February monthly Quiz

China has always been a very inventive nation with very many everyday objects and technologies discovered there.

Mercury in the form of cinnabar (mercury sulfide) was traditionally used for the ink paste used for seal marks on documents and paintings. All mercury compounds are rather toxic. The strange properties of cinnabar made it a popular elixir that was intended to give people a longer life but had the opposite effect.

There are many ethnically Korean people on the Chinese side of the border with North Korea. Dandong is on the Yalu River that forms the boundary between the two countries.

Shenyang, then known under the Manchu name of Mukden was the scene of a Japanese plot to legitimize the seizure of Manchuria. Japanese agents planted a bomb under a raiway line and blamed the attack on Chinese nationalists.

In the summer heat it is the cities close to the Yangzi river in southern China that have a reputation for being unbearably hot and humid.

The flooding of the Yellow River has been the scourge of northern China for thousands of years. It is the legendary emperor 'Yu the Great' who is said to have put in the first flood prevention measures.

The bamboo plant that grows well in China and its tough leaves have been used to make paper for centuries.

Emperor Yao (2333 - 2234 BCE) chose Emperor Shun as his successor rather than one of his own ten sons on the basis of Shun's merit. The importance of choosing the best person for a job rather than family/friends had huge repercussions. The innovation was only taken up elsewhere ater many centuries.

Pudong means 'east of the Huang Pu river'. Before the 1980s only the western bank had been developed

When the key Chinese invented the compass they only used naturally occuring magnetic lodestones. These were carved into a delicately balanced ladle that would swivel to always point south (in China south not north is the most important direction).

The low lying land with its many canals made it an ideal place to create gardens. Some gardens in Suzhou are world famous and give UNESCO protection status.

The Metasequoia or Dawn redwood was found as a fossil in rocks dating to 100 million years ago before it was discovered still living in China.

The original Grand Canal route ran from the old capital at Luoyang to Hangzhou. It was only after Beijing became the capital in the Yuan dynasty that the extension was made and the old route to Luoyang bypassed.

The distinctive, traditional round structure acted as a refuge for the community of several large families should they come under attack. It also held storerooms, mainly for tea which is the main crop where the Tulou houses can still be found in Fujian.

Although men took military posts throughout much of Chinese history (apart from a few notable exceptions such as Mulan) if you go back over 3,000 years then some women were appointed as military commanders. Lady Hao ➚, whose tomb has been excavated, is the best known example.