China, What I know.

China is one of the oldest countries in the world and had a working civilization before most of Europe was inhabited. The Chinese were industrious and advanced a long way. Porcelain potter was first made in China. The Chinese counted their years by Dynasties, which were based off of the ruling family at the time. Some of these dynasties lasted for a thousand years or more. China has a vast amount of different legends, fables, and stories. The Chinese "worshipped" the dragon. Each Chinese year is represented by an animal zodiac. Each year that animal changes, though it does cycle through some twelve animals. I am a sheep, my mom is a boar, my sister is a snake, my aunt is a dragon, and I think that my dad is a horse. The Chinese put great store in your zodiac because it supposedly tells you what kind of a person you are or will be. Mine is pretty accurate and so is my sister's. I think that we are in the year of the ox.

China fell from being and empire and turned into a Communist country. China was one of our biggest fear during the "Red Scare" because we were afraid that they were going to spread the ways of Communism. I don't know a lot about Communism, but I do know that they have no real religion and that is where the Tibetan Monks got into trouble because Tibet is part of china. Taiwan kind of seceded from china and became its own country, I don't think that China is too happy about that. For a while the US had a kind of lease on Hong Kong.

I have a friend from Hong Kong. CC was a foreign exchange student during sophomore year and we had a ball together. She got stuck with a strange family that didn't do a lot so she was around my sister and myself a lot. She was like a little sister. Mr. Bell would make me really mad during PE though, because we would deliberately pretend not to understand what CC was saying to him and when he could see that it was upsetting her he didn't even let up on her. She finally would get so frustrated with him that she would tell me what she wanted to say to him and I would tell him because he couldn't pretend not to understand me. I will admit, CC had a strong accent, but if you actually listened and was patient with her, it was easy enough to understand what she was trying to say to you. I miss CC though.

Fortune cookies are not from china. They were invented in China Town in San Diego or LA ( I can't remember which one it was.