Mackenzie K. Eurasian Geography Blog- Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year A Chinese proverb states that all creations are reborn on New Year’s day. The Chinese New Year is a celebration of change ... out with the old and in with the new! The Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year because it is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. It usually occurs in January or February. On February 12, 2002, Chinese communities around the world  will ring in the Year of the Horse (Year 4700). In the Far East, this is also the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Farmers take this opportunity to welcome spring as they plant for the new harvest. Thus, the Lunar New Year is also called the Spring Festival. The events that occurred during New Year’s Day may impact your life for the rest of the year. Be careful in your actions. Be selective with what you eat. Greet people who will bring you joy. To ensure a prosperous and healthy year, you should enhance and stimulate positive energy flow at home, at your business and at work. Everything associated with the New Year's Day should represent good fortune. To single people, good fortune may mean love and romance. Good fortune may mean good grades to students, children for families, jobs for the unemployed and health for the sick.

Mackenzie Kennedy- Chinese language

Chinese

Chinese is spoken by about 1.3 billion people mainly in the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (a.k.a. Taiwan), Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. There are also communities of Chinese speakers in many other parts of the world.

Languages or dialects?

The different varieties of Chinese are known as 方言 (fāngyán), which is translated as 'regional languages', 'toplects', 'dialects' or 'varieties'. The English term dialect normally refers to more or less mutually intelligible varieties of a single language, though the distinction between dialects and languages is often for sociological and political reasons rather than linguistics ones. Chinese people generally refer to Chinese as a single language with a number of different dialects or varieties. As there is little mutual intelligiblity between the different varieties of Chinese and as a result, some non-Chinese linguists refer to them as separate languages.

A distinction is made in Chinese between spoken and written language. In China the written form of Chinese, which is perceived as being uniform throughout the country is referred to as 中文 (zhōngwén), while the terms 语 [語] (yǔ) or 话 [話] (huà) are used in the names of spoken varities of Chinese, e.g. Mandarin Chinese is known as 汉語 [漢語] (hànyǔ) = "Han language", or 普通话 [普通話] (pǔtōnghuà) = "common language" in China, and elsewhere it is refered to as 國語 [国语] (guóyǔ) = "national language" or 華語 [华语] (huáyǔ) = "Chinese language". The word 汉 [漢] (hàn) is used to refer to the Chinese people and comes from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD).

Spoken Chinese

Chinese belongs to the Sinitic or Chinese branch of Sino-Tibetan language family. The modern varieties of Chinese all descended from Middle Chinese (中古漢語 [中古汉语]), which was spoken in China between about the spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (c. 5th - 12th centuries AD), and which developed from Old Chinese (上古漢語 [上古汉语]), which was spoken during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and the Warring States Period (c. 1600-256 BC).

Varieties of spoken Chinese are traditional grouped into the following major groups:

• Guan / Mandarin (官话 [官話] guānhuà)
• Wu (吴语 [吳語] ng¹nyiu²)
• Yue (粤语 [粵語] yuhtyúh)
• Min (闽语 [閩語] bân-gú / mìng-ngṳ̄)
• Hakka (客家話 [湘語] hak⁷ga¹wa³)
• Xiang (湘语 [湘語] xiāngyǔ)
• Gan (赣语 [贛語] gànyǔ)

Written Chinese (中文)

The main written form of Chinese is based mainly on the Mandarin spoken by educated people in Beijing 

Chinese is written with characters (漢字 [汉字] hànzì) which represent both sound and meaning. Words in Chinese can be made up of one of more syllables and each syllable is represented by a single character. There are relatively few different types of syllable in spoken Chinese - about 1,700 in Mandairn, compared to languages like English with over 8,000 - yet there are tens of thousands of characters. As a result there are multiple characters for each syllable, each of which has a different meaning. This type of writing system is known as semanto-phonetic, logophonetic, morphophonemic, logographic or logosyllabic.

Mackenzie K. Eurasian Geography Blog

The Great Wall of China is one of the cornerstones of Chinese culture. It has not only ranked on the list of the 7 Wonders of the World but it is the most recognized lankmark in all of China. It is one of the most revered structures in all of the world and is one of the most visited sites in all of China let alone Asia. The Great Wall  of China is one of the largest military walls in all of history and served to protect the early Chinese empire from hostile enemies. The Great Wall of China has been around for nearly 2.5 thousand years and still stands today as a wonderul architectural feat. Its great length and strength are still revered today as one of the greatest feats conducted in the ancient world. The Great Wall of China has a rich history. In the times of the feudal lords in ancient China, the Great Wall of China got its first primitive start. It was constructed to protect tribes agains one another. The Great Wall of China was later built up by the Ming Dynasty for purposes of unity and protection. Today, the Great Wall of China still stands after its thousands of years of existance. The Great Wall of China was built of stond, wood and bricks to fortify it for enemies and hostile nomads. It also has watchposts for seeking out enemies. This site explores the history of the Great Wall of China, facts of the Great Wall of China and pictures of the Great Wall of China. Feel free to browse this site as you see fit and to bookmark this site (ctrl D) and share it with others.

mackenzie K. Eurasian Geography Blog

 The 2008 Summer Olympic Games kicked off on Aug. 8, 2008, with a spectacular opening ceremony that many observers called unparalleled. In the lead-up to the games, however, China was dogged by its abysmal human-rights record, crackdown on the Buddhist monks, nearly intolerable air quality, attempts to censor some journalists reporting on the Games, and continued ties to the Sudanese government. In addition, four days before the opening of the Games, two members of the Turkestan Independence Movement, which is also called the Turkestan Islamic Party, a Muslim group based in western China, drove a truck into a group of police officers and then threw explosives and stabbed them. Sixteen police officers died and another 16 were wounded in the attack. Days later, another 12 people were killed in a wave of bombings attributed to the group. As host of the Olympics, China exceeded expectations, despite its moves to stifle protests and dissent, proving that the country is an economic powerhouse. China also won a record 51 gold medals, and a total of 100 medals.

 The good will and enthusiasm that followed the Olympic Games was tarnished in September amid reports that three children died and more than 53,000 became sick after drinking milk-based formula that was tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical that's made from coal and used to produce plastic and fertilizer. Officials reportedly knew of the scandal months before it was publicly disclosed.

mackenzie K. Eurasian Geography

Top 10 Facts About China :)

1. When a Chinese child loses a baby tooth, it doesn't get tucked under the pillow for the tooth fairy. If the child loses an upper tooth, the child's parents plant the tooth in the ground, so the new tooth will grow in straight and healthy. Parents toss a lost bottom tooth up to the rooftops, so that the new tooth will grow upwards , too.
2. Chi Le Mei Yo - "Have you eaten?" is the most traditional Chinese greeting
3. Total Land Area of China is 9,596,960 Sq. Kms. It is the third largest Country in the World. Shanghai and Beijing are two of the largest and most populous cities in the world.
4. The Great Wall of China was started over two and a half thousand years ago and is more than 5,000 km long.
5. Ancient Chinese people live in modern buildings in the towns, farmhouses in rural areas; houses made of bamboo and even caves in the mountains and sampans (houseboats) on the rivers and in harbors
6. Chinese people eat a lot of meat like: fish, pigs, chickens ect.
7. The Great Wall is one of the 7 world wonders
8. Has over 5000 years of culture
9. Ice cream was invented in China around 2000BC when the Chinese packed a soft milk and rice mixture in the snow.
10. China is always a day ahead of the United States.
11. Marco Polo brought the art of noodle making back to Italy from a trip to China.

mackenzie K. Eurasian Geography

Hong Kong is huge! Everywhere you look there are people everywhere! If you think the US has alot of  people just read a little about what Hong Kong has! Hong Kong's population has increased steadily over the past decade, reaching 7.097 million in 2010. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an overall density of some 6,426 people per square kilometer. Cantonese, the official Chinese dialect in Hong Kong, is spoken by most of the population. English, also an official language, is widely understood and is spoken by more than one-third of the population. Every major religion is practiced freely in Hong Kong. All children are required by law to be in full-time education between the ages of 6 and 15. Starting in 2008, the Hong Kong Government expanded the length of free education it offers from 9 to 12 years. Preschool education for most children begins at age 3. Primary school begins normally at age 6 and lasts for 6 years. At about age 12, children progress to a 3-year course of junior secondary education; at age 15, they can choose to continue with 3-year senior secondary education or to join full-time vocational training. More than 90% of children complete upper secondary education or equivalent vocational education. In 2010, 301,200 students were enrolled in post-secondary education. Over 25.5% of the total population aged 15 and over have attended post-secondary educational institutions. Now you know a little bit more about the people of Hong Kong!