisi were removed in 1958, today, the Dongsi Station on Lines 5 and 6 of the Beijing Subway is located underneath the intersection. Beijing Bus 106,110,116,684, and 夜10 stop south of the intersection, Bus 58,101,109,112,420, and 夜13 stop east of the intersection. Dongsi is known for the Longfusi Snack Street where traditional restaurants such as Baikuilaohao serve Beijing snack cuisine, the Dongsi Mosque, founded in 1356 and rebuilt in 1447, is located just south of the intersection. The neighborhood northeast of Dongsi, extending north to Dongsi Shitiao, the subdistrict was established in 1958 and As of 2011, consists of eight residential communities. As of 2006, the Dongsi Subdistrict has a population of 43,200, running east-west through the Dongsi Subdistrict are a series of parallel alleyways called tiao. These hutongs are numbered in ascending order from south to north beginning with Dongsi Toutiao, the first alleyway of Dongsi, up to Dongsi Shisitiao or the fourteenth alleyway of Dongsi. The tenth alleyway, Dongsi Shitiao, was extended eastward through an opening in the Beijing city wall and was widened in the 1990s to become one of the main east-west thoroughfares in the old city. The Dongsi Shitiao Station on Subway Line 2 marks the intersection of the alleyway and the wall
36.
Gansu
–
Gansu is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the northwest of the country. It lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, the Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Gansu has a population of 26 million and covers an area of 425,800 square kilometres, the capital is Lanzhou, located in the southeast part of the province. Gansu is a compound of the names of Ganzhou and Suzhou, Gansu is abbreviated as 甘 or 陇, and is also known as Longxi or Longyou, in reference to the Long Mountain east of Gansu. Gansu is a name first used during the Song dynasty of two Sui and Tang dynasty prefectures, Gan and Su. In prehistoric times, Gansu was host to Neolithic cultures, the Dadiwan culture, from where archaeologically significant artifacts have been excavated, flourished in the eastern end of Gansu from about 6000 BC to about 3000 BC. The Majiayao culture and part of the Qijia culture took root in Gansu from 3100 BC to 2700 BC and 2400 BC to 1900 BC respectively, the Yuezhi originally lived in the very western part of Gansu until they were forced to emigrate by the Xiongnu around 177 BCE. The State of Qin, later to become the state of the Chinese empire, grew out from the southeastern part of Gansu. The Qin name is believed to have originated, in part, Qin tombs and artifacts have been excavated from Fangmatan near Tianshui, including one 2200-year-old map of Guixian County. In imperial times, Gansu was an important strategic outpost and communications link for the Chinese empire, the Han dynasty extended the Great Wall across this corridor, building the strategic Yumenguan and Yangguan fort towns along it. Remains of the wall and the towns can be found there, the Ming dynasty built the Jiayuguan outpost in Gansu. By the Qingshui treaty, concluded in 823 between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty, China lost a part of Gansu province for a significant period. After the fall of the Uyghur Empire, an Uyghur state was established in parts of Gansu that lasted from 848 to 1036 AD, during that time, many of Gansus residents were converted to Islam. Along the Silk Road, Gansu was an important province. Temples and Buddhist grottoes such as those at Mogao Caves and Maijishan Caves contain artistically and historically revealing murals. An early form of paper inscribed with Chinese characters and dating to about 8 BC was discovered at the site of a Western Han garrison near the Yumen pass in August 2006, the province was also the origin of the Dungan Revolt of 1862-77. Among the Qing forces were Muslim generals like Ma Zhanao and Ma Anliang who helped Qing crush the rebel Muslims, the revolt spread into Gansu from neighbouring Qinghai. Frequent earthquakes, droughts and famines have tended to slow progress of the province until recently
37.
Wuhan University
–
Wuhan University is located in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and is administered by the Ministry of Education of China. It was selected by both Project 985 and Project 211 as a receiver of state funding. The university is situated at Luojia Hill, with palatial buildings blending the Chinese and it was commonly regarded as one of the most beautiful campuses and a top 10 university for decades in China. The university dates back to the Ziqiang Institute, which was founded in 1893 by Zhang Zhidong 张之洞, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in the late Qing Dynasty. Later, it changed its name several times before it was named National Wuhan University in July 1928, in the early time of its establishment, Ziqiang Institute provided four courses—Chinese, Mathematics, Nature, and Business. After combining the Institute of Minerals and the Institute of Chemical, courses provided were enlarged, with Nature Science, and Chinese was extended to English, French, German, Russian, and Japanese. In Oct,1902, Ziqiang Institute moved to Dongchang kou, Wuchang, and changed its name to Foreign Languages Institute, teaching Geography, History, Mathematics, Law, and Communication. With the approaching of The Revolution of 1911, Foreign Languages Institute was forced to pause running the school due to lack of fundings, in Oct, Wuchang Uprising and the end of Qing Dynasty made it impossible for the school to go back to normal. Foreign Languages Institute stopped its running, in 1913, after its foundation, the Ministry of Education of Beiyang Government decided to found 6 higher normal colleges in China. Based on the location, book resource and faculties of Foreign Language Institute. In 1922, faculties were extended to Educational Philosophy, Chinese, English, Mathematics, Physics and Chemical, History and Sociology, Biology, in Aug,1923, the school changed its name to The National Wuchang Normal University. And in 1924, it changed its name to The National Wuchang University, in Feb,1929, the jurist Wang Shijie became the first president of Wuhan University. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Wuhan University moved to Leshan, Sichuan Province, by the end of 1946, the university had six Faculties, the Faculties of liberal arts, law, sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine. Wuhan University enjoyed a high academic status, with Wang Shijie, Wang Xinggong. The Wuhan University School of Medicine and Tongji University Medical School jointly formed Central-south Tongji Medical College, note, Wuhan University of Hydraulic and Electrical Engineering. Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping, in 2014, Wuhan Universitys student body consists of 34,131 full-time undergraduates and 13,918 full-time masters degree candidates,7,477 Ph. D candidates and 1,477 international students. China Wuhan University is ranked among the top 10 universities in China, in 2016, CUAA ranked it the 4th. In 2015, CUAA ranked it the 4th and Wu Shulian ranked it the 7th, in 2014, CUAA ranked it the 5th and Wu Shulian ranked it the 7th
38.
Cemetery of Confucius
–
The Cemetery of Confucius is a cemetery of the Kong clan in Confucius hometown Qufu in Shandong province. Confucius himself and some of his disciples are buried there, as well as thousands of his descendants. Since 1994, the Cemetery of Confucius has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Temple and Cemetery of Confucius, the two other components of the site are the Temple of Confucius dedicated to the memory of the philosopher and the Kong Family Mansion, where his descendants lived. The three sites are known in Qufu as San Kong, i. e. In 1331 construction work began on the wall and gate of the cemetery, in total, the cemetery has undergone 13 renovations and extensions. Eventually, by the late 18th century, the wall reached a length of 7.5 kilometres. In this space, the tombs of more than 100,000 descendants of Confucius, the oldest graves date back to the Zhou Dynasty, the most recent of which belong to descendants in the 76th and 78th generation. The cemetery suffered damage in November 1966, during the Cultural Revolution. The corpse of the 76th-generation Duke Yansheng was removed from its grave, the main north-central axis of the walled city, Gulou Jie, becomes Beiguan Jie after passing through the north gate of the city wall. The avenue runs north for 1266 m as a wide boulevard decorated with the Wan gu chang chun memorial arch and lined by cypresses and pine trees, the cemetery occupies 183.33 hectares, and is surrounded by a perimeter wall 5,591 m long. The oldest graves found in this date back to the Zhou Dynasty. The original tomb erected here in memory of Confucius on the bank of the Sishui River had the shape of an axe, in addition, it had a brick platform for sacrifices. The present-day tomb is a cone-shaped hill, tombs for the descendants of Confucius and additional stelae to commemorate him were soon added around Confucius tomb. Since Confucius descendants were conferred noble titles and were given imperial princesses as wives, tombstones came in use during the Han Dynasty. Today, there are three thousand stone tablets dating from Chinas imperial period still standing in the cemetery. According to a count, among them there are 22 tablets from the Song Dynasty,6 from Jin,45 from Yuan,506 from Ming and 2626 from Qing still standing in the cemetery. There are also 568 tablets from the Republic of China period and 50 modern tablets, as well as 180 tablets whose age cannot be determined, this brings the total to 4003. The Ming burials are found in the western part of the cemetery
39.
Qufu
–
Qufu is a city in southwestern Shandong Province, near the eastern coast of China. It is located about 130 kilometres south of the provincial capital Jinan and 45 kilometres northeast of the seat at Jining. Qufu has an population of about 60,000. Qufu is best known as the hometown of Confucius, who is believed to have been born at nearby Mount Ni. The city contains numerous historic palaces, temples and cemeteries, the three most famous cultural sites of the city, collectively known as San Kong, i. e. The Three Confucian, are the Temple of Confucius, the Cemetery of Confucius, together, these three sites have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. The name Qufu literally means crooked hill, and refers to a hill that was part of the city during its time as capital of the state of Lu. During the Shang, the area around Qufu was home to the people of Yan, along with Pugu and Xu, Yan joined the Shang prince Wu Geng and the Three Guards in their failed rebellion against the Duke of Zhou c. 1142 BC. After the rebels defeat, the Duke launched punitive campaigns against the Dongyi, forcing their submission, the territory of the Yan became part of the state of Lu, who made Qufu their capital throughout the Spring and Autumn period. This city had walls considerably larger than the present Ming-era fortifications, including land to the east. During the Tang Dynasty and the days of the Song Dynasty the city was centered around the present-day Temple of Duke Zhou. A temple in honor of the Yellow Emperor was built there, after the conquest of the northern China by the Jurchens, the new Jin Dynasty renamed Xianyuan back to Qufu, but the city stayed at its Song location. It was not until the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty that the city wall was built. The site of the city in 1012-1522 is now Jiuxian Village, from that time up until the Yuan dynasty, there were two Duke Yanshengs, once in the north in Qufu and the other in the south at Quzhou. An invitation to come back to Qufu was extended to the southern Duke Yansheng Kong Zhu by the Yuan dynasty Emperor Kublai Khan. The title was taken away from the branch after Kong Zhu rejected the invitation. The southern branch still remained in Quzhou where they lived to this day, confuciuss descendants in Quzhou alone number 30,000. The Hanlin Academy rank of Wujing boshi 五經博士 was awarded to the branch at Quzhou by a Ming Emperor while the northern branch at Qufu held the title Duke Yansheng
40.
Liberty Square (Taipei)
–
Liberty Square is a public plaza covering over 240,000 square meters in the Zhongzheng District of Taipei, Taiwan. It has served as the gathering place of choice since its completion in the late 1970s. The name of the square recalls the important historical role it played in Taiwans transition from one-party rule to democracy in the 1990s. Liberty Square serves as a site for public gatherings in Taipei and is home to three major landmarks as well as civic parks. At the east end of Liberty Square stands the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the square is flanked by the National Concert Hall on the north and the National Theater on the south. A park surrounds the plaza and a wall surrounds the site, the square sits within sight of the Presidential Office Building. Liberty Square regularly serves as the site of mass gatherings in Taiwan and it is the scene for red-carpet ceremonies when Taiwans president greets foreign dignitaries. Crowds gather at the square throughout the year for outdoor festivals, the Taipei Lantern Festival regularly takes place on the square. On many days students, athletes and soldiers may be seen at the square, working on drills, the National Theater and Concert Hall host over 800 events every year and provide iconic backdrops for events on the square. The ponds and parks surrounding the memorial and cultural centers feature well-maintained lawns, trees, the ponds are filled with colourful koi traditionally found in gardens in East Asia. The parks regularly play host to quieter forms of activity, such as Go games and taekwondo, Tai chi chuan. Holiday marching band and drum and bugle corps concerts, honor guard drill shows, the square had its beginnings in the 1970s at a time when Taiwan remained under martial one-party rule by the Kuomintang. The square first opened to the public as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square after Chiangs death in 1975, architecture at the site incorporates many traditional elements and recalls earlier Kuomintang monuments erected in China. Yangs design symbolically assigned civic virtues to each area of the square, a Boulevard of Homage, bordered by manicured bushes, connects the square to the memorial hall. The square became Taipeis site of choice for mass gatherings as soon as it opened, the nature of many gatherings gave the site new historical meanings. The square became the hub of events in the 1980s and early 1990s that ushered Taiwan into its era of modern democracy, of the many pro-democracy demonstrations that took place at the square, the most influential was the Wild Lily student movement of 1990. The movement provided the impetus for the political reforms of President Lee Teng-hui. These culminated in the first popular elections of national leaders in 1996, the plazas importance in the development of Taiwans democracy led to its dedication as Liberty Square by President Chen Shui-bian in 2007
41.
Taipei
–
Taipei, officially known as Taipei City, is the capital city and a special municipality of the Republic of China. Sitting at the tip of the island, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City. It is about 25 km southwest of the port city Keelung. Since 1949, Taipei has been the capital of the ROC after losing the mainland to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the name Taipei can refer either to the whole metropolitan area or the city proper. Taipei is the political, economic, educational, and cultural center of Taiwan, considered to be a global city, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Railways, high-speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island, the city is served by two airports – Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan. Its natural features such as Maokong, Yangmingshan, and hot springs are also known to international visitors. As the capital city, Taipei is sometimes used as a synecdoche for Taiwan, prior to the significant influx of Han Chinese immigrants, the region of Taipei Basin was mainly inhabited by the Ketagalan plains aborigines. The number of Han immigrants gradually increased in the early 18th century under Qing Dynasty rule after the government began permitting development in the area, in 1875, the northern part of the island was incorporated into the new Taipeh Prefecture. The Qing dynasty of China made Taipeh the temporary capital of Fujian-Taiwan Province in 1886 when Taiwan was separated from Fujian Province, Taipeh was formally made the provincial capital in 1894. Japan acquired Taiwan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan became a colony of Imperial Japan with Taihoku as its capital, in which the city was administered under Taihoku Prefecture. Taiwans Japanese rulers embarked on a program of advanced urban planning that featured extensive railroad links. A number of Taipei landmarks and cultural institutions date from this period, following the Japanese surrender of 1945, control of Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China. In 1990 Taipei provided the backdrop for the Wild Lily student rallies that moved Taiwanese society from one-party rule to multi-party democracy, the city is today home to Taiwans democratically elected national government. The region known as the Taipei Basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century, Han Chinese mainly from Fujian Province of Qing dynasty China began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In 1875, the part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture. From 1875 until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Tamsui County of Taipeh Prefecture, in 1885, work commenced to create an independent Taiwan Province, and Taipei City was temporarily made the provincial capital. Taipei officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894, all that remains from the Qing era is the north gate
42.
Summer Palace
–
The Summer Palace, is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing, China. It serves as a popular tourist destination and recreational park, mainly dominated by Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, it covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres, three-quarters of which is water. Longevity Hill is about 60 metres high and has many buildings positioned in sequence, the front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 square kilometres, was entirely man-made, in December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, the natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value. The origins of the Summer Palace date back to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in 1153 and he ordered the construction of a palace in the Fragrant Hills and Jade Spring Hill in the northwest of Beijing. Guos aim was to create a reservoir that would ensure a stable water supply for the palace. In 1494, the Hongzhi Emperor of the Ming dynasty had a Yuanjing Temple built for his wet nurse, Lady Luo, in front of Jar Hill, the temple fell into disrepair over the years and was abandoned, and the area around the hill became lush with vegetation. The Zhengde Emperor, who succeeded the Hongzhi Emperor, built a palace on the banks of the Western Lake and he renamed Jar Hill, Golden Hill and named the lake Golden Sea. Both the Zhengde Emperor and the Wanli Emperor enjoyed taking boat rides on the lake, during the reign of the Tianqi Emperor, the court eunuch Wei Zhongxian took the imperial garden as his personal property. In the early Qing dynasty, Jar Hill served as the site for horse stables in the imperial palace, eunuchs who committed offences were sent there to weed and cut grass. At the time, much of the water stored in the Western Lake came from the spring on Jade Spring Hill. Any disruption of the flow from Jade Spring Hill would affect the capitals water transport. Around 1749, the Qianlong Emperor decided to build a palace in the vicinity of Jar Hill, in the name of improving the capitals waterworks system, he ordered the Western Lake to be expanded further west to create two more lakes, Gaoshui Lake and Yangshui Lake. The three lakes served not only as a reservoir for the gardens, but also a source of water for the surrounding agricultural areas. The Qianlong Emperor collectively named the three lakes Kunming Lake after the Kunming Pool constructed by Emperor Wu in the Han dynasty for the training of his navy, the earth excavated from the expansion of Kunming Lake was used to enlarge Jar Hill, which was renamed Longevity Hill. The Summer Palace, whose construction was completed in 1764 at a cost of over 4.8 million silver taels, was first named Qingyiyuan. The design of the Summer Palace was based on a legend in Chinese mythology about three divine mountains in the East Sea, namely Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou, besides, many architectural features in the palace were also built to resemble or imitate various attractions around China
43.
National Palace Museum
–
The National Palace Museum is located in Taipei and Taibao, Taiwan. It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks, the collection encompasses 8,000 years of history of Chinese art from the Neolithic age to the modern. Most of the collection are high quality pieces collected by Chinas emperors, the National Palace Museum and the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing, mainland China, share the same roots. In English, the institution in Taipei is distinguished from the one in Beijing by the additional National designation, in common usage in Chinese, the institution in Taipei is known as the Taipei Former Palace, while that in Beijing is known as the Beijing Former Palace. The articles in the consisted of the valuables of the former Imperial family. In 1936, the collection was moved to Nanking after the construction of the storage in the Taoist monastery Chaotian Palace was complete, in 1947, it was shipped back to the Nanjing warehouse. Hang Li-wu, later director of the museum, supervised the transport of some of the collection in three groups from Nanking to the harbor in Keelung, Taiwan between December 1948 and February 1949. By the time the items arrived in Taiwan, the Communist army had seized control of the National Beiping Palace Museum collection so not all of the collection could be sent to Taiwan. For security reasons, the Joint Managerial Office chose the village of Beigou. In the following year, the collection stored in cane sugar mill was transported to the new site in Beigou, with the National Central Librarys reinstatement in 1955, the collection from the National Beiping Library was simultaneously incorporated into the National Central Library. The Joint Managerial Office of the National Beiping Palace Museum and the Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum stayed in Beigou for another ten years, during the decade, the Office obtained a grant from the Asia Foundation to construct a small-scale exhibition hall in the spring of 1956. The exhibition hall, opened in March 1957, was divided into four galleries in which it was possible to more than 200 items. In the autumn of 1960, the Office received a grant of NT$32 million from AID, the Republic of China government also contributed more than NT$30 million to establish a special fund for the construction of a museum in the Taipei suburb of Waishuanxi. The construction of the museum in Waishuanxi was completed in August 1965, the new museum site was christened the Chung-Shan Museum in honor of the founding father of the ROC, Sun Yat-sen, and first opened to the public on the centenary of Sun Yat-sens birthday. Since then, the museum in Taipei has managed, conserved and exhibited the collections of the National Beiping Palace Museum and the Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum. However, relations regarding this treasure have warmed in recent years, the Palace Museum curator Zheng Xinmiao has said that the artifacts in both mainland and Taiwan museums are Chinas cultural heritage jointly owned by people across the Taiwan Strait. Among the artifacts were a white marble tablet from the Tang Dynasty, gold nails and it was not until after Ma died that his wife went to Taiwan in 1971 from America to bring the artifacts to Chiang Kai-shek, who turned them over to the National Palace Museum. The National Palace Museums main building in Taipei was designed by Huang Baoyu, due to the insufficient space to put on display over 600,000 artifacts, the museum underwent expansions in 1967,1970,1984 and 1996
44.
Taiwan
–
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
45.
Chengde
–
Chengde, previously known as Jehol or Rehe, is a prefecture-level city in Hebei province, situated northeast of Beijing. It is best known as the site of the Mountain Resort, the urban center had a population of approximately 450,000 as of 2009. In 1703, Chengde was chosen by the Kangxi Emperor as the location for his summer residence, constructed throughout the eighteenth century, the Mountain Resort was used by both the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. The site is currently an UNESCO World Heritage Site, since the seat of government followed the emperor, Chengde was a political center of the Chinese empire during these times. The city of Jehol reached its height under the Qianlong Emperor 1735-1796, the great Putuo Zongcheng Temple, loosely based on the Potala in Lhasa, was completed after just four years of work in 1771. It was heavily decorated with gold and the emperor worshipped in the Golden Pavilion, in the temple itself was a bronze-gilt statue of Tsongkhapa, the Reformer of the Gelugpa sect. Under the Republic of China, Chengde was the capital of Rehe province, from 1933 to 1945 the city was under Japanese control as a part of the Manchurian puppet state known as Manchukuo. After World War II the Kuomintang regained jurisdiction, in 1948, the Peoples Liberation Army took control of Chengde. It would remain a part of Rehe until 1955, when the province was abolished, the city is home to large populations of ethnic minorities, Mongol and Manchu in particular. The name for Chengde in Mongolian is ᠬᠠᠯᠠᠭᠤᠨ ᠭᠣᠣᠯ and in Manchu is Erdemu be aliha. Chengde comprises, Chengde is located in the portion of Hebei, with latitude 40° 12－42°37 N, and longitude 115° 54－119°15 E. It borders Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Beijing, and Tianjin, neighbouring prefecture-level provincial cities are Qinhuangdao and Tangshan on the Bohai Gulf, and land-locked Zhangjiakou. Due to its Liaoning border, it is considered a part of both the North and Northeast China regions. From north to south the prefecture stretches 269 kilometres, and from west to east 280 kilometres, for an area of 39,702.4 square kilometres. It is by area the largest prefecture in the province, though as most of its terrain is mountainous, spring warming is rapid, but dust storms can blow in from the Mongolian steppe, autumn cooling is similarly quick. Precipitation averages at 512 millimetres for the year, with more than two-thirds of it falling during the three summer months, with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 50% in July to 69% in October, the city receives 2,746 hours of sunshine annually. The first ever match in China was organised in Chengde in January 2015 and was played between the Russian and Swedish top clubs Baykal-Energiya and Sandviken. Chengde city was one of the initiators when the China Bandy Federation was founded in December 2014, the city will host the 2018 Womens Bandy World Championship
.jpg)
_from_Han_Dynasty_(202_BCE_%E2%80%93_220_CE)_across_a_Street_Lined_with_Small_Shops._Hanzhong,_Shaanxi_Province,_China,_1875_WDL2092.png)
.JPG)
