Showing posts with the label China

Da Shuhua: Fireworks of Molten Iron

Feb 16, 2024

For five centuries, the inhabitants of Nuanquan village in Yu County, in the northwestern reaches of Hebei province, China, have marked the ...

Wanggongchang Explosion: A 17th Century Disaster That Nearly Destroyed Beijing

Aug 8, 2023

Gunpowder, a volatile and explosive substance composed of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, has played a significant role in shaping history....

The Himalayan Towers of China

Feb 3, 2023

In the Western Sichuan province, between central China and the Tibetan Autonomous Region, there exist hundreds of mysterious stone towers, s...

Shipton's Arch: The Tallest Natural Arch in The World

Oct 11, 2022

The tallest natural arch in the world is located in China’s western Xinjiang region, and is called Shipton’s Arch, after the name of the Eng...

The Ruins of Khara-Khoto

Jun 14, 2022

In the westernmost banner of Inner Mongolia, in the middle of the Gobi Desert, there once stood a prosperous kingdom. It was a center of rel...

The 17th Century Astronomer Who Designed The First Steam-Powered Vehicle in History

Apr 20, 2022

On October 9, 1623 Ferdinand Verbiest was born in the town of Pittem (present-day Belgium). Of his early years it is only known that he stud...

Zheltuga: The Illegal Russian Gold Mining Town That Sprang Up in China

Jul 10, 2021

In the spring of 1883, gold was discovered on a branch of the river Albazikha, in northern Heilongjiang province in China near the border wi...

Chinese Magic Mirrors

Sep 11, 2020

For over a thousand years, a rare type of Chinese artifact has been baffling researchers. It’s a polished bronze mirror with a pattern cast ...

Autumn Harvest Drying in Huangling

Jan 15, 2020

Huangling in Wuyuan County, in east China's Jiangxi Province, is a small picturesque village built on the hillside, surrounded by specta...

Slovak Radio Building: The Inverted Pyramid

Jan 11, 2020

Some call it ugly. Others defend it for its architectural features. Whichever faction you side with, you can’t deny that it is an exceptiona...

China’s Trackless Trains

Dec 18, 2019

After two years of testing, a new futuristic train that runs on virtual tracks was launched for the first time in Yibin, in the province of ...

Bayan Obo: The Chinese Mine That Makes All Gadgets Possible

Oct 19, 2019

In the image above , captured by NASA’s Terra satellite in June 2006, we see some deep scars in the desert—the result of nearly sixty years...

Chinese Medicine Dolls

Oct 10, 2019

For hundreds of years until the early 20th century, getting medical help for a Chinese woman was tricky. In those times the Chinese placed e...

The Ancient Chinese Earthquake Detector That’s Puzzling Modern Researchers

Sep 6, 2019

In the year 132 CE, a brilliant Chinese astronomer, mathematician and engineer named Zhang Heng presented to the Han court an impressive inv...

Fishing With Sulphuric Fire

Aug 23, 2019

Many fishes are attracted towards light just as moths and flying ants are—a behavior that fishermen around the world exploit to bring them t...

Taiwan’s Giant Wall of Propaganda Spewing Speakers

Jun 13, 2019

Just off the southeastern coast of mainland China, lies a group of two islands collectively called Kinmen. For over seventy years, these is...

The Hanging Coffins of China And Philippines

May 30, 2019

The ancient Bo and Guyue people of southern China did not bury their dead. Instead, they hung their coffins from tall cliffs. This peculiar ...

The World’s Oldest Printed Book

May 17, 2019

The Diamond Sutra is an ancient Buddhist sermon that generation of Buddhists have memorized and chanted since at least the fifth century. T...

The Temples of Mount Fanjing

Apr 11, 2019

Fanjingshan or Mount Fanjing, in Guizhou Province in southwest China, is a sacred Buddhist site and a place of great natural beauty with un...

The Great Wall of China Hoax

Jan 16, 2019

“Fake news” is a new term, but lies and propaganda is as old as written history, spread by individuals to aggrandize oneself or smear the pu...