November Quiz

The Romans named the land from where silk came from was called ‘Serica’ derived from the Chinese word for silk 丝 sī. It is from ‘Serica’ that the English word for silk is derived.

South-west of Taiyuan is the ancient town of Pingyao with many intact Ming and Qing dynasty buildings - including city walls and the Yamen. The town used to be an affluent banking center.

The character for good fortune 福 fú is pronounced the same way (in the Beijing dialect) is 蝠 fú for bat.

The province of Jiangsu has a population density of 771.83 people per square kilometer (2014 figures). Cities like Hong Kong and Beijing have a higher density.

From ancient times the Chinese made meticulous observations of the heavens. In 1093 a star map had 1,565 named stars.

Turpan (or Turfan) is the lowest place in China at 505 feet [154 meters] below sea level and hottest place in China (121 ° F [49 ° C]) with ancient aquifers providing the water supply via long, subterranean channels to keep the oasis green.

To remind you the Tropic of Cancer marks the northernmost places where the sun can be seen directly overhead in the northern hemisphere. The line runs through many desert areas.

The dramatic stone pinnacles of Wulingyuan Scenic Area (also called Zhangjiajie) is in the north west of Hunan province.

The Stone Forest at Shilin Yunnan is a popular tourist destination full of gray limestone pillars the size of tree trunks. The Peak Viewing Pavilion provides a panoramic view of the extensive area. Sani ethnic people act as guides and celebrate festivals mainly for the benefit of tourists.

Hong Xiuquan, a member of the Hakka minority people, had by 1847 taken control of the whole Guangxi province and went on to control most of southern China. The Taiping movement was inspired by Christian teaching.

Wade-Giles was the British system for writing Chinese with the western alphabet. It was in widespread use up until about 1970 when pinyin replaced it.

The Yi Jing consists of eight trigrams combined with all other eight trigrams to make the set of 64 hexagrams (gua). The trigrams are heaven, earth, lake, water, mountain, fire, wind and thunder.

Proficiency is a musical instrument was considered a sign of culture so together with calligraphy, poetry and painting a budding scholar would be expected to play a musical instrument. The guqin is a type of zither and it's distinctive sound is often heard on films about ancient China.

To the ancient core text of the Yi Jing were added ten commentaries or appendices attributed to Confucius that are called the ‘ten wings’; but these were probably written long after Confucius during the Han dynasty.

Lake Tian (Heavenly Lake) is a scenic spot in the far south. It is an old volcanic crater lake and straddles the border of Jilin with North Korea.