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China

China ( Zhōngguó), officially known as the People's Republic of China (Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó) is a vast country in Eastern Asia (about the same size as the United States of America) with the world's largest population. 

History

The first civilizations in China arose in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys at about the same time as Mesopotamia, Egypt and India developed their first civilizations.

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences. Paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing (both block and movable type) for example, are Chinese inventions. Chinese developments in astronomy, medicine, and other fields were extensive. A Chinese tomb contains a heliocentric model of the solar system, about 1,700 years before Copernicus. In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem and Pascal's triangle (known in China as Yang Hui's triangle) were known in China centuries before their Western discoverers lived. There were also grand feats of engineering not to be matched in Europe until centuries later, such as the Dujiangyan Irrigation System in Sichuan built during the Qin Dynasty, and the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou with its complex system of locks, built during the Sui Dynasty.

China was also the first civilization to implement (проводить в жизнь) a meritocracy (общество, в котором положение человека определяется его способностями ). Based on mastery of the Confucian Classics and the literary arts (calligraphy, essay writing, poetry, painting), a prototype the exams were first conducted during the Han Dynasty. The system was further refined into the formal Imperial Examination System and opened to all regardless of family background during the Tang Dynasty. The Imperial Examination proved very successful, and save for a brief period during the Yuan Dynasty, continued to be used by all subsequent (последующий) Chinese dynasties until the beginning of the 20th century. To this day, education is still taken very seriously by Chinese parents.

Thousand-Hand Guan Yin Dance

China has five major annual holidays:

National Day (guóqìngjié) - 1 October

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival (chūnjié) - late January/mid-February

Labor Day or May Day (láodòngjié) - 1 May

Dragon Boat Festival (duānwǔjié) - 5th day of the 5th lunar month, usually May-June (16 June in 2010). Boat races and eating zongzi (steamed pouches of sticky rice) are a traditional parts of the celebration.

Mid-Autumn Day (zhōngqiūjié- 15th day of the 8th lunar month, usually October (22 Sep in 2010). Also called the Moon Cake Festival after its signature treat, moon cakes (yuèbǐng). People meet outside, putting food on tables and looking up at the full harvest moon while talking about life.

This is my best friend Sasha Tkachynskiy in China

These are not one-day holidays; nearly all workers get at least a week for Chinese New Year, some get two or three, and students get four to six weeks. For Labor Day and National Day, a week is typical.

Literature:

Winter Stars by Beatrice Lao (ISBN 988979991X) - a collection of poems born between the Alps and the Tyrrhenian

Romance of the Three Kingdoms - the classic Chinese novel of the heroic deeds of the generals and leaders of the three kingdoms following the collapse of the Han dynasty. Noted for its details of cunning military and political strategies. One of the Four Great Classics.

Water Margin or Outlaws of the Marsh - a Song Dynasty tale of bandits living in the Huai River Valley to fight against the corrupt government. Noted for the rebellious nature of its main characters against an established order. It's the Chinese version of "sticking it to the man". One of the Four Great Classics.

Journey to the West - perhaps the most famous Chinese novel, a fantasy account of Xuan Zang's Tang Dynasty journey to retrieve (востонавливать) sacred (священний) Buddhist texts with the aid помощь of the monkey king Sun Wukong, the gluttonous (ненаситный) Zhu Bajie and dependable (надежный) Sha Wujing. Noted for its extremely creative fantasies and adventures. One of the Four Great Classics. 

Here are the 10 names (in no particular order)...

Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao - politician. China's president. Hu Jintao rules over more people - 1.3bn - than any single person has ever done in the history of the world. He'll be in charge of China for another five years (he's expected to be succeeded by another man you might want to remember - Xi Jinping).

Wen Jiabao - politician. China's premier. Took the lead in the response to the recent earthquake. A very popular man in China and a fascinating figure. He worked with reformers in the 1980s - and survived the political purges after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.

Yao Ming - basketball player. Probably the most immediately recognisable Chinese person alive (mostly because he is 7ft 6in). Yao Ming plays basketball for the Houston Rockets of the NBA. Expect him to play a major role in the Olympics (he may even be the athlete who lights the flame to mark the start of the games).

Liu Xiang

Liu Xiang - athlete. China's great hope for this summer's Olympic Games. The entire country expects him to do what he did in Athens 2004 - win the gold in the 110m hurdles. If he does, he can probably get the country renamed after him.

Yuan Longping - scientist. In the 1970s he developed a hybrid rice that has since had a huge effect on world food supplies. This super rice has a higher yield than normal rice - the extra yield has been able to feed tens of millions of people.

Yang Liwei - astronaut. In 2003, he became China's first man into space. I've picked him not necessarily because he's famous, but because he represents the kind of ambition that China has for its future.

Li Ning - sportsman and entrepreneur. He won three gold medals as a gymnast at the 1984 Olympics and then founded his own sportswear company. Wherever you go in China, you see people wearing clothes bearing the distinctive Li Ning signature.

Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi - actress. Star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha. Fierce debates here as to whether she should have been picked over Gong Li. But my colleagues suggest Zhang Ziyi just shades it.

Li Jiacheng - businessman. The richest Chinese person in the world (Forbes ranks him the 11th richest person in the world.) Thought to be worth more than $26bn, his business interests include banking, real estate, construction, plastics etc

Zhang Yimou - film director. Directed films such as Raise the Red Lantern, and House of Flying Daggers. One of the most influential figures in the world of Chinese cinema. For this reason he beats out more famous cinematic figures such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

That's the list. 

There is one more person that many of you have come up with - a man who is more famous in the UK than everyone else on this list combined. I'll let penguish have the final word If China is claiming Tibet as its own, then the Dalai Lama is certainly the most famous Chinese person alive!

P.S. I left some notes in Russian for better understanding of the text))))))))

THE MIR CASTLE

Mir village was founded sometime prior to 1345. It is home to a late medieval castle, which made the town the target of many attacks over the centuries. http://www.belarus.by/en/press-center/video/i_45.html?page=3

The construction of the castle began at the end of the 15th century, in the Gothic architecture style. Building of the castle was completed by Duke Ilinich in the early 16th century near village Mir (formerly of Minsk gubernia). This is a square-planned building with towers at the corners. The fifth tower had a drawbridge and a forged grille chersa which could urgently stop a sudden attack. The castle was well adapted for gunshot defense. Its walls had two rows of loop-holes, and its towers were intended for heavy cannon shooting from them.

The basis of the volumetric castle's composition is its high towers which jut out beyond the wall-line. All of them have the same structure - tetrahedral core with octahedral top, but they differently decorated which gives original decorative value and beauty to the castle. 

Around 1568 the Mir Castle passed into the hands of Mikołaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwiłł, who finished building the castle in the Renaissance style. A three-storey palace was built along the eastern and northern walls of the castle. Plastered facades were decorated with limestone portals, plates, balconies and porches.

After being abandoned for nearly a century and suffering severe damage during the Napoleonic period, the castle was restored at the end of the 19th century. In 1813, after the death of Dominik Hieronim Radziwiłł, the castle passed into the hands of his daughter Stefania, who married Ludwig zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. The castle later fell into the hands of their daughter Maria, who married Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst.

Their son, Maurice Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst sold the castle to Nikolai Sviatopolk-Mirski, of the Bialynia clan, in 1895. Nikolaj's son Michail began to rebuild the castle according to the plans of architect Teodor Bursze. The Sviatopolk-Mirski family owned the castle up to 1939. During WWII, it came under the dominion of the Nazi occupying force and served as a ghetto for the local Jewish population prior to their liquidation.

During the restoration of the castle there were found two skeletons. On a legend, in New Year's midnight it is possible to hear a clang of swords, and then long groan. However, it is not specified, on what calendar soldiers celebrate New year.

This is my friend Riva L'vova and I near the Nesvizh Castle (not fare from Mir)

The Spring came here barefoot.

Green twigs she held in hands.

She drove away my solitude.

I bet, her endurance

Was dedicated to whole Earth,

But touched my lonely face.