WELCOME TO CHINA
A learning project for schools
What three words would you use to describe China?
Which Picture is China?
Where is China?
40
1
UK 60 million people 0.24 million square km China
=
1.3 billion people 9.6 million square km
A Brief History of China
Late Stone Age Beginning of Shang Dynasty Zhou Dynasty
China unites under a single Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi
8000 BC
1600 BC
1112BC
221 BC
And in the rest of the world…
Stonehenge was built around 2000 BC
A Brief History of China
Sui Dynasty Song Dynasty
Han Dynasty
Break up of empire into separate kingdoms
Tang Dynasty
206 BC
225 AD
581
618
960
And in the rest of the world…
The Roman Empire collapsed around 410 AD
A Brief History of China
Qing Dynasty Yuan Dynasty Ming Dynasty Last Emperor abdicates Hong Kong returned People‟s Republic of China
Opium Wars
1260
1368
1644
1839-42 1912 1949 1997
What does the Chinese National Flag look like?
The four small stars represent the Chinese people. The yellow colour of the stars represents the golden light of the country. The big star represents the leadership of the communist party.
The red background represents revolution.
Why is China Important Today?
China has the biggest population in the world and the fourth largest economy. By 2040, China will have the largest economy in the world. For every one person who can speak English, there are at least three who can speak Mandarin.
The Beijing Olympics 2008
The Beijing Olympics will be the first major international sporting event to be held in China. It will showcase Chinese culture to the rest of the world .
Fuwa are the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace to children all over the world.
Each one has a rhyming two-syllable name. When you put their names together - Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni - they say "Welcome to Beijing“.
Symbolism
In China, the fish and water designs are symbols of prosperity and harvest.
Source: en.beijing2008.com
Peaches = a symbol for long life
Dao (upside down) means arrived Bat (fu) = same sound as word for happiness
“May your happiness be as deep as the Eastern Sea and may you live to be as old as the Southern Mountain.”
Traditional birthday greeting.
Chinese Writing
Chinese writing uses characters to represent words. To learn to read Chinese, you need to remember around 5,000 different characters!
Ancient
Traditional
Simple
Pinyin
The „Cheat Sheet‟
Tonal Difference
Chinese is a tonal language. The tone of the word alters its meaning and it is crucial to get the tone right if you want to avoid confusion. Mandarin has four tones – high, rising, falling-rising and falling.
1. high
2. rising
3. falling rising 4. falling
/ \
mā
mother
má
mă mà
numb
horse to scold or swear
˘
Counting to 10
1 2 3 4 5 yī èr sān sì wŭ 6 7 8 9 10 liù qī bā jiŭ shí
7 Simple Chinese Phrases
Hello Goodbye How are you? I‟m fine Thank you You‟re welcome I‟m sorry nĭ hăo zàijiàn nĭ hăo ma? wŏ hĕn hăo xièxie búkèqi duìbùqĭ
Zàijiàn!