A monthly tough quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for July
1. The grand canal link used to originally link which city to Hangzhou?
Luoyang
Jinan
Zhengzhou
The original Grand Canal route ran from the old capital at Luoyang to Hangzhou. It was only after Beijing became the capital in the Yuan dynasty that the extension was made and the old route to Luoyang bypassed.
2. The tulou houses of the Hakka people are mostly found in which province?
Fujian
Anhui
Hubei
The distinctive, traditional round structure acted as a refuge for the community of several large families should they come under attack. It also held storerooms, mainly for tea which is the main crop where the Tulou houses can still be found in Fujian.
3. During the Ming dynasty most paper was made from the leaves of which plant?
banana
bamboo
oak tree
The bamboo plant that grows well in China and its tough leaves have been used to make paper for centuries.
4. Which chemical element traditionally provided the red color for seals and inks?
mercury
antimony
iron
Mercury in the form of cinnabar (mercury sulfide) was traditionally used for the ink paste used for seal marks on documents and paintings. All mercury compounds are rather toxic. The strange properties of cinnabar made it a popular elixir that was intended to give people a longer life but had the opposite effect.
5. Suzhou in Jiangsu province is famous for what?
ancient tombs
tea
gardens
The low lying land with its many canals made it an ideal place to create gardens. Some gardens in Suzhou are world famous and give UNESCO protection status.
6. Who is mostly attributed for taming the Yellow River?
Mao Zedong
Yellow Emperor
Yu the Great
The flooding of the Yellow River has been the scourge of northern China for thousands of years. It is the legendary emperor 'Yu the Great' who is said to have put in the first flood prevention measures.
7. Which of these items is not claimed as a Chinese invention?
toothbrush
porcelain
gunpowder
China has always been a very inventive nation with very many everyday objects and technologies discovered there.
8. Early compasses were often made in the form of what?
swan
needle
ladle
When the key Chinese invented the compass they only used naturally occuring magnetic lodestones. These were carved into a delicately balanced ladle that would swivel to always point south (in China south not north is the most important direction).
9. What was the 'Mukden incident' of 1931?
attack on Chiang Kaishek
outbreak of plague
railway sabotage
Shenyang, then known under the Manchu name of Mukden was the scene of a Japanese plot to legitimize the seizure of Manchuria. Japanese agents planted a bomb under a raiway line and blamed the attack on Chinese nationalists.
10. The Dawn Redwood is a living fossil which was 'rediscovered' in which province?
Hubei
Jiangxi
Heilongjiang
The Metasequoia or Dawn redwood was found as a fossil in rocks dating to 100 million years ago before it was discovered still living in China.
11. Pudong is a district of which major city?
Tianjin
Shanghai
Beijing
Pudong means 'east of the Huang Pu river'. Before the 1980s only the western bank had been developed
12. Emperor Yao is credited with which important innovation?
making silk
dams to control river flow
appointment on merit
Emperor Yao (2333 - 2234 BCE) chose Emperor Shun as his successor rather than one of his own ten sons on the basis of Shun's merit. The importance of choosing the best person for a job rather than family/friends had huge repercussions. The innovation was only taken up elsewhere ater many centuries.
13. Which three cities are considered the three furnaces of China?
Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shanghai
Beijing, Chongqing and Shanghai
Nanjing, Chongqing and Wuhan
In the summer heat it is the cities close to the Yangzi river in southern China that have a reputation for being unbearably hot and humid.
14. Lady Hao was a military leader from which dynasty
Qing
Shang
Han
Although men took military posts throughout much of Chinese history (apart from a few notable exceptions such as Mulan) if you go back over 3,000 years then some women were appointed as military commanders. Lady Hao ➚, whose tomb has been excavated, is the best known example.
15. Dandong is on the major crossing point to which neighbouring country?
Laos
Pakistan
North Korea
There are many ethnically Korean people on the Chinese side of the border with North Korea. Dandong is on the Yalu River that forms the boundary between the two countries.