Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Landing at one of the world's busiest airports, you take the 23-minute train to one of the world's tallest buildings. You better hope for good weather, because at most times of the year the ocean blows in a thick fog that lowers visibility. Funny, you didn't think so many people in China could speak English!
2. The two-hour KCR train will take you only a bit deeper into the country, but already there is much change in scenery. You pass through an industrial area and into one of the largest and richest cities in China. Many concrete bridges cover most of the main streets, giving an eerie feeling of urban claustrophobia, but you can take the metro just as easy to see YueXie park, Sun Yat-Sen's memorial hall, or the lovely ex-Portugese Shamian Island.
3. A night train takes 14 hours to your next destination, taking a long detour up north, then back southwest. Finally it arrives in a large city, and you go on to take a two-hour minibus ride down south to your next destination, a little town that is a main attraction for both foreign and Chinese tourists. As the minibus makes its way through the fog, suddenly huge white cliffs begin to appear out of the mists, towering high above your head. How strange this must seem, especially because you're on a plain! The town lies at the conjunction of two rivers, and is surrounded by many villages and farms. Many Chinese consider this place as a "mythical land" whose beauty is revered in songs and stories.
4. You decide to take another three-hour bus ride north to see the Dragon's Backbone, one of the world's most ancient and elaborate array of agricultural terraces. The town at which you arrive is only an hour's ride from any of the myriad of tiny minority villages located in the area of the Dragon's Backbone.
5. The train to your next destination is already crowded when you get on board, and you still have more than 20 hours to spend on it! As the train takes you to the southwest, the view slowly changes from mountains and forests to a more rolling-hill kind of landscape, covered by little trees and crisscrossed by many rivers and streams. The train runs through the capital of Guangxi province, and then shifts and goes west to another province, the southwesternmost of all Chinese provinces. The city you eventually reach, the capital of the southwest, is a vibrant, modern city, surprisingly clean, and named by many the "City of Eternal Spring". Which way has the train taken you?
6. With no train to take to your next destination, you board a 14-hour sleeper-bus that rides south along a heavily-winding road through the jungle. Eventually you reach this city, the capital of the autonomous Xishuangbanna prefecture, which sits close to the borders of Laos and Myanmar. A huge, recently constructed bridge spans the famous Mekong River here. Most of the signs in this city aren't even in Chinese - they're written in a language that resembles Thai and Indochinese. You can't wait to get a guide and go into the Jungles...
7. To avoid having to take the awful sleeper-bus back to the capital of the province, you decide to take a short, half-hour flight from the tiny local airport. After a day of rest, your next destination is six hours northwest of the capital, and is truly one of the most beautiful places in all of China. You arrive at the "new city" that lies at the south end of the great lake. From there, a local bus will take you around the lake to the beautiful "old city", still surrounded by its ancient walls and gates. The marvellous view of the huge lake to your east is dwarfed by the sight of the great, snow-covered Cangshan mountains towering over the old city to the west. The valley runs to the north and south horizons and is dotted with villages and farms. There's something great to see in every direction your feet may fancy carrying you.
8. Another bus takes you two hours northwards to another city, packed with Chinese tourists to the maximum. The old quarter that lies at the heart of the city has been carefully preserved in its original style - stone-and-wood architecture, as well as narrow canals running through the quarter, criss-crossed by many stone and wooden bridges. A pagoda rests on top of a hill at the center, overlooking both old and new cities, and at night the quarter lights up in all colors of the rainbow as tourists go out to the myriad of restaurants and plazas. The Naxi people, the local minority, are one of the world's oldest existing matriarcial societies, and their dances in the main square are a sight to behold.
9. One day you set out for a trek outside the city, a world-famous trail that attracts many backpackers to the area. This trek runs out of a little town called Qiaotou, overlooks the first bend of the Yangtze river, and runs up over a beautiful gorge. The snow-covered mountains tower above you on both sides of the gorge, and the din of the Yangtze river below is always audible. This is one of the province's most powerful attractions, and is travelled by thousands of backpackers each year.
10. Your trip takes you further northwest, about four hours from your last destination, to a town close to the province of Tibet. The climate changes as the altitude increases, with snowy mountains and dark-green forests, but eventually you reach altitudes where vegetation cannot thrive. The town seems to be under lots of construction, and the main bus station sits on a street that looks like a chinese version of the wild west. The Chinese sometimes refer to this region as "Shangri-La".
11. Your trip changes direction now, as you take a sleeper-bus that heads back down from the mountains, past one of your last destinations, and then eastwards. The ride ends at a town that sits on the border between the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and has the most major railway in the area (between the capitals of these two provinces) passing right through it. It is built on both sides of a long gorge, and there are many huge bridges criss-crossing the gorge to facilitate travel between the two sides of the city.
12. The train leaves north early in the morning, and arrives at your destination at night. This ancient capital of the west is one of the strangest cities in China in regards to weather, attitude, and even the landscape itself. This huge but surprisingly laid-back city lies at the center of a province that is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and this makes the weather behave differently from other parts of China. It is quite hot, even in early spring, but this doesn't stop the rain from drizzling down every night, even so far away from the ocean. The city's center is very modern, and new skyscrapers sprout up every few months here. There are several grand temple complexes scattered all around, even in the city center. If you like spicy food, you've certainly come to the right place!
13. There are many sights to see in this province, but one beats the others by all means. It is one of the five holy mountains in China, situated only two hours south of the Capital of the province. This mountain is 2 kilometers high, and is covered with a lush green forest, through which a climbing path will take you to the peak. The mountain is known for its wild monkey reserves, for the many monasteries on its slopes, and for the beautiful sunrise one can see from its peak in the morning, above the clouds.
14. After making many preparations and getting all the neccesary documents from the government, you take a flight to a province that was conquered by the Chinese in the mid 20th century. This land, sitting atop a vast plateau, is known to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and has some of the most important attractions in the central Asian region. It borders Nepal, Bhutan, and India.
15. The ride from the airport to the capital of the province takes around two hours, across the placid landscape. This capital only has around 100,000 people living in it, but is still both a religious center as well as a hub for all the province's population. At the center of the city stands a tall mound of rock, topped by a huge and magnificent palace/temple, to which many of the locals make annual pilgrimage. This palace is the most known symbol of the country, and even appears on the back of a 50-yuen bill.
16. You hire a jeep and a guide that will take you southwest from the capital towards the Himalayas. In particular, you are looking forward to seeing the mightiest mountain of them all - the Everest itself. The journey takes three days, but finally you reach the monastery at the foot of the mountain. Your guide tells you the local name of the mountain. What is it?
17. Returning to China proper, you make arrangements to travel eastwards for the first time. Your train will take another 16 hours to reach its destination, but first you must travel through China's largest and most populated city, sitting on the banks of the mighty Yangtze, at its western end.
18. You finally reach the capital of the next province. Further north than your last locale, it is still much warmer here as you are very close to the edge of a desert. The city's center has been revived, but is still surrounded by the massive stone walls that once served it when it was the capital of China. The ancient name of this city is Chang'An. What is its new name?
19. Not wasting any time with sightseeing in the city proper, you take the first bus you find to the village of Bingmayong, only an hour's ride away, where you intend to visit one of the greatest wonders of Chinese history.
20. Travelling eastwards again, you take your first seater-train, as this journey would only be six hours long. Luoyang, The town where you arrive, is quite unremarkable, but is near enough to one of the most tourist-attracting sites in China. The ancient martial arts school of Shaolin has existed for over a thousand years, and is the most famous Chinese kung-fu school in the world. How old are the main buildings of this temple?
21. After another night-train you finally reach the Chinese coast once again, this time at the eastern end of the country. This city is vast and in many ways very modern. It was once controlled mainly by Europeans, who built structures of their own style along the banks of the river. Today, the skyline is dominated by many tall skyscrapers of strange and wonderous designs - some of them are the tallest in the world. This city has always been the most "modern" of all cities in China-proper, and it will probably retain this title for many years to come.
22. Beijing. Capital of the Middle Kingdom. Putting yourself up at a nice place near the center, you waste no time heading for the very crux of the city, the famous Tien An Men square. Coming from the south side, what is the order of the monuments you will encounter?
23. There are many places to visit in Beijing, but no trip to China would be complete without a visit to the grandest monument of them all, the Great Wall of China. Up north of Beijing, the wall lies crumbled in some places, but excellently restored in others. Standing on the wall, you are looking out to the forests and valleys of one of the largest provinces of China. Which province would that be?
24. Eastwards from the capital, right on the coast of the ocean, lies a small town turned city which is the birthplace of the most successful of Chinese beers. This town was colonized by German immigrants for many years, and they were the ones who brought beer-making techniques to China and started the successful beer-making industry. What is the mandarin name of this beer, and the city, which serves as Beijing's main seaside port?
25. The yuen is the currency of China, and is rapidly gaining strength in world markets. One yuen equalled roughly 1/8 of a US dollar in 2005. Each yuen is split into 10 jiao. But the jiao is then split into 10 smaller units of currency. What is the name of this smallest Chinese money?
Source: Author
headrock
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