21 Weird & Wonderful Facts about China

27 November 2015 Features, China

1. Fortune cookies were not created in China, but San Francisco in the early 1900s
2. China uses 45 billion chopsticks a year
3. Reincarnation is forbidden without government permission in China
4. The world’s biggest mall is located in China, but is 99% empty
5. Paper money was invented in China 1,400 years ago
6. Table tennis is China’s national sport
7. Playstations, X-boxes and other western games consoles were illegal in China until 2014
8. The word censorship is censored in China
9. China has rehabilitation program for internet addicts
10. Only 7% of people in China class themselves as religious but more people go to church on a Sunday than in the whole of Europe and is set to be home to the most Christians in the world
11. Geese are sometimes used instead of dogs for police animals in China due to their aggressive nature
12. The longest traffic jam in history which lasted 12 days and was over 62 miles long was in Shanghai
13. Chinese nationals must have a permit from the government to have children
14. Despite spanning over 5 time zones, the whole of China follows just one of them, meaning the sun doesn’t rise until 10am in some areas
15. There is a place in Shanghai called Thames Town in China that is a miniature version of London and it is just one of many miniature copies
16. 35 million Chinese people still live in caves
17. Many people head out in their pyjamas in Shanghai
18. Many children keep crickets as pets in China
19. White is the Chinese colour for funerals and mourning as opposed to the more traditional black
20. The Chinese calendar takes 60 years to complete but still has 12 different zodiac signs, much like the western calendar
21. China own all the Giant Pandas in the world, any in another country are just on loan from them and any baby pandas born overseas are shipped back to China to increase the gene pool