Take a Trip into China's Culture
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Geography
- Third largest country, behind Russia and Canada
- Carved hills to make up for limited farm land
- Majority of 50,000 rivers flow east to west into the Pacific Ocean
- Extremely diverse climate
- World leader in industrial output (45.3%)
- Himalaya Mountains are in the south of China
- Borders 14 nations
- Over 34,687 species of animals and plants can be found
- Largest combined land border in the world
- At least 840 species are threatened mainly from human activities
How China Compares
China: 9,596,961 sq km
Ecuador: 283,561 sq km
Canada: 9,984,670 sq km
South Africa: 1,219,090 sq km
Japan: 377,915 sq km
United States: 9,826,675 sq km
Questions:
- How does the area of China compare to that of the United States?
- How many times larger is China than Ecuador?
Answers:
- About equal in size, but the United States is larger
- About 34x
Culture
Government
- Red on the flag represents the communist revolution
- The five stars represent the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China
Religion
- Notable religions in China are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism
- Emperors of China claim The Mandate of Heaven or the right to rule bestowed by heaven
economy
- In 2012, China had the worlds highest number of billionaires when converted into U.S. dollars
- The currency is the yuan
Social Organization
- Father is the head of the house
- People are judged in groups rather than as individuals
language
- Jurchen is the one extinct language of China
- The predominant language is known as Hanyu, which is then broken up into various dialects
customs and traditions
- Chinese culture is one of the worlds oldest cultures
- Han Chinese is by far the largest ethnic group in China
arts and literature
- The lion dance is preformed on New Years and is typical at parade
- Soccer is a popular sport
Comparing China and America
America
- 99% literacy rate
- Newer, young culture
- 300 million people
- Wealthy
- Democratic Republic
- Variety of races
- Official language is English
- Prefer to drink cold water
- Approach issues directly
- Push of individualism
China
- 90.9% literacy rate
- Ancient culture
- Over a billion people
- Large poverty issue
- Communist and Socialist government
- Mostly Chinese and Oriental races
- Chinese is the official language
- Prefer to drink warmer water
- Confrontation is frowned upon
- Looks at people in a whole collective group
similarities
- Usually hake hands with one another at first encounter
- Think family is important
- Similar in size (over 3 million square miles)
- Have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean
- Play an important role in the United Nations