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10 weird and wonderful facts about China

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Haedong-Yonggungsa-Temple in Busian, South Korea. Photo by Tawatchai1990 via Adobe Stock

(Photo Credit: Tawatchai1990 via Adobe Stock)

A few secrets from the country with a thousand faces

Its size alone makes China a truly remarkable place. Thanks in part to its vast scale, the country is home to many curiosities and cultural quirks. Enjoy our top 10 strange but true facts about China!

1. Chinese culture: 1, 2, 3… 5 !

In China, tetraphobia is a real issue, with vast swathes of the population expressing a genuine fear of the number 4. This mistrust stems from the fact that the Chinese word for “four” is pronounced similarly to the word for “death”. The result is a culture of superstition. People tend to avoid 4 and all of its variants (14, 24, etc.) when choosing dates for events or signing contracts, as well as home and telephone numbers. In some buildings, the fourth floor simply does not exist, skipping straight from the third to the fifth floor.

2. Harbin: a city of ice

Every year, the city of Harbin, in the north-east of the country, organises an ice and snow sculpture festival. Featuring many monumental creations, from delicate frescoes to vast castles, this event is a major draw for tourists, especially when the displays are illuminated at night. Created in 1963, the festival was awarded a Guinness World Record for the largest ice sculpture in the world, made using more than 13,000 m3 of snow.

3. Napping is a national institution

Shui wu jiao, which literally means midday sleep, refers to the 15 to 30 minute nap that Chinese workers can take after lunch. This right was enshrined in the constitution in 1949, under Mao Zedong, in order to improve productivity. Many people take the chance to doze off at their desks, in the street… And even in the armchairs and beds of a certain flat-pack furniture shop!

4. Come on, sing along!

If you’re looking for a fun night out with friends, you need to book yourselves a bāojiān. These comfortable private lounges are set up for wild karaoke sessions: just pick up the microphone and belt out your favourite song. Holding up to 30 people, these mini concert venues are a popular choice for an evening on the town.

5. Chinese fortune cookies: not so Chinese after all

Here’s a tasty titbit: fortune cookies were not actually invented in China. They were actually created on the west coast of the United States sometime between 1915 and 1920! However, they were exported to China in the 1990s, where they were marketed as “authentic American fortune cookies“.

6. Winnie the Pooh outlawed in China

It’s a classic story of propaganda and censorship. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping met the former President of the United States, Barack Obama. A photo of the two officials side by side caused a buzz on social media, with users noting a certain resemblance to Winnie the Pooh and his friend Tigger. As a result, images of the friendly yellow bear soon disappeared from the Chinese search engine Weibo and the WeChat social network.

7. Paris, on the outskirts of Shanghai

Home to nearly 25 million people, Shanghai can be a hectic place to live and work. In 2005, work began in the nearby city of Hangzhou to offer residents a different way of life: Paris, Made in China. This miniature city within a city includes an Eiffel Tower, Haussmann buildings, French gardens, fountains, statues and replicas of the interior of the Palace of Versailles, the Jardin du Luxembourg, and even the Mona Lisa! Locals can experience a slice of Paris without the airfare.

8. China only has one time zone

The UTC+8 time zone, which corresponds to Shanghai solar time, applies to the whole of China. It is therefore the most populated time zone in the world… and the most improbable. One consequence of this decision is that the sun does not generally rise until 9 am in the far west of the country, when it appears at 5 am in the east. This phenomenon is most noticeable when travellers cross the border into Afghanistan and experience a jarring 4.5-hour time change!

9. Beijing's vast Forbidden City

According to legend, the Forbidden City of Beijing, known as the “former palace” in Chinese, boasts no fewer than 9,999 rooms. However, a study conducted in the 1970s determined that there are only 8,704. So where did this number come from? In China, the number 10,000 represents “a countable infinity” that can only be reached by the gods. By building a 9,999-room palace, the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was creating a close link with the sacred world.

10. Sorbet: a Chinese invention

The ice cream we know and love— a frozen dessert made from cream and eggs—originated in Italy. The original sorbet, however, consisting of snow topped with honey or fruit syrup, was enjoyed by the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Romans. In Rome, it was made during the winter using snow from the Alps or Mount Etna. Chinese pioneers, however, were able to make sorbet all year round using an ancient version of an ice cream maker. Marco Polo brought this innovation to Sicily after his expedition to Asia in the 13th century, and it soon spread throughout Europe.