China. Facts

With all the information than is on the news with the olimpics about China, I'm going to write some that I have found curious.

"China" in traditional and simplified writing

People's Republic of China

• Population (estimated 2007) is 1,321,851,888 inhabitants, being the most populous country on Earth.
• Beijing, 17,430,000 inhabitants, is the second most populated city in China after Shanghai.
• Beijing or Peking means "Capital of the North", like many asian capitals whose translation is simply "capital" as Tokyo.
• The Mandarin is the standard form of spoken Chinese, but also speaks the Cantonese and six other major dialects. In Hong Kong, English is also an official language, and Portuguese is in Macao.
• An educated chinese can recognize and use between 6,000 and 8,000 Chinese characters (pictograms). With 2,000 to 3,000 is possible to read a newspaper.
• The first chinese dynasty (Xia Dynasty) began around the 2200 BC
• They are the inventors of paper, gunpowder, the compass or toilet paper.
• The Great Wall is not visible from space. It's not continuing, it's made of different sections.
• It is considered bad manners to point to people with chopsticks.
• The noodles are typical of northern China, while the rice is in the south.

Sources: Wikipedia and Lonely Planet