China's Air Pollution

China has a lot of air pollution everywhere but more parts heavily than others. between 350,000 and 500,000 people a year in China die as a result of the air pollution. The smog was so severe that authorities declared a “red alert” for the first time, closing down schools, halting construction and limiting car traffic. The big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have really heavy smog and filled with air pollution. Many Chinese citizens wear face mask to prevent them from inhaling the bad air and causing them to get sick or die. The air pollution has gotten worse and worse and now about 4,000 people die of air pollution. This air pollution is caused by the bad coal over usage. Deaths related to the main pollutant, tiny particles known as PM2.5s that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and asthma

Weird Chinese Things

Urine Eggs

a traditional dish in China is Urine Balls Long hawked by street vendors like hot dogs, “boys eggs” sell for about 25 cents a piece. Locals swear by the eggs, which are first soaked in urine, then boiled in it. After boiling, the shells are cracked, and they are allowed to simmer for hours in the brine. Their taste is described as fresh and salty, and they are rumored to have myriad health benefits, including protecting the body from heat stroke, relieving joint pain, and increasing circulation of the blood.

Facekinis

In China, a traditionally agrarian country, it is pallid skin that is seen as a sign of beauty. So in china women wear "facekinis" which is a protective masks that cover their entire heads with the exception of their eyes, nostrils, and mouths.

Baiju

Baiju is a Chinese Alcohol drink that is made out of nail polish remover and Chinese love to drink this drink which is a very harmful and nasty drink.

Spitting

Spitting is a Chinese tradition. Spitting is as common as breathing in China, they believe (and maybe rightly so) that it should be released right then and there (weddings, birthdays, funerals, it doesn’t matter).

China's Giant Pandas

China is known for a lot of things like The Great Wall, Terra-Cotta Warriors, and Forbidden City but they are also known for their adorable big fluffy pandas. The giant panda only lives in a few mountain ranges in central western and south western China, mainly in Sichuan Province, and also available in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. It is an endangered animal. There are only 1,864 giant pandas alive in the wild. They eat Bamboos in the wild from China and just sit and play. Giant pandas live in large bamboo forests on humid and relatively high mountain slopes about 1,200 to 3,100 meters (4,000 to 10,000 feet) above sea level.

Chinese Zodiac

2016 is the Year of the Monkey according to Chinese zodiac. The Year of the Monkey starts from Feb. 8, 2016 and lasts to Jan. 27, 2017. The Chinese Zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, is based on a twelve-year cycle, each year in that cycle related to an animal sign. These signs are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. There has been a relationship between human and the 12 zodiacal animals. It is believed that the years represented by the animals affect the characters of people in the same way like the western astrology signs. 

Chinese Schooling

In China kids are required by law to go to school for nine years. Primary school, for children ages 6 to 11, covers the first six years of their compulsory education. After primary school, students continue on to junior middle school. In junior middle school students will complete grades 7, 8, and 9, as well as their compulsory education requirement. If students choose to continue with their education they will advance to senior middle school, the equivalent of high school in the United States, and finish grades 10, 11, and 12. Afterward, they will have the option of attending university or entering the workforce. The school year in China typically runs from the beginning of September to mid-July. Summer vacation is generally spent in summer classes or studying for entrance exams. The average school day runs from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a two-hour lunch break.

Ma Po Tofu

Ma po tofu is one of the most famous dishes in Chuan Cuisine with a history of more than 100 years. Ma describes a spicy and hot taste which comes from pepper powder.

Wontons

Since the Tang Dynasty (618–907), it has been a custom for people to eat wontons on the winter solstice. Wontons can be put in a soup and filled with beef.

Dumplings

With a long history of more than 1,800 years, dumplings are a traditional food widely popular in North China. Dumplings consist of minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped into a thin piece of dough skin. It's Filled with dfferent things like beef chicken and shrimp.

Peking Roasted Duck

Peking duck is a famous dish from Beijing, enjoying world fame, and considered as one of China’s national dishes.

Interesting Facts

1.Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s, It was for emperors only.

2.The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

3.Ping-pong is one of the most popular games in China, but it was not invented in China. It originated in Britain, where it is called table tennis.
4.China invented the first paper money.
5.White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals.

6. Chinese invented Ice cream by packing milk mixture and rice into snow.

7.According to popular legend, tea was discovered by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 B.C. when a tea leaf fell into his boiling water. The Chinese consider tea to be a necessity of life.

8. The Chinese fiercely guarded the secrets of silk making, and anyone caught smuggling silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of China was put to death.

9.The oldest piece of paper in the world was found in China and dates back to the second or first century B.C. Paper was so durable, it was sometimes used for clothing and even light body armor.

10.China’s “one child” policy has contributed to female infanticide and has created a significant gender imbalance. There are currently 32 million more boys than girls in China. In the future, tens of millions of men will be unable to find wives, prompting some scholars to suggest that this imbalance could lead to a threat to world security.

Chinese Art

Chinese art is really beautiful, it goes from poetry to silk to paintings and sculptures. The Terracotta Army is a fascinating aspect of Ancient Chinese art. It was created for the burial of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, in order to protect him in the afterlife. It consists of thousands of sculptures that make up an army of soldiers. There were sculptures of over 8,000 soldiers and 520 horses in the terracotta army. These weren't tiny sculptures either. All 8,000 soldiers were life-sized. They had details too, including uniforms, weapons, armor, and each soldier even had his own unique face. It's really detailed and nice. Also silk made from silkworms had came from China which made beautiful dresses, cloth and more out of it. Another art is the Chinese symbols with 40,000 characters.

China in Chicago???

The first Chinese community was built around the Van Buren and Clark Streets. In 1905, due to the ill-treatment of Chinese in California, there was a boycott of American trade in China. When news came to Chicago, the presence of Chinese arouse hostile feelings and suspicion. Landlord raised the rent of houses occupied by Chinese to such a significant rate that most occupants could not afford to pay. About half of the entire Chinese population in Chicago was forced to move south to Cermak and Wentworth Avenue, an Italian and Croatian neighborhood. It was made possible by a series of 10-year leases on buildings which were contracted through the H.O Stone Company by members of The On Leong Businessmen's Association. Cermak Road and Wentworth Avenue soon became The hub of the Chinatown. On 1912 was when Chinatown was first establish and there was so many Chinese restaurants and store and Chinese immigrants took over the south side of Cermak and Wentworth. I really like Chinatown I think its a fun place to be at and spend a day at and has a lot of culture. Chinatown celebrates all of the same celebrations like China which I think is cool how they keep their roots alive.

History of Chinese Writing

It is not known when Chinese writing originated, but it apparently began to develop in the early 2nd millennium in BC. At first there was only 60 characters which later on then turned into 3,000 Chinese characters. Now there are 50,000 Chinese characters in the whole Chinese language. That is so crazy that's too much too remember. Most educated people know about 2-3,000 characters.

Counting In Chinese

1. Yi                  

2. Er

3. San

4. Si

5. Wu

6. Liu

7. Qi

8. Ba

9. Jiu

10. Shi

Basic Chinese Words

Hello; Ni Hao

Bye; Zai Jian

Good afternoon; Xiawu Hao

Good evening; Wanshang Hao

Stop; Ting

I/Me; Wo

You; Ni

He/She/It; Ta

Good; Hao

Bad; Bu Hao

Yes; Shi

No; Bu Shi

Thank you; Xie Xie

You're welcome; Bu Yong Xie

Ancient China Facts

• China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations. 
• In 221 B.C Ying Zheng was the first Emperor of Ancient China,.
• The last Emperor was 3 years old and his name was Puyi.
• In China the dragon is a symbol of good luck, power, and strength. Also the dragon was often the symbol of the Emperor.
• The Ancient Chinese were the first people to drink tea but at first it was used for medicine.
• The biggest festival of the year was the New Year celebration so people back hen would take time off their jobs.
• Silk was discovered in Ancient China.
• In Ancient China paper money was first made 
• For the last 4,000 years China used chopsticks to eat

Interesting Facts About China

• Over 100 million people in China live on less than one U.S dollar.
• Fortune cookies weren't invented by China, It's not Chinese.
• China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year.
• Facebook and Twitter have been blocked from China since 2009.
• The worlds first paper money was created in China about 1,400 years ago.
• Over 35 million people in China still live in caves.
• Every 30 seconds in China a baby is born.
• China has a one child policy.
• Table Tennis is China's national sport.
• The playstation is illegal and banned from China.
• Every five days a new skyscraper is built in China.
• Over four million cats are eaten in China.
• Half of all the worlds pigs live in China.
• 90% of Chinas water is polluted.
•  20 million trees are cut down every year to make chopsticks.
• Only 7% of China's people are religious which makes the least religious state.
• 600,000 Chinese people die every year do to working too much.
• It is illegal to not visit your parents if they are over 60.
• Brad is banned from China after his movie "7 years in Tibet".

China's Cities

China has 14 cities which are Beijing which is the capital of china, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Taipei, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Nanjing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Hangzhou and Chongqing. Shanghai is the city with the most people in it there is 22 million people which is the largest and wealthiest city in China. Also Beijing is the second city with the most population which is 19 million. Tourist mostly visit these two cities Shanghai and Beijing because it is where it has the most Hotels and Restaurants. 

Chinese Noodles

Noodles were first originated from China. Chinese Noodles were first made with millet grass grains and then in A 100 wheat noodles were created. After China created noodles then it started spreading through all Asia which are Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and some Southeast Asia and Asian island countries. In Chinese culture noodles symbolize long life which is why they are mostly only served on special events like birthdays and Chinese New Year so instead of having a birthday cake Chinese people have birthday noodles which I think is very interesting and different. There are a lot of different types of noodles like La Mian, Chuka Men, Soba, Mee Pok,  He Fen, Pho, Rice Vermicelli noodles and many many more different types of noodles. There are flat noodles, round noodles, thick noodles, skinny noodles, long noodles and short noodles which they all came from China. Thank you China for noodles!!!!!!

The Chinese Flag

The rectangular flag has a red field with five golden-yellow stars in the upper left corner. The star on the left is larger than the other four.The red color of the flag symbolizes revolution, power and the traditional color for the Chinese people. Also the large star symbolizes the Communist Party (rulers of China) and the smaller stars represent the people of China. It also represents the four classes of their society which are The Gentry, The Farmers or Peasantry, The Artisans and The Merchants. The Chinese flag was first adopted in September 27, 1949 but was first flown on October 1, 1949. The Flag was design by a Chinese man named Zeng Liansong.
                                                               -From Jan 14 (missing blog)

The Chinese Dragon 

The Chinese Dragon shows up in a lot of the Chinese celebrations as tradition because Chinese people believe they are descendants of this mythical creature. The Chinese Dragon represents prosperity good luck and also good fortune. There is tradition that on the fifth day of New Years there are Chinese Dragons dancing. I think this is pretty cool and the dragon is beautiful. I love how this is tradition for them because it makes their culture more interesting. Everyone in China gather up for the festival were they have the Chinese Dragon dance over a million of people gather up to watch this. Usually the Chinese Dragons are in red because red represents power for China and its the traditional color.

China has five major religions in their country which are Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam and Christianity but most of the Chinese citizen are Atheist which means they don't believe in god or have any religion. Buddhism was brought to China 2,000 years ago and is one of the top religions right now with 472.36 million Chinese people believing in this religion. Also there are 46.27 million people being Christian in China which is only 3.5% of the country. Any other religion than these five religions are illegal even though there is a law that Chinese people have freedom of religion. The two traditional religions are Confucianism and Taoism in China. I feel like people in China should be able to believe in any religion not only in those five religions. 

In China Women wear traditional Chinese dresses especially in the traditional color red.  They come in different designs and are very pretty. Women wear these dresses on special occasions. I think they are very pretty and have really nice details to it like flowers, dragons and more. Women whore these dresses more back in the days especially if you came from royalty or important family. These dresses are a sign of wealth and power. These dresses are made out of really soft silky material and are very expensive out there. 

                         Chinese people are very proud of China and have joy for their country. There is a lot of parades that they have that celebrate their country. At least every month there is a always a celebration or a big event.