Today's China

Some facts about Today's China

Global interest in China and cross-cultural activities between China and the world are rising to heights never seen before. This August, the Olympics will be held in Beijing -- the capital city of China -- and in 2010 the World Expo will be held in Shanghai -- the largest city in China. Although China's economy has shown staggering growth since the 1980s, it is important to remember that the changes in China's economy and society are extremely recent and that a huge urban-rural divide, and a lack of support for improverished and disabled children, still remain.

The single-child policy was implemented in the late 1970s, but only became law in 2004.

Since the opening up of adoption in China in the 1980s, over 100,000 orphans have been adopted by families in 27 countries in the West.

Sex education in schools in China only began in 2002.

Freedom to travel without having to seek permission was only introduced in 2002.

In the whole of China, there is only one physical rehabilitation hospital located in Beijing, for the entire Chinese population of 1.3 billion people.

China has 320 million people under the age of fourteen, more than the entire population of the United States.

24% of the world speaks Chinese (there are over 200 different Chinese languages and regional dialects). The official state language is Pu-tong-hwa (Mandarin).

Three hundred million rural Chinese will move to cities in the next fifteen years. China must build urban infrastructure equivalent to a city the size of Houston every month in order to absorb them.

There are 222 million "surplus workers" in China's central and western regions. The number of people working in the US is about 140 million.

Apparel workers in the US make $9.56 an hour; in El Salvador, apparel workers make $1.65; in China, they make between 68 and 88 cents.

China has more speakers of English as a second language than America has native English speakers.

China has 56 ethnic groups, with totally different histories, languages, and cultures. Its geographical area is 42 times the size of the entire British Isles. Its 5,000 years of history have nourished wealth like that of modern Europe, and poverty as severe as that of the Sahara Desert; about 1.3 billion people are making things and trading in hundreds of accents in different languages.