The People's Republic of China The country with the world’s largest populationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htm1lXZGYvkhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQFEDdaG64o&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQFEDdaG64o&feature=related

News today, April 5, 2010

• http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/54511.html

• More than 100 Chinese miners were pulled out alive Monday after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine, where some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPKgAM9HbAk

Xi’an China, The Great WallTerra Cotta Warriors• http://www.youtube.c

om/watch?v=RsUE-ZtcUFg

The Great Wall of China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB4nXADdPPY&feature=channel

Bound feet

• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8966942

Bound feet

novel• Describes foot binding in a

painfully accurate way• Story centers on Nushu• “Nüshu is a syllabic script

created and used exclusively by women in Jiangyong Prefecture, Hunan Province, China. The women were forbidden formal education for many centuries and developed the Nüshu script in order to communicate with one another. They embroidered the script into cloth and wrote it in books and on paper fans.”

• Men could not read nushu.

The Cultural Revolution 1965 • Mao Zedong’s attempt to re-establish the original

concepts of communism in his country• Mao believed that “liberal bourgeois" ideals were

permeating the communist party and society at large and that they wanted to restore capitalism. Mao wanted these aspects of Chinese life removed. He enlisted young Chinese and formed Red Guard groups around the country.

• The first targets were culture and education. Students attending universities were the very first people affected by the Cultural Revolution.

Red Guards• The number

of ancient buildings, artifacts, antiques, books, and paintings which were destroyed by Red Guards were countless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaz8sVaK8s4&feature=related

Religion• Freedom of belief is a

government policy, and normal religious activities are protected by the constitution. Confucianism & Taoism are native to China. Buddhism was introduced from India. Islam came from Arab countries, and Christianity was introduced very early (in 635).

St. Ignatius Cathedral, Shanghai

The cathedral was originally built in 1906, but was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution; it has just recently been restored to its original beauty.

Beijing airport: the world’s largesthttp://www.earthtv.com/en/camera-destination/beijing-china

airport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttk8HdyQhxE&feature=related

Temple of Heaven, BeijingComplexof Taoistbuildings,Beijing

Where emporerand others went to pray for a goodHarvest

5.9 million dollarrenovationprior to the Olympics in 2008

Forbidden City, Beijing

Forbidden City• Imperial palace from the Ming

Dynasty (1368-1644) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)

• Located in the middle of Beijing

• For about 500 years it was the home for the emporer and his house

• Also the center of Chinese political and ceremonial life

• Built between 1406-1420• 7,800,000 square feet• Nearly 10,000 rooms• Landscaped gardens• Furniture, artifacts, etc.• Includes evidence of Manchu

Shamanism and its practice• Now is the Palace Museum• World Heritage site since 1987• Described as the largest

collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world by UNESCO http://whc.unesco.org/en/list

CCTV Headquarters, Beijing (and smog)

Smog in Beijing• http://www.youtube.c

om/watch?v=5IglDxdmYY8

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psuta_Z7v9Y&feature=related

Olympic Stadium shrouded in fog

Population• Beijing alone is home to 12,000,000 people

• (Canada has 33,930,830 total)

• Beijing is the most visited city in China during vacations