China

I entered the country of China as a participant in a goodwill tour in which I was one of fifteen US basketball players who were slated to play five games against China’s National Team. These games took place in five cities, and there was very little time to understand the differences in the regions of the country. Since having made that trip, however, I have been able to gather enough information to share with you. Again, I encourageyou to remember the aforedisplayed disclaimer.

The country of China has 666 cities, 23 Provinces, 5 Autonomous Regions, 4 Central Admin. municipalities, 2 special Administrative regions. (see below) The land area covers 9.5 M sq Mi.. Beijing is the Capital, and have a population of 1,304.2M . They have 106 men per 100 women with an adult literacy of 90.9%. Their currency is the Yuan and there are about 8 Yuans per USD. Their flag has Five Yellow stars on a redbackground. One large star partially encircled with four others; The national animal is the Panda Bear, the flower is the Peony, their tree, the?????, their stone, the Jade, their >>>>>, the ???????, the.

The Chinese have had nine dynasties (see below); the Yuan Dynasty lasted from 1206-1320 and was hosted 6 emperors. The Chinese currency was obviously named after this dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was proceeded the Song, Tang, Sui, Jin, Han, and the Quin Dynasties. Following the Yuan Dynasty were the Ming and Qing (Ch’ing), Dynasties. With each hosting 12 emperors. The Boxer Revolution of 1900 was crushed by foreign armies sent to rescue the foreigners, missionaries and converts in China. The defeat of the Boxers weakened Qing Dynasty and when Young Modi, Qing ascended the throne in 1909, his rule lasted two years. Modi Qing was the last emperor. In 1912 Sun Yat-Sen became the first president of China. He is called the Father of Revolution, but his presidency only lasted two months. Despite this short rule, today his picture is posted opposite Chairman Mao’s in Tiananmen Square. Chiang Kai-Shek followed Sun, and China was ushered into twentieth century under Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng and a confusing defacto leadership under Deng Xiaoping spanded Hu Yaobang and Jiang Zemin until his death in 1997 and Hu Jintao, followed Jiang Zemin.

With China being such an early culture and occupying such a large area, there are many ancient sites and artifacts to witness, but the Great Wall is in fact the most impressive sight that can be imagined without the of modern technology. The wall is 7000 km long and its width 15-30Ft and height up to 25 ft varies pending adequacy or inadequacy of the terrain to provide military protection against the Northern tribes (the Huns).Building the wall cost the people dearly in lives sacrificed in labor and toil. The Great Wall is so impressive structure in size, that it is said to be visible from the the earth’s orbit.

I think if I had been a member of the central committee authorizing the building of the wall, I would have made the first and most impressive Power Point presentation. Despite my affinity for peace, I see it more humane go to war than build a wall that would have been marginal at best to prevent the enemy’s breach. Once breached, one would have to fight anyway. So make workers into soldiers and place a sword not a trial in their hands. country that invented gun powder should have to cower to an army of guys on a few horses. After all, my understanding was that Gingus Kahn was put to death by one woman in one night with one drink laced with poison. I think that would be classified today as chemical warfare.

Some of the less impressive things and sights I found in China include the two humped camel. I grew up knowing the one hump camel on the Camel cigarette pack, and I never though that the number of humps differentiated the camels into geographical regions and different species in their class. The Dromedary is the hump camel, and the two hump camels are called Bactrian. I don’t see the two hump camel faring as well in the camel foot race popularized in Saudi Arabia and some Muslim areas. In 1999 scientist identified 169 wild Bactrian Camels in China that were of a different genetic makeup from those in captivity. Work is underway to create a preserve to protect them and assure their continued existence.

Many Chinese eat in the round, with the food placed in bolds or plated on a large Lazy Susan. The table often seats ten or less, and of course Chop Sticks are the implements of choice. Here again, my representation on Central Committee selecting the implements for eating would have ruled out the Chop Sticks in favor of the spoon and fork combination having a knife at the other end. Chop Sticks don’t cut worth a dam. Also there’s probably a retrieval concern for Americans. The Chinese remove pieces of food from the center plate, place their mouth and return for more. Talking about double dipping, man they take that practice to the extreme. regard to eating in the Province of Sichuan, be prepared for hot and spicy foods. They have these set-a-side dishes with various colors and questionable textures. Stay away from them because the tea won’t save your mouth, and cola only raises the intensity of the fire. The Sichuan Province and many others are fond of Watermelon. I think this is one of the places in the world where a Black American can eat Watermelon in public without being self conscious. I didn’t find candy readily available in any variety, Thank god for 7-Eleven, you can always find a Snickers bar on hand, and even in Beijing one can find a Snickers at a reasonable price.

I noticed the adult reverence for children. Whenever there was a child, an adult was in contact. They didn’t use strollers or carriages. They carry the chills even when they sleep. I witnessed a father carrying a child on his climb up the Great wall. That was a taxing climb for one alone, and this child was old enough to walk. I think would have awakened him and coaxed him up the wall.

In some areas, there is a high level of appreciation for cleanliness. I saw people on the highways with brooms, and in some cities there’s no trash of any kind on the streets and no graffiti on the walls. But, I ate in a Greasy Spoon near the air port where customers discarded their bones from their mouth to the floor or on the table. The Chinese characters are a standard communication configuration, though pronunciation or enunciation variesfrom region to region. As such, Chinese from different regions are often unable to understand each, but they always default to the written standard language. I think the early invention of the printing forged nationalization of the written form of their pictorial language. Unlike the phonetic alphabet (symbols representing sounds) by most modern cultures, the Chinese characters represent ideas. I was reminded of a 60’s media guru Marshall McLuhan who claimed three media stages that detribalized our culture i.e. the phonetic alphabet, the Gutenberg Galaxy, and the electronic media the TV. His point, as I understand it, is each of these forms of media developed our brain to a more complex level making us more developed than previous that we could never home again as the person we were. I often wondered what is the effect of order in being detribalized, and what does it mean if the Chinese were never detribalized via the phonetic alphabet. Perhaps the same thing occurs other means. After all aren’t musical notes a form of mental conversion of symbols into hand position on an instruments?

Have a good visit to China, I hope the following information will help your understanding and your interest this old and wonderful culture.

Municipalities are directly under the administration of central government. A municipality has the same political, economical and jurisdictional rights as a province;

Special Administrative Regions (SAR) was established specially designed for solving Hong Kong and Macao issues and based on the concept of "one country, two systems", SAR is in a pattern within which two completely different social systems (socialist system and capitalist system) and ideologies can coexist, SAR has more autonomous power regulated clearly by laws, including executive, legislative and independent judicial power.

Taiwan Issue: a result of China's civil war in late 1940s'. In the earlier years of separation of mainland China and Taiwan, both sides of China (also called People's Republic of China "PRC" or "communist China", "Red China", "mainland China") and Taiwan (also called Republic of China "ROC") claim the legal sovereignty over China. Mainland China keeps claiming Taiwan as one of its provinces while Taiwan regards itself as an independent country.)