Facts about China 1.) 21% of China's population lives in urban areas and 79% in rural areas. 2.) China's national anthem is "The East is Red." 3.) The capital of China is Beijing or Beijing. 4.) The name of the currency in China is Yuan. 5.) Life expectancy in China for males is 65.5 and for females is 69.5. 6.) The literacy rate in China is 80%. 7.) The major religions in China are atheism, Buddhism and Taoism. 8.) In the 5th century AD the Chinese had calculated the value of pi to more than 10 decimal places. 9.) Gunpowder first exploded the iunAlchemist furnace around 800 AD and was quickly put to military use. 10.) The official name of China is the People's Republic of China (PRC). 11.) The total population of China is over 1,000,000,000, making up more than 1/5 of the world's population. 12.) China's coverage is 3.7 million square miles. 13.) The three largest cities in China are Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin. They are not part of any province. 14.) The Chinese language has more than 50,000 different words. 15.) The Chinese have trouble making typewriters. 16.) The Chinese read their books from top to bottom and from right to left. 17.) Ceramics is one of the most famous arts in China. 18.) The Forbidden City is within the Imperial City. The Imperial City is within the Inner City. The Inner City is located within Beijing. 19.) China is the third largest country by area after Russia and Canada. 20.) In 1949 the communists took power in China. 21.) There are 3400 islands off the coast. 22.) China's earliest recorded history dates back 3,500 years. 23.) The great paddlefish, giant panda, Chinese water deer, and salamander are found in China, but are extinct elsewhere. 24.) It is estimated that there are more than 35 cities in China with a population of over one million. 25.) Mount Everest is 29,028 feet tall and is the highest point on Earth. 26.)About 3/4 of the people are farmers. 27.) China has the oldest civilization in the world. 28.) The Chinese invented gunpowder, paper, porcelain, and silk fabric. 29.)About 94% of the Chinese population belongs to the Han nationality. 30.) China has the largest army, but not the strongest. 31.) The Great Wall of China was built to keep enemies away from China. It is approximately 4,000 miles long. 32.) Peking Man lived in China approximately 500,000