Chinasage : All about China
China sage's information will be of use to anyone keen to learn more about the world's upcoming nation. We cover all aspects of China in hundreds of detailed pages which include all sorts of cultural traditions , descriptions of every Chinese province and history , including all the dynasties. We hope you make ChinaSage the home for your study of China.
You can also check out your knowledge of China with our Quiz section .
Traditions
About Chinasage
We’re building an extensive set of information all about China. We found other sites too detailed (such as Wikipedia) or just too old-fashioned. What we thought was needed was a carefully constructed site with strict editorial control so that everything is consistent and easy to navigate without clutter.
The name “Chinasage” came about because it can be read as either “China sage” (中 国 英 明 zhōng guó yīng míng ) or “China’s age” (中 国 时 代 zhōng guó shí dài ) , which promotes our new knowledge resource at a time when China has come of age in the world.
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
Getting by in China There are many customs and traditions that you should know before traveling to China. Our customs page covers such things as giving gifts, banquets, sealing business deals and how to behave in public. A respect for age old traditions will impress your hosts who will appreciate your efforts to embrace the culture. Read more…
Mandate of Heaven The emperor ruled China not by individual right but because he possessed the 'Mandate of Heaven'. When this is lost by mis-management, ill fortune or corruption he loses the mandate and the people have the right to depose him. Read more…
Year of the ... Most people are familiar with the twelve years and their animals. Chinese astrology is about the year of birth rather than the month of birth and so all people born in a particular year share some characteristics. Even to this day couples arrange birth of children to fall in 'lucky' years. Read more…
Fish for good fortune Fish (渔 yú) have been a frequently used symbol for good fortune for centuries. This is because 余 yú means 'surplus; abundance' and so a picture of a fish is a wish for prosperity. They are often eaten at Chinese New Year partly as a symbol for a wish for abundance in the coming year. Read more…
How to write Chinese characters Many Chinese spend a great deal of time studying calligraphy. To be able to write (or more accurately paint) Chinese characters requires lots of practice as well as knowing both the brush strokes and the order in which to make them. Read more…
Buddhism in China Buddhism came into China from northern India over a thousand years ago and within a short space of time became the dominant religion. There remain many Buddhist temples dotted all over China that have managed to survive into modern times. The Buddha lived his life in Nepal, on China's doorstep and preached about of the relief of suffering by resisting desires of all kinds. Read more…
All about bamboo The most versatile of plants is the bamboo, it is used as food and for baskets, tubes, scaffolding, musical instruments and much more. In south-west China it forms vast forests. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
Chinoiserie - the style that conquered the world When the Jesuit mission returned reports of the splendors of China in the early 17th century a fascination for anything of the exotic Chinese style took hold. As tea drinking became very popular, China porcelain came into great demand. In addition the Chinese style of naturalistic rather than regimented order took hold in all the grand gardens. Read more…
History
Dip into history Our history section has a page for each major dynasty, for the whole period from the time of myths and legends 5,000 years ago all the way through the Han, Tang, Song, Ming dynasties to the last great dynasty the Qing. Read more…
Quintessence of the Nation Traditional Chinese Opera was the entertainment of all Chinese over many centuries. A long evening performance contains elements of drama, music, comedy, acrobatics and martial arts. Each region has its own distinctive form. Over time complex body movements represent specific meanings as a very sparse set is used. The art form has inspired many Western composers and playwrights to emulate the style. Read more…
The Qin Dynasty The brief spell of rule by the Qin (only 15 years) defined much of what we now about China. The totalitarian rule of Qin Shihuangdi set common standards for all sorts of things across his new vast empire including measurements and the Chinese script. Read more…
The 13 Ming Tombs The tombs of the 13 Ming Emperors is one of the largest and most lavish burial complexes anywhere in the world. Like the Valley of the Kings in Egypt the tombs are scattered around a valley of 17 square miles but here only one tomb has been excavated and was found to be completely intact. Read more…
Macau
Macau has overtaken Las Vegas as the top city for gambling in the world. It has the largest casino anywhere. Rich Chinese visitors come to the semi-autonomous district for short breaks to spend time and money in the casinos and at the horse races. Read more…
Relations with Taiwan - the One China Policy An exploration into the current debate about the status of Taiwan with a look into the complex history and some thoughts on the future. Read more…
The building of China's railways The building of railways became a competitive scramble in the late 19th and early 20th century. Railways were seen as the key step to opening up inland China for trade. Britain, France, Germany, Japan and America all invested heavily in railway construction only for the the money to be lost in the following years of turmoil. Read more…
Proverb
冰 冻三 尺,非 一 日 之 寒
Bīng dòng sān chǐ, fēi yí rì zhī hán Three feet of ice is not formed in a single day
It takes time to achieve satisfactory results.
Roughly equivalent to: Rome was not built in a day.
All about Chinese proverbs
Geography
China's diverse geography China has deserts, mountains, lakes, rain forests and almost every other type of geographical feature you can think of. Our geography section has pages for each individual province as well as the great Yangzi and Yellow rivers. There are also pages on climate, cities, population, ethnic people, airports and universities. Read more…
Philippines and China The Philippines represent the most distant of China's neighbors across the South China Sea . Extensive trade over the centuries and the Spanish and then US occupation has its legacy in relations with mainland China. Read more…
The Hidden Kingdom Protected by mountains on three sides and the Yangzi river on the other, Sichuan has the feel of an isolated kingdom. Historically Chinese culture has held out longest here when China came under attack. It has hot, moist summers and has been heavily populated for two thousand years. Read more…
China's ancient heartland The modern province of Shaanxi has many sites of historic interest. Perhaps none more so than the tomb of the First Qin Emperor with its thousands of Terracotta warriors. With the great Yellow River, mountains and arid areas there is a great deal of scenic beauty too. Read more…
Chinese Cities We have all the important statistics on all the major cities in China. Gives Population, Chinese name and shows map of location within China as well as calculating distances to any other Chinese city. Read more…
Cracking China book
Your A-Z key to understanding China
We are proud to announce a printed book all about China based loosely on this web site. It is a set of sixty topics in A-Z order covering everything from hair to kiwifruit, clapping to rhubarb, eunuchs to dragons. Buying a copy will help support Chinasage . Now available as a Kindle eBook for just $3.90.
Details... ➚
Proverb
纸 包 不 住 火
Zhǐ bāo bù zhù huǒ
Paper can not wrap up a fire
The truth can not be concealed.
Roughly equivalent to: Truth will out.
All about Chinese proverbs
Language
The Chinese Language The Chinese language is rightly treasured as the country's greatest accomplishment. Our language section describes the language and its history. The section includes some introductory lessons and a guide to writing the characters. Read more…
Good fortune You will often see the character for good fortune 褔 fú on decorations and gifts. 'Fu' is also associated with bats and oranges and this has a surprising explanation... Read more…
Ancient stone writings Stone steles form the most permanent of records. Over the centuries they have been used as memorials, reference libraries, calligraphy samples and poems. Visitors to China will have seen these revered inscriptions in all sorts of locations: mountains, houses, parks and museums documenting the lives and feelings of people over the centuries. They are a powerful and permanent expression of the continuity of Chinese history. Read more…
Chinese Character Details The history and structure of many common Chinese characters is a fascinating study. In this section we look in details at a few hundreds of them. Read more…
Engineer Leaders
All three recent Presidents of China studied engineering at University. Jiang Zemin : Electrical Engineering, Shanghai 1947; Hu Jintao : Hydraulic Engineering, Beijing 1965 and Xi Jinping : Chemical Engineering, Beijing 1979. Read more…
Best China Sights In this page we give information on the top attractions all over China to tempt you to explore further. Each attraction is clearly marked on a map and further information on each place is readily available. From furthest Heilongjiang to Hong Kong and Lhasa to Shanghai we have selected the top travel highlights. Read more…
Bits and Pieces
We need your help to keep the Chinasage web site growing. We'd love to keep this web site completely free of advertisements like Wikipedia. Please consider becoming a Patreon subscriber for however little or much you can afford. We have been running this campaign for two months and have so far raised only 10% of our target. So please help… or else advertisements will make a comeback!
To read more and take out a subscription simply click on the Patreon button below, it will take you to the Patreon web site where you can subscribe simply and securely.
Many thanks, much appreciated.
Tue 20th Sep 2022Patreon pictures Thanks to the generous donations from Chinasage's Patreon ➚ sponsors we've just added quality photographs to many of our pages.
Although you can get images of all sorts of thing for free you do still have to pay for quality, particularly for specialist subjects. This time we have used 123rf for the new images who claim to have 200 million images to choose from. It takes a long time to make a choice and then they all need editing for usage, tagging and finally putting on the appropriate place on our hundreds of pages. We hope you will agree that they make a significant improvement.
New Year dragon, Shanghai Read more…
Southern refuge
When northern China was overrun by Khitans and then Mongols 800 years ago the Imperial Song family moved to Hangzhou . It proved to be a peaceful and prosperous time for 150 years. In memory of this period some scenes of Hangzhou are still to be found in the long corridors of the Summer Palace , Beijing.
The standing of women in China Attitudes to women have changed greatly in China over the centuries. The traditional subservient position of women in society was removed in only the last sixty years but there yet to be a woman appointed to the top rung of government. Our section describes the role of women down the centuries including the role of concubines and how some Imperial women bucked the trend. Read more…
The Long March The epic tale of the struggle of thousands of soldiers over thousands of miles of challenging terrain has been held up as the chief heroic episode in the early days of the Communist party. It was during the Long March that Mao Zedong emerged as leader with his own vision for the future of China. Read more…
Dragons, master of rain and water The Chinese dragon is no fire-breathing monster, in China they are regarded as powerful but benevolent. As dragons are masters of rain, water and sea they need to be brought on your side if you want a good harvest, and so they need suitable offerings. The Dragon Boat festival is when everyone seeks to appease the dragon kings. Read more…
Yangzi River The mighty Yangzi River is the longest in China and third longest in the world. It has carried huge quantities of people and goods over the centuries. Many great cities lie close to its banks: Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai. Read more…
China's Armed Services
The active armed services of China numbered 2.3 million in 2016, the largest force in the world, but due to China's huge population it is only 114th on a per capita basis well behind most industrialized nations. Read more…
Qilian mountains on the border of Gansu and Qinghai
Conventions
We use a consistent style for links within Chinasage. An internal link taking you to another page within our site is shown like this while a link to a page on any other web site is shown like this ➚ .
We use Chinese characters wherever appropriate. Most browsers should display both the characters and the pinyin correctly. We highlight any use of the older Wade Giles system for 'spelling' characters. Except where stated all characters are the modern simplified form used in the People's Republic rather than the traditional ones (pre-1970s). To help you learn Chinese characters many of the very common characters are highlighted thus: 中 hovering the mouse over the character will pop up a box showing further information about it.
Dates are given using the BCE/CE ➚ (Before Common Era and in Common Era) year convention rather than BC/AD. If a date is not followed by BCE or CE it should be taken as CE.
Authorship
All the text on the Chinasage web site is my own, I do not copy and paste from other web sites. I research each topic from a number of authoritative sources (mainly books ). The only exception to this are quotations and image credits. All text is our copyright and can not be used/copied without my permission. I am independent of any other company or government, the opinions expressed are my own. I do not receive funding or backing from any agency or organization .
Teacup Media (China History Podcast)
I am delighted to be able to promote links to Laszlo Montgomery's excellent Teacup Media ➚ series created over the last 15 years. Laszlo Montgomery ➚ has in depth knowledge of building commercial contacts with China over 30 years. The set of 290 podcasts totals 150 hours of audio commentary which covers every conceivable topic in Chinese history. Highly recommended.
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the many people who have put their photographs online for anyone to adapt and use. Without them this site would be very drab. If I am not using the image license correctly please let me know. I am grateful to Kim Dramer ➚ for permission to use her short videos all about Chinese culture and traditions. Patreon subscribers have supported the web site and allowed us to amongst other things purchase some quality images of China for use here. Some pages use Javascript ➚ to create special effects such as our airport table and calendar . I am grateful to the original authors for providing their code to be used and adapted by anyone else. The online Chinese dictionary uses the definitions from the CC-CEDICT project ➚ for which I am grateful for a generous free license. Sound files kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.
Feel free to contact Chinasage to point out any errors, omissions or suggestions on how to improve this web site.
If you would like to support my work and keep us independent become a Patreon or make a Donation via Paypal.