So far, we know that China is the world’s largest producer of peanuts and is home to the giant salamander, but there are so many more fascinating things to know about this country. Let’s take a look at a few things that make China unique:
China is located in eastern Asia and has 14 countries for neighbors. Regarding land, China is slightly smaller than the United States. However, in terms of population count, China outnumbers the U.S. by 188,695,514 people! That’s a lot of people, and it results in a lot of ethnic groups, too. The Chinese government officially recognizes 56 different ethnic groups.
You may have heard of a few of China’s largest cities. Beijing is the nation’s capital, but other major cities include Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Tianjin and Shenzhen — all have over 10 million people.
China is also a very diverse country for languages. The various Chinese languages include Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang, Gan and Hakka dialects. And scattered throughout the many ethnic groups are even more minority languages. Can you imagine if the United States’ regional accents were actually different languages? Would you speak the same language as your family?
One of the most famous attractions in China is the Great Wall of China, but technically it’s not even one wall. It’s a series of walls that connect from construction projects that lasted about 2,000 years. A portion of the distance the wall stretches to reach actually uses natural boundaries such as rivers or mountains.
The portion of the wall that is most instantly recognizable because of its preservation was constructed by the Ming Dynasty, which ruled from 1368 until 1644. For a long time, the Great Wall of China was said to be the only human-made object visible from space. As it turns out, it is not visible from the moon without the assistance of technology. That is kind of disappointing if you’re focused on the wall. But with a simple shift of focus, you’ll quickly realize how grand that makes the vast expanse of space!
