10 things China does better than anywhere else

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This story is part of a series highlighting superlatives of countries and cities around the world. Click here for pieces on France, the United States, Canada, Italy, India, South Korea and Hong Kong and watch for upcoming installments featuring other countries.

(CNN)Ask people for a list of things China is famous for and you might expect a healthy dose of sarcasm.

But cast aside cynicism and you'll find a number of incredible things China does best.

We've got 10 of them right here.

Pork

As the first place to domesticate pigs, we can be sure China knows a thing or two about making pork delicious.

According to the U.S. National Pork Board, the earliest evidence of domestication of the wild boar can be dated to 4900 BC in China.

Historically, the animal has been so integral to Chinese society that the Chinese character for "home" is a pictogram of a pig with a roof over its head.

Today, China is the world's top producer and consumer of hogs -- and, wow, how it's consumed.

There are arguably two pinnacles of pork cooking in China: dongbo rou, a glistening block of braised pork belly prized for the melt-in-mouth fat and char siu, a sweet-salty cut of meat barbecued til tender and smoky.

Both dishes are tricky and time-consuming to create, but so worth it.

We love and respect the traditions of the entire world of barbecue out there, but China's unparalleled experience and variety of dishes places it atop the pork pile.

Indoor sports

So China isn't all that great at football -- so what?

Its state system of athletic training has perfected a foolproof method for producing top gymnasts, ping pong champs, badminton aces and diving divas.

Since it first participated in the modern Olympics in 1984, it's steadily risen toward the top of the medals table.

Chinese-style athleticism reached a climax at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing when the country garnered 51 gold medals and ranked number one overall.

Although a top contender in diving and gymnastics, Chinese competitors are practically unbeatable at badminton and table tennis, winning more gold medals in these events than any other country at the Olympics.

In comparison, the United States is undeniably the long-standing king of the Olympics, but it's had an 18-Olympic head start on China.

Pragmatism

Idea for a thoughtful gift? Cash.
Idea for a thoughtful gift? Cash.
China's achievements today, including several of the items on this list, can be credited to a deep sense of pragmatism, which assesses most situations by looking at the practical consequences of actions.

On a policy level, China will engage with any country, regardless of moral standing.

As Deng Xiaoping, architect of modern China, famously said: "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice." Deng pretty much captured the political and entrepreneurial zeitgeist for the past few decades.

On a grassroots level, Chinese people embrace pragmatism on a daily basis.

The philosophy explains most of China's customs and cultural norms, including the gifting of hongbao (red envelopes filled with cash), the importance of maintaining guanxi (interpersonal relationships) and filial piety.

Calligraphy

Calligraphy in China is an art form, a meditative practice, a scholarly pursuit and, nowadays, an investment.

With a rich tradition of calligraphy tracing back thousands of years, China reveres the works on paper by great masters, as well as the experimental new media calligraphic works of contemporary artists.

At auction, these calligraphic artworks routinely fetch millions of dollars, collected by connoisseurs around the world, such as the paper scroll "Gong Fu Tie," which sold for $8.2 million at Sotheby's New York in September 2013. The ancient work was written by the famous poet Su Shi and consists of just nine characters.

Copying

Why reinvent the wheel?

China is great at copying other people's version of the wheel and making it more affordable.

There's a cheap Chinese version of almost everything and anything, from luxury fashions to electronic gadgets.

While the iPhone 6 Plus is selling at almost $2,400 in China ($299 in the United States), counterfeit iPhone "models" sell for between $2 and $75 on China's online shop Taobao.

A copycat version of the Eiffel Tower? Small fry.

Try these ambitious copies of entire towns, such as the historic Austrian town recreated in Guangdong and the one of Manhattan proposed in Tianjin.

Building fast

Not just cheap -- China builds thing fast as well.
Not just cheap -- China builds thing fast as well.
A fast-growing middle class and an explosion in domestic travel means China needs hotels.

It's meeting the demand with the fastest, quirkiest and most impressive construction boom the world has ever seen.

Budget chain Hanting Inns boasts two hotel openings per day across China. The company expects to be the world's largest chain by 2020.

Meanwhile, a 30-story hotel was created in 15 days in Hunan Province at a cost of $17 million. The construction company is now aiming to pull off the same feat in eight days.

It's not just the cheap and cheerful the country excels in.

Check out these outrageously glamorous hotels that can be visited in China right away.

Tea

The first in the world to appreciate the simple drink made from steeping leaves in water, China has since developed a profound appreciation for tea.

Evaluated much in the way that wine is in the West, different teas have distinct characteristics depending on terroir, treatment and storage.

Was it picked before or after the rainy season? Were the leaves air dried, wok dried, fermented or aged?

Has the tea been steeped and served in earthenware and, if so, where did the clay for the teapot originate?

The culture of tea has become so integral to China and held in such esteem that prestigious varietals regularly sell for thousands of dollars per kilo -- it's practically currency.

Getting to high places

While the world's highest point, Mount Everest (8,848 meters), exists on the border between Nepal and China, and is claimed by both countries, this in itself isn't an achievement, just a geographical fact.

The triumph is in bringing the masses quickly and efficiently to the world's peaks.

China claims the world's highest railway.

The Tanggula Pass at more than 5,000 meters in the Tanggula Mountains can be traversed via the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.

Meanwhile, the new Daocheng Yading Airport in Sichuan Province lies at 4,411 meters and is the highest civilian airport.

It will be usurped by the proposed Nagqu Dagring Airport in Tibet planned at 4,436 meters, when it gets built in 2015.

Dumplings

China has countless styles of delicious dumplings.
China has countless styles of delicious dumplings.
The humble dumpling has been elevated to art form in China.

Nowhere can you find a diversity and sophistication that matches China's exhaustive list of dumpling variations.

Sure, many cuisines boast a savory or sweet dumpling, maybe even a fried dumpling, but China's got dumplings with transparent wrappers (the classic dim sum, har gow), dumplings in a mouth-numbing sauce (Sichuan's signature longchaoshou), dumplings that burst with soup at first bite (xiaolongbao), dumplings made with fish meat dough (Chiu Chow-style) ... let's just stop there or we'll be here all day.

The dumpling is also a marker of auspicious things in China: families gather during New Year celebrations to wrap and eat dumplings together in the hope of prosperous times ahead.

Olympic opening ceremonies

The world is still shaking in its boots from the raucous display of totalitarian jazz hands that opened the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

Whether you saw it as a spectacle of precision showmanship or the result of a lockstep society trying to freak out the entire planet, there's no denying it was the opening ceremony that made all others tremble in shock and awe.

The hour-long cinematic showcase, directed by celebrated filmmaker Zhang Yimou, incorporated every Chinese art form, from ink painting to acrobatics to tai chi and opera.

It succeeded in stirring patriotism at home and inspiring new fans abroad during an Olympics fraught with political tension and human rights issues.

Hong Kong-based freelancer Zoe Li writes regularly on Chinese art, culture, food and travel.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/08/travel/10-things-china/index.html
 
Why the character for 'family' has a pig inside a house
Updated: 2011-10-07 10:16

By Huang Weijia (黄伟嘉) and Huang Dekuan (黄德宽) (China Daily)
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16
Why the character for 'family' has a pig inside a house
"家"是人居住的地方,可是最早的"家"字里面为什么画的是一头猪呢?
家 means home.
The character 家 (jia) first appeared over 3,000 years ago on Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) bronzes. At that time, it was just a drawing that depicted a house with a pig inside it. Looking at the pictures, you can see that while one is quite complex and the other very simple, they're both lifelike.
Later, there were significant changes to the form of the character. On Shang Dynasty oracle bones, the character 家 slowly loses the feeling of being a drawing, and today's 家 is written with some of the strokes used to write all modern characters: dots, horizontal strokes, downward diagonal strokes both right and left, and so on. Although the form has changed, the structure hasn't. The top of the modern character (宀) still represents a house, and the 豕 below still represents a pig.
What was the earliest meaning of this character? More than 2,000 years ago, the first Chinese dictionary defined it as "home". In other words, 家 is a place where people live. So why is there a pig inside it and not a person?
One way of explaining it is that by the Shang Dynasty, animal husbandry had already been developed. People had domesticated pigs, sheep, oxen and horses. Because pigs were kept indoors with their owners, having a pig inside the house indicated that it was a place where people also lived; that's why "a house with a pig in it" could be used to write a character that meant "the place where people live". Sometimes in the oracle bones one can even see versions of 家 that depict a house with two pigs inside.
In the 3,000 years between the Shang Dynasty and the modern era, 家's meaning has been extended to include things that are related to home. The modern is most often used to mean "family" and "the place where a family lives". For example, when we say "our 家 has five people" or "the father is the master of the 家" it means family. When we say "our 家 is in Beijing, and going back to our 家 is very easy", the meaning is "the place where our family is".
家 can also be used to describe a certain kind of person or indicate an identity, as in 渔家 (yu jia, fisherman), 农家 (nong jia, farmer) and 东家 (dong jia, landlord). Additionally, 家 can be added to designate a school of thought. For example, 儒家 (Ru jia, Confucianism), 道家 (Dao jia, Daoism), 百家争鸣 (bai jia zheng ming, 100 schools of thought contend), and 一家之言 (yi jia zhi yan, one particular school of thought).
家 is also used to express a person who has mastered a specialized area of knowledge or a specific activity, like 专家 (zhuan jia, expert), 科学家 (ke xue jia, scientist), 社会活动家 (she hui huo dong jia, social activist), 画家 (hua jia, artist), 音乐家 (yin yue jia, musician), and 舞蹈家 (wu dao jia, dancer). The 兵家 in the expression 胜败乃兵家常事 (Sheng bai nai bing jia chang shi, victory and defeat are common in military operations) refers to someone who has mastered military affairs.
Sometimes, as a way of showing respect, people will call experts 大家 (da jia). For example, you might say that somebody is a calligraphy 大家, or somebody is a literary 大家. Here, we must be careful not to confuse this 大家 with the 大家 that's used to mean "everybody", as in ""请大家安静 (Qing da jia an jing. "Please be quiet, everyone.")
- Translated by Charlie Custer (葛亚辉)
Courtesy of the World of China, www.theworldofchinese.com

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2011-10/07/content_13843121.htm
 
they have the largest number of dead pigs floating in rivers......a world record.

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