WELCOME TO CHINA

A learning project for schools

What three words would you use to describe

China?

Which Picture is China?

Where is China?

UK China

60 million people 1.3 billion people

0.24 million square km 9.6 million square km

40

=1

A Brief History of China

8000 BC 1600 BC 1112BC 221 BC

And in the rest of the world…

Stonehenge was built around 2000 BC

Late Stone Age

Beginning of Shang Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

China unites under a single Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi

A Brief History of China

206 BC 225 AD 581 618960

And in the rest of the world…

The Roman Empire collapsed around 410 AD

Han Dynasty

Break up of empire into separate kingdoms

Sui Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

Song Dynasty

A Brief History of China

1260 1368 1644 1839-42 1912 1949 1997

Yuan Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

Opium Wars

Last Emperor abdicates

People’s Republic of China

Hong Kong returned

What does the Chinese National Flag look like?

The red background represents revolution.

The four small stars represent the Chinese people.

The big star represents the leadership of the communist party.

The yellow colour of the stars represents the golden light of the country.

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

Bat (fu) = same sound as word for happiness

Peaches = a symbol for long life

Dao (upside down) means arrived

“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 WritingChinese 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 - mā mother

2. rising / má numb

3. falling rising ˘ mă horse

4. falling \ mà to scold or swear

Counting to 10

1 yī 6 liù2 èr 7 qī3 sān 8 bā4 sì 9 jiŭ5 wŭ 10 shí

Hello nĭ hăoGoodbye zàijiànHow are you? nĭ hăo ma? I’m fine wŏ hĕn hăoThank you xièxieYou’re welcome búkèqiI’m sorry duìbùqĭ

7 Simple Chinese Phrases

Zàijiàn!