November Quiz

A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for November
1. What was the name given to the country of China in Roman times?
Assyria
Serica
Cyrenica
Silk road, Jiayuguan, fort
Fortress (14th century) at Great Wall of Jiayuguang, September 2009. Photo by Sigismund von Dobschütz available under a Creative Commons license .

2. What are the ten wings of the Yi Jing (I Ching)?
Appendices
Compass directions
Magical powers
Yi Jing, I Ching, Song dynasty
A page from a Song Dynasty (960-1279) printed book of the I Ching (Yi Jing, Classic of Changes or Book of Changes) , 17.7x11.9cm, printed book, in the National Central Library in Taipei. Image by Song era print artist available under a Creative Commons License

3. Many of the scenes of James Cameron's ‘Avatar’ film were made in which Chinese province?
Hebei
Hunan
Anhui
Hunan, mountains, landform, view

4. Tian (crater lake) is an emblem of North Korea, which Chinese province shares it as a border?
Liaoning
Anhui
Jilin
Jilin, Changbai, lake, view
Crater lake, Tian chi on the border of China and North Korea

5. Who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion?
Lin Zexu
Zheng Chenggong
Hong Xiuquan
Taiping rebellion, flag
Flag of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Image by Samhanin available under a Creative Commons License

6. Which province (excluding the metropolitan areas) has the highest population density?
Jiangsu
Zhejiang
Guangdong
Tiananmen Square, crowd
2004 PRC National Day at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China. What a crowd! Image by pfctdayelise available under a Creative Commons License

7. Which is NOT one of the names of a Yi Jing Trigram?
Thunder
Earth
Stone
calligraphy, fu character, good fortune
Fu character

8. Why are bats considered lucky?
symbol of Emperor
bats catch insects
name sounds like fortune
bat
Five bats in the outer ring surrounding the character for longevity. Wishing good fortune and a long life.

9. A scholar used to be expected to be proficient at playing which musical instrument?
Erhu
Dizi
Guqin
music, erhu
Erhu players at Tianjin University Copyright © Dreamstime see image license

10. Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles who developed the Wade-Giles system to write Chinese were both professors of Chinese where?
Edinburgh, Scotland
Harvard
Cambridge, England
children, school
Girl doing school work

11. The stone forest (Shilin) can be found in which province?
Yunnan
Gansu
Guangdong
Yunnan, stone forest, landform
Stone forest (Shilin) near Kunming, Yunnan

12. What makes Pingyao in Shanxi a popular visitor attraction?
Qing and Ming houses
Waterfall
Sacred mountain
Guangdong, Guangzhou, modern housing, view
View of Guangdong's provincial capital: Guangzhou

13. The second lowest place (depression) in the world is located whereabouts in China?
Golmud, Qinghai
Lop Nur, Xinhiang
Turpan, Xinjiang
modern housing, city, Hangzhou
Hangzhou modern district

14. By 1093 how many stars had been individually named in China?
823
1,565
12,976
mansions, xiu
The twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese astronomy. May 2008. Image by Mysid available under a Creative Commons License

15. Together with Yunnan and Guangdong, which other province lies on the Tropic of Cancer?
Hainan
Guangxi
Anhui
Fujian, Wuyishan, landscape, river
Wuyishan Mountain, Fujian
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