November Quiz

A monthly quiz of general history, traditions, geography questions for November
1. Thomas Wade and Herbert Giles who developed the Wade-Giles system to write Chinese were both professors of Chinese where?
Cambridge, England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Oxford, England
children, school
Girl doing school work

2. Together with Yunnan and Guangdong, which other province lies on the Tropic of Cancer?
Guangxi
Hainan
Sichuan
Hainan, Haikou, modern housing
Haikou city, Hainan island

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

4. Which is NOT one of the names of a Yi Jing Trigram?
Stone
Mountain
Earth
jade, dragons, modern design
Jade disc, modern era, representing qi (vital energy) in the form of feline dragons. Image by Vassil available under a Creative Commons License

5. What makes Pingyao in Shanxi a popular visitor attraction?
Buddhist sculptures
Sacred mountain
Qing and Ming houses
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, temple
Qian King Temple on the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. October 2008.
Image by kanegen available under a Creative Commons license

6. What are the ten wings of the Yi Jing (I Ching)?
Compass directions
Magical powers
Appendices
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

7. By 1093 how many stars had been individually named in China?
823
523
1,565
mansions, xiu
The twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese astronomy. May 2008. Image by Mysid available under a Creative Commons License

8. Which province (excluding the metropolitan areas) has the highest population density?
Shandong
Zhejiang
Jiangsu
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

9. Many of the scenes of James Cameron's ‘Avatar’ film were made in which Chinese province?
Hong Kong
Hunan
Gansu
Hunan, mountains, landform, view

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

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

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

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

14. What was the name given to the country of China in Roman times?
Serica
Cyrenica
Assyria
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 .

15. The second lowest place (depression) in the world is located whereabouts in China?
Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
Golmud, Qinghai
Turpan, Xinjiang
city, Xiamen, modern architecture, skyscraper
New housing, Xiamen
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