Interesting Cultural Findings (Part III)

The Chinese say that Beijing is their political center, Xi’an is their cultural center, and Shanghai is their economic center.

The Chinese totally believe in ghosts, but they believe the ghosts can’t lift themselves off the ground or turn corners so they build raised thresholds into their doorways and lots of turns into their hallways and homes.

We saw a bunch of fruit in Buddhist temples so we asked what it was all about. Apparently, the people pay to leave fruit on the altars so that it will become enlightened and then when the people eat the enlightened fruit, they become enlightened!

The red, round lanterns are for festival whereas the carved wood and paper/glass lanterns are for their homes.

80% of the Chinese population lives in the country/rural areas and are farmers, and 50% of the Chinese population lives along the Yangzte (Yellow) River.

In the Chinese language (Mandarin to be exact), “x” in words is pronounced like “sh” and “q” in words is pronounced like “ch.”

I'm beginning to pick up on the language a little. "Shan" means mountain. "Daxue" means university. "Lu" means road. Ha! Some of the Chinese characters that I see a lot are for entrance and exit and both have a common character that looks like it is just a box. That box literally means “mouth” while the character before it (when intending to mean exit) means “leave” – but together the two characters mean “exit.”

Entrance

Exit