China is a land of paradoxes—ancient yet modern, secretive yet bustling, traditional yet rapidly evolving. From dynastic intrigues and cultural quirks to bizarre laws and forgotten scandals, this collection dives even deeper into the lesser-known corners of Chinese history, society, and everyday life. Ready to be surprised again? Let’s uncover 50 more fascinating facts that reveal the true complexity of China.
Missed Part 1? Click here to read it first.
1 Puyi’s Fall to Street Cleaner
After the Chinese Communist Party came to power, they dethroned Puyi, the last emperor of China. He then worked as a street cleaner. He frequently visited the Forbidden City as a tourist, pointing out various objects on display that he once owned as emperor.
2. In 1975, a dam failure in China resulted in approximately 240,000 deaths. The chief engineer had predicted the disaster beforehand but was removed from the project. Authorities covered up the incident for decades.
3. In China, individuals must obtain government approval to be reincarnated, making it illegal otherwise.
4. In the 19th century, a poor Chinese man named Hong Xiuquan failed the civil service exam and fell ill. After rereading a Christian pamphlet he had previously ignored, he hallucinated that he was Jesus’ brother. Consequently, he led a cult and rebellion, conquering much of southern China and crowning himself king. This civil war resulted in over 10 million deaths.
5. In 1900, explorers discovered a sealed cave in China’s Gansu province containing 1,100 scrolls and 15,000 Buddhist texts. Believed to have been sealed around 1002 A.D., the cave held lost texts and the earliest dated printed book, a copy of the Diamond Sutra printed in 868.
6 Shi Huangdi’s Son Tricked into Suicide
After the death of China’s first emperor, Shi Huangdi, his second oldest son forged a letter in the emperor’s name. The letter instructed the eldest son to commit suicide, allowing the second son to become emperor. It actually worked.
7. During the Beijing Olympics, a 9-year-old girl lip-synced a patriotic song at the opening ceremony. Officials later revealed that a 7-year-old girl, kept backstage due to not being considered attractive enough, actually sang the song to preserve China’s image.
8. In the UK, a six-year-old girl discovered a secret message inside a Christmas card reading, “Please help us and notify human rights organization.” Allegedly written by a prisoner in a Chinese factory, the message prompted Tesco, a British supermarket, to suspend card production at the factory.
9. Cheating is so prevalent in China that people have rioted when denied the opportunity. In 2013, over 2,000 individuals barricaded school staff after authorities confiscated students’ cheat sheets. They were chanting, “There is no fairness if you do not let us cheat.”
10. As of 2015, China is the most irreligious country on Earth, with 90% of residents expressing no interest in religion.
11 Officer Sinks Ship After Girlfriend’s Suicide
In 1978, a Chinese naval officer detonated depth charges on a Chinese destroyer, causing it to sink at port and killing 134 sailors. This tragic act occurred after he was discharged, following his girlfriend’s suicide, which happened because he had ended their relationship.
12. Chinese medical tourists who undergo plastic surgery in South Korea often struggle to re-enter China. Their new appearances frequently do not match their passport photos, creating identification issues.
13. Ching Shih, a former Chinese prostitute, was one of history’s most successful pirates. She commanded over 1,800 ships and up to 200,000 pirates, and remarkably, she retired peacefully.
14. In China, the “996” work schedule requires employees to work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. This demanding routine contrasts sharply with the Western 9-to-5 workday.
15. In July 2017, the Chinese government banned Justin Bieber from performing in China. Officials stated the ban aimed to maintain market order and purify the performance environment from badly behaved entertainers.
16 Fake Musician Fooled King of Qi
In ancient China, a man named Nan Guo deceived his way into becoming a musician for the King of Qi without knowing how to play an instrument. He mimicked other musicians’ movements and earned a salary until the king’s death, after which he fled due to the new king’s preference for solo performances.
17. In 1995, the Chinese government kidnapped a six-year-old Tibetan boy, the Panchen Lama, and replaced him with a Han Chinese “fake Panchen.” Since then, no one has heard from the real Panchen Lama, who plays a crucial role in selecting the next Dalai Lama.
18. In 2019, a Chinese businessman hired a hitman for $282,800 to eliminate a competitor. The hitman subcontracted the job, leading to a chain of five more hitmen subcontractors. The last hitman simply asked the target to fake his death.
19. In Sichuan opera, Bian Lian, or “face changing,” involves performers rapidly changing theatrical masks with imperceptible speed. The sleight of hand technique is a level two national secret classified by China’s State Secrets Bureau.
20. Nüshu is a written script used exclusively by Chinese women, which facilitated the writing of letters, poetry, and autobiographies. Since men could not read it, women who knew Nüshu enjoyed greater intellectual freedom.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Zimbabwe Criticizes Small Chinese Condoms
In 2019, Zimbabwe’s health minister criticized Chinese-made condoms for being too small during an HIV/AIDS prevention event in Harare.
22. The whole of China uses a single time zone, China Standard Time, which aligns with Beijing Time, disregarding international time zones within its borders.
23. Chinese companies hire Caucasian foreigners to pose as employees or international representatives to enhance their perceived value.
24. In 2003, fishermen in China found their country’s submarine Ming III drifting after its crew asphyxiated due to the diesel engine consuming all the oxygen.
25. Imperial China mandated that commoners depict dragons with three claws, nobility with four, and only the emperor could use five-clawed dragons.
RE: Fact #4 (Hong Xiuquan Thought He Was Jesus’ Brother) – One guy bombed the civil service exam, another got rejected by art school.
RE: Fact #50 (Nude Loan Collateral Scandal in China) – These aren’t government loans; think more along the lines of borrowing from a loan shark or a payday lender.
RE: Fact #28 (China Destroys Motorcycles After 13 Years) – It’s the same in Delhi-NCR, India – 15 years for petrol cars and bikes, 10 for diesel. After that, it’s fine on private land, but the government will tow and scrap anything left on the streets. People often sell their old vehicles cheaply in the countryside because they don’t enforce those rules as much outside the big cities.
And yeah, the car companies pushed for this.
I heard it’s just Delhi-NCR, not everywhere. I thought it was just weakly enforced outside the cities.
This is totally insane! Does the used price for *every* brand just plummet after a couple of years?
RE: Fact #11 (Officer Sinks Ship After Girlfriend’s Suicide) – Why’d they let him go just because his ex killed herself?
The story’s a bit hazy, but it sounds like the girl’s parents tried to get the Navy in trouble, and they just brushed it off. Or maybe they said he was nuts, but I doubt that’s the real story. Probably the first thing is what really happened.
RE: Fact #16 (Fake Musician Fooled King of Qi) – Those other musicians totally covered for him.
RE: Fact #44 (Tiananmen Soldiers Refused to Fire on Civilians) – Lots of those soldiers paid the price for what they did. Many lost their jobs, some went to jail, and others… well, nobody knows what became of them after that whole mess.
In 1989, Xu Qinxian refused to attack the Tiananmen protesters. Because of that, he lost his party position and spent five years in prison. For twenty years, nobody knew where he was.
He told his commanders he couldn’t follow orders like that unless it was a war.
He privately told friends he’d rather die than be remembered as a villain.
He got court-martialed and did five years, then was sent to Shijiazhuang and couldn’t go back to Beijing.
At his court martial, Xu said the PLA didn’t have a history of attacking its own people, and he wouldn’t be the one to start.
For twenty years, people thought the army had killed him, but a Hong Kong newspaper found him in 2011. He just said he travels between Shijiazhuang and Beijing freely and has no regrets.
Such a great guy
RE: Fact #36 (Developer Outsourced Job to China) – Send your work overseas: get canned.
Send 100 jobs overseas: get a raise.
RE: Fact #18 (Hitman Chain Ends in Fake Murder) – So, Ling told Wei about this whole hitman plot—six months in the making! They cooked up a fake death plan, sending photos up to Tan. But Wei went to the cops while Tan was looking at those pictures. Tan and the five hitmen got charged with murder, and the hitmen got two to four years. Tan got five because he was the brains behind it all.
RE: Fact #40 (Chinese Eateries Laced Food with Opium) – Everyone’s gotta eat, right? So why bother with restaurants that don’t give away free drugs?
RE: Fact #40 (Chinese Eateries Laced Food with Opium) – It’s probably not much, unless their food’s pricey.
Edit: Nevermind, I read the whole thing. It’s poppy seed powder—cheap, not a great high, but super addictive!
Ever tried Burger King’s tacos? They’re made the same way.
RE: Fact #50 (Nude Loan Collateral Scandal in China) – If this image database gets hacked and everything’s leaked, every student will be suing and getting free loans. Sweet.
RE: Fact #17 (Panchen Lama Abducted by China in 1995) – Maybe the real Panchen Lama’s stuck in an iceberg, waiting to break free in a century.
Apparently, China is a very appearance-driven country, placing great value on the appearance of people and country rather than personality and political realities. I’m not saying this to be true, just an assumption based on several of the facts I read here. I may be entirely wrong, however.
RE: Fact #10 (China Ranked Most Irreligious in 2015) – Lots of people aren’t officially religious, even if they’re kinda Buddhist or Taoist.
Turns out my family isn’t Buddhist or Taoist, it’s Chinese Folk Religion. Lots of my relatives follow it, too. They used to practice it secretly back in China because snitches could get you in trouble with the government.
RE: Fact #46 (Hot Water Preferred in Chinese Culture) – A group of our Chinese colleagues trained with us for half a year. We had to unplug a water cooler because they weren’t drinking the water—it was too cold for them.
RE: Fact #47 (China Hid Poisoned Formula to Save Olympics) – Chinese still aren’t confident about the baby formula sold there, so people from China living elsewhere buy up lots of it, which sometimes leads to shortages.
RE: Fact #3 (China Requires Approval for Reincarnation) – Has anyone ever gotten busted?
RE: Fact #48 (Chinese Teen Graffiti in Egypt Sparks Outrage) – His parents had to say sorry! Looks like the kid needs to apologize and fix things. Actions have consequences.
RE: Fact #23 (Firms Hire White Actors for Fake Status) – My job at a Toronto Chinese agency meant lots of meetings with other Chinese firms – they liked having a white guy around for appearances. I’d just sit there, pretending to pay attention, even though it was all Cantonese.
RE: Fact #43 (Last Eunuch Castrated for Deposed Emperor) – Thanks a ton, Dad!
RE: Fact #20 (Nüshu: China’s Secret Script for Women) – So, Nüshu was mainly used in 19th-century China, just in certain areas. Nobody really knows where it came from, but it wasn’t some big secret. Men knew about it, they just weren’t interested. The article basically said it was seen as similar to embroidery—a womanly thing. And, cool fact: unlike regular Chinese writing, Nüshu used syllables, so it needed way fewer characters.
RE: Fact #25 (Dragon Claws Showed Social Rank in China) – Messing up your claw number or colors? That was treason – your whole clan got the death penalty.
RE: Fact #34 (Man Had 20-Foot Tapeworm from Raw Beef) – For my bio lab, we dissected tapeworms we got from the local slaughterhouse.
RE: Fact #19 (Face-Changing in Sichuan Opera Is Top Secret) – I saw it live in Chengdu. The switch is crazy fast.
RE: Fact #10 (China Ranked Most Irreligious in 2015) – Lots of superstition is going around, though. When does it become a stand-in for religion? I mean, stuff like keeping idols in certain spots in the house, lucky numbers, and seeing differences as fate, punishment, or warnings.
In my Eastern traditions class, we talked about “Pop Religion” in China. It’s not really about a structured religion there, more like people pick and choose bits from different faiths.
RE: Fact #39 (Cockroach Farming Thrives Across China) – Just millions?
RE: Fact #26 (Egg Fried Rice Posts Protest Mao’s Son) – So, the article explains why. Mao Anying, working with General Peng, was in Korea during the war. He slept in one morning, grabbed some of the general’s eggs, and was cooking breakfast—against orders, because of air raid worries. Apparently, he died in a napalm attack; the fire from his egg fried rice gave him away. Some people aren’t sure that’s exactly what happened, but every year around October or November, folks online share egg fried rice recipes as a way to protest the Chinese government.
RE: Fact #46 (Hot Water Preferred in Chinese Culture) – In China, they think hot water fixes everything.
RE: Fact #41 (Drivers Sometimes Kill to Avoid Paying) – Retiring in China? Sounds like a risky move.
Seriously, check out YouTube dashcam videos—you won’t be sorry. I saw one where some guy totally face-planted into a parked car, cracking the windshield with his head.
RE: Fact #41 (Drivers Sometimes Kill to Avoid Paying) – The logic’s sound. It’s the ethics that are questionable, not the thinking.
RE: Fact #39 (Cockroach Farming Thrives Across China) – This feels totally like Snowpiercer.
RE: Fact #24 (Chinese Submarine Crew Suffocated at Sea) – Asphyxiation isn’t exactly quick. It’s more like they got sleepy and confused from lack of oxygen, then died slowly as their bodies gave out.
RE: Fact #5 (Diamond Sutra Found in Sealed Dunhuang Cave) – I’m really curious about what’s inside Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum’s main chamber. It’s over 2000 years old and still untouched! I hope I live to see it opened, but we’ll see.
RE: Fact #12 (Plastic Surgery Causes Chinese ID Issues) – That plastic surgery is amazing! It looks so real. No surprise so many YouTubers go to South Korea for it.
RE: Fact #44 (Tiananmen Soldiers Refused to Fire on Civilians) – The Chinese Communist Party used soldiers from the countryside, who didn’t even speak the same language, to do the worst jobs. That language difference made it harder for them to care.
RE: Fact #4 (Hong Xiuquan Thought He Was Jesus’ Brother) – They blasted Hong’s ashes from a cannon—no resting place for him, payback for the rebellion. Metal AF.
RE: Fact #32 (Boxer Rebellion Used Martial Arts Combat) – A lot of those rebellious fighters thought charms and talismans would keep them safe from bullets. They didn’t stand a chance against the British and their guns.
RE: Fact #30 (Ming Dynasty Bloodline Still Influential) – So, the UK has a similar story. A whole bunch of land there still belongs to the same families who got it way back in 1066 after William the Conqueror won. Their descendants still own tons of land almost a thousand years later.
RE: Fact #1 (Puyi’s Fall to Street Cleaner) – He was a real jerk, so don’t feel bad for him. Puyi was always pretty cruel, laying down really strict rules for his staff. Servants got whipped in the basement for things like chatting too much. “Take him downstairs” was a phrase that terrified everyone; he’d whip someone almost every day. He was into Buddhism, so he made everyone stop killing bugs and mice, but if he found any bugs or droppings in his food? The cooks got the whip. One time, a young guy ran away because Puyi was hitting on him, so Puyi had him beaten so badly he died. Then *he* had the guys who did the whipping punished.
RE: Fact #25 (Dragon Claws Showed Social Rank in China) – I really dig this kind of stuff.
One cool thing I learned: In Great Britain, sleeping with someone the king or queen is sleeping with is considered treason, married or not.
RE: Fact #21 (Zimbabwe Criticizes Small Chinese Condoms) – Some guys start measuring from the top, others from their, uh, you know… I start at the back of my neck. Gotta get that edge.
RE: Fact #12 (Plastic Surgery Causes Chinese ID Issues) – I went backpacking around Europe with a friend who’d dropped a ton of weight. Customs was a nightmare for her everywhere, but in Morocco, it was seriously dicey—looked like they weren’t letting her leave! I thought we’d miss her flight. Like, five people were scrutinizing her photo against her. First thing she did when she got home? Got a new passport.
It’s way easier to leave rich countries than get into them, from what I’ve seen.
RE: Fact #9 (Chinese Students Riot Over Exam Cheating) – Gaming’s got a big cheating problem too. In World of Tanks, the Chinese server’s flooded with cheaters. Their excuse? “If you’re not cheating, that’s your problem, not ours!”