Everyone seemed to really enjoy the post our guest blogger, Russell A.K.A. Russtache, wrote for us last week so we invited him back for round two. Russell gave us ten fun facts you might not have known about China. We hope you enjoy this one as much as the last ^_^
1. Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300’s. It was for emperors only. I wonder if that’s where the saying “sit on the throne” comes from?
2. Fortune cookies are not Chinese. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco. Either way they are delicious.
3. What time is it? That’s easy; all of China is in one time zone.
4. The number one hobby in China is stamp collecting.
5. Contrary to western civilization: white, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals.
6. Where did Chopsticks come from? Historians think that as the Chinese population grew, people had to conserve cooking fuel by chopping food into small pieces so that it could cook faster. Since the food was already cut up before it hit the dinner table
7. The most important holiday in China is the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. Chinese traditionally believe that every person turns one year older on the New Year and, thus, that day is considered to be everyone’s birthday.
8. Red symbolizes happiness for the Chinese and is commonly used at Chinese festivals and other happy occasions such as birthdays and weddings.
9. The carp is a symbol of strength and perseverance. The scales and whiskers of the fish make it resemble a dragon, the greatest symbol of power in China. Fish in general play a large role in Chinese culture and the words for “fish” and “abundance” are pronounced the same in Chinese (yu).
10. The horse most likely originated in Central Asia and became very important in China. A horse is considered to be associated with the masculine symbol, yang, and with the element of fire. A person born in the Year of the Horse is considered cheerful, independent, clever, talkative, quick to anger, and able to handle money. 2014 will be the year of the horse.
Author Bio: Russell is an avid language learner and currently speaks English, Spanish and is working on Mandarin Chinese. He loves communicating and sharing his insights on effective ways to learn languages. While he is not learning a new language he is doing his second favorite activity which is blogging under the pen name – Russtache.
