Shocking Facts About China



China, officially the People's Republic of China, is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019.

  • China is the world's most populous country, with an estimated 1.4 billion people as of 2019, and the third-largest by land area.
  • China has the world's largest standing army and second-largest defense budget as of 2019.
  • 30 million people in China live on less than US $ 1 per day, as of 2019.
  • China is the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods.
  • China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year.
  • China executes the death penalty more than 4 times as the rest of the world combined.
  • In China, over 35 million people still live in caves.
  • Nearly 700 million Chinese people drink contaminated water.
  • The Sunrise in parts of China can be as late as 10 AM because the country joined its five time zones into a single one.
  • Almost a third of San Francisco's air pollution comes from China.
  • 78% of software installed in China in 2010 was pirated.
  • There's a bridge between mainland China and Macau, where cars switch from left to right hand drive and vice versa.
  • Every 30 seconds, a baby is born with a birth defect in China.
  • 1 in every 3 socks you have were made in the district of Datang in Zhuji, China, now known as "Sock City".
  • Every year, about a million girl fetuses are aborted and tens of thousands of girl babies are abandoned in China because of their one-child policy.
  • Table tennis is China's national sport.
  • The PlayStation is illegal in China.
  • If Walmart were a country, it would be China's sixth-largest export market.
  • By 2020, China could have between 30 million and 40 million men who cannot find wives.
  • In China, it is mandatory that cosmetic products are tested on animals while in Europe it's prohibited.
  • In China, you can major in Bra Studies.
  • A new skyscraper is built in China every five days.
  • The word 'censorship' is censored in China.
  • China has treatment camps for Internet addicts.
  • More people go to church on Sunday in China than in the whole of Europe.
  • Dyeing pets to look like other wild animals is a trend in China.
  • 71% of people in China measure success by the things they own, making it the world's most materialistic country.
  • Every year, nearly four million cats are eaten in China as a delicacy.
  • In 1973, China proposed to give 10 million Chinese women to the U.S. to boost the U.S. population.
  • Company executives in China can get sentenced to death for committing fraud.
  • China used more cement in 3 years (2011 to 2013) than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century.
  • In 2013, a Zoo in China angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan mastiff dog as a lion.
  • Half of all the world's pigs live in China.
  • The groundwater of 90% of Chinese cities is polluted.
  • Rich people in China hire body doubles to serve their prison sentence.
  • When a baby Panda is born, it's shipped by FedEx to China to help expand the gene pool.
  • China has 4 megacities of over 10 million people, the most of any country.
  • China Overtook The U.S. As The World's Largest Economy in 2014.
  • In China, it's illegal to use a wordplay or a pun in advertising or on television.
  • The first recorded use of Marijuana was in China, over 4700 years ago.
  • At least 20 million people died during the Taiping Rebellion in China, led by a man who claimed to be the brother of Jesus, and who attempted to impose a theocracy based on his interpretation of Christianity.
  • 20 million 20-year-old trees are cut down in China every year to make chopsticks.
  • There's a theme park in China called Dwarf Empire where the main attraction is all the entertainment employees are of short stature.
  • Air pollution in China increases snowfall in California.
  • 103 countries have abolished the death penalty. Notable exceptions include the U.S., Japan and China.
  • Just 7% of people in China are religious, making it the least religious country in world. Thailand has the most with 94%.
  • All pandas in the world are on loan from China.
  • An estimated 400,000 people died building the Great Wall of China.
  • China has mobile "execution vans" to enforce the death penalty without moving to a proper execution ground.
  • If you could dig a deep enough hole in Chinayou would end up in Argentina or Chile.
  • The Vatican does not recognize the People's Republic of China as a legitimate state of China.
  • It is estimated that about 600,000 people die in China each year from issues related to overwork.
  • In China, there is an "Elderly Rights" law which makes it illegal for anyone who has parents over 60 not to visit them regularly.
  • Brad Pitt was banned from China for his role in the movie "7 Years in Tibet."
  • The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake in China was the deadliest earthquake on record with 830,000 deaths.
  • Cockroaches are served fried in China, Thailand and other Asian countries.
  • Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in early 1900 in San Francisco.
  • Facebook, Twitter and The New York Times have been blocked in China since 2009.
  • Villagers in central China have long been using dinosaur bones as medicine, thinking they were from dragons.
  • In China, human trafficking is punished with the death penalty.
  • China's "SkyCity", planned in 2013 to be the tallest building in the world with a record-breaking construction time of just 90 days, is now a massive fish pond.
  • China is the country with the largest population of Buddhists, approximately 244 million or 18.2% of its total population.
  • Nearly two-thirds of the Great Wall of China have been damaged or ruined.
  • Legends say China began in a great flood, some 4,000 years ago. Scientists found geological evidence that the flood was real.
  • Currency shaped like knives was in circulation in China from 770 to 220 BC.
  • More than a quarter century after the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chinese authorities still censor information about it.
  • In 2013, female stockings covered in fake male hair became a fashion hit in China as a way to deter unwanted male attention.
  • In China, some families pay for "ghost marriages," employing a matchmaker to help find a suitable spouse for their deceased loved ones.
  • In 2015, a Chinese billionaire bought a US$170 million painting by with his credit card so he could use the points for free airfare.
  • Inhabitants of the Chinese town of Liqian have blond hair and white skin. Historians have speculated they are the descendants of a lost Roman settlement.
  • Female students in China outperform men to such an extent that some universities have 
  • introduced a male quota.
  • China is the world's largest consumer of red wine.
  • There are 93 million Wangs in China, is the most popular name in the country.
  • Most of the tallest buildings in the world are in China.
  • Chinese students can get 7 years in jail for cheating on exams.
  • In 2015 a Chinese woman who was missing for a decade and presumed dead was found living in an internet cafe after playing games for 10 years.
  • One-third of Chinese women have never heard of tampons.
  • The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary, records more than 23,000 head Chinese characters and gives over 370,000 definitions.
  • With 190 billionaires and more than two million millionaires, China tags just behind the U.S. in number of high-net-worth individuals.
  • Chinese scientist Tong Dizhou cloned the first fish in the 1960s, but the Maoist government forced him to abandon his research and become a janitor during the Cultural Revolution.
  • In 2005, the creator of China's biggest porn website was sentenced to life in prison.
  • 20 robots work at the Robot Restaurant in Harbin, China. They can deliver food, cook, usher and entertain diners.
  • In Hong Kong, more than 300,000 domestic helpers – mostly Filipina and Indonesian 
  • women – work up to 18-hour days, 6 days a week, for just HK$4,310 (US$ 555) a month.
  • No one has ever gotten a perfect score on the gaokao, the 9-hour Chinese college entrance exam.
  • Around 200 BCE, the Western Han Dynasty used a lottery to pay for repairs to and expansion  of the Great Wall.
  • In Beijing, one million people live underground in basements and air raid shelters.
  • Three surnames, Wang, Li and Zhang, make up for 21% of the Chinese population.
  • Speed bumps were installed to slow down pedestrians at a historic site in East China.
  • Beijing is the world's most expensive city for renters: a house rent is, on average, 1.2 times higher than the average salary, according to a 2016 report.
  • One-third of the population of China can't speak Mandarin, the country's official language.
  • If they were countries, the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and Jiangsu would be among the world's 20 most populous.
  • There is a common Chinese idiom that states, "The ugly wife is a treasure at home."
  • Rock Paper Scissors was invented in China, but popularized in Japan, where it's called "Janken."
  • There are about 459 "cancer villages" in China, small communities near polluting factories where cancer rates have soared far above the national average.
  • The Chinese Government controls the central heating for every home in Beijing.
  • The Chinese are the single biggest source of global tourism income.
  • The Chinese name for Winnie the Pooh was blocked on Chinese social media sites because people have been comparing the bear to China's President Xi Jinping.
  • China invests more each year in renewable power than any other country on earth.
  • In China, 171,000 people perished in 1975 due to the collapse of the Banqiao Dam, an event hidden from the world until 2005.
  • China gets a new billionaire every 5 days.
  • 90% of Chinese teenagers and young adults suffer from myopia (short-sightedness).
  • Canals are a Chinese invention – the Grand Canal of China is 1,103 miles long and was started in 486 BC.
  • In China, women who remain unmarried in their late 20s and beyond are called "Sheng nu" which means "leftover women."
  • Facebook has 95 million users in China despite being blocked.
  • The world's largest producer of cigarettes is a company owned by the Chinese government.


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