50 Interesting Facts about China

China has banned time travel on TV, saying that it "disrespects history".

27. A dairy farm (Hong Ning Dairy) in Hong Kong, despite having no cattle on site, has been churning out some 4000 bottles of “fresh milk” made of formula every day since 2008 without the public's knowledge.

28. China is the birthplace of the seismograph. Built-in 132 A.D., it consisted of 8 metal dragons holding 8 carved balls over 8 frogs. If an earthquake made the ground vibrate, the dragon facing the quake’s source would drop a ball into the mouth of its corresponding frog.

29. People living in Hong Kong and Japan who cannot afford to live in a house, take advantage of McDonalds' "doors are always open" policy and live in their restaurants. These people are also known as McRefugees.

30. In the Yellow River in China, there are so many corpses to be found that it is lucrative to recover them and sell the bodies back to the families of the deceased for 500$.

The Last Emperor of China (Pu Yi) lived until 1967, and was a communist prisoner for years tending a vegetable garden, simply known as "Prisoner No. 981".

32. China's Emperor Qin sent his magician (XuFu) to find the elixir of life. The magician sailed away with the "sacrifice" of 6000 boys and girls, lots of wheat, and never returned. Some believe that he settled in Japan and became their first emperor.

33. In China, women who remain unmarried until their late 20s are given the term "leftover women".

34. In the 1400s, China owned the greatest seagoing fleet in the world. But by 1525, all of China's "Treasure Fleet" ships had been destroyed at the urging of the political elite who had become alarmed at the rise of a newly rich merchant class.

35. The deadliest earthquake in recorded history struck Shensi province in China in 1556, killing about 830,000 people.

A tombstone dating to 1342 A.D. was found in Eastern China of a woman named "Katarina Vilioni", sister of Antonio and daughter of Domenico. This suggests a thriving Italian community in 14th century China.

37. There is a Korean eatery in Zhengzhou city, China, where people are allowed to dine at no charge if they happen to be among the five most beautiful patrons of the day.

38. In China, TV advertisements can only be shown at the end of a 45 minute program instead of during.

39. China has built a new skyscraper every five days, more than 30 airports, metros in 25 cities, the three longest bridges in the world, more than 6,000 miles of high-speed railway lines and 26,000 miles of motorway, all in the last 5 years.

40. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett went to China to encourage their billionaires about the benefits of Philanthropy (giving to their community). They were mainly ignored because Philanthropy (outside of supporting the family) is not part of Chinese culture.

China gets a new Billionaire every 5 days.

42. There is controversy over China's top ranking in the international student assessment. Only the three richest Chinese school districts participate in the international student assessment.

43. A man named Hu Songwen in China built his own dialysis machine to keep himself alive.

44. Colgate bought a Chinese toothpaste brand called Darkie in 1985. The name was changed to Darlie but is still sold in China as Black Person Toothpaste.

45. After a girl in his community was killed by a red-light runner, a 74-year-old Chinese man spent an entire day hurling bricks at bad drivers. With his neighborhood cheering him on, he smashed over 30 red-light runners' cars before the police asked him to stop.

China is building massive cities just to keep builders busy and generate growth. The result is ghost metropolis.

47. Tickling was a form of torture used in ancient China on nobility because it left no mark and recovery was quick.

48. In 2010, a 6-year-old HIV-Positive boy named Along was forced to live alone in the rural south-west, China.

49. China has mobile "execution vans" that drive around carrying out the death penalty. The government claims this is both more cost-effective and more humane than traditional methods. China executed at least 1,634 people in 2015.

50. In 1946, during a land survey of Sichuan province in China, a forester encountered a tree he had never seen before, so took a sample. He came to find it was as yet unknown to science, only previously existing as a fossil. It came to be known as the 'Dawn Redwood'.