Country of the Week: China!

The People’s Republic of China is located in East Asia and is home to over 1.3 billion people, accounting for a bit less than one-sixth of the global population. This country is mainly known for its Great Wall, martial arts, ancient history, tea, rice, temples, foods like dumplings, Confucianism, pagoda buildings, cheongsam dress, and way more. Check out the following facts about China!

• Sticky rice was the mixture used to bind the Great Wall’s stones together. Back then, estimated to be more than 1500 years ago, this mixture began to be widely used in construction, and it is strong enough to hold this massive structure which stands till today.

• 7th-century Emperor Tang of Shang had 94 ‘ice men’. According to the BBC, these men collected buffalo milk, flour, and camphor to make the dish, and is the precursor of ice cream. It was not exactly like the dessert we know today, but close enough. Marco Polo, an Italian explorer, is thought to have introduced ice cream to Italy after his trip to China.

• China and Japan are countries that are known for their numerous vending machines, and crazily, the first one which sold live crabs was launched in 2010 in a subway station close to Nanjing. Each crab is packaged in a plastic recipient at five degrees Celsius, which keeps them alive but is cold enough to put them to sleep.

• Chinese researchers wear panda suits to fool cubs. At the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda, workers dress up to minimize the panda’s contact with humans and prepare cubs to live in the wild. It is definitely an adorable and funny idea that seems to work!

• It is said that China’s military is training ten thousand pigeons, in order to use them as a communication system. These messenger pigeons would help them in times of war by delivering messages to allies and in between troops.

• According to FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) the Chinese invented football over two thousand years ago during the Han Dynasty in the second and third centuries BC. Later, the sport was refined and they named it “cuju”, which means “kick ball”.