News Update/Interesting Facts About China

      Okay, first things first. My Visa Application is in the mail and will be coming back to me in a couple of weeks! I needed to get together a lot of documents, and since I have been formally accepted to Lanzhou University of Technology already and have a contact there, there is no reason for me to be turned down (not likely, anyway).
       Also, I am being registered for classes this coming week. Here's what I will be taking

• Intermediate Level Chinese (A comprehensive reading/writing/speaking/listening course)
• Intermediate Chinese Speaking
• Intermediate Chinese Listening
• China's Culture
• China's National Situation
• My Senior Thesis, which I will be talking about soon.

       However, I may not be able to do the National Situation course, but we'll see. I have not bought my plane tickets yet because I have not scraped together the money yet; it's hard to find people who want to give with the economical situation, which I understand.
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        Normally, people would call these "Fun Facts", but I absolutely hate that phrase, so I'll just leave it at Interesting Facts. 

• Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco.

• The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.

• Giant Pandas (“bear cat”) date back two to three million years. The early Chinese emperors kept pandas to ward off evil spirits and natural disasters. Pandas also were considered symbols of might and bravery

• The Chinese were the first to invent the waterwheel to harness water in A.D. 31—1,200 years before the Europeans. China was also the first country in the world to use an iron plow. Europe didn’t begin using the iron plow until the seventeenth century.

• "Chinese" is spoken by 92% of China’s population. There are at least seven major families of the Chinese language, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Min.

• The Chinese have made silk since at least 3,000 B.C. The Romans knew China as “Serica,” which means “Land of Silk.” The Chinese fiercely guarded the secrets of silk making, and anyone caught smuggling silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of China was put to death.

• In some parts of China, “pigtails” were associated with a girl’s marital status. A young girl would wear two pigtails, and when she married, she would wear just one. This may have contributed to the Western view that pigtails are associated with children and young girls.

• In Hong Kong , cars are driven to the left side of the road, following the British way, but the rest of China drives on the right side.

I didn't thoroughly check all of these like a historian normally would, but they sound believable enough ;) Anyway, that's that, hope everyone is doing well! Leave your thoughts/questions in the comments!