Fall 2025 : China

Just some tidbits captured during our travels that didn't fit in with the pictures:
-- The Chinese Flag: 1 large star surrounded by 4 smaller stars on a red background >> the smaller stars represent merchants, farmers, students & intellectuals all united to support the Communist Party (large star). The red background represents the communist revolution & the blood of the revolutionary martyrs.
~70% of China's population live in public housing.
-- Shanghai has a 3-ring road system. Only ~12% of the population can afford to live in the inner road.
-- The Chinese face-changing dance: the changing is an ancient skill and apparently a state secret passed down through families.
-- Education: school starts at 7a w/ 10 min breaks & 30-40 min for lunch. Concludes at 6:30p. Children head home, have dinner, then do homework (oftentimes until late: ~11p). Education is very competitive in China, & the (2-day) SAT is most important: highest possible result is 750. A test <700 places you in lesser universities.
-- English is required in schools since 1990. (Before that, Russian was the required language.) However, although required it's not rigorously adhered which explains why so many don't speak EN well.もっと詳しく