Think you know China?
Forget the Great Wall and pandas. This quiz is about the details โ a number that shaped the 2008 Olympics, an ancient earthquake detector, and a bowl of noodles older than most civilizations.
Did you know?
- China's Grand Canal, begun more than 2,000 years ago, is the longest artificial waterway in the world.
- Mandarin Chinese has more native speakers than any other language on Earth.
- Historical records say Zhang Heng's seismoscope once signaled an earthquake that no one in the capital had felt โ news of it arrived days later.
The ideas behind these questions
Much of what the world knows about China comes from a few famous symbols. These questions look at the everyday culture, nature and inventions behind them.
How sound shapes luck
Chinese has many words that sound alike, so numbers pick up meanings from the words they resemble. Eight suggests prosperity, which is why it appears in prices, phone numbers and even Olympic schedules.
An inventive ancient science
Long before modern instruments, Chinese scholars built devices to measure the natural world. Zhang Heng's seismoscope is one of the earliest known attempts to detect distant earthquakes.
Why millet, not wheat
Millet was one of the first grains farmed in northern China, thousands of years before wheat became common there. The Lajia noodles are a snapshot of that early diet.