46 Interesting Facts About China

Last updated on May 6th, 2020

China, officially the People’s Republic of China is a country in East Asia. It has a total area of 9,596,960 square km. Beijing is its capital and Shanghai is its largest city. Chinese is the official language of China. Renminbi (yuan; ¥) (CNY) is its official currency. Its land bordering countries are Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, North Korea, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam (thus, China has the most number of neighbors touching its borders). It is the world’s most populous country. 

46 Interesting facts about China

1. Have you ever wondered where toilet paper came from? Well, you guessed right, it came from China.

Toilet paper
Toilet paper

2. About the toilet paper, it was not for everybody; only the emperor was allowed to use it.

3. Do you want to see crickets fight? Well, in China, cricket fighting is a popular amusement sport.


China on the map



6. Apart from toilet papers, the Chinese invented paper, gunpowder, which is a well-known fact, the compass, and the art of printing.



A collection of postage stamps.
A collection of postage stamps.

9. So what is your hobby? Before you answer that, for a majority of the Chinese, their hobby is stamp collecting!

10. By the way, if you thought that stamp collecting is a lame hobby, you will be shocked to learn that in China, this lame hobby is viewed as a symbol of status. Interesting it is.

11. Can you believe that a two legged goat born in Yunnan province in China in 2015 learned to walk on its feet in a week’s time after it was born? The goat dubbed the “strong-willed goat” has two front legs.

12. Have you ever wondered how chopsticks came to be? Well, because of the need to conserve fuel during cooking, the Chinese chopped their food into small pieces eliminating the need for knives and thus the chopsticks were born.


13. One on the list of interesting China facts for kids revolves around their play toy, the kite. The Chinese invented the kite over 3,000 years ago, and they used it to frighten their enemies during the war!

14. We can safely say that the Chinese were the first people to fly. If you doubt it, then you should know that by the fourth century A.D., the Chinese were using man-carrying tethered kites for flight.

15. Another on the list of interesting China facts for kids is the invention of ice cream. The Chinese invented it by simply mixing milk, rice, and snow.

16. By A.D. 130, the Chinese could detect earthquakes. This was through a device invented by an astronomer cum literary scholar named Zhang Heng.

17. The Chinese are just amazing. They started drilling for natural gas before the 4th Century, 2,300 years before the Westerners.

Flag of China

Flag of China
The national flag of China. Image credit – CIA.


19. Do you know that tea was discovered by accident? A tea leaf accidentally fell into the emperor’s pot and voilà, the beautiful relationship between the Chinese and tea was born.

20. Do you know that cuteness can ward off evil? Well, this is according to the Chinese. In the early days, the Chinese emperors kept Giant Pandas as evil-warding charms.

Old iron plow with wheels placed as garden ornament.
Old iron plow with wheels placed as garden ornament.

21. The Chinese invented the water wheel in A.D. 31 and the Iron plow way long before the Europeans did it.

22. Have you ever wondered where those breathtaking martial arts moves come from? Well, it is rumored that they were developed from hunting farming moves, and by the way, martial arts is practiced throughout China, so beware.


24. By A.D. 1092, the Chinese already had a mechanical clock, which could tell time accurately.

25. Grow the nail of your small finger; it is a sign of rank. This was true in ancient China as wealthy men and women grew these nails and decorated them with gold for protection.


The Three Gorges Dam.
The Three Gorges Dam. Image credit – http://vizts.com/

27. In the ancient days, the easiest and surest way to die in China is to smuggle the secret of making silk. If you were caught doing this, you would be put to death.

28. By the way, the discovery of silk shares a similar story with tea. It is said that a silkworm cocoon fell into the emperor’s wife cup of hot tea and thus formed fine threads of silk.


30. For archaeologists, the remains of Peking Man or Homo Erectus were discovered in China.

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