China’s World Best 中国的世界之最

Longest Man-made Architecture
The longest man-made architecture in the world is the Great Wall in China. It climbs and descends on the ridges of mountains in northern China and has a total length of more than 6,700 kilometers. It was first started during the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States periods.

The construction of the segments that later made up the Great Wall began during the Spring and Autumn Period and lasted into the Warring States Period (770-221 BC). Many feudal states built hundreds of li of wall fortifications as boundaries. These unlinked walls were the embryonic form of the Great Wall. In 221 BC, Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered the walls of the Qin, Zhao and Yan kingdoms in the north to be linked up and reinforced, after he united China. As one of the most magnificent ancient military defense works in the world, the Great Wall was listed in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1987.

The Great Wall is one of the oldest and greatest constructions in the world. Its construction work lasted for over 2,000 years. The best preserved and the most magnificent remains today were done in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was during the Ming Dynasty that the Wall took on its present form.

At that time, it stretched some 6,700 km from the Yalujiang River in the east to Jiayuguan Pass in the west through 11 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. In the latter part of 1950s, some sections of the Great Wall, reconstructed for many times, have become the most famous tourist sites in the world.

– Biggest Ancient Building Complex

The biggest and most complete ancient building complex is the former Imperial Palace (also known as the Forbidden City) in Beijing. It was imperial palace of both the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was first completed in 1420 and covers an area of 720,000 square meters.

The Forbidden City, now called the Palace Museum, is located in the center of Beijing. Starting in 1420, the Forbidden City was the home to 24 Chinese emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). Now, it has developed into the Palace Museum, which displays art treasures of the past dynasties and is the richest treasury of cultures and arts in China. Lofty and magnificent, the Forbidden City is acclaimed as one of the world five great palaces, ranking with Palace of Versailles in France, Buckingham Palace in Britain, White House in the United States and Kremlin in Russia, and was listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987.

Extending 750 meters east-west and 960 meters north-south, The Forbidden City covers 720,000 square meters, and is the largest palatial complex in the world and the most complete ancient architectural group extant in China. It has 9,999 buildings, and is called the Ocean of Palaces. No matter in terms of plain layout, three-dimensional effect or magnificent appearance, the complex is really an unparalleled masterpiece in the world. A central axis runs through the whole palace and the axis happens to be on the central axis of Beijing City. The Forbidden City is divided into southern and northern parts by the axis: The former served as the emperor’s work area and the latter as his living quarters. The main structures are arranged along the central axis, and the buildings on both sides of it are symmetrical.

The main structures in the work area that cannot be missed are the Taihe Dian (the Hall of Supreme Harmony), Zhonghe Dian (the Hall of Central Harmony) and Baohe Dian (the Hall of Preserved Harmony). All the three main halls are built on an eight-meter-high platform covering a total area of about 85,000 square meters. The Taihe Dian is the largest and most imposing hall. It is 60.1 meters wide, 33.33 meters deep and 35.05 meters high. Here the most important ceremonies of the feudal dynasties were held, such as the emperor’s enthronement, his marriage and his conferring of titles and issuing orders on expeditions. On these occasions, thousands of people chanted “long life, long life, and long, long life” to his majesty, and hundreds of musical instruments and bells and drums sounded in unison. Behind the Taihe Dian is the Zhonghe Dian, wher the emperor used to rest and receive officials before attending major ceremonies. The northernmost structure is the Baohe Dian, in which the emperor threw banquets and interviewed successful candidates for imperial examinations.

The living quarters include the Qianqing, Jiaotai and Kunning halls and the six lesser halls on the east and west sides, which together are called “three main halls and six lesser halls”, wher the emperor and his concubines lived. North of the living quarters is a small but exquisite imperial garden. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), all the emperors lived in the Qianqing Gong (the Palace of Heavenly Purity), while empresses lived in the Kunning Gong (the Palace of Earthly Tranquility). The Jiaotai Dian (the Hall of unio) was a place for the activities of the empresses. But in the middle and late periods of the Qing Dynasty, the emperors and empresses all moved to the six lesser halls on the west side. The most famous is the Yangxin Dian (the Hall of Mind Cultivation). It became the place wher most Qing emperors, starting from Emperor Yongzheng, lived and handled state affairs. It is also the place wher Empress Dowager Cixi attended to state affairs behind the scenes for as long as 40 years.

The whole complex is tightly guarded by two defense lines. One is the moat, which is 52 meters wide and six meters deep, surrounding the city wall; and the other is the city wall, which is 3,400 meters long, 10 meters high and 8.62 meters wide at the bottom. There are four gates: Wumen Gate to the south, Shenwu Gate to the north, Donghua Gate to the east and Xihua Gate to the west. On the four corners stand four turret towers, each with three layers of eaves and 72 ridges. They are masterpieces of the ancient architectural art.

Some halls in the Palace Museum have developed into the Hall of Historical Arts, the Hall of Jewelry, the Hall of Watches and Clocks, the Hall of Paintings, the Hall of Potteries, the Hall of Toys and so on. The museum has a collection of 1,052,653 pieces of ancient art treasures, accounting for one sixth of the total cultural relics in China. It is the museum with the richest collection of cultural relics in China, and also a world-famous museum of ancient cultural arts. Many cultural relics preserved in it are unique in the world.

–Greatest Canyon

The greatest canyon in the world is China’s Brahmaputra Canyon, 504.6 kilometers long and 6,009 meters deep at its deepest spot. Its average depth is 2,268 meters.

The river with the highest elevation in the world - the Yarlung Zangbo River, has its origin in the Jiemayangzong Glacier in the northern slope of the Himalayas. Its rapid currents roll on in waves towards the east; at the time when it passes Mt. Namjagbarwa in the eastern end of the Himalayas, it has a horseshoe-like bend along the peak. Thick and primitive forests cover the two banks of the river valley and a magnificent green canyon is brought before our eyes. That is the Great Yarlung Zangbo Canyon.

The Yarlung Zangbo Canyon slept soundly for millions of years. No one knows it is a global most. In the early of 1994, Chinese scientists found by accident that the Yarlung Zangbo Canyon, which cuts through the Himalayas, has an average depth of 5000 meters with the maximum depth of 5382 meters; from Pai to Baxika, the total length of the canyon is 496.3 kilometers.

Therefore, the great canyon is no doubt the deepest canyon on the globe. The discovery of this great canyon was acknowledged as “an important discovery on earth in the end of the 20th century”; but its unexpected discovery is a sure result of the long-term and backbreaking labors of generations of Chinese scientists. The mighty scenes of the great canyon give the whole world a pleasant surprise.

– Highest Plateau

The highest plateau in the world is China’s Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with an average height of 4,500 meters above sea level. The Himalayan Mountain is located in southern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its highest peak, Mount Qomolangma (or Mount Everest) is 8,848.13 meters above sea level. It is the highest peak in the world.

As the highest plateau on earth, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, situated in southwest China, is known as the “roof of the world”. Besides, it is also the largest plateau in China, covering 2.5 million square kilometers, or nearly a quarter of the national total land area. Surrounded and traversed by several mountain ranges, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is wher many of China’s major rivers originate. Boasting over 1,000 lakes, it is also a plateau with the most lakes worldwide, including the Qinghai Lake — China’s largest saltwater lake.

– Largest Public Square

The largest public square in the world is Tian’anmen Square in Beijing. It covers an area of 40 hectares.

The Tian’anmen Square found in the center of Beijing boasts the largest of its kind in the world. Over a hundred years, many ceremonies and demonstrations have been held here.

The grand of Tian’anmen Gate (Heavenly Peace Gate) is a national symbol with the Great Hall of the People on the western side and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and the Museum of Chinese History to its east and west.

The Monument to the People’s Heroes — the 36 meters high obelisk made of Qingdao granite, dominates the center of the square. The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Qianmen gate, sit in the south.

–Earliest and Longest Canal

The earliest and longest man-made canal in the world is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The canal was first built in the 5th century BC and was substantially extended twice during the Sui and Yuan dynasties. The canal begins at Tongxian County in Beijing in the north and ends in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province in the south and has a length of 1,794 kilometers and a drainage area of 4,583 square meters, with 24 locks and some 60 bridges.

The Grand Canal flows past Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang and links five major rivers — the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and Qiantangjiang River. The Grand Canal of China is the world’s oldest and longest canal, far surpassing the next two grand canals of the world: Suez and Panama Canal.

– Rarest Animal

The Giant Panda of China is one of the rarest animals in the world. Giant pandas live in remote high mountains in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces and eat bamboo. They are a surviving species of the Fourth Ice Age and are known as a “living fossil”. They are regarded as China’s “national treasure”.

Genus and Species    Ailuropoda melanoleuca
Family    Ursidae
Order    Carnivora
The Giant Panda is a large sturdy bear-like mammal with a very thick woolly black and white coat. The ears, eye patches, legs and shoulders are black and the rest of the body is white. The nose is black. The forepaws have an extended pad on the sole and on the first digit to assist in climbing and grasping bamboo. Giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach 220 pounds.

Although it has a body like a carnivore, closely related to the bear family, Giant Panda specializes in mainly vegetarian diet, consisting mainly of the shoots and roots of bamboo. They sometimes eat other plants such as horsetails and pine bark. They also occasionally eat carcasses and catch small animals.

They inhabit in mountain forests with dense stands of bamboo, at an elevation of between 1400 and 3500 meters, but descending as low as 800 meters in winter. They live mostly on the ground but are good tree climbers, often sheltering in hollow trees, rock crevasses and caves.

The Giant Panda is mostly shy and nocturnal. They are solitary, with individual home ranges of about 2.5 square kilometers, but they share the surrounding areas with other individuals. During the mating season they may expand the sizes of their ranges. They mark their trails with scent from an anal gland. Adult giant pandas are generally solitary, but they do communicate periodically through scent marks, calls, and occasional meetings.

Scientists are not sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it is shorter than lifespan in zoos. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35.

The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation unio’s (IUCN’s) Red List of Threatened Animals. There are about 1,000 left in the wild. about 140 pandas live in zoos and breeding

– Oldest Tree

The oldest tree in the world is China’s gingko, which first appeared during the Jurassic Age some 160 million years ago.

COMMON NAME    Ginkgo
LATIN NAME    Ginkgo biloba
FAMILY NAME    Ginkoaceae
ALIAS NAMES    Ginkgo Tree, Maidenhair Tree
PLANT PARTS USED    Leaves
The Ginkgo is the sole survivor of a primitive order of plants dating from more than 200 million years ago. Now, the trees shoot forth sprouts in spring, and their leaves turn glowing yellow in autumn, decorating many parks or roadsides nationwide.

Surviving about over a million years, the Ginkgo has remained basically unchanged which has been verified by 200-million-year-old fossils. Because of the trees survivability and hardiness, it was believed to increase stamina and longevity and has been called The Fountain of Youth. The wood is hard and corrosion-resistant, a good choice for furnishings.

The earliest known medicinal use dates back to 2800 BC. Gingko today seems to becoming the herb of choice. European researchers have been constantly studying ginkgo since the 1960’s. In 1995, gingko was ranked 5th in popularity at U.S. health food stores.

Gingko is being used for a wide variety of ailments from senility, asthma and allergies, tinnitus (Ringing in the ears) and Fibromyalgia. It is also used as an anti oxidant to improve circulation, brain functions and memory. The seeds are said to possibly contain anti cancer properties and are sedative and astringent.

A blind study showed positive results in early stages of Alzheimer’s disease over a period up to 3 months. Some improvement showed in 1 month.

– Biggest and Earliest Encyclopedia

The biggest and earliest encyclopedia in the world is the Yongle Encyclopedia (Yongle Da Dianin Chinese), complied between 1403 and 1408 in the Ming Dynasty by more than 2,000 scholars. It consists of 22,937 volumes.

Yongle is the reign name of the Ming emperor Yongle (1402-1424). The original edition of this large work was comprised of 917,480 pages — in 11,095 bound books divided into 22,937 volumes. Produced by a commission of over two thousand scholars in 1408, it purported to record all knowledge of the Confucian canon, Buddhism, history, philosophy, astronomy, geography, medicine, and the arts. Although a printed edition was intended, multiple production of such a massive text proved prohibitive. Instead, one manuscript copy was made in 1567.

Later, the original book was lost. Some say it was buried with the Ming emperor. Then, during the Boxer Rebellion (the Siege of Peking) in 1900, the Han-Lin Academy, wher the copy had been housed since the late Ming Dynasty, was set on fire. The Yongle Encyclopedia — along with the library –was almost entirely destroyed. It is estimated that only about 400 books remain in the world, in eight different countries and regions.

–Language With Largest Number of Speakers

The Chinese language is the language that has the largest number of speakers, more than 1.2 billion, throughout world.

Chinese is spoken by more people than any other language in the world. Since estimates of the current population of China are only approximate, figures for the number of speakers of Chinese must likewise be approximate. An educated guess would be about 1.2 billion in the People’s Republic of China, to which must be added another 20 million on Taiwan, 5 million in Hong Kong, 4 million in Malaysia, l.75 million in Singapore, one million in Vietnam, and lesser numbers in other countries including the United States. Thus Chinese has more than twice the number of speakers of English, though of course it lacks the universality of English and is spoken by few people not of Chinese origin. Chinese has been an official language of the United Nations since the founding of the organization in 1945.

Though Chinese has many dialects, Mandarin, based on the pronunciation of Peking, is considered the standard and is spoken by about two-thirds of the population.

Chinese is a tonal language, meaning different tones or intonations distinguish words that otherwise are pronounced identically. The four Chinese tones are (I) high level; (2) high rising; (3) low rising; (4) high falling to low.