1.
Prefecture-level city
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Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative structure. Administrative chiefs of prefectural level cities generally have the rank as a division chief of a national ministry. Since the 1980s, most former prefectures have been renamed into prefectural level cities, a prefectural level city is a city and prefecture that have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. The larger prefectural level cities span over 100 kilometres, prefectural level cities nearly always contain multiple counties, county level cities, and other such sub-divisions. To distinguish a prefectural level city from its urban area. The first prefectural level cities were created on 5 November 1983, over the following two decades, prefectural level cities have come to replace the vast majority of Chinese prefectures, the process is still ongoing. Most provinces are composed entirely or nearly entirely of prefectural level cities, shijiazhuang and Zhengzhou are the largest prefectural level cities with populations approaching or exceeding some sub-provincial cities. A sub-prefecture-level city is a city with powers approaching those of prefectural level cities. There are total of three classification of prefecture-level city, Regular prefectural level city which consist of counties, county level cities, consolidated district-governed prefectural level city which only consist of districts as it subdivisions. Thus, Bloomington, Indiana is indicated on the map by a point, which is distinct from, and enclosed by, in China, however, large cities such as City of Xianning may, in reality, contain both urban and rural elements. Moreover, they may enclose counties or other cities, on a less detailed map, City of Xianning would be indicated by a point, more or less corresponding to the coordinates of its city government. Other populous areas may also be exhibited as points, such as County of Tongshan, with no indication that County of Tongshan is, in fact, enclosed by City of Xianning. On a more detailed map, City of Xianning would be drawn as an area, similar to a county of the United States and this convention may lead to difficulty in the identification of places mentioned in older sources. For example, Guo Moruo writes that he was born in Town of Shawan, within Prefecture of Leshan, and attended primary school in Town of Jiading. A modern map is unlikely to show either town, Shawan, because it is too small, and Jiading, because it is the seat of City of Leshan, and is therefore indicated on the map by a point labelled Leshan. A more detailed map would show Shawan as a district within City of Leshan, statistics of China such as population and industrial activity are generally reported along prefectural city lines. Thus, the relatively unknown City of Huangshi has 2.5 million residents, more than most European capitals, but upon closer inspection, furthermore, Huangshi contains several other cities, such as City of Daye. If a person wished to calculate the population of the area of Huangshi, and had a map of Huangshi, and a table of its population by district
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Provinces of China
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Provinces, formally provincial-level administrative divisions or first-level administrative divisions, are the highest-level Chinese administrative divisions. There are 34 such divisions, classified as 23 provinces, four municipalities, five autonomous regions, the Peoples Republic of China claims sovereignty over the territory administered by the Republic of China, claiming most of it as its Taiwan Province. The ROC also administers some offshore islands which form Fujian Province and these were part of an originally unified Fujian province, which since the stalemate of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 has been divided between the PRC and ROC. Note that every province has a Communist Party of China provincial committee, the committee secretary is in effective charge of the province, rather than the nominal governor of the provincial government. The government of each province is nominally led by a provincial committee. The committee secretary is first-in-charge of the province, second-in-command is the governor of the provincial government, the Peoples Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets, including Penghu, as Taiwan Province. The territory is controlled by the Republic of China, a municipality or direct-controlled municipality is a higher level of city which is directly under the Chinese government, with status equal to that of the provinces. In practice, their status is higher than that of common provinces. The governor of each region is usually appointed from the respective minority ethnic group. A special administrative region is an autonomous and self-governing subnational subject of the Peoples Republic of China that is directly under the Central Peoples Government. Each SAR has an executive as head of the region. The regions government is not fully independent, as policy and military defence are the responsibility of the central government. Notes,1, as of 20102, per km23, km24, Abbreviation in the parentheses is informal 5, Since founding in 1949, however, the PRC has never controlled Taiwan. Taiwan currently administers Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu, the subject of whether or not Taiwan is part of China is often debated, with no clear conclusion. The Ming Dynasty kept the system set up by the Yuan Dynasty, however. By the time of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty in 1644 there were 18 provinces, in addition, there was a zongdu, a general military inspector or governor general, for every two to three provinces. Outer regions of China were not divided into provinces, military leaders or generals oversaw Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Mongolia, while vice-dutong and civilian leaders headed the leagues, a subdivision of Mongolia. The ambans supervised the administration of Tibet, in 1884 Xinjiang became a province, in 1907 Fengtian, Jilin, and Heilongjiang were made provinces as well
4.
Shandong
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Shandong is a coastal province of the Peoples Republic of China, and is part of the East China region. Shandongs Mount Tai is the most revered mountain of Taoism and one of the sites with the longest history of continuous religious worship. The Buddhist temples in the mountains to the south of the capital of Jinan were once among the foremost Buddhist sites in China. The city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius, and was established as the center of Confucianism. Individually, the two Chinese characters in the name Shandong mean mountain and east, Shandong could hence be translated literally as east of the mountains and refers to the provinces location to the east of the Taihang Mountains. A common nickname for Shandong is Qílǔ, after the States of Qi and Lu that existed in the area during the Spring and Autumn period. Whereas the State of Qi was a power of its era. Lu, however, became renowned for being the home of Confucius, the cultural dominance of the State of Lu heritage is reflected in the official abbreviation for Shandong which is 鲁. English speakers in the 19th century called the province Shan-tung, the province is on the eastern edge of the North China Plain and in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and extends out to sea as the Shandong Peninsula. The earliest dynasties exerted varying degrees of control over western Shandong, over subsequent centuries, the Dongyi were eventually sinicized. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, at this time, Shandong was home to two major states, the state of Qi at Linzi and the state of Lu at Qufu. Lu is noted for being the home of Confucius, the state was, however, comparatively small, and eventually succumbed to the larger state of Chu from the south. The state of Qi was, on the hand, was a major power throughout the period. Cities it ruled included Linzi, Jimo and Ju, the Qin dynasty conquered Qi and founded the first centralized Chinese state in 221 BCE. The Han dynasty that followed created a number of commanderies supervised by two regions in what is now modern Shandong, Qingzhou in the north and Yanzhou in the south, during the division of the Three Kingdoms, Shandong belonged to the Cao Wei, which ruled over northern China. After the Three Kingdoms period, a period of unity under the Western Jin dynasty gave way to invasions by nomadic peoples from the north. Northern China, including Shandong, was overrun, Shandong stayed with the Northern Dynasties for the rest of this period. The Sui dynasty reestablished unity in 589, and the Tang dynasty presided over the golden age of China
5.
Administrative divisions of China
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Due to Chinas large population and area, the administrative divisions of China have consisted of several levels since ancient times. The constitution of China provides for three de jure levels of government, currently, however, there are five practical levels of local government, the provincial, prefecture, county, township, and village. Since the 17th century, provincial boundaries in China have remained largely static, the provinces serve an important cultural role in China, as people tend to identify with their native province. The Constitution of China provides for three levels, the provincial, county, and township, however, two more levels have been inserted in actual implementation, the prefecture, under provinces, and the village, under townships. There is a level, the district public office, below counties. As of 2017, China administers 33 provincial-level regions,334 prefecture-level divisions,2,862 county-level divisions,41,034 township-level administrations, each of the levels correspond to a level in the Civil service of the Peoples Republic of China. This table summarizes the divisions of the area administered by the Peoples Republic of China as of 2011, unlike the United States, the power of the central government was not exercised through a parallel set of institutions until the early 1990s. The actual practical power of the provinces has created what some economists call federalism with Chinese characteristics, most of the provinces, with the exception of the provinces in the northeast, have boundaries which were established long ago in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Sometimes provincial borders form cultural or geographical boundaries and this was an attempt by the imperial government to discourage separatism and warlordism through a divide and rule policy. Nevertheless, provinces have come to serve an important cultural role in China, people tend to be identified in terms of their native provinces, and each province has a stereotype that corresponds to their inhabitants. The most recent administrative changes have included the elevation of Hainan and Chongqing to provincial status. Provincial level governments vary in details of organization, Click any region for more info, for a larger version of this map, see here. Prefectural level divisions or second-level divisions are the level of the administrative structure. Most provinces are divided into only prefecture-level cities and contain no other second level administrative units, of the 22 provinces and 5 autonomous regions, only 3 provinces and 2 autonomous regions have more than three second level or prefectural level divisions that are not prefecture-level cities. Each of them have a committee to administer the dwellers of that neighborhood or community. Rural areas are organized into committees or villager groups. A village in this case can either be a village, one that spontaneously and naturally exists, or an administrative village. Five cities formally on prefectural level have a status in regard to planning
6.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
7.
Time in China
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The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08,00, despite China spanning five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called Beijing Time domestically and China Standard Time internationally, daylight saving time has not been observed since 1991. The special administrative regions maintain their own authorities, with standards called Hong Kong Time. These have been equivalent to Beijing time since 1992, in addition, a second time standard is used in Xinjiang, two hours less than the Beijing Time, which is called Ürümqi Time or Xinjiang Time. In 1912, the Republic of China established five standard time zones, namely Kunlun, Sinkiang-Tibet, Kansu-Szechwan, Chungyuan, and Changpai. The unified time zone policy was adopted by the Communist Party of China or the Central People’s Government some time between 27 September 1949 and 6 October 1949, the date is unknown. However, recent research suggests that the policy was most likely adopted on 27 September 1949, daylight saving time was observed from 1986 to 1991. In 1997 and 1999, Hong Kong and Macau were transferred to China from the United Kingdom and Portugal, although the sovereignty of the SARs belongs to China, they retain their own policies regarding time zones for historical reasons. Due to their locations, both are within the UTC+08,00 time zone, which is the same as the national standard — Beijing time. Xinjiang Time, also known as Ürümqi Time, is set due to its location in the westernmost part of the country. The time offset is UTC+06,00, which is two hours behind Beijing, and is shared with neighbouring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Currently, timezone usage within Xinjiang is roughly split along the divide, with most ethnic Han following Beijing time. Some local authorities are now using both time standard side by side, the coexistence of two timezones within the same region causes some confusion among the local population, especially when inter-racial communication occur. Some ethnic Han in Xinjiang might not be aware of the existence of the UTC+6 Xinjiang Time because of language barrier, regardless, Beijing Time users in Xinjiang usually schedule their daily activities two hours later than those who live in eastern China. As such, stores and offices in Xinjiang are commonly opening from 10am to 7pm Beijing Time and this is known as the work/rest time in Xinjiang. Hong Kong maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Time is UTC+08,00 all year round, and daylight saving time has not been used since 1979. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted as the basis in 1904, before that, local time was determined by astronomical observations at Hong Kong Observatory using a 6-inch Lee Equatorial and a 3-inch Transit Circle. Macau maintains its own time authority after transfer of sovereignty in 1999, the Macau Standard Time is the time in Macau
8.
GDP
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
9.
Renminbi
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The renminbi /ˌrɛnmɪnˈbiː/ is the official currency of the Peoples Republic of China. The yuan is the unit of the renminbi, but is also used to refer to the Chinese currency in general. The distinction between the terms renminbi and yuan is similar to that between sterling and pound, which refer to the British currency and its primary unit. One yuan is subdivided into 10 jiao, and a jiao in turn is subdivided into 10 fen, the ISO code for renminbi is CNY, or also CNH when traded in off-shore markets such as Hong Kong. The currency is often abbreviated RMB, or indicated by the yuan sign ¥, in Chinese texts the currency may also be indicated with the Chinese character for the yuan, 圆. The renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau, renminbi is sometimes accepted in Hong Kong and Macau, and are easily exchanged in the two territories, with banks in Hong Kong allowing people to maintain accounts in RMB. The currency is issued by the Peoples Bank of China, the authority of China. Until 2005, the value of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar and it has previously been claimed that the renminbis official exchange rate was undervalued by as much as 37. 5% against its purchasing power parity. Since 2006, the exchange rate has been allowed to float in a narrow margin around a fixed base rate determined with reference to a basket of world currencies. The Chinese government has announced that it gradually increase the flexibility of the exchange rate. As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the worlds 8th most traded currency in 2013, and 5th in 2015. On 1 October 2016, the RMB became the first emerging market currency to be included in the IMFs special drawing rights basket, a variety of currencies circulated in China during the Republic of China era, most of which were denominated in the unit yuán. Each was distinguished by a name, such as the fabi, the gold yuan. During the era of the economy, the value of the renminbi was set to unrealistic values in exchange with western currency. The unrealistic levels at which exchange rates were pegged led to a black market in currency transactions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China worked to make the RMB more convertible, through the use of swap centres, the exchange rate was brought to realistic levels and the dual track currency system was abolished. As of 2013, the renminbi is convertible on current accounts, the ultimate goal has been to make the RMB fully convertible. From 1949 until the late 1970s, the state fixed Chinas exchange rate at a highly overvalued level as part of the countrys import -substitution strategy
10.
Vehicle registration plates of China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China issues vehicles licence plates at its Vehicle Management Offices, under the administration of the Ministry of Public Security. Hong Kong and Macau have their own administrations on licence plates, Vehicles from Hong Kong and Macau are required to apply for licence plates, usually from Guangdong, to travel on roads in Mainland China. Vehicles from Mainland China have to apply for Hong Kong or Macau licence plates to enter those territories, taiwan, on the other hand, also has plates administered by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in the Republic of China. The number of registered cars, buses, vans, and trucks on the road in China reached 62 million in 2009, and is expected to exceed 200 million by 2020. The font used on the plates were said to be modified from the East Asian gothic typeface, the current plates are of the 1992 standard, which consist of the one-character provincial abbreviation, a letter of the alphabet, and five numbers or letters of the alphabet. Previously, all plates had used the five-number designation. As the number of motor vehicles grew, however, the number had to exceed what was the maximum previously allowable—90,000 or 100,000 vehicles, therefore, there had become a need to insert Latin letters into the license plate to increase the number of possible combinations. This was first done in the cities with only one prefix. Nanjing, for example, began the change only the first number. Further changes allowed the first two places, or the place alone on the plate to be letters, allowing 792,000 more combinations mathematically. More recently, cities have taken to having the letter alone being a Latin letter. The numbers are produced at random, and are computer-generated at the issuing office, numbers with a sequence of 6s, 8s, or 9s are usually considered to be lucky, therefore special sequences like 88888 or 86888 can be purchased. The older black plates are issued to those who are dual-use vehicles. Licence plates for Chinas Police Service, Armed Police Force, and Military are in a background, with red. Police Service plates have a format of X·LLNNN警. These plates are issued to police, some patrol vehicles, court. Chinese Peoples Armed Police Force uses the pinyin wujing abbreviation WJ, the first two small letters behind the WJ are area prefixes, WJ01-NNNNN. = Hainan The Alphabet Numeral behind the area shows the section of the Armed police
11.
Regular script
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Regular script, also called 正楷, 真書, 楷體 and 正書, is the newest of the Chinese script styles, hence most common in modern writings and publications. Regular script came into being between the Eastern Hàn and Cáo Wèi dynasties, and its first known master was Zhōng Yáo and he is known as the “father of regular script”, and his famous works include the Xuānshì Biǎo, Jiànjìzhí Biǎo, and Lìmìng Biǎo. Qiu Xigui describes the script in Zhong’s Xuānshì Biǎo as, …clearly emerging from the womb of early period semi-cursive script. However, other than a few literati, very few wrote in this script at the time, most continued writing in neo-clerical script, or a form of semi-cursive. Thus, regular script has parentage in early semi-cursive as well as neo-clerical scripts and those in between are usually called medium regular script, or zhongkai. What these are relative to other characters, the Eight Principles of Yong are said to contain a variety of most of the strokes found in regular script. The most common printed typeface styles Ming and sans-serif are based on the structure of regular script, the Japanese textbook typefaces are based on regular script, but modified so that they appear to be written with a pencil or pen. They also follow the character forms prescribed in the Jōyō kanji. Zhuyin Fuhao characters, although not true Chinese characters, are always written with regular script strokes. Translation of 文字學概論 by Mattos and Norman, Early China Special Monograph Series No.4. Berkeley, The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, regular Script tao te king CHAPTER LVII More on Standard Script In English, at BeyondCalligraphy. com
12.
Chinese language
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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
13.
Standard Chinese
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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
14.
Pinyin
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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
15.
Cantonese
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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
16.
Jyutping
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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
17.
Southern Min
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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
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Taiwanese Romanization System
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The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan
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China
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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
20.
Jinan
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Jinan, formerly romanized as Tsinan, is the capital of Shandong province in Eastern China. The city has held sub-provincial administrative status since 1994, Jinan is often called the Spring City for its famous 72 artesian springs. Its population was 7,067,900 in 2014 with a population of 4,693,700. The modern-day name Jinan literally means south of the Ji and refers to the old Ji River that had flowed to the north of the city until the middle of the 19th century. The Ji River disappeared in 1852 when the Yellow River changed its course northwards, the current pronunciation of the character Ji with the third tone was established in the late 1970s. Prior to this, it was pronounced with the fourth tone, older texts spell the name as Tsinan or Chi-nan. During the times of the Zhou dynasty, the city of Lixia was the settlement in the area. The name Lixia refers to the location of Jinan at the foot of Mount Li, today, Lixia is the name of one of the citys districts. Marco Polo gives a description of Jinan under the name Chingli or Chinangli. 19th and early 20th century texts frequently give the name of the city as Tsinan Fu where the additional Fu comes from the dated Chinese term for a provincial capital. Jinan is also referred to by the nickname City of Springs, because of the artesian springs in the urban city centre. The area of present-day Jinan has been inhabited for more than 4000 years, the Neolithic Longshan Culture was first discovered at the Chéngzǐyá site to the east of Jinan in 1928. One of the features of the Longshan Culture are the intricate wheel-made pottery pieces it produced. Most renowned is the black pottery with wall thicknesses that can go below 1 millimeter. During the Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, the area of Jinan was split between two states, the state of Lu in the west and the state of Qi in the east. In 685 BCE, the state of Qi started to build the Great Wall of Qi across Changqing county, portions of the wall still remain today and are accessible as open air museums. Biǎn Què, according to the legend the earliest Chinese physician, Zou Yan, a native of Zhangqiu City, developed the concepts of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. Joseph Needham, a British sinologist, describes Zou as The real founder of all Chinese scientific thought, during the times of the Han dynasty, Jinan was the capital of the Kingdom of Jibei and evolved into the cultural and economic hub of the region
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Laiwu
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Laiwu is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong Province, China. The smallest prefecture-level city in the province, it borders the capital of Jinan to the north, Zibo to the east. Its population was 1,298,529 at the 2010 census whom 989,535 lived in the area made up of Laicheng district. The prefecture-level city of Laiwu administers 2 county-level divisions, both of which are districts, Laicheng District Gangcheng District provincial economic development zone These are further divided into 19 township-level divisions, including 14 towns,1 townships and 4 subdistricts. Government website of Laiwu Local portal of Laiwu Laigang Iron and Steel Company（state-owned） Civilisation&Education forum of Laiwu High School Student One of the editors blogs
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Tai'an
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Taian is a prefecture-level city in western Shandong province of the Peoples Republic of China. To the west, Taian is separated from the province of Henan by the Yellow River and its population was 5,494,207 as of the 2010 census, of whom 1,735,425 lived in the built-up area made of 2 urban districts. The prefecture-level city of Taian administers 6 county-level divisions, including 2 districts,2 county-level cities and 2 counties, taishan District Daiyue District Xintai City Feicheng City Ningyang County Dongping County Taian was home to the Dawenkou culture during the neolithic era. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the site of major historical and cultural significance in the area is Mount Tai. Taian is centered on the side of Mount Tai. Taian lies in the temperate zone and has a continental. The average annual temperatures are −2.1 °C,12.8 °C, the average annual precipitation is 681 mm. There is a highway from Taian to the Jinan Airport. Within Taian there are tree lined avenues throughout the city. The nearest major airport is Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport, about 120 km to the north, list of twin towns and sister cities in China Taian travel guide from Wikivoyage Government website of Taian
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Linyi
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Linyi is a prefecture-level city in the south of Shandong province, China. The city Linyi literally means close to the Yi River, the city recently expanded along the Yi River to Nanfang, under slogan Grand Linyi, New Linyi. Multiple recreational parks were built, along with new school campuses etc, the development is a consequence of a series of governmental projects, including relocate the city government, which is expected to stimulate the economy. The population was 10,039,440 at the 2010 census, of which 2,303,648 lived in the area made up of Lanshan District, Luozhuang District. The prefecture-level city of Linyi administers 12 county-level divisions, including 3 districts and 9 counties, the city is further divided into 181 township-level divisions. Linyi has a history of 2400 years and it is home to many historical figures, notably Zhuge Liang and Wang Xizhi. In 1972, the Sun Bins Art of War was first discovered here, Sun Bins Art of War is currently in display at Shandong Provincial museum. In the spring of 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the civilians were encouraged by army victory in the Battle of Taierzhuang, which was nearby, defended Linyi fiercely, but Japanese soldiers breached the walls on April 19,1938. The defenders withdrew the day to another contested area 30 miles away. After the China was founded in October 1949, the division was adjusted. In 2005, Linyi drew international attention as a center of human rights related to the enforcement of Chinas controversial family planning policies. Following widespread allegations of violence and coercion in excess of Chinese law, the local Chinese courts refused to hear the case and imprisoned Chen Guangcheng on charges of fomenting state resistance. Due in part to the severity and scope of these abuses Linyi has been used by activists to criticize Chinas violation of womens rights, Linyi is in the south of Shandong province, not far from the ports of Rizhao, Lanshan District, Rizhao and Lianyungang. It is along the G2 Beijing–Shanghai Expressway as well as the Eurasian Land Bridge, the urban area lies on mostly flat land that gives way to more rugged terrain in the west and northwest of the citys administrative area, which covers 17,184 km2. Linyi has a climate with generous summer precipitation, with cold, dry winters. Under the Köppen climate classification, it is in the transition from the subtropical zone to the humid continental zone. More than half of the precipitation of 831 mm falls in July and August alone. Linyis economy is based around its wholesale markets, the Linyi Wholesale City is ranked 3rd in its category in China with an annual trade volume of 40 billion RMB
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Weifang
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For the World War II civilian internment camp at Weifang see Weihsien Compound. Weifang is a city in central Shandong province, Peoples Republic of China. The city borders Dongying to the northwest, Zibo to the west, Linyi to the southwest, Rizhao to the south, Qingdao to the east, and looks out to the Laizhou Bay to the north. Its population was 9,086,241 at the 2010 census, of whom 2,659,938 lived in the area made up of 4 urban districts. Weifang has numerous natural and historic sites, such as Shihu Garden, Fangong Pavilion, fossil sites, Mount Yi National Forest Park, Mount Qingyun, painted New Year woodcuts from Yangjiabu are also well known. The prefecture-level city of Weifang administers 12 county-level divisions, including 4 districts,6 county-level cities and 2 counties, nearby major cities include Jinan and Zibo to the west, Yantai to the northeast and Qingdao to the southeast. Weifang has a monsoon-influenced, four-season climate, on the borderline between humid continental and humid subtropical, with hot, humid summers, and cold but dry winters. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −2.9 °C in January to 26.2 °C in July, more than 70% of the annual precipitation occurs from June to September, and sunshine is generally abundant year-round. A majority of the precipitation occurs in July and August alone. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 47% in July to 62% in April, established in August 1995, Weifang Binhai Economic & Technological Development Area is a national economic and technological development area approved by the State Council. Covering an area of 677 km2, BEDA has a population of 100,000, BEDA possesses a large state-owned industrial land for use with an area of 400 km2. The land can be transacted conveniently which would guarantee the demand of any project construction, the city is home to the large diesel engine company and factory Weichai. The village of Yangjiabu in Hanting District is famous for folk wood-block print, in the 1980s, a large sapphire mine was discovered in Changle. According to released information, billions of carats of sapphire are estimated to lie under the 450 km2 mine territory and it has become one of the top four sapphire mines in the world. The main feature of this sapphire is the blue or close to black color because of the high iron content. Weifang is headquarters of the 26th Group Army of the Peoples Liberation Army, Kite flying is a traditional custom among the people in Weifang in spring time. In 1984, the first international festival was held in Weifang. More than ten thousand fans attended the opening ceremony
25.
Dongying
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Dongying, a prefecture-level city, lies on the northern coast of Shandong province, Peoples Republic of China. At the 2010 census,2,035,338 people resided within its area of 7,923.26 km2 and 998,968 in the built-up area made up of Dongying district. Dongying is home to the Shengli Oilfield which after the Daqing oilfield is the second largest oilfield in China, the city was established in 1983, as a base for developing the Yellow River Delta and Chinas second largest oilfield, Shengli Field. The oilfield was discovered in 1964 near a village called Dongying. Dongying is located on the banks of the Yellow River Delta of Northern Shandong Province, the citys 350 km coastline borders Laizhou Bay and Bohai Bay to the east and north respectively. Dongying has a monsoon-influenced, four-season climate that lies in the transition between the continental and humid subtropical regimes, with hot, humid summers, and cold. The city is dry and nearly rainless in spring, hot and rainy in summer, crisp in autumn and dry and cold in winter. The average annual temperature is 13.1 °C, and the precipitation is 559 millimetres, with a strong summer maximum. January is the coldest and driest month, with a temperature of −2.6 °C and 5.5 mm of equivalent rainfall. July is the hottest and wettest month, the numbers are 26.8 °C. A large part of the economy revolves around petroleum and the nearby Shengli Oil Field. Dongying is one of the leading producers of rubber tires. It has more tire factories than any city in the world. Recently, Dongyings economy has grown significantly, reflecting the development of Chinas economy. The citys growing manufacturing sector and its proximity to oil reserves have led to increased company investments, an example is DuPont, which invested 5 billion yuan in 2005 to build a titanium dioxide factory in the area. After this projects completion, it became the largest investment outside of the US for DuPont, zibo–Dongying Railway Dongying Shengli Airport A new bus station was built between the east and west sides of the city, on Huanghe Road. Connections to Beijing, Qingdao and Jinan, among other cities are available on a daily basis. Dongying is home to one university, the China University of Petroleum, as well as several colleges
26.
Binzhou
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Binzhou, formerly Putai, is a prefecture-level city in northern Shandong Province in the Peoples Republic of China. The city proper sits on the bank of the Yellow River. Human settlement dates to at least the Chinese Neolithic, during the Shang, the area around Binzhou was held by the Pugu, who were counted among the Eastern Barbarians or Dongyi. Pugu joined the Shang prince Wu Gengs failed rebellion against the Zhou and was destroyed c. 1039, the Bamboo Annals suggest the Pugu continued to trouble the Zhou for another decade and state they were again destroyed c. 1026. Qi became one of the most power of Chinas Warring States but was ruled from Yingqiu and he relocated to Bogu but was overcome by the revolting people of Yingqiu, his successor restored the former capital. The name Binzhou arose under the Five Dynasties period because its land then bordered the Bay of Bohai, the deposition of silt from the Yellow River—which assumed its present course after the disastrous floods of the 1850s—has since moved the site well inland. The city itself was known as Putai into the 20th century, but Putai County was abolished in March 1956, public works have reduced the destructiveness of the river, permitting Binzhou and neighboring Dongying to be developed into cities. The former Huimin Prefecture was renamed Binzhou in 1984 and it was given city status in 1992. Its administrative area presently has more than 3.7 million inhabitants, the major Industries are based on oil, chemicals, and textiles. The prefecture-level city of Binzhou administers 7 county-level divisions, including 2 districts and 5 counties, bincheng District Zhanhua District Zouping County Boxing County Huimin County Yangxin County Wudi County Binzhou lies on the alluvial plain formed by the Yellow River. The entire length of countryside around the river from Pucheng Subdistrict to the Bay of Bohai has been created by deposition of sediment since the Qin Dynasty, the present prefecture borders Dezhou, Jinan, Zibo, Dongying, the Bay of Bohai, and Hebei. Binzhou has a humid continental climate, with four well-defined seasons. Conditions are warm and nearly rainless in spring, hot and humid in summer, crisp in autumn and cold, more than half of the annual precipitation occurs in July and August alone, snow occasionally falls during winter, though heavy falls are very rare. China National Highway 220 China National Highway 205 Binzhou Medical University Binzhou University Sun Tzu, Spring and Autumn period military general and strategist, xu Yan, kickboxer Zhang Shiping, businessman Binzhou, and neighboring Dongying, has historically had an agrarian economy. Binzhou is known regionally for its dongzao, after the Shengli Field was discovered, most of the field was incorporated into newly created Dongying, although Binzhou maintain some oil operations. Binzhou has been diversifying its economy away from agriculture by attracting manufacturing, among Binzhous large businesses include Weiqiao, a textile company, and Binzhou Pride, a new auto company targeting the growing low-cost market. The Binzhou local government has also plowed resources into a new development zone on the outskirts of the new city. Shortly after, the company was shuttered by Chinese authorities, who also detained its general manager, in 2004, the Binzhou government implemented Democratic Political Discussion Day, held on the 5th of each month
27.
Zichuan District
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The Zichuan District is one of eight divisions within the city of Zibo in the Chinese province of Shandong. As the largest district of Zibo, it is composed of an urban zone of over 23 square kilometers and 17 towns that administer vast rural areas up to nearly 1,000 square kilometers. Initially founded in Han Dynasty, which dates back to 1,800 years ago, Zichuan has become an important industrial center not only in Zibo, the downtown area has an estimated population of 20,000 while the total population of Zichuan District is over 670,000. South in Zichuan are twisting mountains which belong to part of the range of Shandong Hills, during the first years of West Han Dynasty, Zichuan was set up with its Panyang as its first name as a county. Panyang means south of River Pan, Zichuan City was once a stone-walled city with four big gates in the Ming Dynasty and extended to its present scale mainly in the recent decades. Zichuan is also a name connected to river, zi is a might river miles away to the west, and Chuan is river in Chinese. After thousands of years slow development relying on agriculture, Zichuan had undergone an economic breakthrough since the discovery of its coal resource, the years when China was under colonial invasion a century ago the 1800s, it was the German who start dig coals first. Following the foundation of new China, or the Peoples Republic of China, in 1956, under the jurisdiction of Zichuan City, four street offices are set to take charge of the citizens daily affairs such as education, sanitation and community services. Usually, the city is divided into areas, Nanguan, Beiguan, Dongguan, Xiguan, Hongshan, Chengnan, Huangjiapu. Well-known landmarks of Zichuan City include Middle Streets, Liuquan Square, Lake Liuxian, Zichuan Garments Town, Liaozhai Town, Zichuan has a typical economic structure of heavily industrialized zones. In 2008, Proportion of the first industry, the second industry, total GDP the year is 25.85 billion Yuan. The large concentration of architectural ceramics of Zichuan make 60% of the output of Zibos ceramics industry. They also count for 30% of the GDP in Zichuan, Zichuan also boasts for Zichuan Garments Town-one of Chinas biggest cloths markets. An annual Domestic trading expo of quite large scale is held within the market, the cost living of Zichuan and the whole Zibo area is among the lowest in East China-the most prosperous region in China. Housing costs are still on a level along of the development of the economy. Housing prices of it is the third or fourth-highest of the five districts in Zibo
28.
Qi (state)
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Qi was a state of the Zhou Kingdom in ancient China, variously reckoned as a march, duchy, and independent kingdom. Its capital was Yingqiu, located within present-day Zibo in Shandong, Qi was founded shortly after the Zhou overthrow of Shang in the 11th century BC. Its first marquis was Jiang Ziya, minister of King Wen and his family ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family in 386 BC. In 221 BC, Qi was the major state annexed by Qin during its unification of China. During the Zhou conquest of Shang, Jiang Ziya served as the minister to King Wu. After Wus death, Jiang remained loyal to the Duke of Zhou during the Three Guards failed rebellion against his regency, the Shang prince Wu Geng had joined the revolt along with the Dongyi states of Yan, Xu, and Pugu. These were suppressed by 1039 BC and Jiang was given the Pugu lands in what is now western Shandong as the march of Qi. Little information survives from this period, but the Bamboo Annals suggest that the people of Pugu continued to revolt for about another decade before being destroyed a second time c. 1026. In the mid-9th century BC, King Yi attacked Qi and boiled Duke Ai to death, under the reign of King Xuan, there was a local succession struggle. During this time, many of the native Dongyi peoples were absorbed into the Qi state, in 706 BC, Qi was attacked by the Shan Rong. Qi rose to prominence under Duke Huan of Qi and he and his minister Guan Zhong strengthened the state by centralizing it. He annexed 35 neighboring states including Tan and brought others into submission, in 667 BC, Duke Huan met with the rulers of Lu, Song, Chen and Zheng and was elected leader. Subsequently King Hui of Zhou made him the first Hegemon and he attacked Wei for supporting a rival of the Zhou king and intervened in the affairs of Lu. In 664 BC, he protected Yan from the Rong, in 659 BC, he protected Xing and in 660, Wei, from the Red Di. In 656 he blocked the expansion of Chu. After his death, his sons quarrelled and the passed to Jin. In 632 BC, Qi helped Jin defeat Chu at the Battle of Chengpu, in 589 BC, Qi was defeated by Jin. In 579 BC, the four powers of Qin, Jin, Chu and Qi met to declare a truce
29.
Ancient Linzi
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Linzi, originally called Yingqiu, was the capital of the ancient Chinese state of Qi during the Zhou Dynasty. The ruins of the city lie in modern-day Linzi District, Shandong, the city was one of the largest and richest in China during the Spring and Autumn Period. With occupying Linzi in 221 BC, King Zheng of Qin completed his conquest of the Chinese rival states, the ruins of the ancient city were excavated in 1926 by Japanese archaeologists and in 1964 by Chinese archaeologists. Linzi covered an area of around 668 square kilometres with the city built two parallel rivers that ran north-south, the Zi River to its east and the old course of the Xi River to its west. The city was surrounded by a 14 kilometres perimeter wall of rammed earth, the city consisted of an outer city and an inner city. The outer city wall reached a maximum of 43 metres in base width, the inner city wall reached a maximum of 60 metres in base width. The city had a sewer and water supply system, the palace was located in the inner city, located in the southwestern corner of Linzi. A large rammed earth platform was found inside the inner city, the remains of the platform measure 86 by 70 metres and are 14 metres high. Seven broad avenues, some 20 metres wide and over 4 kilometres long, ran north-south and east-west, four major avenues met in the northeast section of the city. This area yielded the richest cultural remains from the Western Zhou to the Han, in the Records of the Grand Historian, the population of Linzi in the fourth and third centuries BC was said to be 70,000 households, with at least 210,000 adult males. Scholars today believe this was somewhat exaggerated, the kings of Qi and the Qi state acted as patrons of the Jixia Academy in Linzi, the earliest and largest center of learning in China. Among the Jixia Academy scholars were Mencius, Xun Zi, the ruins of the city are surrounded by over 100 tumuli, some as far as 10 kilometres away. Many of the tombs around Linzi have been looted in antiquity, in pits near what is considered the tomb of Duke Jing of Qi, over 600 sacrificed horses have been found arranged in two rows. The sacrificial horse pit is now the site of a museum, an initial test of corpses from Linzi gravess mtdna claimed that their mtdna was found to be more similar to Europeans than modern Chinese. Based on these reports the Linzi would resemble Eurasian Sami populations rather than native European populations, Sami fair features are likely the rest of mixing with Europeans, not the original population itself, as isolated northern Sami lack blue eyes and blond hair. Linzi populations would lack these features and resemble Koreans and Northern Chinese, allan, Sarah, The Formation of Chinese Civilization, An Archaeological Perspective, ISBN 0-300-09382-9
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Cuju
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Cuju, or Tsu Chu, is an ancient Chinese ball game, Cantonese chuk-ko. It is a game that involves kicking a ball through an opening into a net. The use of hands is not allowed, Cuju is a competitive sport which originated in China and was also played in Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The first mention of cuju in a text is in the Warring States era Zhan Guo Ce. It is also described in Sima Qians Records of the Grand Historian, a competitive form of cuju was used as fitness training for military cavaliers, while other forms were played for entertainment in wealthy cities like Linzi. During the Han Dynasty, the popularity of cuju spread from the army to the royal courts and it is said that the Han emperor Wu Di enjoyed the sport. At the same time, cuju games were standardized and rules were established, Cuju matches were often held inside the imperial palace. A type of court called ju chang was built especially for cuju matches, the sport was improved during the Tang Dynasty. First of all, the ball was replaced by an air-filled ball with a two-layered hull. Also, two different types of goal posts emerged, One was made by setting up posts with a net between them and the other consisted of just one goal post in the middle of the field. The Tang Dynasty capital of Changan was filled with fields, in the backyards of large mansions. Soldiers who belonged to the army and Gold Bird Guard often formed cuju teams for the delight of the emperor. The level of female cuju teams also improved, Records indicate that once a 17-year-old girl beat a team of army soldiers. Cuju even became popular amongst the scholars and intellectuals, and if a courtier lacked skill in the game, Cuju flourished during the Song Dynasty due to social and economic development, extending its popularity to every class in society. At that time, professional players were quite popular. Professional cuju players fell into two groups, One was trained by and performed for the court and the other consisted of civilians who made a living as cuju players. During this period only one goal post was set up in the center of the field, historically there were two main styles of cuju, zhuqiu and baida. Zhuqiu was commonly performed at court feasts celebrating the birthday or during diplomatic events
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FIFA
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The Fédération Internationale de Football Association is the international governing body of association football, futsal, and beach soccer. FIFA is responsible for the organisation of major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930. FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations, although FIFA does not control the rules of football, it is responsible for both the organization of a number of tournaments and their promotion, which generate revenue from sponsorship. In 2013, FIFA had revenues of over 1.3 billion U. S. dollars, for a net profit of 72 million and those among these officials who were also indicted in the U. S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well. Many officials were suspended by FIFAs ethics committee including Sepp Blatter, in early 2017 reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections of both chairmen of the ethics committee during the FIFA congress in May 2017. The need for a body to oversee association football became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The French name and acronym are used even outside French-speaking countries, the founding members were the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Also, that day, the German Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram. The first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin, Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by then a member of the association. Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913, and the United States in 1914. During World War I, with players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann and it was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations later resumed their membership, the FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum at Urbis in Manchester, England. The first World Cup in the world was in 1930 in Montevideo, FIFA is headquartered in Zürich, and is an association established under the Law of Switzerland. FIFAs supreme body is the FIFA Congress, a made up of representatives from each affiliated member association. Each national football association has one vote, regardless of its size or footballing strength, the Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year, and extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. The congress makes decisions relating to FIFAs governing statutes and their method of implementation and application, only the Congress can pass changes to FIFAs statutes
32.
Pu Songling
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Pu Songling was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Pu was born into a merchant family from Zichuan. He spent most of his working as a private tutor. Some critics attribute the Vernacular Chinese novel Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan to him, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio, Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisure. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, london, T. De La Rue,1880. Strange stories from a Chinese studio, Volume 2, PRINTED BY THOMAS DE LA RUE AND CO. BUNHILL ROW, LONDON, T. De la Rue & co. LONDON, THOS, DE LA RUE & CO.1120, encyclopedia of China, 1st ed. Chun-shu, Chang, and Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang Redefining History, Ghosts, Spirits, and Human Society in Pu Sung-lings World, 1640–1715. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, historian of the Strange, Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Owen, Stephen, Pu Song-ling, Liao-zhais Record of Wonders, in Stephen Owen, an Anthology of Chinese Literature, Beginnings to 1911. New York, W. W. Norton,1997, Works by or about Pu Songling at Internet Archive Works by Pu Songling at LibriVox
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