Beijing Expert

Born in Texas in 1893, Claire Lee Chennault was to play a crucial part in China’s struggle against Japanese occupation during the 1940’s. His successes would not only win him the respect of the Chinese people, but also change the history of air warfare.

Originally a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, he was forced to retire when he was 44 years old because of poor health and a stubborn insistence that fighter planes should be used to intercept incoming bombers – something that ran counter to the military wisdom of the day. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, however, had faith in Chennault, and in 1937 she recruited him to train and advise the newly formed Chinese Air Force.

Not long after he arrived in China, war against the Japanese broke out and Chennault’s theories were put to the test. In early missions his planes performed well against unescorted Japanese bombers, but the Japanese responded quickly by sending out cutting-edge fighters. Chennault’s rickety biplanes were no match for the agile Mitsubishi A5M; and so together with the rest of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces, they were forced to retreat 2,000 miles up the Yangtze River from Nanjing to Chongqing. (more…)

Xuan Zang (Xuán Zàng 玄奘), who lived from AD 602 to 664 was the most famous Buddhist philosopher of the Tang dynasty. His epic journey to India made possible Chinese translations of some of the most important Buddhist texts, as well as providing the inspiration for the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West (xī yóu jì 西游记) and its stories of a brave pilgrim and mythical Monkey King.

Interested in the life of a Buddhist monk from an early age, Xuan Zang was ordained a priest when he was only 13 years old. He joined a monastery in Chang’an (now Xi’an) that was translating Indian scriptures, but was disappointed by the quality and accuracy of the works available. He decided that an expedition to the home of Buddhism was the best recourse to resolve contradictions he found in the Chinese translations. In AD 627 he set off on foot to India. He was only 26 and would not return for 18 years. (more…)

China’s Grand Canal certainly lives up to its moniker, stretching over 1,700km, it’s ten times longer than the Suez Canal and twenty times that of the Panama Canal.

It took several dynasties to build the massive canal network. Work began as early as 506 BC during the Spring and Autumn period lead by King Wu, who led his people to dig the first canals in a big to control central China. Since most of China’s major rivers flow from west to east, building a water link from north to south to connect the rivers would greatly facilitate transportation and this became the dream of many emperors.

Emperor Sui Yangdi of the Sui dynasty was noted for directing construction efforts. At the beginning of the 7th century the Sui united China and made its capital in Luoyang in north China. In order to move food and goods from the prosperous south to the north and to satisfy his personal sense of grandeur, he ordered the connection and expansion of the existing canals. In AD 603 over a million workers began connecting various rivers and existing canals into one Grand Canal linking Luoyang to Yangzhou. The emperor had a soft spot for luxury and travel, taking advantage of his position as the “Son of Heaven,” he took more than 200,000 attendants with him on his trips to Yangzhou on the Grand Canal. His massive barges were pulled by over 80,000 men while he partied into the night. After only 13 years on the throne, rebellions broke out and his dynasty was deposed. (more…)

Silk was first cultivated in China around 2600 BC, but it would take two and a half millennia for it to spread west. The Romans first encountered the material while battling the Parthians in 53 BC and were told it came from a mysterious tribe in the east. Roman agents were dispatched, commodities bartered and the “Silk Road” established.

The Chinese had known about trade routes going west across the Taklamakan Desert for centuries, however these routes only became important when Emperor Wudi of the Han dynasty formed alliances with western tribes against the northern nomads, China’s old enemy. (more…)

Prized for their fine wool, the Tibetan antelope population was ravaged by the 20th century due to over hunting and poaching. The Chinese government is urgently trying to stop the poaching – and numbers seem to be slowly rising.

Pantholops hodgsoni is found only on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, “the roof of the world.” These graceful animals are 1.2m tall and the males have 50cm horns giving them a similar appearance to a gazelle. The antelope grazes 4,500m above sea level and sports a specially evolved coat to deal with the extreme cold. (more…)

Qin Shihuang, who lived from 259 to 210 BC, was the cunning first Emperor of a unified China. His brilliant military victories and political stratagems ended the Warring States period, time of disunity and upheaval. To consolidate his power, he embarked on construction projects of astonishing size and grandeur – the Terracotta Warriors and the Great Wall are all linked to him.

He became King of Qin when he was only 13 years old, but it wasn’t until he was in his thirties that he finally managed to defeat six other rival states and bring China under centralized control. He divided his new kingdom into 36 counties which were subdivided into prefectures. The local military and administrative leaders were all personally appointed by him. (more…)

Zheng He was a Muslim admiral of one of the greatest fleets in Chinese history and perhaps world history. Born to a poor family in southwest China, Zheng was captured by the Ming army as a young boy and became a eunuch. Quickly rising up the ranks, he was eventually given command of the navy after Emperor Chengzu seized power. What followed were voyages of exploration that took Chinese “treasure ships” all over the globe.

From 1405, they visited Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, India, Persia, Arabia, the Red Sea as far as Egypt and parts of east Africa. Tributes and envoys were carried back to China from more than 30 countries and naval charts of unparalleled accuracy were drawn.

The size of the fleet was awesome. Around 30,000 men on up to 200 junks sailed with Zheng He and his flagship was one and a half times the length of a football field, by far the biggest vessel in the world at that time. The fleet made seven separate expeditions and spread knowledge of Chinese silk and porcelain as well as nervous appreciation of the Ming dynasty’s military might. (more…)

It’s easy to tell tea is China’s national drink, tea is consumed in restaurants, at home and carried around all day in transparent thermos flasks. It’s a serious habit, and one that hasn’t been broken by the introduction of coffee or the machinations of sugary soda companies.

Over 4,000 years ago, a legendary ruler of China named Shen Nong insisted his drinking water be boiled, while sitting under a tree a single leaf dropped into his cup and turn his purified water brown. When he braved a sip, he found the new drink refreshing and thus began the cultivation of the tea plant. (more…)

Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479 BC was also known as Master Kong or Kongzi. Born in the late-Zhou dynasty, his social philosophy has remained central to Chinese and Asian thinking for over 2,500 years. Parents still teach children Confucian virtues and the Five Confucian Classics remain among the most widely-read books in the world.

The end of the Zhou dynasty was a period of constant small-scale warfare between rival landlords and these disputes left much of the population in poverty. To those who lived in this time of chaos, public morals seemed in decline and grim prophets warned that the country would soon fall into total anarchy. (more…)

It’s easy to be a cheap to get drunk in China and it is an opportunity worth taking. Cultural barriers disappear under the revelry and camaraderie a shared drink. For every tale of Chinese history and tradition that are read through stodgy books, there are a thousand more fascinating stories about the country and its people that are told over the fifth glass of baijiu (白酒).

Inebriates often eulogize the inventor of alcohol, but in China it’s unclear to whom the praise is due. Some say it was Yi Di, a daughter of one of the rulers of the Xia dynasty. According to legend, after one taste, dad immediately banned the fiery liquid fearing that a future ruler would overindulge himself and lose the throne. Others say it was a man named Du Kang, also from the Xia or while some date it even earlier to the mythic Huang Emperor. For some, alcoholic drinking occurred in harmony with the creation of the universe.

Less speculatively, 5,000-year-old alcohol-drinking vessels were discovered in Shandong Province in 1987. An early milk-based drink called lilou was superceded by liquor distilled from cereals. Those who first drank this liquor must have thoroughly enjoyed themselves because records are incomplete and scientists can’t decide whether it was pioneered in the Eastern Han, Song, Tang or Yuan dynasties. The cereal based concoctions have evolved into modern Chinese spirits called baijiu (white alcohol). (more…)